APRIL, 2013
MPRO - The Past
Twenty-Five Years (1988-2013)
Part 1
By Frederic Palmer
Over the past twenty-five years major changes have occurred in
early music and recorder playing in particular. Aside from the fact that early music is
now considered an established and legitimate field of artistic endeavor and
that there has been a proliferation of ensembles devoted to it, recorder
playing, both professional and amateur, has reached relative levels of unprecedented
technical and interpretive skill.
When I became MPROÕs music director in January of 1988 these changes
were already in progress. The
challenge I faced was clearly articulated in a statement by one of the
orchestraÕs members in February of 1987:
ÒÉmany of us reach a skill level where the orchestra ceases to offer
much challenge. We continue to hear
only the level of quality we first heard but which no longer inspires us. ÉI
want MPRO to find a way to make me want to continue to work to improve my
playing. I want my abilities to
play with some refinement to be echoed and reinforced by others...I want to be
further educatedÉwe need to find a way to maintain the challenge and the fun of
MPRO for a much wider range of skillfulness.Ó While I came upon this quote only
quite recently, the sentiment expressed was identical to the major issue I saw
facing MPRO when I became its director.
The question was how to keep the more advanced players interested in
continuing with the orchestra and yet not overwhelm those less advanced or just
starting to play the recorder. The
orchestra needed to serve all of its members, and the solution had to take them
all into account.
In 1988, MPRO was a well-established organization, and some of its
members had been with the orchestra from its inception. It was clear that any solution to this
issue had to begin within the existing structure of MPRO. The most obvious starting point was the
music I would choose. It had to be
attractive enough to hold the interest of the more advanced players and still
be within the technical capabilities of those who were not at this level. It had to feature a wide variety of
periods and styles. It had to
include, when possible, instruments other than recorders, such as double reeds
and percussion. And it had to show
the orchestra to best advantage.
Next, intonation, articulation and ensemble technique had to be
addressed at each meeting. And,
finally, a culture of professionalism had to be instilled in the
membership. This did not
necessarily mean professional technique but rather a basic understanding of how
to perform the music, being well enough prepared to avoid making simple
mistakes, taking responsibility for thoroughly learning a part and being aware
of how the various parts of a composition fit into the overall musical
framework. This was the focus
during my first season with the orchestra.
More, however, had to be done in terms of providing all the
members of the orchestra with new and musically rewarding performing opportunities
that would not only sustain their interest in MPRO but also increase their
overall playing level. During the following 1988-1989 season, I
arranged for a collaboration with the Foothill College Renaissance Singers and
Palo Alto Unitarian Church Choir to give two performances involving antiphonal
music for recorders and voices.
This lead to several other successful performances with Bay Area vocal
ensembles, including the Congregational Oratorio Society, the Wykeham 
Singers, the Palo Alto Madrigal Singers and the California State
University, East Bay Singers as well as its Oratorio Society. It was also during that season that I
embarked on presenting new works for recorders by Bay Area composers with a
performance of The Long Voyage by
Nancy Bloomer Deussen. This continued over the years with
compositions by Mari Kermit-Canfield, Stan McDaniel, Glen Shannon and some that
I had written. During its 1989-1990
season, the orchestraÕs scope of repertoire was further increased with the
engagement of professional soloists, the first of whom
was Susan Witt of the San Francisco Opera Chorus. Subsequent professional soloists
included harpist Janice Ortega, cornettist Joyce
Johnson Hamilton and oboist Nicholas Vigil. It was also in that season that MPRO
performed at Mission San Jose in Fremont.
This was followed over the years by performances of the orchestra in
several other locations throughout the Bay Area including California State
University East Bay in Hayward, the Lesher Center for
the Arts in Walnut Creek and the Berkeley Festival & Exhibition. The orchestra has also appeared many
times on the Palo Alto public access television channel. During the 1990-1991 season,
I began offering the advanced players in MPRO the opportunity to perform more
challenging parts by programming selections for the orchestra that called for
recorder soloists. The 1994-1995 season saw collaborations with two instrumental groups, the
South Bay Recorder Society and the Oriana Consort of
viols, and once again the repertoire and performing experience for the
orchestra was expanded. Following
this season several other instrumental ensembles gave performances with MPRO
including Gabrieli West, the Palo Alto Chamber
Orchestra and the Young PerformersÕ String Orchestra.
As MPROÕs performing opportunities, repertoire and overall playing
level expanded I found it increasingly necessary to tailor the music I chose to
the specific needs of the orchestra.
This first resulted in an increasing number of selections that I
arranged to make optimum use of MPROÕs musical resources and those of guest
artists and ensembles that performed with it. Next was the increasing use of keyboard
and often a bass instrument to provide the orchestra with a continuo for
baroque selections. Most recently
was the use of timpani for arrangements of works originally calling for this
percussion instrument. All of this
gave me the opportunity to develop techniques of recorder orchestration that
made it possible for an ever-increasing number of new transcriptions that were
faithful to the sound of the original works. The outcome has been an orchestral
timbre for MPRO that is distinct from other recorder orchestras.
MPROÕs activities encompassed
more than meetings and concerts.
Workshops were also an important component of the orchestraÕs offerings,
not only because of their educational value but also the exposure that they
gave MPRO throughout the Bay Area recorder community and as a source of
income. Here too, I felt that the
scope of workshops had to be expanded in order to better serve the
orchestra. Prior to my becoming
MPROÕs music director, most of its workshops featured local instructors. In order to broaden the appeal of these
workshops and widen their range of topics and teaching styles I felt it was
necessary to engage prominent recorder professionals from around the United
States as well as from foreign countries.
These eventually included Aldo Abreu, Vicki Beckman, Clea Galhano, Patrick OÕMalley
and Tom Zajac. At the same time, the orchestra would
continue to draw on the ever-increasing pool of world-class recorder
professionals residing in the Bay Area to alternate as workshop directors with
those who were from out of the area or to serve as guest conductors for MPRO
meetings. Expanding the scope of
workshops went beyond the choice of directors. Workshop topics had to be original,
attractive to a wide audience and feature material that was new and
stimulating. The choice of music
had to be within the technical capabilities of the average recorder
player. Workshop publicity would be
well organized, extend throughout the Bay Area and surrounding counties and
take maximum advantage of free media coverage and listings by local recorder
and early music organizations in their publications. This included the requirement that the
workshop director write a short article describing the topic to be presented
and why it was important and instructive to those who played recorder. Over the last twenty-five years, MPRO
workshops have been successful, overall, well attended and an important asset
not only to the members of the orchestra but also to recorder players
throughout Northern California and occasionally beyond.
(To be concluded in the May issue
of Upbeat)
ConductorÕs Corner
Dear members of the Mid-Peninsula
Recorder Orchestra,
Listed below is the music for the
orchestra's next three meetings.
Please note that there will be sectional seating for the Gabrieli Canzon
Septimi Toni, with those in Coro Primo sitting on the
right as they face the conductor and those in Coro Secundo
on the left. Please observe this
seating arrangement when you choose your place at the beginning of the meetings
on April 10 and April 24. Please
note as well that bass viola da gamba and sopranino recorder will be needed at all three meetings,
contrabass recorders and dulcien on April 10 and
April 24, krummhorns on April 24 and great bass
recorders on April 10 and May 1.
Also, I encourage everyone to attend the meetings on April 24 and May
1. Irene Beardsley will be
attending the meeting on April 24, and this will be one of the few
opportunities to rehearse the music that calls for keyboard with all forces
present. Nancy Bloomer Deussen will be attending the meeting on May 1, and this
will give the orchestra the chance to benefit from her input on Impressions Around
G prior to its performance at the MPRO spring concert on June 1.
April 10
Gabrieli: Canzon Septimi Toni
Dufay: Adieu ces bons vins de Lannoys
Bloomer Deussen: Impressions Around G
Corelli: Concerto Op. 6, No. 2
April 24
Gabrieli: Canzon Septimi Toni
Praetorius: Psallite, unigenito
Corelli: Concerto Op. 6, No. 2
May 1
Dufay: Adieu ces bons vins de Lannoys
Bloomer
Deussen: Impressions Around
G
Corelli: Concerto Op. 6, No. 2
I look
forward to seeing you at these upcoming meetings and working on this music with
you.
The Board: President: Amy Booth; Treasurer: Leslie Pont; Membership: Chris Flake; Publicity: Mary Jeanne Fenn; & Marguerite Dilley; Newsletter Editor: Dick Davies; Music
Sales: Laura Gonsalves; Graphics: Mary Ashley; Webmaster: Dan Chernikoff; Workshop Coordinator: TBD; Consort Coordinator: TBD; Hospitality: Claire Heinzelman; Historian: TBD; Music
Director: Fred Palmer. MPRO website: < http://www.mpro-online.org >
