APRIL  2022

NEXT MPRO MEETING

The Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra’s next Zoom meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m. Admission to the Zoom session will begin at 7:15. See Fred Palmer’s column in this issue for more information.

COMING EVENTS AND ONLINE RESOURCES

The San Francisco Early Music Society (SFEMS) has several events in April. The final concert of the current “regular” season includes three in-person performances by Tabea Debus, recorder and Paul Morton, lute, on April 8, 9, and 10.  The title is “Ode to an Earworm.”  SFEMS has also scheduled a “Sanctuary Salon” concert featuring local artists at 4:00 p.m. on April 23 in Berkeley.  SFEMS’ final virtual class of the season, “Ye olde song and dance” with Adam Gilbert, has been moved from April 2 to April 9.  SFEMS has also extended its deadline for early bird registration discounts for its summer workshops from March 31 to April 8. For more information, see: https://sfems.org/.

The American Recorder Society’s Events Calendar includes a variety of workshops, play-along sessions, and classes on technique in April. Highlights include “Brazilian Music: Rhythm, Swing  and Joy!” with Clea Galhano on April 9,  two workshops on April 19 and 20 featuring Swedish fiddle music, and an April 23 workshop on Baroque ornamentation.  For more information, click on the “View Full Calendar” link at https://americanrecorder.org/,

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CONDUCTOR’S CORNER

Dear members of the Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra,

        Ray White and I will be co-hosting a virtual MPRO meeting via Zoom on Wednesday, April 13, at 7:30 P.M.  Those attending will be admitted to the meeting starting at 7:15 P.M.  We will be working on the following music:

Handel:  “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba”

Dunstable:  Sancta Maria

Anonymous:  Planctus quem Virgo Maria fecit 

Grieg:  The Last Spring

Praetorius: Gavottes

I have sent out the music and PDF files for these selections to all MPRO members.  Please remember that I will be conducting each of the selections scheduled.  This means that the music will not appear on the screen, and those attending will need to read from hard copies they have downloaded when playing along with the sound files.  Ray White will be sending out invitations to all MPRO members with a link to the virtual Zoom meeting and other information.  Please contact him at <rayhwhite@yahoo.com> if you do not receive an invitation.

The orchestra will continue with virtual meetings until the current health situation changes and in person meetings are once again possible.  I look forward to seeing those who will be attending the meeting on April 13.

Sincerely, Fred Palmer

MORE COMING EVENTS AND ONLINE RESOURCES

The Boston Early Music Festival is continuing to offer virtual tickets to its 2021-2022 concert series. A concert by the Juilliard415 ensemble, featuring music by C.P.E. Bach, will premiere on April 8, and will be available to view until April 22.  See https://bemf.org/concert-season/juilliard415/ for more information.

A recent broadcast of the syndicated Harmonia Early Music public radio series was titled “Ways to Play” and featured music from method books for Baroque wind instruments, including bassoon, oboe and dulcian.  You can hear the almost hour-long program at: https://indianapublicmedia.org/harmonia/ways-to-play.php . The “Transcript” link includes the narrator’s remarks on the method books.  The program ends with a new recording “Of Arms and the Woman: Late Medieval Wind Music,” featuring recorder, shawm, bagpipes, trumpet and sackbut.

RECORDINGS OF MPRO’S “NEW” MUSIC

Following are links to online recordings of some of the music distributed for MPRO’s April Zoom meeting.

Handel: The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, including recorders.  (Our MIDI recording thankfully uses a slower tempo!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AJMrub11Lk

Praetorius: Gavottes. This is a link to a suite of three similar gavottes: .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsMmuqGHufo

J.Dunstable - Sancta Maria (strumentale)

Edvard Grieg: Våren (The Last Spring)

MADDALENA CASULANA

Maddalena Casulana (estimated dates 1544-1590) was the first woman composer to have her music published during her lifetime. She was also a lutenist and singer. Relatively little is known about her life; this is a link to a short biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maddalena_Casulana.  She published four books of madrigals between 1568 and 1583; not all of them have survived.  Seventeen lost pages including alto parts from her last book of five-part madrigals were recently found in the Russian State Library; they had been looted from a Polish library during World War II.  A performance of several of Casulana’s madrigals including the lost parts was featured on BBC3 radio’s March 8 commemoration of International Women’s Day.  This is a link to a podcast of that performance:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0014ylv.  The entire podcast is about two hours long but the first two tracks are by Casulana.  Recordings of other Casulana madrigals are available on YouTube.

The Board: President: Judith Unsicker; Treasurers: Chantal Moser and Mary Ashley; Recording Secretary: vacant; Membership: Chris Flake and Tom Granvold; Publicity: vacant; Graphics: Mary Ashley; Newsletter Editor: vacant; Workshop Coordinator: vacant; Hospitality: vacant; Music Sales: Laura Gonsalves; Historian: vacant; Webmaster: Dan Chernikoff;  Music Director: Fred Palmer.  MPRO website: http://www.mpro-online.org   

Past Months' Issues: http://www.mpro-online.org/MPROArchives.htm