OCTOBER 2022

NEXT MPRO MEETING

The orchestra’s next virtual meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 26 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

Amherst Early Music has scheduled three online classes for the weekend of October 29 and 30, including music for Halloween and All Souls Day with Shira Kammen. See:  Weekend Classes October 29 & 30 | Amherst Early Music.

The next meeting of the North American Virtual Recorder Society on October 29 will be directed by Miyo Aioki. For information on this event and the society, see: https://www.navrs.org/.

The next concert in the current San Francisco Early Music Society season features the Bay Area’s New Esterhazy Quartet with three performances on November 4, 5 and 6. The theme is “Beyond the Canon’s Range” featuring music by non-European and female composers. For more information see: New Esterházy Quartet | Nov 4–6 – San Francisco Early Music Society.  SFEMS has also scheduled four virtual classes on November 19 and 20, with teachers including Shira Kammen and Adam Gilbert. See: Virtual Class Mini-Festival (Fall 2022).

Jordi Savall and Hesperion XXI will give an in person concert on November 10. See: Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI | Early Music at Cal Performances.

Three separate online “Klezmer Tunes for Two” workshops for recorders and other instruments are scheduled for November 8, 9 and 11, on Central Time. See: :https://mms.americanrecorder.org/Calendar/moreinfo.php?eventid=72616&org_id=ARSO.

The Highland Park Recorder Society in New Jersey has announced a series of virtual seminars that include opportunities to play along.  The next events include “Rhetoric in Musical Expression in the Late 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries” on November 21, and “Musical Traditions of Ireland and the Tin Whistle” on December 19.  The tin whistle music will be playable on soprano recorders. For information, see:  Join us for the 2022-2023 Seminar Series in Early Music Performance.

A recent broadcast of the syndicated early music radio program Harmonia featured music for loud instruments including slide trumpet, shawm, sackbut, dulcian and others. The full program is available at: It’s Loud! | Harmonia Early Music - Indiana Public Media.

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, October 26, at 7:30 P.M. Those attending will be admitted

to the meeting starting at 7:15 P.M. I will be sending out the music PDF and

midi files with instructions for the selections we will be playing at this

meeting to all MPRO members, and you will be receiving these materials

soon. Meanwhile, please mark October 26 on your calendar if you plan to

attend this meeting, and I look forward to working with the members of the

orchestra again this month. 

 Sincerely, Fred Palmer

NEW STUDY ON AEROSOL TRANSMISSION BY WOODWINDS

A study by scientists at the University of Gottingen in Germany made the news in September 2022. They measured the number and size of aerosol particles released during breathing, talking, singing, and playing of 20 different woodwind instruments as a model for potential virus transmission. Singing or speaking released 500 times more particles than breathing. Musical instruments released 5-50 times more particles than breathing because larger droplets were retained in the instruments.  The study assessed mitigation measures including masks for instruments, ventilation, and duration of exposure.  See: https://phys.org/news/2022-09-instruments-viruses.html.

WORLD’S OLDEST SHEET MUSIC

The oldest known song in the world is the “Hurrian Hymn” on a clay tablet  discovered in Ugarit (now in Syria). The hymn to Nikkal, the Hurrian goddess of orchards, is about 3400 years old.  This link leads to a photo of the tablet, a video of a performance on a lyre, and a possible translation of the lyrics: Listen to the enchanting sound of the world’s oldest song, the Hurrian Hymn.

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