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Pennsic: performances
I thought the Debatable Choir performance went very well. We sang the same music that's on our CD, interspersed with a few stories from our 25-year history and a bit of schtick. (Schtick was pretty much new territory for us.) We sang 15 songs, 11 with the full choir and four with sub-groups, and then invited all past members present to join us on stage for a final song, "Pastime With Good Company". I think five or six people joined us; we have more ex-members than that, but they weren't all at our performance (or even at Pennsic).
I sang in two of the four sub-group pieces. One was a quintet for Monteverdi's "Lasciatemi Morire", Ariadne's song as she is about to throw herself off a cliff after being stranded on an island by her supposed true love. The music really brings out that mood for me; I love singing this song. The other, in a completely different vein (though it does involve marital strife :-) ), was "Quand Mon Mari Vient de Dehors", or "oh when my husband staggers home". The wife gets her revenge in the end. Two other choir members were pantamiming some of this during the second verse (we sang it in English after the French so people would get the jokes).
Another sub-group of four women sang "Quand Ji Bois du Vin Clairet", a song in praise of good wine. They did a great job; their voices blended together nicely and they were clearly having fun. They did this right after a song just called "Tourdion" that uses the same text in the soprano (with the lower voices doing other things).
I thought some of the full-choir pieces went very well too, including "Il Bianco e Dolce Cigno" (a song about the "little death", i.e. sex), "El Grillo" (about how the canary sings without reward, but Mr. Patron you haven't paid me yet and I'm not as patient as a canary), and "Halleluyah Halleli" by Salamone Rossi (psalm 146). We had one false start on one of the others but stopped and fixed it, which is the right thing to do, and it was fine after that. We finished with "All Creatures Now", one of the triumphs of Orianna (a tribute to Queen Elizabeth); this was the song we sang in competition the one year that Pennsic had an arts-and-sciences war point.
Because I know people will ask, the other songs we sang were: "Mon Coeur Se Recommande a Vous", "Ecco la Primavera" (quartet), "O Bene Mio", "Exultate Deo", "O Occhi Manza Mia", "So Ben Mi Cha Bon Tempo", and "Rest Sweet Nymphs".
The Masters
One of the entries on the performance schedule was just called "The Masters", with the description saying it was three music Laurels performing medieval music. No names, no hints of style. This piqued my curiosity, less for "Laurel" and more for "medieval" because most of the period music we hear (and sing) is renaissance. So I left kingdom court early to catch this, and boy am I glad I did! It was one of the highlights of my Pennsic.
The performers turned out to be Albrecht Catsprey from Istampitta, Daveed Shmuel ben Rachon, and Duncan Brock (aka Micha from Wolgemut). Albrecht and Duncan played bowed and plucked strings, Daveed drums. The conceit of the performance was that we were joining three master musicians in the time of Alfonso X (who compiled the Cantigas de Santa Maria) as they relaxed together over food after a day of teaching students; music was interspersed with entertaining banter about their students and gentle jibes at each other. (Albrecht and Duncan also used their bows to fetch fruit from a central plate while playing, gaining showmanship points, and there was some schtick with a loaf of bread changing hands several times.)
Albrecht "taught" the others a drinking game around the estampie form, teaching the audience how the form works in the process. This was clever: the musical form involves two alternating "choruses", one open and one closed, and he demonstrated first with words, using a question for the open one and a statement for the closed one. (If I recall correctly, these were "it's awfully hot at Pennsic, isn't it?" and "of course it's hot; it's Pennsic".) Having demonstrated with spoken words he then demonstrated with music, and I could see people around me getting it quickly. I've taught classes on the estampie form before and never figured out that clue. Nice. The rest of the music is more free-form, but the "verse" is played twice, once with each ending, before moving on to a new verse. That's where the game came in: he and Duncan took turns "improvising" verses, but they had to do it the same way twice or open themselves up to mocking. Some of what they played was from manuscripts, but some was definitely not. I assume that the game is purely their invention, and I heard at least one audience member who thought otherwise, but it fits.
The music was mostly instrumental but they were joined by "a neighbor" (who was never introduced) for two songs, and his voice and the instruments complemented each other well.
This performance was an example of music, clothing, and setting all coming together to make a perfect moment. I was disappointed when it was over.
Commedia
The barony's commedia dell'arte troupe, I Genesii, performed after the choir concert. This was the best performance I have seen them do, and of the three commedia performances at Pennsic it is the one I enjoyed the most. I Genesii usually does vignettes; this time they did a longer story that had some room to develop. All of the performers were strong this year, and they all got reasonable amounts of stage time (no bit players). While their shows are almost always quite raunchy, I found this one less vulgar than most, a change I hope they keep. (I like my raunch with at least a little still left to the imagination.)
Because some of the members of the troupe are in my encampment I later learned that what I thought was a mostly-scripted, or at least planned, funny introduction was largely improvised as a way to get a chair that the choir had left behind off the stage. I don't know how they can come up with funny stuff out of thin air like that. :-)
I also saw performances by I Sebastiani (the oldest and most-established troupe that comes to Pennsic) and I Verdi Confusi, a group from the Midrealm that was new to Pennsic this year. I Verdi Confusi is a newer troupe; it looked like only one of them (their Capitano) had significant experience with commedia, but they gave a very credible performance. The story held together and the actors got visibly more comfortable as the performance progressed. I'm looking forward to seeing more of them.
I Sebastiani uses short musical performances between acts. This year, in addition to the appearances by the regulars I enjoy listening to (waves), they integrated another musician into the show. I wondered when I saw Avatar on stage in the second act (hey, he's not from Carolingia...), but also couldn't help noticing that he was carrying an instrument the whole time. Sure enough, at the end of the act he started playing (along with others off-stage), and he moved off-stage at the end of that (he wasn't in the third act). I assume that the troupe practices for months for its Pennsic show; even though the guest actor's part was not complex, I think not being able to rehearse with everybody together for more than a few days challenged everybody.
The story of this show involved sea travel, and to show movement (and wind and waves) they had children waving long pieces of blue fabric. (They also had a boat prop to go with this, of course.) This is more elaborate staging than usual for them and I thought it worked well. I assume the children in the show are important somehow (children of other troupe members, perhaps); last year they had some child actors. I think using them the way they did this year worked better.
Others
I've never sung with the Pennsic Choir because they always include at least some music that is religiously objectionable to me. (It's the nature of the middle ages and renaissance; of course Christian themes are going to dominate. But I won't sing about Jesus being God and stuff like that. My problem, not theirs.) This year the preliminary list did not contain any such pieces so I was tempted to sing, but the list also didn't particularly appeal to me -- half of it was stuff I've sung a lot with my own choir. So even though they were also doing a Salamone Rossi piece ("Al Naharot Bavel"), I didn't sign up. I did, however, go to the performance, which had a couple more pieces than had been on the early list I saw. They did a good job, including adding instruments effectively on one piece. I probably would not have done all five verses of "Deo Gracias Anglia", at least at that slow speed, but it was in English and thus pretty accessible to the audience, so I understand the desire to do it.
There was a new stage in the marketplace this year (a food vendor pulled out at the last minute so they had the room, as I understand it). From a few hundred yards away I heard Wolgemut performing there one day. I wandered over for a bit and realized that while I like Wolgemut's music, I don't get anything from a live performance that I don't get from a recording (other than the inability to lower the volume :-) ), so I stepped out to make room for the fans crowding into the tent.
I know that Istampitta was there but did not run into them performing in the marketplace this year. Bummer. I ran into some members of the New World Renaissance Band, along with a gamba player, and enjoyed what I heard enough to buy CDs (which I haven't had time to listen to yet). Overall I didn't see as much variety in the marketplace as I'm used to; I missed the hammer-dulcimer player I often see entirely, and there didn't seem to be much music happening in front of the church as there usually is. There weren't a lot of performers out for midnight madness, either; I'm glad the Debatable Choir sang and I hope we do that in the future. Maybe I just had an unlucky year of just missing marketplace performances? (The formal venue, where the choir and commedia troupes performed, was busy all week; I don't want to imply that there wasn't stuff happening. There was.)
Edited to add: And I missed the multi-hour performance of (part of) Beowulf that was done as an event in the East Kingdom earlier this year because it was up against our choir and I Genesii. Drat.
Anyway, it was a good year for me for performances, even with missing some people.
no subject
I prefer seeing Wolgemut live to listening to their CD. There's an energy they exude live, especially in their most informal settings, that I find preferable to their more musically perfect, recorded moments.
I'm curious with the hunger of the Pennsic habitual who didn't get to go this year, though. Which food vendor wasn't there? What made Wolgemut return? Did any of those troublesome performer policies from recent years change? Were the miked tribal gypsies in control of the food court airspace again?
no subject
Wolgemut didn't perform in the performing-arts tent but they did private gigs and at least one day of marketplace performances. They were openly selling CDs, as were other marketplace performers. We weren't told whether it was now ok to sell CDs at our performance in the PA tent (so we pointed people to the merchants carrying them), but I saw other performers do so without apparent retribution from the powers that be. So I don't know if the rule changed or if the folks running the tent chose not to enforce it; nothing was published that I saw.
I saw no evidence of miked tribal gypsies in the food court this year, huzzah.
The new stage was by the barn, in that spot next to Midrealm royal. Were those the guys that sold everything from pork sandwiches and french fries to cinnamon rolls? I'll admit that I don't pay much attention to the food vendors since there is so little that's suitably vegetarian -- other than the ice cream, of course, which I do take note of. :-) Anyway, I'm going to have to rely on people who pay more attention to supply the name of the missing vendor. Sorry!