3rd Meeting – 14 April 2012

The Laigh Room, our usual meeting place, was booked, so we found ourselves upstairs in the beautiful St Cecilia’s Hall, complete with stage platform. Here was a chance to play on stage in Scotland’s first public concert hall. This was a double-edged sword, of course – on the one hand it was a rich experience, on the other, more panic-inducing! I’m glad to report that everyone seemed relatively at ease.

First, some photographs. There are so many, it was easier to present them in a video. As we had not recorded today’s performances, you will have to put up with my recording of a Fantasia by Fuenllana on an Alexander Batov vihuela in E. I am happy to email particular photos by request…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb8B3Q30J3k?rel=0]

And two photos of Rob, one with David, which never made it into the video:

First up was David Bateman, playing continuo on an eight-string guitar, enlisting the help of Rob MacKillop on the treble line of a recercada fom Ortiz. Rob’s improvisations might have seemed in character for the piece, but only served to distract from his woeful sight-reading skills 😉 David played well, and he is to be applauded for trying to play a continuo line.

Bill Samson exposed us to more of his journey into the precious sound world of Mesangeau, with an alemande, courante and sarabande. Bill is recording the complete Mesangeau, available via Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/billsamson – I’m learning a lot from these recordings, and your performances, Bill, so keep em coming.

Philip Lord played a Prelude in G by ‘Dooland’ from Philip Hainhofer’s lute book. I, for one, had never heard it before. Philip’s 7c Paul Thomson lute rang out clearly through the hall. Looking forward to Philip’s next effort.

Stuart Mcluckie performed three pieces by Negri from The Lute Society’s 40 Easy To Early Intermediate Pieces for Renaissance Lute: number 6, il Cesarino; no. 7 la Pavaniglia; and no.8 il Bianco Fiore. Stewart got a really big sound from his James Marriage 8c (or was it 7c?). Good strong rhythmical playing of dance music.

New face, Chris Jupp, amazed us all by the sound he managed to extract from his Early Music Shop 8c. Really sensitive renditions of his own lute arrangements of two pieces by Tobias Hume, numbers 42 and 14 of his Musical Humours. Well done, Chris. we are all looking forward to your next recital.

Rob MacKillop played pieces in harp sharp tuning from the Panmure (Lady Lothian’s Lilt and Courante and Double – both untitled in the original manuscript) and Wemyss (Lady Lie Nier Mee and My Lady Binnis Lilt) manuscripts. It was good to see Rob performing again after an absence of a few years. His playing is growing in confidence again. Here are two videos of Rob playing these pieces recently:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h8krYBOIz8?rel=0&w=640&h=360]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldnMANjks_M?rel=0&w=640&h=360]

Finally, Graham Wylie gave an illustrated talk on the effect of the 30 years war on lute construction. This gave him the chance to show off his stunning new 13c swan lute by Dutch luthier, Martin de Witte, comparing constructional details with his Martin Shepherd 11c Maler lute. It was an interesting talk, and thought provoking.

So much for the performances…the best part is chatting away to all present, with little groups breaking off here and there for Show And Tell gatherings. I’m please to report that the emphasis is still on encouraging each other with kind and constructive comments.

Competition time! Suggest a comment –

and

The date of the next meeting is still to be confirmed. I will add a new post when I have it confirmed.

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