The Quill - Volume 6 - April 2022 

As we celebrate the arrival of Spring, we have new Renaissance offerings to share with you! This issue features our Spring virtual concert Love, Love, Love, an interesting article about secular love in the Renaissance, a new profile of two of our choir members as part of our People Behind The Music series, and our recent playlist project. Scroll down and enjoy!

Love, Love, Love

Video Concert livestreamed May 2022

CRSP is pleased to provide a concert video featuring love in its many forms, both sacred and secular. Drawing upon past recordings, we have selected songs from the Renaissance (e.g., Palestrina's Sicut Cervus and Thomas Greaves' Come Away Sweet Love) and the modern era e.g. Ola Gjeilo's Ubi Caritas.

The video features instrumental contributions from three friends of the choir, Ralph Maier, Donovan Seidle, and Mustafa Kamaliddin.

Rounding out the concert is a healthy dose of love poetry from Cassy Welburn, Weyman Chan, and Roberta Rees, plus a poem by John Donne read by Katie O'Keefe of the Calgary Young People's Theatre.

This video concert was live-streamed May 15, 2022 - feel free to watch it at your leisure on our YouTube channel.

The Many Faces of Love

In the words of Tennyson, "In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love." Our thoughts have likewise turned to love, and it has become the theme of our latest concert video which aired May 15th, 2022.

Renaissance music depicted the many faces of love: humans’ love of God and God's love for humanity, as represented in sacred music of the era, and love of a secular kind, found in English and Italian madrigals, French chansons, and the like. In this issue of The Quill, we share some examples of how love was depicted in lyrics from secular music of the time.

Some poets wrote of an idealized, beautiful loved one. Romantic love, and particularly love at first sight, is described in the 17th century song, Since First I Saw Your Face published by Thomas Ford in 1607:

"Where beauty moves and wit delights
And signs of kindness find me
There, oh there, where'er I go
I'll leave my heart behind me."

Madrigals of the period were replete with references to nymphs and shepherds, to maidens and swains, and to frolicking in the countryside. For example, Thomas Morley's Now Is The Month of Maying, writes of "merry lads" each with his "bonny lass." He wonders, "Why sit we musing, love's sweet delights refusing" and asks "dainty nymphs" if they would like to play "barley break". While indeed a game played by young couples, barley break also came to have a sexual connotation, akin to "a roll in the hay".

Morley's composition features many "Fa-la-la's". Often seen as nonsense syllables or 'spacers', they were used to represent subjects that could not be expressed explicitly, whether satirical or sexual. Our beloved conductor, Jane Perry, often smilingly asserts that Fa-la-la's can be seen as a "wink, wink, nudge, nudge". Another madrigal in the same vein is Thomas Greaves' Come Away, Sweet Love, which is to be included in our concert video. Nymphs also feature here, and the scene appears to include outdoor lovemaking, where the nymphs are invited to leave their cares aside and come to play, with lots of "running in and out".

The Renaissance was a period characterized by a renewed interest in classical subjects, which regularly made their way into poems and song lyrics. One of these is Weep, Weep, Weep Mine Eyes by John Wilbye. This beautiful madrigal, which CRSP recorded virtually in 2021, is about Leander and Hero, two lovers from Greek mythology who lived on either side of the Hellespont (now called the Dardanelles, one of the waterways linking the Black Sea and the Mediterranean), and who would meet nightly when Leander swam across the strait. One night he drowned, and the song describes Hero's inconsolable grief. Without her great love, she laments, "Ah, cruel Fortune!" and cries, "Death, do thy worst, I care not." This dramatic outpouring is but one example of the intensity of feeling expressed in many songs of the period where love is unrequited, or destroyed through infidelity, or lost through death.

The People Behind The Music

Introducing the Dynamic Duo - Richard (Tenor) and Sandy (Alto) Willott

What motivated your participation in CRSP?

Married for almost 52 years, and members since 1986, church choirs and family involvement in music since childhood inspired a love of choral singing. Pumped by a wonderful experience in an Australian choir, they were on the lookout for a musical challenge upon their return to Canada. A chance meeting and an invitation to a CRSP social convinced them that they had found a musical home.

Dick's creation of MIDI files for our members, and Sandy's video submissions to the "Stay at Home Choir - England" and classical guitar training, have continued to stimulate growth and interest during these COVID years. Feed into that mix several musical camps abroad, including a more recent one in Italy, and you have two very enthusiastic singers. Our songbirds ground all of this in an appreciation of the Renaissance period and of polyphonic music as they chirp along with a "lovely group of people", says Sandy.

Community Engagement

Dick and Sandy are active community members. Sandy's support of her grandchildren's learning during COVID and her years of teaching English and support of new Canadians demonstrate her commitment to community. Dick's production and distribution of posters defending Alberta Parks and the closure of mines champion environmental issues close to his heart. If there is spare time, hiking in our beautiful mountains rejuvenates these two.

CRSP  

Sandy and Dick have generously contributed their musical talents, energy and countless hours in a variety of roles to CRSP over the decades, including Business Manager, Librarian, Concert Producer, and Treasurer, to name a few. How fortunate we have been!  

CRSP Playlists Now On Our Website & YouTube

Do you have a favourite piece of choral music? Did you know that CRSP performs both Renaissance pieces and others that capture in some way the spirit of the Renaissance, perhaps in tone, style, or lyrics?

During the cold months of winter, we had great fun compiling a playlist of our favourite Renaissance pieces. Competition was fierce and voting difficult. Sharing our Top Five online with our audience produced additional suggestions. We then voted on our favourite modern pieces, choosing another Top Five.

Both playlists are posted on our website and YouTube channel, together with videos of fine performances. Prepare to be transported to another world as you listen to these beautiful recordings.