Performance: The Hilliard Ensemble’s 40th Birthday Party

11 December 2013 – Spitalfields Music Winter Festival 2013

 

Trust the Hilliard Ensemble to organise their fortieth anniversary concert on a date of numerological significance; I’m sure Josquin and his contemporaries would have appreciated the gesture! The anniversary programme spanned both the history of Western music and the history of the ensemble, beginning with plainsong antiphons for advent interwoven with polyphony from Josquin, Victoria and Nenna all performed with that magical vocal blend.

In 40 years there have been only nine full-time Hilliards, eight of whom were reunited for this concert (Paul Hillier having another concert to perform in). Hearing the singers together offered an opportunity to reflect on the special timbres of each voice and how they have all contributed to the overall style of the group. In particular, it was fascinating to hear John Potter and Paul Elliott singing the two tenor parts in Byrd’s Decendit de coelis, both sounding fabulous.

The programme also featured music from the very first Hilliard Ensemble concert, Britten’s Journey of the Magi and, characteristically, a new work by Roger Marsh for all eight of the singers: Poor Yorick. Marsh’s score was by turns witty and complex with an extended middle scene for the current Hilliard members framed by an eight-voice reflective chorus. It was a long text, set quickly and wittily, obviously with the deftness and clarity of the Hilliard Ensemble in mind. The singers’ voracious appetite for new music was evident as they performed it with both the precision of the Andrews Sisters and a palpable sense of mischievous enjoyment. Having promoted much new music over the years it was a fitting way to end their concert and in its own way it stole the show.
Perhaps it is this juxtaposition of old and new that has made the biggest contribution to the ongoing freshness and relevance of these performers?  The Hilliard Ensemble is a masterclass on how to age with style.

The article was originally published via Early Music Today:

http://www.earlymusictoday.com/reviews/performance-the-hilliard-ensembles-40th-birthday-party/

Trust the Hilliard Ensemble to organise their fortieth anniversary concert on a date of numerological significance; I’m sure Josquin and his contemporaries would have appreciated the gesture! The anniversary programme spanned both the history of Western music and the history of the ensemble, beginning with plainsong antiphons for advent interwoven with polyphony from Josquin, Victoria and Nenna all performed with that magical vocal blend.
In 40 years there have been only nine full-time Hilliards, eight of whom were reunited for this concert (Paul Hillier having another concert to perform in). Hearing the singers together offered an opportunity to reflect on the special timbres of each voice and how they have all contributed to the overall style of the group. In particular, it was fascinating to hear John Potter and Paul Elliott singing the two tenor parts in Byrd’s Decendit de coelis, both sounding fabulous.
The programme also featured music from the very first Hilliard Ensemble concert, Britten’s Journey of the Magi and, characteristically, a new work by Roger Marsh for all eight of the singers: Poor Yorick. Marsh’s score was by turns witty and complex with an extended middle scene for the current Hilliard members framed by an eight-voice reflective chorus. It was a long text, set quickly and wittily, obviously with the deftness and clarity of the Hilliard Ensemble in mind. The singers’ voracious appetite for new music was evident as they performed it with both the precision of the Andrews Sisters and a palpable sense of mischievous enjoyment. Having promoted much new music over the years it was a fitting way to end their concert and in its own way it stole the show.
Perhaps it is this juxtaposition of old and new that has made the biggest contribution to the ongoing freshness and relevance of these performers?  The Hilliard Ensemble is a masterclass on how to age with style.

- See more at: http://www.earlymusictoday.com/reviews/performance-the-hilliard-ensembles-40th-birthday-party/#sthash.g7GfKwK2.dpuf

Trust the Hilliard Ensemble to organise their fortieth anniversary concert on a date of numerological significance; I’m sure Josquin and his contemporaries would have appreciated the gesture! The anniversary programme spanned both the history of Western music and the history of the ensemble, beginning with plainsong antiphons for advent interwoven with polyphony from Josquin, Victoria and Nenna all performed with that magical vocal blend.
In 40 years there have been only nine full-time Hilliards, eight of whom were reunited for this concert (Paul Hillier having another concert to perform in). Hearing the singers together offered an opportunity to reflect on the special timbres of each voice and how they have all contributed to the overall style of the group. In particular, it was fascinating to hear John Potter and Paul Elliott singing the two tenor parts in Byrd’s Decendit de coelis, both sounding fabulous.
The programme also featured music from the very first Hilliard Ensemble concert, Britten’s Journey of the Magi and, characteristically, a new work by Roger Marsh for all eight of the singers: Poor Yorick. Marsh’s score was by turns witty and complex with an extended middle scene for the current Hilliard members framed by an eight-voice reflective chorus. It was a long text, set quickly and wittily, obviously with the deftness and clarity of the Hilliard Ensemble in mind. The singers’ voracious appetite for new music was evident as they performed it with both the precision of the Andrews Sisters and a palpable sense of mischievous enjoyment. Having promoted much new music over the years it was a fitting way to end their concert and in its own way it stole the show.
Perhaps it is this juxtaposition of old and new that has made the biggest contribution to the ongoing freshness and relevance of these performers?  The Hilliard Ensemble is a masterclass on how to age with style.

- See more at: http://www.earlymusictoday.com/reviews/performance-the-hilliard-ensembles-40th-birthday-party/#sthash.g7GfKwK2.dpuf

Performance: The Hilliard Ensemble’s 40th Birthday Party - See more at: http://www.earlymusictoday.com/reviews/performance-the-hilliard-ensembles-40th-birthday-party/#sthash.g7GfKwK2.dpuf

Piecing it together

Early Music Today September 2013

Edward Breen dips a toe into the world of kit instruments to investigate how viable an option they are for those considering a new purchase or construction project 

I once saw some lovely shelves in the Conran shop, way beyond the price range of a musicologist of course, but perfect for my needs. I gazed lovingly through the window each time I passed until one sweltering Bank Holiday Monday I bought a similar design, flat-packed, in Ikea for a fraction of the price. Back at home I busied myself searching for those miniature screwdrivers saved from a Christmas cracker whilst my partner sorted the pieces into size order. Yet within hours the fiddly project ceased to amuse us and we merrily squirted the joints full of ‘No More Nails’ adhesive and slapped some duct-tape on the back. After this experience it always seemed wise to avoid anything as advanced as instrument building. However, unless a patron steps forward soon, I really can’t see any other option. I’ll just have to face up to the fact that curiosity may yet kill the cat.

The full text of this article can be found in Early Music Today (September 2013) pp 26-27

Abstract for the conference: Training “Early” Musicians in the Age of Recordings (Tel Aviv, Israel. September 2013)

The World Was Her Oyster: (re)constructing Jantina Noorman’s Style of Singing

Jantina Noorman’s singing with Musica Reservata divided critics, one saw ‘a wealth of artistry in her sound’ whereas others saw variously a ‘parched roof’, a ‘holler’ and ‘hyenas with lockjaw’. Capable also of conventional Western singing, Noorman’s brash style was the product of Michael Morrow’s attempt ‘to recreate the past in all its glory and its horror’.

Morrow’s vision for Medieval music was based on Balkan voices and Genoese fishermen. In the early 1950s when he first heard Jugoslav folk music he was entranced by the ‘throat cuttingly precise harmony’ of a group of villagers; their combination of precision and conviction became the catalyst for his own performance practice with Musica Reservata. Morrow began to demand a solid approach to intonation combined with particular methods of articulation based on the instruments and voices that he sampled from ‘the borders of Europe’ and which Thurston Dart had mentioned in his 1952 classic, ‘The Interpretation of Music’.

This paper seeks to explore Morrow’s ideas about the performance of early music through the re-imagined meeting of three people key to success of Musica Reservata: Michael Morrow, the Dutch-born Mezzo-soprano Jantina Noorman and Bert Lloyd, a folklorist and writer banned from the BBC for his communist activities. Lloyd advised Morrow and Noorman on how to cultivate this startlingly forthright style through study of field recordings from around the world. The ideas of Morrow and Lloyd, and their passion for these seemingly ancient traditions of singing were so persuasive that Noorman developed her own unique style and rarely sang with other ensembles thereafter. Morrow is remembered as having had a ‘svengali-like’ influence over her. In Noorman, Morrow found an artist that could and would put his hard-line ideas about singing successfully into practice.

By reconstructing the thrust of Lloyd’s advice to Morrow, this paper explores how recorded sound exploded the aural isolation of Balkan culture and how such sounds provided an essential platform for Morrow to challenge the universality of Western norms in performance practice.


For more information about this conference please visit: http://goldenpages.jpehs.co.uk/2013/04/16/training-early-musicians-in-the-age-of-recordings/

Dartington International Summer School 2013

I am delighted to be giving a lecture about David Munrow and his contribution to the early music revival on the 28th July 2013 at The Dartington International Summer School. George Malcolm invited Munrow to play bassoon at Dartington in the mid 60s and the summer school provided him with important performance opportunities in his early career.

My Lecture will discuss Munrow's early musical influences (including Peru) before moving on to contrast Munrow's approach to performance practice with that of Musica Reservata. It will also survey two of Munrow's talks 'vocal vibrato' and 'What Should It All Sound Like?' possibly given by Munrow at Dartington during the summer of 1969.

http://www.dartington.org/spektrix/event?Id=8845

Abstract for The 2013 Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference - Certaldo (Florence, Italy) 4-7th July

Keeping Landini off the streets

Michael Morrow’s Musica Reservata pioneered a no-compromise performance style for medieval and renaissance music throughout the 1960s and 70s which, they claimed, attempted ‘to recreate the past in all its glory and its horror’. These hard-edged performances, especially the vocal style, baffled many critics, but Morrow was unmoved: without such stylistic conviction and accuracy, ‘the music at worse, does not exist at all; at best, it is deformed, dishonoured, and sent out to walk the streets.’ This paper attempts to penetrate Morrow’s conception of ‘the music’ when ‘recreating the past’.

Morrow’s talks and broadcasts reveal strict views demanding a ‘bite and attack’ from singers, whose influence is indebted to period instruments.  Morrow also found contemporary models for this philosophy in other world traditions, including Yugoslav folk and Genoese fishermen. The paper reveals how such ideas are made manifest in a 1969 recording of Landini’s yearning love-song Questa fanciulla. This striking performance is contrasted with another, made just days later, by David Munrow. Performance analysis read against archival evidence offers new insights into Morrow’s ideas about music’s ability ‘to recreate the past’, and thus further contributes to the ongoing debate on authenticity and the recovery of lost performance practices.

For more information about this conference please visit: http://www.medrenconference.org/

Where late the sweet birds sang: Parsons, White & Byrd

Magnificat 

directed by Philip Cave

CKD 417 (Linn Records)

The astonishing variety of Elizabethan vocal music is well represented on this new disc from Philip Cave and Magnificat and the considered selection of Latin texts, which push the stylistic boundaries, is a neat reminder of how composers were slow to be convinced of Protestantism's permanence.

All but one of the editions heard here are by Sally Dunkley who opts for low pitch rather than the dazzling upwards transposition pioneered by David Wulstan in the 60s. Such low pitch combined with a countertenor-free vocal ensemble creates a rich and velvety bed of polyphony made further luxurious by Cave's unhurried tempi. The performances tread a skilful balance between forward momentum and the thoughtful phrasing which is a particularly associated with this group. The results are exquisitely melancholic. Byrd’s astonishing Quomodo Cantabimus is superb and Parson's famous Ave Maria is a particular triumph. Delicious.

Written for Early Music Today Magazine, January 2013.