Fall 2011
Ceremonies of Carols: Feasting Songs for the People
Featuring: A Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten (1913 – 1976)
This winter, the La Jolla Renaissance Singers present a collection of carols that celebrate the holy days of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. People of every time and place have naturally come together to celebrate sacred days. Simply speaking, carols are folks songs that mark as religious feast — a sort of pious non-church music.
This combination of secular and sacred is the central idea to our music selections this season. We begin with the modern setting of Medieval texts, Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, arranged for mixed choir with harp. The juxtaposition of ancient words and neo-ancient harmonies mirrors the contrasts that carols represent: folk melodies and liturgical music, the commoner and the high church, the organized establishment and the organic response of the people.
Our focus on the people’s response to the religious feast day continues with additional carol selections, including old English feasting carols, carols from Spain and Catalonia, and a musical recreation of the Mexican posada. With music from Great Britain, Spain, and Mexico, this promises to be a show of simultaneously humble and exquisite music.
Spring 2012
Festino!
Entertainment for the Eve of Carnival Thursday
A Madrigal Comedy
by Adriano Banchieri (1568-1634)
Music history is full of “one hit wonders”: composers or performers who create something memorable and endearing, while the rest of their creative output sinks into the murky mire of time and forgotten fashion. Adriano Banchieri (1568-1634), for all practical purposes, could be considered such a composer. His short Contrappunto bestiale all menta(Counterpoint of the animals) has remained a favorite of choirs for centuries. It’s enjoyable to sing, and fun to listen to, and serves as an example for the “See, classical music isn’t always so serious” argument.Contrappunto is but one movement of a larger work — the twenty-piece madrigal comedy from 1608, Festino nella sera del giovedi grasso avanti cena (Fete for the Evening of Carnival Thursday Before Supper). To see this single movement as a part of a larger whole gives us a different context for its humor and brevity.
Festino shows many examples of that “common man”. In fact, the entire plot premise, as simple as it is, centers on the most universal of human experiences — a drunken group of revelers, waiting for their next party to start. The setting is on Carnival Thursday, a day that could actually be AFTER Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), or the week BEFORE Mardi Gras, depending on the region. Either way, the characters are on a mission — to create a memorable evening. Banchieri moves one piece to the next, with simple, spoken introductions in between each one. Cleverly, he does not create an endless array of one silly piece after another. He flits from one mood to another, just as a group of friends would do today, after several bottles of wine. At once point, the singers are creating dances, at another, yearning love songs. For a moment, they harass passers-by, calling them names or taunting them with dirty jokes. Then, they are back to singing “in the old style”, or presenting something in a trendier form. By balancing the silly with the sublime, Festino becomes a fully rounded dramatic piece, with varying shades of emotion, all tinted with irreverence and tipsy abandon. By experiencing this madrigal comedy from beginning to end, we realize that Banchieri has much more artistry to offer than a single “hit”.