SEPTEMBER 2016
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Welcome to MPRO’s 54th season, at our new rehearsal site, Angus Hall at Trinity Church, 330 Ravenswood Avenue in Menlo Park! MPRO’s website at www.mpro-online.org has been updated with a map. You can zoom in on this and use the Google Earth link to see an aerial photo of the hall (the L-shaped building at the back of the property, facing the lawn).
Dues are due at the beginning of the season. New and returning members should fill out a copy of the online membership form (at the “Joining MPRO” link), print it, and bring it with your check to give to membership chair Chris Flake at a rehearsal. Be sure to indicate any changes in your contact information, and list the instruments that you are willing to play at a concert (not necessarily all of the instruments that you play).
Music for the New MPRO Season. If you do not have email or are not able to download the new music for the upcoming MPRO season, please contact Laura Gonsalves and she can print it for you at a cost of 20 cents a page. A few paper copies of the music will be available at this cost at rehearsals.
Officers. MPRO’s Board still needs new volunteer officers. Our infrequent in-person meetings are held before rehearsals, and most business can be done by email. Please consider volunteering for one of the vacancies listed at the end of this issue.
BYOMS. Remember to bring your own music stand to all rehearsals!
-Judith Unsicker
CONDUCTOR’S CORNER
Dear members of the Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra,
Welcome back to what promises to be a very exciting season for MPRO. Thanks to the orchestra’s two talented bassoonists, Gregor Dairaghi and Hilary Port, we will be presenting a fiery concerto by Vivaldi for these two instruments and recorders at the concerts in December and May. Employing two solo bassoons with a recorder orchestra is certainly something new for MPRO and may be the first time this combination will be heard in concert, so we are all in for an adventure into new sonic territory as we prepare this concerto for performance. Greta Haug-Hryciw, who will be returning again this season as MPRO’s Assistant Music Director, has also employed a rather unique instrumentation in her arrangement of the popular French melody, La Mer, written in 1946. In addition to recorders, her arrangement calls for harmonica solo, which will be played by Jay Kreuzer. Greta will also be directing settings of the early renaissance melody, Fortuna Desperata, that she has compiled, and I have orchestrated the lively La Canarie by Michael Praetorius for recorders and krummhorns from his popular collection of dances entitled, Terpsichore. In addition to these new selections, we will be repeating the canzona La Spiritata by Gabrieli and the Telemann suite, La Joie, from last season. I am also pleased to announce that Irene Beardsley will be joining the orchestra again to share her keyboard skills with us at the orchestra’s upcoming performances.
MPRO’s holiday concert is scheduled for 2:30 P.M. on Sunday, December 11, at Grace Lutheran Church in Palo Alto. Please mark this date and time on your calendar. The orchestra will also be presenting a workshop in January of next year, and the date and director will be announced soon. Finally, MPRO will now hold its regular meetings in Angus Hall at Trinity Church, 330 Ravenswood Ave (at the corner of Laurel) in Menlo Park. Please remember to bring a music stand to these meetings since none will be available at Angus Hall and plan to arrive early to allow for parking and getting from your car to the meeting room.
Listed below is the music for the first three meetings of the orchestra. Music can be purchased at these meetings for those who did not download and print it from the PDF files sent to the orchestra’s membership. Those returning from last season can use the music they already have for the selections by Gabrieli and Telemann. Please note that there will be sectional seating for the Telemann La Joie, with those playing Soprano Recorder 1 and 2, Alto Recorder 1 and Tenor Recorder 1 sitting on the right as they face the conductor and those playing Alto Recorder 2 and 3 Tenor Recorder 2 and Bass Recorder 1 and 2 on the left. Please observe this seating arrangement when you choose your place at the beginning of all three meetings. Please note as well that contrabass recorders and bassoon will be needed at all three meetings and sopranino recorder and krummhorns are called for on September 14 and September 28.
September 14
Telemann: La Joie
Praetorius: La Canarie
Trene and Lasry: La Mer
Fortuna Desperata
September 28
Gabrieli: La Spiritata
Praetorius: La Canarie
Vivaldi: Concerto RV 531
Telemann: La Joie
October 12
Vivaldi: Concerto RV 531
Telemann: La Joie
Trene and Lasry: La Mer
Fortuna Desperata
I look forward to working with you again in September and encourage you to let any of your friends who play early instruments know about the orchestra's activities this season and invite them to attend our upcoming meetings, workshops and concerts.
-Sincerely, Fred Palmer
RECORDINGS OF SOME OF MPRO’S NEW MUSIC
Fortuna Desperata, on recorders:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hw1FDtL-bs
La canarie, links to 4 different video interpretations of "a fiery wooing dance”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_dance
Trenet, La Mer, with harmonica:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFrQ_DPbkcs
MUSIC TRIVIA: REALLY EARLY MUSIC
The oldest known complete musical composition, including both words and music, is from a marble columnar tombstone found in 1883 near Ephesus, in what is now Turkey. It probably dates from the first century A.D. The lyrics are essentially a variation of "eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die." This Wikipedia article has an English translation of the words and shows the melody in modern notation. It also includes a vocal recording using an approximation of the ancient Greek pronunciation.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seikilos_epitaph
-Judith Unsicker
The Board: President: Judith Unsicker; Treasurer: LouAnn Hofmann; Recording Secretary: Helen Shamble; Membership: Chris Flake; Publicity: vacant; Graphics: Mary Ashley; Newsletter Editor: vacant; Workshop Coordinator: vacant; Hospitality: vacant; Music Sales: Laura Gonsalves; Historian: vacant; Webmaster: Dan Chernikoff; Music Director: Fred Palmer; Assistant Music Director: Greta Haug-Hryciw.
MPRO website: http://www.mpro-online.org
