Bach & 4th Concerts in St Francis Bay

South of Bear: Sundowners, Soup and Strings

There is nothing like a good dose of uplifting music to shake the winter blues away. St Francis music lovers will be getting together on Saturday, July 27th for an evening of heart-warming and jolly string music at the winter Bach & 4th Concert.

If you’re feeling stressed, a bit down or even just need an immunity boost, an evening of classical music might be is just what the doctor ordered according to a study conducted by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London during COVID. Add of a good glass of wine and a warming bowl of gourmet soup to the experience and winter might seem a little further away. Our concert features an amazing trio of string players called South of Bear perform their Wanderlust program. For those who like to know a little more about the music before they listen, I have done a deep dive into the stories behind the compositions.

As the name suggests, the Wanderlust program is diverse and from far-flung places. We start in the Medieval period and go all the way to a freshly composed piece written by one of our performers, Jan-Hendrik Harley. You will hear music written by the legendary Perotin from Notre Dame – the first person to write three lines of music on top of each other, as well as an arrangement of the most performed cello piece today – written over 300 years ago. Find out how Bach submitted a job application in the form of six concertos and the composer who wrote the most-played violin concerto written in the last 50 years is a fiddler at heart.

Can you tell me which fiddle tune almost hit #3 the charts in the ‘70s and has now become a football club anthem?

The trio performs on a variety of string instruments. The more familiar instruments are the violin, viola and double bass, but you will also hear the less common Baroque guitar, mandolin and Swedish Nyckelharpa. As you may imagine, there is not an abundance of music for this combination of instruments, so most of what they play will be arrangements.

The program starts in the 13th Century. I have linked the titles to YouTube performances so that you can get a sound bite to whet your appetite.

Perotin – Beata Viscera

The program starts in the Medieval Period with a chant called Beata Viscera composed by a French composer named Perotin (ca 1200). Considered to be one of the first composers to write three- and four-part music (polyphony), Perotin made a name for himself at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris where he served as a music master.

At this point in music history the only people writing music down were monks and church musicians, without them we would have no knowledge of what music was like back then. Perotin’s predecessor, Leonin put two voices together where one sung plainchant (a simple chant melody attached to a liturgical text) and the other a melody over it. Perotin took it to the next level by adding up to four melodic lines over the chant melody – quite mind-blowing for those days.

Johann Sebastian Bach – Prelude from Cello Suite in G Major and Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, Adagio

Next up are two arrangements of well-known pieces by the Baroque composer, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Things had moved on quite substantially in music history from the Medieval Period. Major and minor tonalities replaced modes and the system of tuning instruments changed to adapt to having keyboard instruments around for the first time. J.S. Bach was a German composer often called the father of the Baroque period. He was a brilliant organist and churned out music, mostly for the churches where he was employed, at a prolific rate. Part of his job description was to write new music every week for the Sunday Mass. On special days in the church calendar, he had to write something more substantial.  Additionally, Bach was an educator – having nineteen children must have given him much experience in this – and ran a choir school at the Thomas Church in Leipzig. A number of his keyboard pieces were written to give his students practice in working in all of the tonal keys.

Bach was interesting character who showed great determination and tenacity from early on in his life. Apparently, he walked 450km to hear the organist, Dietrich Buxtehude play. He hated to feel pushed into a corner and there are some accounts of him brawling with students or quitting jobs when things didn’t go his way (he was once imprisoned for 30 days for this). He never lost a keyboard-duel and loved coffee so much he wrote a piece of music about it. At the age of 65, he had a cataract surgery done by a travelling medical man and ended up dying not long afterwards. I am guessing the post-op eye-drops containing pigeon blood, mercury, and pulverized sugar might have poisoned him. Nevertheless, he is one of the composers that stand out in music history where nothing is the same after his death.

The prelude from his first Cello Suite in G Major is one of his most well-known instrumental pieces. I am sure you have heard it played in many movie soundtracks. The Brandenburg Concerti, of which there are 6, were written for the Margrave of Brandenburg. The story goes that Bach was looking for a new job and wrote the concerti in the hopes of impressing the Margrave (surprisingly, he didn’t get the job). The sixth Concerto was written for two solo violas (called viola da Gambas) – our trio will only be performing the 2^nd movement which is actually written for just the accompanying trio (and no soloists).

Marc O’ Connor – Appalachia Waltz

The next piece is composed by a man who is defining a new style of American classical music strongly rooted in American folk music. Fiddler, guitarist and mandolin player, Marc O’ Connor, directs his energy and talents towards establishing an American School of String Playing and has been recognised for his efforts and contributions through Grammy’s, awards, and prizes. He has been invited to perform at the White House for several presidents and was also asked by the United States Information Agency to be a cultural representative on six continents. O’Connor is definitely a man to keep your eyes on – his Fiddle Concerto released by Warner Bros has become the most performed concerto written in the last 5 years.

South of Bear is playing the Appalachia Waltz from O’Connor’s Appalachian Suite. Appalachia is a geographical area in the Eastern United States and is very mountainous. This region has strong cultures and traditions that centre around the community – quilting, pottery, wood carving, poetry and music.  Bluegrass and fiddling can be heard everywhere – it’s the kind of place where music is still communal and it is not uncommon for people to get up and dance when the mood is right.

Elder Joseph Brackett – Simple Gifts

Up next is the Shaker song “Simple Gifts” made famous by Aaron Copland but written by Elder Joseph Brackett in 1848. The Shaker community was a small group of people who left the England to find religious tolerance in the United States. They believe in simplicity, equality, celibacy and communal living. Songs were used as vehicles to unite everyone. Everybody should sing and songs should be simple enough for it to be easy to sing together.

Appalachian Traditional Tune – Lonesome John

This is a fiddler’s reel that will no doubt get your foot stomping.

Jeremy Crosmer – Lullabies

Jeremy Crosmer is an incredible artist and has distinguished himself both as a cellist and composer. Besides being highly accomplished and educated he is the composer and arranger for the GRS Music for Health initiative which pairs symphonic musicians with music therapists to bring classical music to hospitals. Crosmer composed four hours of meditative music which can be heard on a music channel created for the DeVos Children’s Hospital. What makes him special is his ongoing work on making classical music more accessible to audiences who are not familiar with it. He wrote ten lullabies for two cellos. In his words, ‘The darker lullabies emphasize the melodic line in the “Cello Scuro,” while the lighter ones highlight “Cello Luminoso.” When played back to back, they tell a musically imagined story that progresses from home to adventure to peace.’

Traditional (Purcell/ Playford) – Lilliburlero

Around 1688, the tune of Lilliburlero became a popular street song sung in English taverns and barracks to mock the arrival of Irish regiments in town after James II began relocating the soldiers to England. Forty years earlier, the lyrics had been put to the tune to satirize the appointment of a Catholic Lord Talbot over a largely Protestant Irish population and what it would mean for them. The song wasn’t initially as popular as it later became.

‘Lilliburlero’ was the watchword used by Irish Catholics during the Irish rebellion of 1641.

The march melody of Lilliburlero was said to be composed by Henry Purcell (1659-1695) but was later published by John Playford (1623–1686) in a method book for recorder called ‘The Delightful Companion.’

Traditional – Mrs Farquharson of Inverey

Historically, this reel is interestingly placed after Lilliburlero. It was round about the same time that John Farquharson of Inverey, also known as the Black Colonel, burned Braemar Castle. I can only imagine that Mrs Farquharson of Inverey was his wife and fellow Jacobite.

This Scottish reel comes from Roberts Petrie’s Collection of Strathspey Reels and Country Dances published in 1790. The Farquharsons were Scottish nobility and their clan was one of the fiercest and noble in Scotland.

Traditional – The Scotch Cap

Published in 1651 in John Playford’s The Dancing Master, the Scotch Cap is a dance. The words ‘Scotch Cap’ can refer to numerous things including the leather cap put over a prisoner’s head so that he could not communicate with other prisoners or a lighthouse, but in this case it refers a relatively slow dance.

Traditional  – Portsmouth

Another one of John Playford’s arrangements, Portsmouth is a traditional folk dance tune and is similar to a Scottish or Irish hornpipe melody. The tune may sound familiar to you because it was used by Ralph Vaughn Williams in an arrangement for military band called Sea Songs as well as the 2^nd movement of the English Folk Song Suite. It was also the theme song for the BBC television series called Billy Bunter in the 1950’s and then in 1976, Mike Oldfield made an instrumental arrangement of the tune. This single became hugely popular and hit #3 on the charts in the United Kingdom.  Since then it has been used in movies and more importantly has become the theme song for the British soccer club “Portsmouth FC.”

Jan Hendrik Harley – Wanderlust

Jan Hendrik Harley composed the next suite called Wanderlust. I am sure he will tell you all about it himself!

O. Jansson – Scandanavian Dance Suite, Kyrkmarsch

Olov Jansson (1927-93) from Hov in Östervåla was a very skilled folk fiddler who also played some classical music. Compared to the others in his area, he had a high-quality violin and bow that, combined with his talent, set apart from other local helped to make him heard above any group of fiddlers. He borrowed the theme from the Beethoven violin concerto in dm and turned it into Kyrkmarsch/Church march. You can also find it arranged for choir in four parts.

Emma’s Waltz

This is a traditional Finnish waltz – it’s apparently a standard piece in the Nyckelharpa repertoire.

Byss-Calle – SlangPolska

Carl Ersson Bössa, otherwise known as Byss-Calle (1783-1847) was born to Belgian immigrants named Boussard, which in Swedish became Bössa (Bössa also means gun or shotgun in Swedish).  Although his day job was as a herring fisherman and bargeman, Byss-CalleIn became a legendary nyckelharpa player in his day. Thanks to one of his pupils, Mats Wesslén, we have notation for 57 of his compositions, the most famous being the Slangpolska.