St Cecilia 2017 - Josie and the Emeralds

Saturday, November 25, 7.00pm: Glebe Town Hall for The Glebe Music Festival

Josie Ryan, soprano Brooke Green, director, treble viol Laura Vaughan, guest artist, viols Fiona Ziegler, tenor viol Catherine Upex & Annika Stagg, bass viols

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Program John Blow Ode for St Cecilia's Day 1691-

The Glorious Day is Come (arr.Green and Ryan)

Claudio Monteverdi Orfeo: La Musica

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William Byrd In Nomine in 5 parts, No.5 Ercole Bottrigari Il Cantar Novo

* Henry Purcell Chacony Z.730 (arr.Brooke Green) Blow Ode for St Cecilia's Day 1691-

Excesses of Pleasure (arr.Green and Ryan)

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John Jenkins Fantasy in Five Parts No.3 Christopher Tye In Nomine No.20: Crye Brooke Green Cock-a-hoop: In Nomine No.1 (2017), (WP)

* Green Hamed Shamshiripour, (2017), (WP) Green Reza Barati, (2016)

* Green Chavela: In Nomine No.2 (2017), (WP) Philip Glass String Quartet No.3 Mishima: Closing – VI

* Green Batoh, (2017)

WP = World Premiere * = end of bracket – please applaud at these points!

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Program Notes At a glance... Welcome to Josie and the Emeralds St Cecilia’s Day Concert 2017. Each year at the Glebe Music Festival we celebrate St Cecilia, Patron Saint of Music, beginning with music that was performed on St Cecilia’s Day in late-17th century London. We bring music in praise of the Spirit of Music, and birthday honours for composers Claudio Monteverdi, (450), John Jenkins (425) and Philip Glass (80). There are five works by Brooke Green: three works pay homage to refugees in Australia’s offshore detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru, one work is inspired by the Mexican singer Chavela Vargas and another celebrates the art of drinking! John Blow (1649-1708): Ode for St Cecilia's Day, 1691 Text author: Thomas D'Urfey (1653-1723)

The glorious day is come, that will for ever be Renown’d as Music’s greatest jubilee.

The origin of the English custom of celebrating St Cecilia’s Day, 22 November, with a specially-composed ode is unknown but we do know that by 1691, when John Blow set Thomas D’Urfey’s St Cecilia ode The glorious day is come, the tradition had been established for about 10 years. As in so many St Cecilia odes, we are invited to enjoy “the glorious day” and revel in the pleasures of music. Since each St Cecilia’s Day must trump the last, this year we are promised excesses of pleasures! How do we account for the immense popularity of the St Cecilia’s Day festivities in late 17th century England? At a time when England was possibly the most musical nation in Europe with large audiences eager for frequent performances of new works by native and immigrant composers, the St Cecilia’s Day festivities seemed to be the most eagerly anticipated of them all. In The glorious day St Cecilia is cast as the “Divine Cecilia,…Our art’s inspirer, Music’s patroness” and excesses of pleasure are created by the sweet and joyful effects of music. Music inspires the hero to defeat his foe: its warlike notes make ev’ry fancy true. Music is heav’nly, celestial and throughout there is a conflation of St Cecilia with mortal and immortal powers to Christian and Ancient Greek gods. St Cecilia seems to be the highest ideal – the means by which church and state harmonize society, creating good and pleasure for all who worship her.

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Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643): La Musica - L'Orfeo, Favola in Musica (1607) Text author: Alessandro Striggio (c. 1536/1537-1592)

From my beloved Permessus I come to you, illustrious heroes, noble scions of kings, whose glorious deeds Fame relates, though falling short of the truth, since the target is too high. I am Music, who in sweet accents can calm each troubled heart, and now with noble anger, now with love, can kindle the most frigid minds. Singing to a golden lyre, I am wont sometimes to charm mortal ears; and in this way inspire souls with a longing for the sonorous harmony of heaven's lyre. Hence desire spurs me to tell you of Orpheus; Orpheus who drew wild beasts to him by his singing, and who subjugated Hades by his entreaties, the immortal glory of Pindus and Helicon. Now while I alternate my songs, now happy, now sad, let no small bird stir among these trees, no noisy wave be heard on these river banks, and let each little breeze halt in its course.

In the Prologue to Claudio Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo, the muse La Musica (Music), sings of music’s ability to sway human emotions and temporarily still any voice in nature. But when Orfeo sings, the effect is so strong, wild beasts are tamed and he is even able to gain entrance to the underworld. It’s interesting to try to pinpoint the earliest literature about the power of music. For the text to Orfeo, Striggio drew on Ovid’s Metamorphoses (8 A.D) and Virgil’s Georgics. (29B.C.) Each strophe of the poetry can be directly associated with an act of the opera. The first strophe refers to the earthly and mortal realm and is a kind of eulogy on the princes of this world, linked to Act 1 of L’Orfeo. The second strophe is a development on the ideas and an elevation to the world of the spirit and the powers of music, linked to Act 2. The third strophe is the apogee of the work, referring to the universal harmony encountered in Act 3. The fourth strophe is a kind of peripeteia (sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances) in its return to the world of the Spirit and its depiction of the power of music invested in its “champion”, Orpheus (equivalent to Act 4). And the final strophe is a conclusion – the return to the earthly, mortal realm, and a description of appeased nature (Act 5 – at least in one version of the ending!)

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William Byrd (c.1539/40/1543–1623): In Nomine in 5 Parts, No.5 The In Nomine was a peculiarly English Renaissance fascination originating in the early 16th century. John Taverner’s Missa Glori Tibi Trinitas was so named because each movement was based on the melody of the ancient plainchant Glori Tibi Trinitas :

Masses at this time were usually structured round traditional plainsong chants such as this, which would be repeated throughout the work in one voice, while the other voices provided counterpoint often based on it. In the Benedictus of Taverner’s mass, the phrase Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini was sung in 4 part counterpoint with the plainchant melody in the alto part:

Particularly the plainchant section …in nomine Domini… subsequently provided the framework or cantus firmus for 150-200 polyphonic instrumental works by many of England’s leading Renaissance composers. In deference to this tradition we have threaded a few examples throughout this program, beginning with the magnificent William Byrd. Byrd was one of the most celebrated English musicians of his time, writing in almost every musical genre available to him. His In Nomines circulated widely. Could their popularity be attributed to the theory that the In Nomine in enforced Protestant times was understood to represent a coded Catholic loyalty?

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Ercole Bottrigari (1531–1612): Il Cantar Novo

The new song and the crying of the birds At break of day resounding in the valleys, And the murmur of liquid crystals Down shining fresh and agile brooks. She, whose face of snow and hair of gold, In whose love there has neither been betrayal nor falsehood, Wakes me with the sound of amorous dances, While she combs the white hair of her old partner. Thus I wake to greet the dawn and the sun, Which is with her, but more so with she That dazzled me during the first years, and still does. I saw one day how they both got up, In the same place and at the same time, One causing the stars to disappear, and she the other.

Ercole Bottrigari, an Bolognese scholar, mathematician, poet, music theorist, architect, and composer, was the illegitimate son of Giovanni Battista Bottrigari. Legitimized in 1538, he was rewarded with the orders of Knight of the Holy See and Lateran in 1542 after reciting poetry at a court function. Bottrigari published several books of madrigals in Venice, and established a small private printing press, but very few works from it survive. In 1576 he met Torquato Tasso in Ferrara, a famous poet best known for his Gerusalemme liberate. He wrote several treatises including Il Desiderio, overo de' concerti di varii strumenti musicali (Concerning the playing together of various musical instruments) which is fascinating in its descriptions of both theoretical concepts and performance practice. Upon returning to Bologna in 1586, Bottrigari associated with intellectuals such as Gioseffo Zarlino and Annibale Melone, and his most famous treatise was written under a pseudonym which was an anagram of the latter’s name. Alemanno Benelli.

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Henry Purcell (1659-1695) Chacony Z.730 This Chacony was probably composed early in Purcell’s career, possibly soon after 1677 when he took up his court appointment as Master of The Twenty Four Violins. This new-fashioned band was created by Charles II to provide his dinner music and some its players were formerly employed as players in the court’s 6-part viol consort. So it seems deliciously ironic to retro-fit the Chacony to a modern viol consort, now given life by players who (if only we could tardis!) would have happily played in either ensemble. Blow: Ode for St Cecilia's Day, 22 November, 1691 (Text: D'Urfey, adapted Ryan)

Excesses of pleasure now crowd on apace; How sweetly the trebles do sound to each bass; The ravishing viols delight ev’ry ear, And mirth in a scene of true joy does appear. No lover of Phillis’s rigour complains, None mourn for their losses, or laugh for their gains; But lost in an extasy publish their joy, Whilst the name of Cecilia resounds to the sky.

(Please see Page 3 for note on this aria, as it comes from the same Ode).

John Jenkins (1592–1678): Fantasy in Five Parts No.3 We commemorate the 425th birthday of John Jenkins, much admired by viol players old and new for the vast amount of high quality repertoire he has provided us, including several books of Fantasias (Fantasies) for consorts of viols in various combinations. In Renaissance England the Fantasy is a polyphonic instrumental work probably best described in 1597 by Thomas Morley: “... when a musician taketh a point at his pleasure, and wresteth and turneth it as he list, making either much or little of it as shall seeme best in his own conceit. In this may more art be showne then in any other musicke, because the composer is tide to nothing but that he may adde, deminish, and alter at his pleasure … . Other thinges you may use at your pleasure, as bindings with discordes, quicke motions, slow motions, proportions, and what you list.” By all accounts, Jenkins had a genial personality but we suspect it was a slightly wicked one too. In his Fantasies he seems to delight in creating a turbulent world when nothing can be taken granted. Seemingly straightforward themes can be varied by one one note or one beat, rhythmic displacements abound, points of imitation are never quite where one expects and so the player always has to be but not alarmed!

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Christopher Tye (c.1505 – before 1573): In Nomine 20, Crye 24 In Nomines by Dr Christopher Tye survive, many of them being given curiously enigmatic titles such as Beleve me, Follow me, Saye so and Farewell my good I forever. In Crye, the repeated note motif might represent the cryes of street sellers but one wonders if his reportedly uncompromising and fearless character is most apparent in this work: Dr. Tye was a peevish and humoursome man, especially in his latter dayes, and sometimes playing on ye organ in ye chap.[el] of qu. Elizab. wh.[ich] contained much musick but little delight to the ear, she would send ye verger to tell him yt he play’d out of tune: whereupon he sent word yt her eares were out of Tune. Brooke Green: Cock-a-hoop and Chavela Our program includes premieres of two 21st century In Nomines by Brooke Green: Cock-a-hoop (a 17th century term meaning “to allow liquor to flow liberally) is modelled after In Nomines by Christopher Tye while Chavela is in honour of the singer herself and encapsulates some of her story. Chavela Vargas was a Mexican ranchera singer, greatly admired by Pedro Almodovar and featured in his films, notably Frida. Almodovar recently directed the biopic Chavela – an audience favourite at the 2017 Sydney Film Festival.

Chavela: I came to Mexico, Paloma joven (young dove), Singing of love, And the child tormented, Disappeared for a while. Frida Kahlo, Ava, Lola, and the most famous woman in the world… We had cigars, I won’t say what happened next, hmmm... And with José Alfredo, Tequila closed my mind. They all thought I died, But one always returns to the old places, Where one loved and lived, To the absence and the loss of love. I leave with Mexico in my heart.

(words by Brooke Green)

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Brooke Green: Hamed Shamshiripour It is sobering to note that if St Cecilia’s Day in 17th century London was a joyful symbol of a harmonized society performing the highest ideals of humanist philosophy, this is at a time when the British Empire - the world’s most dominant power - was economically booming thanks to its enforcement of the slave trade. It wasn’t until 1838 that slavery was finally outlawed in Britain - and 1843 in India - this was after at least 100 years of campaigning by the Abolitionists. It is difficult to reflect on this aspect of Britain’s history without asking how contemporary Australia compares, in view of the humanitarian crises that has been unfolding on Manus Island and Nauru over the past 4 years. Australia’s brutal Offshore Detention policy in relation to refugees and asylum seekers who arrive by boat has been condemned by the UNHCR but nothing it seems, can lessen this bipartisan policy of axiomatic hardness. Under the “Stop the Boats” slogan, advocates of this policy argue it is somehow acceptable that one group of people can suffer or even die for the benefit of another group. Hamed Shamshiripour is one of 6 refugees/asylum seekers who have died on Manus Island. When Hamed first arrived, he was popular and mentally alert but by his fourth year there, he displayed increasingly erratic behaviour as feared for his life from the PNG locals. Before he apparently suicided, he repeatedly asked the authorities if he could return to Iran. These are his words:

Please return me I am serious I swear to God They want to kill me here Please believe me.

Brooke Green: Reza Barati Reza Barati was a 23-year-old Iranian asylum seeker who was beaten to death in front of his friends on 17 February, 2014 in the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre, Australia's detention centre in Papua New Guinea. In July 2014, a PNG detention centre security guard and a Salvation Army worker were arrested amid reports that a much larger group was involved in the murder. On 19 March 2016 the two men were each sentenced to 10 years jail with 5 years of their sentences suspended. In August 2017, one of these men escaped prison and is apparently still at large. On 31 October 2017, Australia closed its Manus Island Detention Centre, which ironically was up to that point a relatively safe place for non-Manusians despite several deaths over the years and an attack by the PNG military in April 2017. The 606 refugees and asylum seekers were ordered to move to the “transit centres” outside of the detention centre but refused to do so, fearing the centres are unsafe due to local resentment. After 12 days of peaceful protest about 400 refugees remain, despite being denied food, water,

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medications and medical assistance, an extremely grim situation that has now been condemned by the UN itself. In this work the voice of Reza Barati is given to the solo bass viol, played here by Laura Vaughan, and the drum represents his heartbeat. The remaining parts symbolise walls of authority or perhaps insistent voices of oppression. The tension builds up to a brutal killing scene where the walls collapse in on Reza. Afterwards, there is a coda for the release of his spirit. Brooke Green acknowledges the influence of Elena Kats-Chernin on this work and thanks her warmly for this. Philip Glass (b. 1937): String Quartet No.3, movt.VI, Closing For the 80th birthday of Philip Glass, Brooke Green has arranged the final movement from his String Quartet No.3, from the film Mishima simply because it’s a good tune. Although much of this String Quartet was originally intended to enhance the shocking violence and suicide associated with the writer’s life, the composer has said he hopes this music can also be enjoyed for its own sake with no extra musical associations. Hopefully it’s a relief to learn that this movement was intended to be played only over the titles! Brooke Green: Batoh Shamim, Misbah and Batoh are some of the 128 refugee children on Nauru, whose plight was exposed on the Four Corners program Forgotten Children, October 17, 2016. Since then, Brooke Green has created a musical gift to send to each of them and she has tried to include a sense of their story in their music. (Shamim was premiered at the Glebe Music Festival, 2016.) Batoh was 10 years old at the time of the Four Corners broadcast. Unable to go to school, she has been trying to continue her education by Skype with one of the former teachers on Nauru. Since Batoh is so young, Brooke wanted to write something childlike and uplifting for her and she was inspired by Elena Kats-Chernin’s work for two pianos: The Rain Puzzle. With the composer’s permission she has created a “remix” by adding melodies and other parts to the harmonies of The Rain Puzzle.

Program notes by Brooke Green and Josie Ryan.

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Biographies

Josie and the Emeralds are Josie Ryan and The Emerald City Viols. Based in Sydney, Australia, the group performs rarely heard works from the Renaissance and arrangements and compositions by their director, Brooke Green. They have also performed contemporary repertoire by Ross Edwards, Elena Kats-Chernin, Arvo Part and Andrea Pandolfo. Brooke Green’s arrangement of Pandolfo’s Albanese - a moving lament from the perspective of a refugee mother – has been popularly viewed on You tube. Josie and the Emeralds’ programmes have been variously themed around topics as diverse as the lives of Jeanne d’Arc, Orlando Gibbons and Dorothy Porter. One of their most sumptuous programmes was for the National Gallery of Australia: Music and Painting of the Italian Renaissance exploring connections between music and art. Since 2011, Josie and the Emeralds have presented concerts in Sydney and Canberra and appear each year at the Glebe Music Festival. They have been critically acclaimed for performing “…adoringly: not merely with precision and finesse, but a palpable and abiding admiration….” (Brad Syke, Australian Stage 08/01/2013). Their recordings have been broadcast on ABC Classic FM. Their CD The Emerald Leopard is on Tall Poppies: “No polishing required when emeralds shine this brightly” (Paul Bell-Cross, Limelight, July 8, 2015) Laura Vaughan Melbourne-based viola da gamba specialist Laura Vaughan is a dynamic and well-recognised member of the early music movement in Australia. Following her return from studies at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, she has established an active performing career encompassing a wide range of solo and chamber repertoire across Australasia. Passionate about the unique sound world of the viol, Laura is committed to bringing this exquisite

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repertoire to audiences around the world. She is also one of the few exponents of the rare lirone. Laura records regularly for ABC Classic FM as a soloist and chamber musician and appears on numerous CD recordings. She performs with numerous ensembles including the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Orchestra of the Antipodes, Adelaide Baroque, Auckland Philharmonia, Ironwood, Song Company, Accademia Arcadia and is a founding member of the multiple ARIA award nominated trio Latitude 37. Josie Ryan graduated from Sydney Conservatorium of Music and a grant from the Dutch Government enabled her to complete her Masters degree specializing in Early Vocal Music and Historical Performance Practice at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. She studied with Rita Dams, Jill Feldman, Barbara Pearson and Diane Forlano, participating in master classes and private lessons with Emma Kirkby, Evelyn Tubb and Barbara Schlick. During her thirteen years in the Netherlands Josie performed as an ensemble singer with various leading groups across Europe, including The Tallis Scholars, The Amsterdam Baroque Choir and Collegium Vocale Gent. Her operatic roles include Rameau’s Les fetes d’Hebe (Iphise), Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Ninfa) and Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo (Anima beata). Josie is frequently engaged as a soloist with ensembles including the St Mary’s Singers, the Choir of Christ Church St Laurence, Australian Baroque Brass, The Sydneian Bach Choir, Coro Innominata, SUMS, Sydney University Graduate Choir, The Oriana Chorale, Sydney Chamber Choir, The Sydney Consort, Salut! and The Marais Project. A regular performer with Pinchgut Opera, The Australian Brandenburg Choir and Cantillation, she is a frequent guest with the Choir of St James’ King Street and a member of the St Mary’s Cathedral Special Services Choir and Hallelujah Junction. Her numerous CD and DVD recordings include the role of Liebe in Schmelzer’s sepolcro Stärke der Lieb, Monteverdi’s 5th and 6th books of Madrigals, and Vivaldi’s Magnificat in duet with Emma Kirkby. The ABC Classics CD Mysteries of Gregorian Chant, which topped the ARIA Classical Charts for several months in 2014, featured Josie as a soloist with The Singers of St. Laurence. She has recently appeared as a soloist with the Australian Brandenburg Ensemble on tour throughout NSW and will feature with the same ensemble in performances of Rembrandt Live, a theatre piece directed by John Bell, at the Art Gallery of NSW as part of the Rembrandt exhibition in January 2018. Brooke Green graduated with a Masters in Early Music Performance from the Early Music Institute, Bloomington, Indiana University, where she studied viol and vielle with Wendy Gillespie. Previously, as a baroque violinist, Brooke spent several years in London, performing with ensembles such as The Hanover Band, The Brandenburg Consort, The London Handel Orchestra, Midsummer Opera and The City of London Chamber Players. In Australia, Brooke has performed as a soloist with The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, led various baroque ensembles and played in others led by Fiona Ziegler. From 1993 as director of Backgammon, Brooke directed many innovative programmes of music on period instruments, in London, Sydney, Tasmania and Honolulu. For The Viola da Gamba Society of America, Brooke

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has given a recital of 17th century music for solo treble viol and directed a program of Australian contemporary music for viol consort. As a vielle player, Brooke has toured with the US-based Ensemble Lipzodes and directed multi-media, theatrical productions including Machaut’s Le Remede de Fortune, Queer Medieval Tales and O Fortuna for MONA FOMA. In 2014, Brooke performed with Consort Eclectus and The Hilliard Ensemble for The Festival of Sydney. In 2013 Brooke’s The Shades for Viol Quartet won the Audience Prize at the Leo M.Traynor Tenth International Competition for New Music for Viols, Viola da Gamba Society of America. Her suite for Viol Quartet Shades of Presence Past and her songs for soprano and viols: Emerald Elixirs are published by PRB Music, San Francisco. Brooke Green's Perfumed with Blood arranged for soprano and orchestra was premiered in March 2016 by The Bourbaki Ensemble. Fiona Ziegler began her violin and piano studies with her mother, violinist, Eva Kelly, later studying violin with Christopher Kimber and Harry Curby, piano with Nancy Salas and cello with Lois Simpson. Fiona, also a prominent baroque violinist has performed with Ensemble de la the Reine, The Marais Project, The Sydney Consort, Concertato, The Australian Forte Piano Trio, the Renaissance Players and The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. She has also performed regularly with The Sydney Chamber Choir, Coro Innominata, The Sydney Soloists and has led the Sydney Philharmonia since 1992. As a chamber musician Fiona has performed with the Gagliano String Quartet, The Sydney String Quartet. Trio Pollastri, the Vuillaume Trio, the Grevillea Ensemble; and Plektra and Completely Plucked on mandolin and mandola. Fiona is an Assistant Concertmaster of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Catherine Upex studied cello with Dorothy Sumner and Georg Pedersen. She attended the University of Sydney, graduating with a BMus (Hons) (majoring in Performance) in 1997. In 1994, while studying Baroque performance as part of her degree, Catherine started learning the viola da gamba with Jennifer Eriksson. Since 2000, Catherine has performed regularly with the Marais Project and played on several Marais Project CDs including Viol Dreaming (2007), Love Reconciled (2009) and Lady Sings the Viol (2012). She has also performed on the viola da gamba in masterclasses with Wieland Kuijken, Jaap ter Linden, Susie Napper and Margaret Little and has played with several ensembles including the Renaissance Players, Salut! Baroque, the Sydney Consort, La Folia, Backgammon, Thoroughbass and The Opera Project. As well as the bass viol Catherine enjoys playing treble viol and has performed on it with the Seaven Teares viol consort since 2010. She has also taught cello at several Sydney schools and currently teaches at the Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School and Lane Cove Public School. Annika Stagg began cello studies at the age of ten, studying with Liz Huggett at the Central Coast Conservatorium. In 2004 after a year of study with Anthea Scott-Mitchell, Annika commenced her Bachelor of Music degree at Sydney Conservatorium where she has studied with Susan Blake and Julian Smiles. In 2005, Annika played with Sydney Conservatorium Early Music

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Ensemble and this inspired her to commence baroque cello and viola da gamba lessons with Daniel Yeadon. In 2009 Annika moved to Bremen, Germany where she completed her advanced studies degree under Stephan Schrader at the Bremen University of the Arts. During her studies she worked as the intern Cellist at the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra. In her final Semester she was offered the position of cellist at the Operettenhaus, Hamburg, where she continued to work until her return to Australia this year. If you have enjoyed today’s concert, you may wish to stay informed of our future concerts! Please join our mailing list and you will soon receive information about our 2018 season. www.josieandtheemeralds.com Please purchase our CD! The Emerald Leopard is available at the door today.