The Quill - Volume 5 - December 2021
As the Plague rages on - we have not been idle and have many new Renaissance offerings to share with you! Scroll down to view all the details of our upcoming virtual concert A Light In the Darkness, our latest offering in the Early Music Lecture Series, Renaissance Christmas traditions, and three new profiles of choir members as part of our People Behind The Music series!
Join us online for our December concert presentation as we celebrate the hope represented by light in the darkness. The performance will feature the CRSP choristers singing works such as Palestrina's Tui sunt caeli, Abbie Betinis' Lumen, and the Canadian composer Ernest Gagnon's arrangement of Il est né.
Guest artists include jazz musicians Frank Rackow (clarinet, saxophones) and Andréa Petrity (piano) who will select three carols and Jewish melodies of the Middle Ages and Renaissance and then improvise on those themes. The result? Pure magic!
Join us on our YouTube Channel on Saturday, December 18 at 7:30 pm!
Cum Jubilo: Singing in Women’s Communities in the Middle Ages
"Hildegarde didn't do her own laundry!" Katherine Hill, in the latest video in our Early Music Lecture Series, used these words to illustrate how women's religious communities in the Middle Ages differed greatly, and how some, such as the one where Hildegarde of Bingen lived and wrote her music, were better off, leaving time for pursuits such as music, poetry, and theology. This is just one example from the very engaging conversation between CRSP soprano, Marcia Epstein, and Katherine Hill, Artistic Director of the early music ensemble, The Toronto Consort.
The conversation is wide-ranging, touching on both the texts and the melodies of the period, as well as the culture of the times. In describing a particular text for which music was composed in a convent, Hill says, "Mary must have been like a superhero for any woman monastic in the Middle Ages." Add to this a mini-lesson on how to read medieval music notation (clearly presented and illustrated) and a selection of chants and two- and four-part pieces written by Hildegarde and other early women composers, and you'll come away informed as well as entertained by this fascinating look into the history that we at CRSP hope to assist in bringing to life.
The video is in two parts and can be viewed on our YouTube channel - CLICK HERE!
Renaissance Christmas Traditions
The word Christmas is derived from "Cristes Maesse", the Old English word for Christmas meaning Christ’s Mass. In England, people would fast for twelve hours before the three Masses of Christmas, the first being the Angel's Mass (midnight), the Shepherd’s Mass (at dawn), and the King's Mass (held during the day). The churches were decorated with elaborate nativity scenes especially in Italy, where stunning representations were created.
The Christmas season was celebrated from Christmas Eve to January 6 - The Twelve Days of Christmas. The majority of people worked on the land, and agricultural work, except for looking after the animals, would stop, restarting again on Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth Night. The prime occupation of women was spinning, and it was also banned during the Christmas season. To ensure this, flowers were ceremonially placed upon and around spinning wheels to prevent their use.
Feasting
Then, as now, eating special foods was a highlight of the festivities. A menu for a Christmas Feast from 1660 by Robert May, a chef trained in France who cooked for the nobility, lists 39 dishes! Of the 39, 34 are meat dishes, and include venison, pork, mutton, veal, partridge, swan (displayed with feathers, head, neck and wings still on!) oysters, and sturgeon. These are prepared in a variety of ways – broiled, stewed, baked in pastry, and roasted. The few dishes that we would consider ‘dessert’ were oranges and lemons, a custard, pear or quince pie, jellies, and pippin (apple) tart.
In England, the traditional Christmas meal for those with means remained the boar’s head. In the 1520s, turkey was introduced, and King Henry VIII became one of the first to incorporate turkey into the Christmas feast. The Tudor Christmas Pie consisted of a turkey stuffed with a goose stuffed with a chicken stuffed with a partridge stuffed with a pigeon. All of this was baked in a pastry case, called a coffin.
Another English seasonal favourite was “minced pye”. Baked with thirteen ingredients to represent Christ and his Apostles, it included mutton as well as dried fruits and spices as in modern times. The loaf-like shape echoed the crib of the infant Christ and was sometimes adorned with an image of the babe in pastry.
During the Christmas season, wassail was served. The word “wassail” is believed to come from the old Anglo-Saxon toast waes hael, meaning “be well” or “be in good health.” Wassail was a hot drink made from ale, wine, or cider, flavoured with spices, sweetened with sugar or honey, and served from a large wooden bowl.
Gift-Giving
Christmas was a time for gift giving, inspired by the Magi's gifts to the Christ child. Receiving gifts was expected by royalty and lords of the manor as they required tribute from their subjects during the Christmas season. The peasants initially received nothing. Bohemian Duke Wenceslas I was among the first rulers to reverse the custom by handing out food, clothes, and firewood to the less fortunate.
The Yule Log
The tradition of the Yule log had its origins in the pagan mythology of Nordic countries, where bonfires were lit to celebrate the return of the sun at the time of the winter solstice. The custom evolved and became associated with Christmas in several different cultures. For example, Florentines used to burn a massive oak branch in their fireplaces. The fire represented good wishes and prayers, with the ashes then spread as a symbol of new life. In England, a large log would be selected in the forest on Christmas Eve, and decorated with ribbons. Once in the home, it was lit and kept burning throughout the twelve days of Christmas. It was considered lucky to keep some of the charred remains to kindle the log of the following year.
The People Behind The Music
In this issue, we salute three of our choristers - Weyman Chan, Marcia Jenneth Epstein and Llyn Strelau who have recently been celebrated for their accomplishments in very different areas of endeavour.
Llyn Strelau
Llyn, one of our tenors as well as a notable jeweller, was thrilled to receive four awards for three of his jewellery designs in the 2021 American Gem Trade Association's "Spectrum Awards".
First place, Classical, for "Luxuriant" Sautoir; 3rd place, Business/Day Wear and Best Use of Platinum and Colour for "Dreamweaver" neckpiece and Manufacturing Honours for "Knotty" cufflinks.
Marcia Jenneth Epstein
Marica is one of our talented sopranos and an author! Marcia’s book, Sound and Noise: A Listener's Guide to Everyday Life, was recently featured in a book launch by Calgary's Shelf Life Books. There was a lively discussion on acoustic ecology, urban noise and how to deal with it, the legacy of Canadian composer and soundscape theorist R. Murray Schafer, and how musical activity provides a model for overcoming the competitive social paradigms of capitalism. (Shelf Life Books has copies, and books make great holiday gifts!)
Weyman Chan
Hearty congratulations to bass Weyman Chan who just won the Latner Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize! This award is given to a mid-career poet in recognition of a remarkable body of work, and in anticipation of future contributions to Canadian Poetry. Weyman is the author of 5 books.
Weyman read his poem, Mother & Child of Christmas Past, at our “Renaissance Evensong" concert last December which can be viewed on our YouTube channel. Weyman will be presenting a new poem during our next online concert “A Light In The Darkness” which is being streamed on Saturday, December 18th at 7:30 PM. Please go to our YouTube channel to see it!