Catacoustic Consort opens its 16th season
Saturday, September 17, at 7:30pm at Church of the Advent, 2366 Kemper Ln in East
Walnut Hills (45206).
 |
| Died? No, he lives while yonder organ’s sound And sacred echoes to the choir rebound. |
Purcell wrote a huge variety of music, including opera,
sacred, and music for royal occasions. But his intimate chamber music, in particular
the Fantasies for four viols, holds a special place in the hearts of
performers. In the early 20th century, when viol consorts were
extremely thin on the ground, many composers re-worked his melodies for modern
ensembles. Percy Grainger went so far as to call it “the most sublimely
beautiful many-voiced democratic music known to me.”
 |
| Percy Grainger was a fan |
Why democratic? Because unlike the modern string quartet,
which places the spotlight firmly on the first violin with the other
instruments often reduced to supporting roles, the viol fantasies consider each
voice equal. Four intricate, complicated parts, all of a similar complexity and
difficulty, weave around each other to create a tapestry of themes.
The Fantasia form was outside the regulation strictures of
the dance forms of the era, and it has a modern, almost improvisatory
feel. By the time Purcell composed these pieces, this form was quickly going
out of style – his employer the King of England was certainly no fan – so one
imagines Purcell composing purely for his own pleasure, and stretching his
wings a bit in consequence.
Catacoustic welcomes Wildcat Viols, a San Francisco-based
ensemble with which Annalisa also plays. After the performance the musicians
will stay in town and begin a recording session. A CD of this music will be
available for purchase in the coming months.
Tickets $25, students $10, under 12 free. Tickets available at the door or in advance at
www.catacoustic.com/tickets/
At this concert only, Season Ticket packages for the 2016-2017 season will also be
available at the door. Buy five flexible tickets for only $100, a 20% savings.
Season tickets are also available online now.
 |
| So was G. M. Hopkins |
"Henry Purcell," by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)
The
poet wishes well to the divine genius of Purcell and praises him that,
whereas other musicians have given utterance to the moods of man’s mind,
he has, beyond that, uttered in notes the very make and species of man
as created both in him and in all men generally.
| HAVE, fair fallen, O fair, fair have fallen, so dear | |
| To me, so arch-especial a spirit as heaves in Henry Purcell, | |
| An age is now since passed, since parted; with the reversal | |
| Of the outward sentence low lays him, listed to a heresy, here. | |
| Not mood in him nor meaning, proud fire or sacred fear, | 5 |
| Or love or pity or all that sweet notes not his might nursle: | |
| It is the forgèd feature finds me; it is the rehearsal | |
| Of own, of abrupt self there so thrusts on, so throngs the ear. | |
| Let him Oh! with his air of angels then lift me, lay me! only I’ll | |
| Have an eye to the sakes of him, quaint moonmarks, to his pelted plumage under | 10 |
| Wings: so some great stormfowl, whenever he has walked his while | |
| The thunder-purple seabeach plumèd purple-of-thunder, | |
| If a wuthering of his palmy snow-pinions scatter a colossal smile | |
| Off him, but meaning motion fans fresh our wits with wonder. |
