Saturday Live in Concert - Brabants

[ardcarp]

Just heard a lovely concert live from the Gregynog Festival. Tallis, Byrd, Gibbons, et al given by the Brabant Ensemble. I felt maybe some of the verse anthem alto parts would have suited a counter-tenor better in terms of range.

William Mundy: Te Deum 'for trebles'
Christopher Tye: Blessed are all they that fear the Lord
Robert Parsons: Deliver me from my enemies
William Byrd: A Voluntary for my Ladye Nevell
William Mundy: Benedictus 'for trebles'
Thomas Morley: Out of the deep
William Byrd: O Lord, turn thy wrath

INTERVAL
Thomas Morley
Fantasia
Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichord

William Byrd
Fantasia a6 (I) (A song of two basses)
Phantasm

Thomas Tomkins
Pavan a 5 in A minor
The English Consort of Viols

Thomas Tallis: With all our hearts and mouths
William Deane: O Lord, in thy wrath
William Byrd: O God, give ear and do apply
Thomas Tomkins: A Fancy for Viols
Edmund Hooper: Behold, it is Christ
Thomas Tallis: Christ rising again
John Amner: The King shall rejoice
Orlando Gibbons: Glorious and powerful God

[Miles Coverdale]

Just heard a lovely concert live from the Gregynog Festival. Tallis, Byrd, Gibbons, et al given by the Brabant Ensemble. I felt maybe some of the verse anthem alto parts would have suited a counter-tenor better in terms of range.

I'm not so sure. I've yet to hear a counter-tenor who can make a nice noise starting that Morley on a bottom F. This does highlight the thorny old problem of transposition. The Mundy Te Deum, which has a highest written note for the sopranos of top G, they performed up a semitone. For music written 'for trebles', that or written pitch is probably the best option, because putting it up the 'usual' minor third gives you lots of top B flats a la Clerkes of Oxenford, which I personally find pretty wearing to listen to. It also makes the middle parts very low for altos, but too high for tenors. However, if they had done the Morley at original pitch (D minor), then that would have necessitated doing it as a tenor verse, because D minor is way too low for an alto verse, so instead they do it up a minor third in F minor. There's no good musicological reason for using two different degrees of transposition, but it does, as I say, highlight the problem of adapting the music to fit the choir rather than vice versa.

[ardcarp]

Well, The Record of John is a perfect example (as I think I may have mentioned before). Even in A major the alto sounds low on its bottom note (especially so sung by a female alto) but shove it down to G or F so that a tenor (which I prefer!!!) can sing it in his natural range and the chorus alto parts become a grovel. It is then obvious to get a tenor to sing one of them (grunts of annoyance from the alto department)...but alas the two parts take it in turns to grovel, so you then have to re-distribute the two lines; not really kosher.

I just mention this because it's a well-known piece that illustrates the problems often involved in performing this repertoire, much of which lies better for viols than for voices.

[Chris Watson]

Put all this stuff back down to the written key and give all the 'alto' solos back to tenors with decent head voice and tell the altos they can join back in once you get to Wesley!

[ardcarp]

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I agree - it was a lovely concert, and most of the pieces I was hearing for the first time.

A word of appreciation to the announcer, too; she got the tone just right, I thought.

[ardcarp]

...except she mentioned (twice) about the organist 'tuning up' his chamber organ. What was she talking about??? Or did I mis-hear?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

...except she mentioned (twice) about the organist 'tuning up' his chamber organ. What was she talking about??? Or did I mis-hear?

Oh, yes! I meant to ask about that! (I thought it must be some specialist Renaissance organ technique of which I'd never before heard! )

[subcontrabass]

...except she mentioned (twice) about the organist 'tuning up' his chamber organ. What was she talking about??? Or did I mis-hear?

You did not mis-hear. Possibly something to do with the alternative pitches available on the instrument used: http://www.tickell-organs.co.uk/specInfo/opus16.htm

I presume this is just a matter of moving the keyboard one note to left or right to give a semitone up or down.

[jean]

I hadn't heard the English version of Byrd's Ne irascaris/Civitas sancti tui before.

Is it found in the Chirk Castle partbooks?

[Miles Coverdale]

Well, The Record of John is a perfect example (as I think I may have mentioned before). Even in A major the alto sounds low on its bottom note (especially so sung by a female alto) but shove it down to G or F so that a tenor (which I prefer!!!) can sing it in his natural range and the chorus alto parts become a grovel. It is then obvious to get a tenor to sing one of them (grunts of annoyance from the alto department)...but alas the two parts take it in turns to grovel, so you then have to re-distribute the two lines; not really kosher.

In fact, one of the sources of this piece has the solo written an octave higher for a boy, so unless you really want some hapless child wailing top B flats in a Gibbons verse anthem (I certainly don't), then F major it should be. Magdalen recorded it in F on their Gibbons disc with Rogers Covey-Crump doing the verse, and very nice it is too.

The two contratenor parts are of equal range, so the ideal scoring is, in my view, TrTTBarB.

[ardcarp]

I presume this is just a matter of moving the keyboard one note to left of right to give a semitone up or down

Oh I see. Many chamber organs and harpsichords have this facility...but to describe it as 'tuning up' is bizarre.