You’re thinking, ‘We haven’t had any of his annoying updates for a while because he was probably so traumatised by an evening of madrigals that he had to go for a 10-day lie down’.
But you’re wrong. My tardiness in writing up our Madrigal Special is purely down to the day job; I hereby want to shout it out, loud and clear, that our second session devoted exclusively to secular repertoire was quite simply 3 hours of wonderful music and tremendous fun.
Those of you who were there were too busy singing to tweet much but there were some nice observations and comments.
We had a good range of styles and nationalities represented, from a lilting English lute air (Dowland‘s Now, o now, I needs must part) to a rambunctious German drinking song (Hassler‘s Ihr musici) via an impossibly elegant Italian love song (Palestrina‘s Mori quas’il mio core) and a thigh-slapping peasant chanson (Janequin‘s Ce moys de May).
If there was a low point during the evening, it was the chaotic flailing through Weelkes‘ Now is my Cloris fresh as May (the horror! the horror!).
We more than compensated, though, in stunners by Arcadelt, Bennet & Gibbons, among others.
Deciding on the night’s biggest hit was a close call but Pilkington‘s gorgeous lullaby Rest sweet nymphs was just pipped to the post by the masterpiece that is Wilbye‘s Draw on, sweet night, a work so beguiling and heart-achingly expressive that you could be forgiven for mistaking it for something written 300 years later.
If you fancy the chance to give some of them another go, you can come along to next Wednesday’s Counterpint in the Cafe; booking goes live tomorrow at 5pm via this page, with more spaces released at 9am the next day.
Finally, booking details for PDtP on June 5th will be published next week.
Cheers
Kevin
Polyphony Down the Pub 