Month: June 2015

I don’t know about you, but every session of PDtP seems to me to be just a bit better than the last.

Perhaps it’s because we are getting used to singing with one another, or maybe it’s simply because we are drinking ever increasing amounts of beer. Whatever the reason, I’m just glad that we all enjoy PDtP in all its strange glory.

Highlights for me were the Josquin Allegez Moy, along with the L’Héritier Nigra sum and the Jacquet de Mantua Veni dilecte mi, though special mention must also go to the diri-dontastic Lassus Matona mia cara; use the comments box below to let me know which numbers stood out for you.

Thanks again to all who came and I hope to see you at the next session.

Speaking of which:

Please sign up here (it really helps me to plan the set-list if you do!) and don’t forget to tell your friends. It will be our last session of the season as we’ll be taking a break over the summer so let’s make it the best one yet!

Cheers

Kevin

Hope you are looking forward to Monday’s PDtP; don’t forget that in addition to the amazing music, real ale is only £3 a pint!

Some highlights on the set-list front

If there was one number that you could taken even a brief look at beforehand, then it should be this one, not so much for the notes but the words:

(If you don’t speak Italian then you can spare yourself a shock by not looking up a translation of the scandalous text.)

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Another slightly bawdy number with a couple of tricky bits is this one:

However, I am sure we will busk our way through it as we usually do.

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We don’t often get to sing French music at PDtP, perhaps as a result of Anthony G. Petti’s notes in The French School for 4 Voices (Chester Motets Series): ‘The plain fact is that there is a dearth of really good [French] composers with a large output in this field [sacred motets]’

What a way to sell a book of French sacred motets!

However, even Petti acknowledges the greatness of Jean L’Héritier, which is amply illustrated in this motet:

Note that we will experiment with some musica ficta on the night with this one; your sheet music highlights some notes to be sharpened, which should result in some glorious false relations!

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A slightly longer but utterly sublime piece is this extended chanson by Matthaeus Pipelare, a contemporary of Josquin’s.

It’s hypnotically beautiful and spell-binding in its simplicity; really looking forward to singing this one. (Altos, you’ll be singing Tenor 1.)

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Other highlights for me are 2 more Song of Songs motets, one by another Frenchman, Jacquet de Mantua, and the other by another Josquin peer, Noel Bauldeweyn.

Neither has a handy youtube video to listen to but here are the midi files in case they are of use:

Jacquet de Mantua – Veni, dilecte mi

Bauldeweyn – Quam pulchra es

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Two final notes: in the 5 part motets (Nigra sum & Veni in hortum meum), Baritones/1^st Basses will sing the Tenor II/Quintus line, and we will try to do Josquin’s Allegez Moy (my favourite chanson by the master) if we get enough men on the night – so make sure you bring as many singer friends as possible!

 

See you Monday.

Kevin

It gives me tremendous pleasure to unveil the sheet music for next Monday’s PDtP.

In keeping with our theme of love, you’ll find on the secular side some madrigals and chansons (some baser than others) and in the motet corner, settings of verses from the Song of Songs, that beguiling mixture of the sacred and erotic from ancient times.

I’ll be highlighting a few of the numbers in the coming days but in the meantime, don’t forget to sign up here and please invite your friends.

Cheers

Kevin