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56th Dubrovnik Summer Festival
2005
Croatia
MUSICIANS OF THE GLOBE
I
Joanne Lunn soprano
Adrian Chandler violin
Philip Pickett recorder
Arngeir Hauksson cittern
Lynda Sayce lute
Elizabeth Pallett bandora
Catherine Finnis viol
John Ballanger jester, actor, juggler
Lovrjenac Fort
14 August
9.30 pm
Songs from Shakespeare's plays, with music from the Elizabethan and
Jacobean theatre:
Anonimus:
Strawberry leaves
Thomas Morley (from First Booke of Ayres, 1600.): It was a lover
Anonimus:
Sellingers Round
Anonimus:
Walsingham, traditional ballad
tune
Anonimus:
How should I your true love
know (Hamlet)?
Robert Johnson:
Full Fathom five (/The
Tempest)
Robert Johnson:
Where the bee sucks (/The
Tempest)
From Morley Consort Lessons, 1599.-1611.):
Can she excuse my wrongs
Robert Jones (from First Booke of Songes, 1600.): Farewell dear love (Twelfth
Night)
James Lauder – Anonimus:
My Lord of Marche Pavan/
Galliard
John Wilson:
Take o take those lips
(Measure for Measure)
Robert Johnson (?):
Hark hark the lark
(Cymbeline)
Anonimus:
The poor soul sat sighing
(Othello)
Anonimus:
Mother Watkin's Ale
*****
From Morley Consort Lessons:
O mistresse myne
Thomas Morley:
O mistresse myne (Twelfth
Night)
Anonimus (from Mulliner Book, c. 1560.)
La bounette/ La doune
cella/La shy myze
Anonimus:
Dulcina
Richard Nicholson:
The Jew's Daunce
Anonimus:
Daphne
From Morley Consort Lessons:
La Coranto
From Morley Consort Lessons:
La Volta
Thomas Morley:
Now is the month of Maying
In 1993 Sam Wanamaker asked Philip Pickett to form an associate ensemble
to carry the name and ethos of the Globe Theatre around the world through
recordings, concerts and broadcasts. Determined to achieve the highest
possible standards of musical performance, Pickett immediately formed the
Musicians of the Globe from among the very best of England’s early music
instrumentalists. As well as working with distinguished vocal soloists, the
nucleus of the group (a broken consort of violin, recorder, cittern, lute,
bandora and bass viol) can be expanded with trumpets, cornetts, sackbuts,
shawms, recorders, curtals, violins, viols, keyboards and percussion; and for
later repertoire the ensemble becomes a full Baroque, Classical or Romantic
orchestra with soloists and choir. In consultation with such eminent
musicologists and editors as Peter Holman, Andrew Pinnock, Michael
Pilkington and Peter Downey the group has explored a wide repertoire
ranging from the 16th to the 19th century, all of it English, and much of it
inspired by Shakespeare. The Musicians of the Globe made their Purcell
Room debut in March 1994. The concert was such a success that they were
immediately invited to make three live broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and to
perform in the 1995 Purcell Room concert series. The group also appeared at
the Seville, Aldeburgh and South Bank Centre Early Music Festivals. In June
1997 they began a summer concert series at the Globe, one of which was
recorded for BBC Radio 3; and brass, wind and percussion players from the
ensemble provided the music for Richard Olivier’s production of Henry V.
Highlights of 1998/9 included The Merchant of Venice and four fully-staged
performances of Blow’s opera Venus and Adonis at the Globe; a live
broadcast for the BBC World Service; a live appearance on Brian Kay’s Sunday
morning radio show; The Tempest for the City of London Festival; and
concerts in Belgium, Italy, Sicily, at the BBC Proms, London’s Purcell Room
and Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barcelona’s Palau de la Musica and Rome’s
Accademia Filarmonica. More recently they have visited South America,
toured Hungary and Japan (twice), returned to Rome, Barcelona, Bruges,
London’s South Bank Centre and the City of London Festival (Dido & Aeneas),
and appeared at the Antwerp, Turin, Ravenna, Sienna, Utrecht, York,
Carinthian Summer and Prague Spring Festivals. The Musicians of the Globe
have recorded 7 CDs for Philips Classics ranging from Shakespeare’s Musick
through Purcell’s Fairy Queen and Linley’s Shakespeare Ode to Henry Rowley
Bishop’s music for the early 19th-century Shakespeare revivals at Covent
Garden. Their very first US release in 1997 was nominated for the coveted
Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance.
John Ballanger began his career as a comedy acrobat and has continued as
actor/performer with such diverse companies as The New Vic, The Royal
Opera House, The Medieval Players, Harrogate Theatre Company and Theatre
Powys. He performed extensively in solo shows and was voted Jester of the
Year 1990. John is director of Fools Paradise Theatre Company, founded in
1985 to provide period entertainment based on traditional performance
skills, with which he has performed in Australia, Israel, Greece, Bahrain,
Spain, Switzerland and Italy. With its commitment to high artistic standards,
Fools Paradise has been invited to perform at the most prestigious festivals
in Great Britain, Italy and Greece.
Musical life in England probably reached its zenith during Elizabethan and
early Jacobean times. A remarkable number of excellent composers wrote
music of every description for dancing, singing, the home, the court, the
theatre and the church – and they wrote for every kind of musical ensemble.
The intense musical activity of the last twenty years of the 16th century
carried on into the reigns of James I and Charles I, and much of the music
now mistakenly regarded as Elizabethan was actually composed or printed
long after 1603. The lute was the most popular plucked instrument of the
Renaissance. The plucked instruments were mainly performed by amateur
musicians, and playing the lute and viol were considered an essential part of
a cultivated person’s upbringing. Instrumental music in the Elizabethan and
Jacobean age consisted largely of fantasias, dances and arrangements of
well-known sacred and secular vocal music for solos and ensembles.
Composer and performer were very often one and the same. Music was a
prominent feature also in the play production, yet only a few of the original
song-settings survived. It is nowadays hard to tell which of the pieces
preserved in printed and manuscript collections have a theatrical origin; and
authorship of some of them is doubtful. Some of tonight’s songs were very
well known such as O mistress mine, Full fathom five, Where the bee sucks,
The poor soul sat sighing, It was a lover and his lass, and we know exactly
where, and in which of Shakespeare's plays each of these belongs. Many of
them were directly inspired by contemporary folk music and by the popular
tunes of the day. In chamber ensembles of the time each instrument played a
clearly defined role, which at times had to be adapted to the instruments
available.
English composer and music theoretician Thomas Morley (1557 – 1602),
pupil of William Byrd, graduated from the Oxford University in 1588. He was
organist of St Giles Church, and from 1591 organist of St Paul Cathedral in
London. In 1952 he became a member of the Royal Chapel, and in 1598 was
granted an exclusive licence for 21 years to print songbooks and all kinds of
music paper. One of the major representatives of the Elizabethan period, he
founded the madrigal school, and was its most prolific and most influential
master. His collections of canzonets, madrigals and ballets (which he
introduced to England) were republished in quick succession. One of his
works A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke is an important
source of the 16th century music practice study. Written as a composition
textbook, this tractate reveals Morley’s huge theoretical knowledge.
English lutenist and composer John Wilson (1595 – 1674) was a theatre
singer up to 1635, and then become a court musician. He lived in Oxford
during the civil war, where he was a university professor of music from 1656
– 1661. In 1662 he become a member of Chapel Royal. A renowned singer
and lutenist he was very good in composing music on the already existing
texts, and was among the first composers to set Shakespeare’s songs. In
addition to the collection Cheerfull Ayres or Ballads (1660), he composed
many songs in the Collection of J. Playford (1652 - 1667), as well as
Psalterium Carolinum for three voices and basso continuo (1657).
English composer and lutenist Robert Johnson (1583 - 1633), the son of
famous lutenist John, studied music at the court of Sir G. Careys, Lord
Hunsdon II. From 1604 until death he was engaged as a court lutenist.
Considered one of the best solo song composers of his generation (Carecharming sleep, Wood, rocks and mountains, etc.), he also composed music
for many theatre plays. Twelve of his secular solo song collections have been
preserved, as well as twelve lute pieces. His original scores are kept at the
Folger Library.
English lute virtuoso Robert (II) Jones (1577 - 1615) completed his music
studies at the Oxford University (1597), and in 1610, i.e. 1615 was granted
(together with Ph. Rossetereo) permission to build the first children’s school
and later a children’s theatre in London. Before its completion, however, the
authorities ordered the theatre to be demolished. Only nine of his madrigals
have been preserved in their entirety. He is better known as composer of 105
dynamic and effective songs for lute.
English lutenist and composer James Lauder (mentioned c. 1600) was
engaged at the court of Spanish King James VI. The piece that will be
performed tonight is his most popular and most often performed
composition.
English composer and pedagogue Richard Nicholson (1570 - 1639) was
choirmaster at the Magdalen College, Oxford from 1595, and from 1627 the
first professor of music at the Oxford University. He composed church music
on Latin and English texts, and his secular vocal pieces include humorous,
rather than melancholy details. He contributed in composing the famous
Triumphs of Oriana.
D. Detoni