SEPTEMBER 2017
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Welcome to MPRO’s 2017-2018 season, our 55th! Dates for rehearsals have been added to the “Calendar” page on our website, http://mpro-online.org. See Fred Palmer’s column for information on the diverse music that we will be rehearsing, and on our January 27, 2018 workshop with Rotem Gilbert, at a new location in Belmont.
Dues are due. Returning members, please print out a membership form from the “Joining MPRO” page on our website, and note any changes (such as mailing or email address, phone number, etc.) since last year. Prospective new members should also print and fill out this form. The list of instruments you play should include those that you would be willing to play at a concert, not every instrument you can play. Our directors use these lists to assign parts. Bring the form and your dues check to a rehearsal and give them to Membership Chair Chris Flake. Please make checks payable to the Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra or MPRO. Dues are not tax deductible, and dues checks should not be made to the San Francisco Early Music Society (SFEMS) or sent to SFEMS.
Officers. MPRO still needs volunteers to serve on its Board of Directors. Please contact me (Judith Unsicker) if you are interested in one of the vacant offices listed at the end of this newsletter, or if you have any questions about an officer’s duties or the Board in general. Many thanks to our outgoing Treasurer, LouAnn Hofmann, and Recording Secretary, Helen Shamble.
-Judith Unsicker
CONDUCTOR’S CORNER
Dear members of the Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra,
Welcome back as MPRO begins its fifty-fifth season, which will feature a wide variety of musical selections that are not only attractive but fun to play. Among these are Handel’s Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 1, an easy going waltz with mild jazz harmonies by the 20th-century composer Bill Evans, two lively 16th-century Spanish villancicos by Juan del Encina, which will feature the orchestra’s krummhorn players, a motet by the 16th-century French composer, Thomas Crecquillon, depicting Jacob’s ladder and a reprise of my composition, The Glass Elevator, for seven recorders, which MPRO is doing again by popular request. In addition to these new selections, we will be repeating the antiphonal motet, Gloria Patri, qui creavit nos, by Melchior Franck and Remember, O Thou Man by Thomas Ravenscroft from last season. I am pleased to announce that Greta Haug-Hryciw will be returning again this season as MPRO’s Assistant Music Director and that Irene Beardsley will be joining the orchestra again to share her keyboard skills with us at the orchestra’s upcoming performances.
On January 27 of next year the orchestra will be presenting a workshop directed by Rotem Gilbert, at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Belmont. Rotem Gilbert is well known to Bay Area recorder players as a very popular and well-versed music director, and this is a workshop you will want to attend. Further details will appear in upcoming issues of Upbeat. Also, MPRO holds its regular meetings in Angus Hall at Trinity Church, 330 Ravenswood Ave (at the corner of Laurel) in Menlo Park. Please remember to bring a music stand to these meetings since none will be available at Angus Hall and plan to arrive early to allow for parking and getting from your car to the meeting room.
Listed below is the music for the first three meetings of the orchestra. Music can be purchased at these meetings for those who did not download and print it from the PDF files sent to the orchestra’s membership. Those returning from last season can use the music they already have for the Franck Gloria Patri, qui creavit nos. Please note that there will be sectional seating for the Franck motet with those in Primus Chorus on the right as they face the conductor and those in Secundus Chorus on the left. Please observe this seating arrangement when you choose your place at the beginning of the meetings on September 13 and October 11. Please note as well that great bass and contrabass recorders will be needed at all three meetings and that sopranino recorder, krummhorns and bassoon are called for on September 13 and October 11. Finally, everyone is asked to practice and become familiar with the scheduled music, particularly the new selections, before the first meeting in September.
September 13
Franck: Gloria Patri, qui creavit nos
Encina: Fata la parte, ¿Si abrá en este beldrés
Handel: Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 1, final Allegro
Ravenscroft: Remember, Oh Thou Man
September 27
Crecquillon: Vidit Jacob Scalam
Evans: Waltz for Debby
Ravenscroft: Remember, O Thou Man
Handel: Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 1, final Allegro
October 11
Franck: Gloria Patri, qui creavit nos
Encina: Fata la parte, ¿Si abrá en este beldrés
Handel: Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 1, final Allegro
I look forward to working with you again in September and encourage you to let any of your friends who play early instruments know about the orchestra's activities this season and invite them to attend our upcoming meetings, workshops and concerts.
Sincerely,
Fred Palmer
RECORDINGS OF SOME OF MPRO’S NEW MUSIC
The (not G-rated) lyrics to the Juan del Encina pieces, in Spanish and English, are available online in program notes for a CD. See page 13 for Fata la parte and page 8 for Si abra en este beldres. https://www.chandos.net/chanimages/Booklets/NA3536.pdf
An audio recording of the same CD is also available online. Click on “Show More” below the video screen for links to individual pieces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLMhSkI8GMY
This is a 3 part choral recording of Crecquillon’s Vidit Jacob Scalam with accompaniment including a bass cornamuse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6GI7baFgHs&list=PL5cMDLMFhlmQb0kbBi-zko6avWgGkX7s-
This is a recording of Handel’s entire Concerto Grosso Op 6 No. 1. Click on "Show More" below the video screen for links to individual movements. We are rehearsing the fifth movement this fall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KizLC6CwFn4
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The Board: President: Judith Unsicker; Treasurer: vacant; Recording Secretary: vacant; Membership: Chris Flake; 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; Assistant Music Director: Greta Haug-Hryciw. MPRO website: http://www.mpro-online.org
