Mi Contra Fa

O Come, My Sweetest Lover

This never got posted as a finished product?

O come, my sweetest lover
And ah and oh
What pleasures we'll discover
And ah and oh and ah and oh

I'm dying with desire
And ah and oh
To love-making I aspire
And ah and oh and ah and oh

So with your key come swiftly
And ah and oh
My door will open quickly
And ah and oh and ah and oh

Text: Translation of one of the Cambridge Songs (c. 1050-1100, likely Continental German in origin. Original text in Latin.)
Tune: Original, meant to be somewhat evocative of chant

Lessons learned

I worry more about a command performance than a competition.  If I mess up during a competition, the worst thing that happens is that I lose.  But when someone has requested me to play for an occasion, and I mess that up... it feels like giving a broken present.

I was requested to play my wire harp for my church's summer solstice service.  Normally, I do my improv as meditations, but the organizer wanted "Sheebeg, Sheemor."  Now, I know that; it's actually the only O'Carolan I know.  So I got out the harp for some crash practicing.

"Let's go simple," I thought.  "Melody with octave-grabbing on the strong notes."  Except I'd grab sevenths and ninths instead of octaves.  "Melody with moving drone!"  Better, but still not performance-ready.

Back when the Storvik Music Ensemble was running, we had a violinist.  He played well enough solo but had no group experience.  No problem, that's what ensemble was for.  So I'd give him easy parts - really easy.  Like, one note per measure.  And he seemed offended.  He could play more difficult stuff than that.

But not under pressure.

I eventually just played the melody, with one open fifth at the ending.  And it worked.  I think I missed two notes, but they weren't critical ones and I kept the rhythm going - you could legitimately call it a "variation," I think.  Certainly not ear-splittingly wrong.  I was happy with the performance, and I suspect I would not have been if I'd gone for something even a smidgen more technically challenging.

Luminous Matter

Allison Mondel held a three-hour workshop on singing the chant of Hildegard von Bingen in DC this past Saturday, as part of the DC Early Music Festival. I attended and it was awesome.

The focus of the workshop was on reading and performing from Hildegard's original notation.  While she did use a four-bar staff with C clefs, she did not use the square neumes that I usually associate with chant.  Everything was much more... cursive.  Happily for me, it looks rather like what little I've seen of the Winchester Troper's notation, although I don't think the Troper has bar lines at all.

There are times when I'm glad I'm not a "paper trained" musician. This was one of them.  People who are used to being able to sing by sight-reading seemed a lot more uncomfortable. 

Allison lives in Baltimore but will be moving to Silver Spring.  I am very much considering signing up for some vocal coaching.  I expect to be somewhat torn - I really love exuberant chest-voice singing, while the "official early music sound" is more in the head and mouth and a lot more pure-toned.  But I think I would like to learn the technique, even if I set it aside occasionally, and I would really like to learn how to "tune" properly (Pythagorean-ally?). 

Slippery like sand

I've had the Winchester Troper "Kyrie" on repeat in the car for a few days now and I still can't say I've got the thing memorized.  There are so many notes, so much stepwise motion, so few syllables to help remember what comes next - I am not at all surprised that this style of music required the invention of a system of notation.  Nor does the form of the earliest notation surprise me - I find myself thinking that just a wavy line to help me remember if the next step is up or down or on a new syllable would be perfect.

I'm also making no progress in directly adapting the tune to the Nam languens poem.  The antiphonal verses are so different than the "Kyrie" itself - it works for that song, as structured, but it really doesn't work for a cohesive single poem.  And the music of just the "Kyrie" proper is just too short to stretch over eight lines.

So I really need to tuck the "Kyrie" into the back of my head as inspiration and just compose new music.

Bertran de Born Podcast

From the grey mists of time, Bertran de Born's "Be'm plai lo gais de pascor" emerges!  You've seen the documentation and possible struggled with the poorly-notated sheet music (PDF)!  Now hear the song!

Gah, I never realized how bad I am at aligning words and notes until I went back and tried to sing this from the page.

More good news - my computer records again!  Granted, I'm using a gaming headset to sing into, which results in some static if I'm too loud (which I frequently am).  But!  Now I can record audio more often.  Upgrading mic can be a future project.

Husband's Message resources

One translation (has alliteration, archaic pronouns)
Two translation (literal, non-alliterating)
Three translation (has alliteration, archaic pronouns)
Anglo-Saxon Aloud entry

Impressions

One:
"Since I have crossed the salt-streams often" is just asking for Ghostbusters jokes.
I am not grooving on the thees and thous.
Some editing could fix both issues.
The alliteration seems mostly in good form

Two:
Always nice to have at least one literal translation around
Missing sections render it unfit for performance
Might serve as a basis for my own version

Three:
Reads like the Victorian translation it is
Dodgy alliteration
Does have some nice images, might be a good place to borrow from

To Do (Once Nam languens is done)

Check books at home for other translations
Decide whether to use a translation or do my own
-- If my own, write it
Memorize poem
Decide on musical accompaniment