The Touches of Sweet Harmony : The Musical World of William Shakespeare Saturday 29 October 2016, 7.30pm, Great St Mary s Church, Cambridge

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1 The Touches of Sweet Harmony : The Musical World of William Shakespeare Saturday 29 October 2016, 7.30pm, Great St Mary s Church, Cambridge STILE ANTICO Helen Ashby, Kate Ashby & Rebecca Hickey sopranos Emma Ashby, Eleanor Harries & Katie Schofield altos Andrew Griffiths, Matthew Howard & Benedict Hymas tenors Jim Clements, Tom Flint & Matthew O'Donovan basses Thomas Morley (1557/8-1602) It was a lover and his lass William Byrd (c ) O Lord, make thy servant John Dowland ( ) Say, Love, if ever thou did st find John Wilbye ( ) What needeth all this travail - O Fools! Can you not see? Thomas Weelkes ( ) Thule - The Andalusian Merchant Huw Watkins (b.1976) The Phoenix and the Turtle William Byrd Tristitia et anxietas INTERVAL (20 mins; refreshments served at back of Nave) Robert Johnson (c ) Full fathom five Thomas Tomkins ( ) Be strong and of a good courage Thomas Weelkes O Lord Grant the King a Long Life Thomas Weelkes When David Heard Robert Ramsey (d.1644) Sleep, Fleshly Birth Nico Muhly (b.1981) Gentle Sleep Orlando Gibbons ( ) The Silver Swan Orlando Gibbons What is Our Life Assembling a centenary programme in honour of The Bard presents more challenges than one might expect: given the extent to which we can assume Shakespeare was well acquainted with the leading musical figures of his day, there are surprisingly few surviving contemporaneous settings of his words. The present programme includes just two such rare works by Thomas Morley and Robert Johnson, composers with whom Shakespeare very likely collaborated, which open each half of the programme. These pieces survive only as solo lute songs (we may be less surprised that the music of the theatre tended toward the smallest-scale settings) but they have been arranged into four vocal parts from the lute tablature for this programme a practice which was in fact commonplace at the time. These are complemented by works by leading contemporary composers Nico Muhly and Huw Watkins, commissioned especially for Stile Antico by Wigmore Hall, which also set Shakespeare's words. The remainder of the programme is structured around Shakespeare s two royal patrons, Queen Elizabeth I and King James I; the first half is devoted to works from Elizabeth s reign, and the second to Jacobean music. Each 1

2 half includes a pair of works demonstrating loyalty to the monarch. Byrd s well-known anthem O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth finds him at his most lush and ingratiating, alternating between five-part and even more colourful six-part counterpoint, before concluding with one of the most sublime Amen settings of the English renaissance. Dowland s good-natured, madrigalian tribute to the Virgin Queen is a touch more irreverent, if affectionately so; nonetheless, his relationship with Elizabeth s court was not always a happy one. The pair of anthems by close contemporaries Tomkins and Weelkes (Be strong and of good courage and O Lord, grant the King a long life) were almost certainly performed at James I s coronation. The elder Tomkins work is probably the more accomplished; Weelkes, in spite of his extensive output of service music, seems to have reserved his best inventiveness for the madrigal. During the first half, we also explore connections between Shakespeare and the circle of persecuted Catholics in Elizabethan England; many scholars believe that Shakespeare himself may have held closet Catholic beliefs. His enigmatic poem The Phoenix and the Turtle sung here in an evocative setting by Huw Watkins, recently composed for Stile Antico lends itself rather convincingly to being read as a Catholic allegory. If so, the bird of loudest lay in the first line of the poem is most probably William Byrd, the greatest of all English Renaissance composers and himself well-known as a recusant Catholic. Huw Watkins setting precedes one of Byrd s most brazenly Catholic works: the penitential motet Tristitia et anxietas was published in the 1589 Cantiones sacrae perhaps the most subversive of Byrd s motet collections a book filled with dramatic and emotive settings of texts which require little imagination to associate with the plight of the persecuted English Catholics in the 1580s. Elizabeth s reign saw the flourishing of the English madrigal, and also the voyages of the great sea-faring adventurers, broadening forever England's horizons - a fact reflected in Shakespeare s plays (notably in The Tempest). Our first half closes with works which fascinatingly reflect this new-found knowledge of the world. Wilbye s What needeth all this travail is essentially a light-hearted critique of the discomforts of visiting exotic climes in order to amass wealth. Of the two, however, Weelkes virtuosic madrigal pair Thule, the Period of Cosmography and The Andalusian Merchant steals the limelight. The poem is anonymous but its reprise Whose heart with fear doth freeze, with love doth fry seems to echo a lyric from The Taming of the Shrew. Without doubt this pair of madrigals represents Weelkes at his imaginative best and, in the words of Joseph Kerman, should occupy a special place for admirers of the Elizabethan spirit. During the second half, we touch on one of the defining moments of James I s reign the death of James heir Prince Henry, in Shakespeare s company of players, The King s Men, were regularly at court, and Shakespeare must have at least encountered Henry; the subsequent mourning period banned theatrical performances. Numerous poets and composers wrote tributes to the dead prince, the profound grief of the occasion eliciting some of the most daring and expressive harmonic writing in English music of the period much influenced by the latest developments in the Italian madrigal. We perform two of the finest, by Weelkes and Ramsey. Weelkes, like a number of others from the time, calls upon a familiar Old Testament text King David s lament for his son Absalom - and it elicits from him some of his most striking rhetorical gestures. The composer most prolific in his response to the Prince s death was Robert Ramsey, whose outpouring included an extended six movement work, Dialogues of Sorrow upon the Death of the Late Prince Henry, rather in the style of the Italianate extended madrigals of the period. Sadly the manuscripts for this work are incomplete, but he wrote a number of other works in memory of Prince Henry which are better-transmitted: the masterfully-paced madrigal Sleep, fleshly birth is one of the finest. Nico Muhly s new work for Stile Antico sets verses from Henry IV Part II on the subject of sleep or, perhaps more accurately, the sleeplessness accompanying the weight of kingship, a theme Shakespeare explored on several occasions. Muhly s evocative setting masterfully conveys the experience by fragmenting the text and causing the fragments to float around the ensemble somewhat in the manner of the many interconnected and yet intangible thoughts which so often assail someone on the edge of sleep. Muhly described how for him, setting Shakespeare is near impossible and risks becoming an act of vandalism. He therefore decided to fragment the text so that specific lines emerge from a soporific texture of repeated phrases. 2

3 The programme finishes with two more madrigals by Orlando Gibbons, the finest of the Jacobean composers, as a tribute to Shakespeare himself. The Silver Swan is one of Gibbons most celebrated, and has sometimes been read as an elegy on the demise of the late Elizabethan musical tradition. Certainly the music is suitably valedictory and devotional in character. The pessimistic final madrigal is particularly apposite, setting a poem by Sir Walter Raleigh which echoes the All the world s a stage speech from As You Like It, concluding ominously with the lines: The graves which hide us from the searching sun / Are like drawn curtains when the play is done; / Thus march we playing to our latest rest, / Only we die in earnest; that s no jest. 3 Stile Antico 2016 STILE ANTICO is firmly established as one of the world s most accomplished and innovative vocal ensembles. Working without a conductor, its twelve members have thrilled audiences throughout Europe and North America with their fresh, vibrant and moving performances of Renaissance polyphony. Its bestselling recordings on the Harmonia Mundi label have earned accolades including the Gramophone Award for Early Music, Diapason d or de l année, Edison Klassiek Award, and Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, and have twice received Grammy nominations. Based in London, Stile Antico has performed at many of the world s most prestigious venues and festivals. The group enjoys a particularly close association with the Wigmore Hall, and has appeared at the BBC Proms, Buckingham Palace, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Cité de la Musique, Palais des Beaux-Arts, and Luxembourg Philharmonie. Stile Antico is frequently invited to perform at Europe s leading festivals: highlights include the Lucerne Easter Festival, the Rheingau, Schleswig-Holstein and Wrocław Festivals and the Antwerp, Barcelona, Bruges, Granada, Utrecht and York Early Music Festivals. Since making its North American debut at the Boston Early Music Festival in 2009, Stile Antico has enjoyed frequent tours to the US and Canada. The group performs regularly in Boston and in New York s Music before 1800 and Miller Theatre series, and has appeared at Washington s National Cathedral and Library of Congress, Vancouver s Chan Centre, the Quebec Festival of Sacred Music, at Duke, Michigan, and Yale Universities, and in concert series spanning nineteen US states. In 2010, Stile Antico made its debut at the Cervantino festival in Mexico. Stile Antico is renowned for the committed and expressive performances that arise from its uniquely collaborative style of working: members rehearse and perform as chamber musicians, each contributing artistically to the musical results. The group is also noted for its intelligent programming, drawing out thematic connections between works to shine new light on Renaissance music. In addition to its core repertoire, Stile Antico has given world premieres of works by John McCabe, Huw Watkins, and, most recently, Nico Muhly, who s Gentle Sleep was written to mark the group s tenth birthday. Stile Antico s diverse range of collaborators includes Fretwork and the Folger Consort of viols, pianist Marino Fomenti, orchestra B Rock, and Sting. Alongside its concert and recording work, Stile Antico is passionate about sharing its repertoire and working style with the widest possible audience, and its masterclasses and workshops are much in demand. The group regularly leads courses at the Dartington International Summer School, and is often invited to work alongside ensembles at universities, festivals, and early music forums. The support of the charitable Stile Antico Foundation has enabled Stile Antico to expand its education work in schools, and to offer annual bursaries to talented young consort singers. Highlights of Stile Antico s season include a residency at BOZAR in Brussels, performances at the Wigmore Hall, Leipzig Gewandhaus and Bruges Concertgebouw, two visits to North America, and the conclusion of the group s acclaimed Shakespeare400 tour. Stile Antico s eleventh recording for Harmonia Mundi, featuring the unjustly neglected sacred music of Giaches de Wert, is released early in 2017.

4 TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS It was a lover and his lass, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, That o er the green corn-field did pass In spring-time, the only pretty ring-time, When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding: Sweet lovers love the spring. Between the acres of the rye, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, These pretty country-folks would lie In spring-time This carol they began that hour, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, How that a life was but a flower In spring-time And therefore take the present time, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, For love is crowned with the prime, In spring-time William Shakespeare (As You Like It, Act V, scene iii) O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth our Queen to rejoice in thy strength: Give her her heart s desire and deny not the request of her lips; But prevent her with thine everlasting blessing. And give her a long life, even for ever and ever. Amen. Say, Love if ever thou didst find, A woman with a constant mind, None but one, And what should that rare mirror be? Some goddess or some queen is she, She and only she, She only queen of love and beauty. But could thy fiery poison d dart At no time touch her spotless heart Nor come near? She is not subject to Love s bow, Her eye commands, her heart saith No, No and only no, One no, another still doth follow. How might I that fair wonder know That mocks desire with endless no? See the moon That ever in one change doth grow Yet still the same, and she is so So and only so, From heav n her virtues she doth borrow. To her then yield thy shafts and bow, That can command affections so. Love is free, So are her thoughts that vanquish thee, There is no queen of love but she, She and only she, She only queen of love and beauty. What needeth all this travail and turmoiling Shortening the life s pleasure To seek this far-fetched treasure In those hot climates under Phoebus broiling? O fools! can you not see a traffic nearer, In my sweet lady's face, where nature showeth Whatever treasure eye sees or heart knoweth, Rubies and diamonds dainty, And orient pearls such plenty, Coral and ambergris, sweeter and dearer, Than which the South Seas or Moluccas lend us, Or either Indies, East or West, do send us. 4

5 Thule, the period of cosmography, Doth vaunt of Hecla, whose sulphurious fire Doth melt the frozen clime and thaw the sky; Trinacrian Aetna s flames ascend not higher These things seem wond rous, yet more wond rous I, Whose heart with fear doth freeze, with love doth fry. The Andalusian merchant, that returns Laden with cochineal and China dishes Reports in Spain how strangely Fogo burns, Amidst an ocean full of flying fishes! These things seem wond rous, yet more wond rous I, Whose heart with fear doth freeze, with love doth fry. The Phoenix and the Turtle Let the bird of loudest lay, On the sole Arabian tree, Herald sad and trumpet be, To whose sound chaste wings obey. But thou shrieking harbinger, Foul procurer of the fiend, Augur of the fever s end, To this troop come thou not near? From this session interdict Every fowl of tyrant wing, Save the eagle, feather d King: Keep the obsequy so strict. Let the priest in surplice white, That defunctive music can, Be the death-divining swan, Lest the requiem lack his right. And thou, treble-dated crow That thy sable gender makest With the breath thou givest and takest, Mongst our mourners shalt thou go. Here the anthem doth commence: Love and constancy is dead; Phoenix and the turtle fled In a mutual flame from hence. So they loved, as love in twain Had the essence but in one; Two distincts, division none: Number there in love was slain. Hearts remote, yet not asunder; Distance, and no space was seen Twixt the turtle and his queen: But in them it were a wonder. 5 So between them love did shine, That the turtle saw his right Flaming in the phoenix sight; Either was the other s mine. Property was thus appalled, That the self was not the same; Single nature s double name Neither two nor one was called. Reason, in itself confounded, Saw division grow together, To themselves yet either neither, Simple were so well compounded, That it cried, How true a twain Seemeth this concordant one! Love hath reason, reason none, If what parts can so remain. Whereupon it made this threne To the phoenix and the dove, Co-supremes and stars of love, As chorus to their tragic scene. Threnos Beauty, truth, and rarity, Grace in all simplicity, Here enclosed in cinders lie. Death is now the phoenix nest; And the turtles loyal breast To eternity doth rest, Leaving no posterity: Twas not their infirmity, It was married chastity. Truth may seem, but cannot be; Beauty brag, but tis not she; Truth and beauty buried be.

6 To this urn let those repair That are either true or fair; For these dead birds sigh a prayer. William Shakespeare Tristitia et anxietas occupaverunt interiora mea. Moestum factum est cor meum in dolore, et contenebrati sunt oculi mei. Vae mihi, quia peccavi. Sed tu, domine, qui non derelinques sperantes in te, Consolare et adjuva me propter nomen sanctum tuum, et miserere mei. Sadness and anxiety have overtaken my inmost being. My heart is made sorrowful in mourning, my eyes are become dim. Woe is me, for I have sinned. But thou, O Lord, who dost not forsake those whose hope is in thee, comfort and help me, for thy holy name s sake, and have mercy on me. After Lamentations, Psalm 112 (113): 2 Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes; Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: Hark! Now I hear them, - Ding-dong bell. William Shakespeare (The Tempest, Act I, scene ii) Be strong and of a good courage, and observe the commandments of our God, to walk in his ways, and keep his ceremonies, testimonies and judgements, and Almighty God prosper thee whithersoever thou goest. The Lord is thy ruler, therefore thou shalt want nothing. After Deuteronomy 31:6 and Joshua 1:6 O Lord, grant the King a long life: that his years may endure throughout all generations. Let him dwell before Thee for ever: O prepare Thy loving mercy and faithfulness, that they may preserve him. So shall we always sing and praise Thy name. Amen. Psalm 6, vv. 6-7 When David heard that Absalom was slain he went up to his temple over the gate and wept. And thus he said: O my son, Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom my son, my son! After 2 Samuel 18:33 6

7 Sleep, fleshly birth, in peaceful earth, and let thine ears list to the music of the spheres, while we around this fairy ground thy doleful obit keeping, make marble melt with weeping. With num rous feet we ll part and meet. Then chorus-like in a ring thy praises sing, while show rs of flow rs bestrew thee, we ll thus with tears bedew thee. Rest in soft peace, sweet youth, and there remain till soul and body meet to join again. Anon. Gentle Sleep O sleep! O gentle sleep! Nature s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down And steep my senses in forgetfulness? Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, And hush d with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, Than in the perfum d chambers of the great, Under the canopies of costly state, And lull d with sound of sweetest melody?" William Shakespeare (Henry IV Part II, Act III, scene i) The silver swan who, living, had no note, when death approach d unlock d her silent throat. Leaning her breast against the reedy shore, thus sang her first and last and sang no more: Farewell all joys, O death, come close mine eyes. More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise! What is our life? A play of passion. Our mirth? The music of division. Our mother's wombs the 'tiring houses be, Where we are dressed for this short comedy. Heav'n the judicious sharp spectator is, That sits and marks still who doth act amiss. Our graves that hide us from the searching sun Are like drawn curtains when the play is done. Thus march we playing to our latest rest; Only we die in earnest, that's no jest. Sir Walter Raleigh (c ) 7

8 FUTURE DATES LA NOTTE DI NATALE: An Italian Baroque Christmas 7.30pm 9 December 2016, Great St Mary s Church, CB2 3PQ The young, dynamic instrumental group Spiritato! are joined by soprano Augusta Hebbert for a Christmasthemed programme featuring music by Locatelli, Scarlatti, Stradella and Corelli s Christmas Concerto. Tickets available now ZIMMERMAN S KAFFEEHAUS: Bach & Telemann 7.30pm 21 March 2017, Howard Theatre, Downing College, CB2 1DQ On the 2017 European Day of Early Music, join us for an exploration of Leipzig s famous coffeehouse culture in the 18 th century by The Brook Street Band, with sonatas and trio sonatas by J S Bach and Telemann. Tickets available now Cambridge Early Music, Box 111, 23 King Street, Cambridge, CB1 1AH, United Kingdom Box Office General Enquiries info@cambridgeearlymusic.org / 8