Is there no 'light' Early Music?

[jean]

Couldn't they have done some imaginative re-classifying instead of axing both editions this weekend?

[Roehre]

Couldn't they have done some imaginative re-classifying instead of axing both editions this weekend?

There is a lot of "light" music: dances, tavern(pub!)songs, market cries, chansons and songs by troubadours/ trouvères/ Minnesänger. Vocal and instrumental music of all kinds, and from important and well-known composers too, all variants on La Spagna or L'Homme armé e.g., but trifles like DesPrez's Il Grillo buon cantore or Scamarella as well.
And Greensleeves belongs to this genre, not only in RVW's arrangement, but also in its original (lute-)version (by Henry VIII?).

But nowadays this type of knowledge or programming is not a forte of the beep anymore I'm afraid .

[doversoul1]

This ‘festival’ was the very antithesis of imagination and discovery. I am convinced that the aim of this project was to promote Radio 3 and not the music.

I have nothing against the music itself. Play it on Radio3 by all means. There is Breakfast and there is In Tune. An occasional concert on Afternoon on 3 or even on Performance on 3 would be good. But I do not think BBC can justify itself for giving up the music that no other stations would play for the music that already has a dedicated programme and a large enough market and audience (so I gather from the posts I have read on these boards).

And I am still convinced (or hanging on to my hope) that Radio3 had no choice.

[Richard Tarleton]

Couldn't they have done some imaginative re-classifying instead of axing both editions this weekend?

I was thinking that very thing - and echo Roehre's and dover's remarks. I'm afraid R3 was a complete no-go area for me this weekend - absolutely nothing I felt inclined to listen to. I listened to CDs and practised Byrd's The Woods So Wild on my guitar in a shady part of the garden - the sort of piece Roehre is talking about. Of course they could have had two excellent Early Light Music programmes. I think the first appearance of Greensleeves in print was in William Ballet's Lute Book c. 1572 - did HVlll write it down I wonder?

[ostuni]

That Henry VIII ascription is apocryphal: it's too late in style. The song is based on the Italian passamezzo antico chord sequence, which only made it into England in Elizabeth's reign. (A pedant adds: the Ballet lute book was a manuscript; the printed Greensleeves came a bit later.)

[MickyD]

There is a lot of "light" music: dances, tavern(pub!)songs, market cries, chansons and songs by troubadours/ trouvères/ Minnesänger. Vocal and instrumental music of all kinds, and from important and well-known composers too, all variants on La Spagna or L'Homme armé e.g., but trifles like DesPrez's Il Grillo buon cantore or Scamarella as well.
And Greensleeves belongs to this genre, not only in RVW's arrangement, but also in its original (lute-)version (by Henry VIII?).

But nowadays this type of knowledge or programming is not a forte of the beep anymore I'm afraid .

You're right, Roehre - they are all sorts of wonderful discs out there of popular street/tavern music, not to mention a lot of jovial theatre music too. Lucie Skeaping would have been right at home in a selection of those. Still, I suppose one cannot accuse Catherine Bott of being too pigeonholed....she was to be found in another programme discussing music by Eric Coates!

[Roehre]

That Henry VIII ascription is apocryphal: it's too late in style. The song is based on the Italian passamezzo antico chord sequence, which only made it into England in Elizabeth's reign. (A pedant adds: the Ballet lute book was a manuscript; the printed Greensleeves came a bit later.)

Thanks Ostuni and RT for your remarks re Greensleeves. Much appreciated

[french frank]

I think 'Light Fantastic' was, very deliberately, aimed at a particular audience, hence the arrival on Radio 3 last Friday of Radio 2's 'Friday Night Is Music Night'. Not sure that they would have appreciated estampies, broadside ballads &c in the same way.

A more imaginative 'festival' (I think, wouldn't it be?) would be tracing chronologically/sociologically from medieval times the popular and what, for lack of an inclusive term, I'll call 'classical', who produced them, who composed them, where and how they intertwine. Or how 'dance music' entered the concert hall. I reckon you could take a year or two over that

[jean]

There's really no equivalent of the modern divisions into 'serious' (for want of a better term), 'light', 'pop', 'folk', and other categories too.

Certainly the tavern songs and suchlike have had their day on the Early Music Show already - and some of them were written by composers as serious as Purcell. But then, so was some modern Light Music.

So I suppose it was a non-starter for this weekend. It would be interesting to know if they thought of it, though.

[salymap]

Is the Beggars' Opera a sort of early G&s or is it too late for your definition of 'early'?

[StephenO]

Light early music? Nope, afraid not. Haydn and Mozart invented it.

[Roehre]

Light early music? Nope, afraid not. Haydn and Mozart invented it.

the latter's Canons KV231 and 233 you mean ?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Is the Beggars' Opera a sort of early G&s or is it too late for your definition of 'early'?

Well the story's hardly "light".

[Chris Newman]

Alpy, I would have thought the Beggar's Opera was quite late light music. Not many people in G & S get threatened with execution: OK, Nanki-Poo and Ko-Ko but like Macheath they get let off.

Crikey! On the other hand. Come to think of it. I have sung some Purcell and some rugby songs which are similarly light (or filthy). Bits of Monteverdi and Cavalli etc. are hardly heavy.

[salymap]

[QUOTE=Eine Alpensinfonie;64363]Well the story's hardly "light". [/QUOTE

Neither is'The Yeomen of the Guard'