Program
Program Notes
Biographies
Baltimore Consort
Wassail Wassail!
Music for the Yuletide Season
Saturday, December 11, 2010 8:00 pm Synod Hall
Lift your spirits high with a special toast to the holiday season. Enjoy the musical libations of
Baltimore Consort as they fill our glasses to the brim with carols and dance tunes from France,
the British Isles and Appalachia.
Wassail all over the town!
Programme
Wassail Wassail !
Music for the Yuletide Season
Old Carols and Dance Tunes from the British Isles, France, Germany, and Appalachia
The Lord of the Dance (tune Simple Gifts)
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melody Shaker, words Sydney Carter 1966
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Green Sleeves to a Ground
Masters in this Hall
(tune La matelotte)
Chrisimas Day
On Christmas Night
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pub. I. Walsh The First Part of the Division Flute 1706
The Dancing Master 1656
Lancashire traditional
collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sussex 1904
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Upon my Lap my Sovereign Sits
(tune Sellenger’s Round)
Gaudete, Christus est Natus
Good King Wenceslas
(tune Tempus adest floridum)
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text, Richard Rowlandsc.1565 - 1630
Piae Cantiones 1582
Piae Cantiones 1582
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Babe of Bethlehem
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Southern Harmony, 1835
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Early Christmas Morning (lute solo)
A Wassail, A Wassail throughout all this Town!
Here We Come A-Wassailing
Wassail, Wassail all over the Town!
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Ronn McFarlane b.1954
Gower, Wales 1940’s
English traditional
Gloucestershire traditional
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Intermission
The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance
One Yeir Begins
(tune Lady Lothian’s Lilt)
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very old—date unknown
Andro Melville’s commonplace book 1621 - 1640
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Peace Be with You
(tune Rigadoon Royal)
The Fairy Round (lute solo)
Sweet was the Song the Virgin sung
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Walsh The Compleat Dancing Master II 1719
Antony Hoborne d.1602
English 16th c.
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The Ladyes Delight and Jumpe at my Cozen
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Anon. Paris Virginal MS c.1630
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Maria durch ein Dornwald ging
In dulci Jubilo (lute solo)
In dir ist Freude
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German traditional
Esias Reussner 17th c.
Johannes Lindemann, …Zwantzig Weyhenachten Gesenglein … 1598
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Il est né, le divin Enfant!
Quelle est cette odeur agréable
Noël nouvelet!
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French traditional
French traditional
French traditional
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THE BALTIMORE CONSORT
Mary Anne Ballard - viols, rebec
Mark Cudek - cittern, viol, crumhorn
Larry Lipkis - viol, recorder, gemshorn, crumhorn
Ronn McFarlane – lute
Mindy Rosenfeld – wooden flutes and fifes, crumhorn, pipes
Danielle Svonavec - soprano
PROGRAM NOTES
Continental Connections: Musical Channel Crossing
You have to go back a few hundred years to find the lively sounds the Baltimore Consort brings to
modern audiences with its cornucopia of instruments-- lute, cittern, viols, crumhorns, pipes,
recorders, rebec and percussion and soprano Danielle Svonavec. The sextet will perform its
arrangements of Christmas tunes from England, Scotland, France, Germany, and the American shape note
tradition on Saturday December 11…
A special feature of the program is three Wassails—folk carols vividly describing yuletide
traditions tracing back to 17th-century England and earlier. Sets of lively French noels and
German “quempas” round out a menu that includes English country dances, lullabies, a Scottish
New Year's song, a set of variations on Greensleeves, and the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance.
Since Christmas is a time of tradition, it has produced venerable tunes which, still popular
today, can be traced back through the centuries. The Baltimore Consort’s program is a journey
through time and across folk and cultures.
Biographies of the Performers
Founded in 1980 to perform the instrumental music of Shakespeare’s time, the Baltimore Consort has
explored early English, Scottish, and French popular music, focusing on the relationship between folk
and art song and dance. Their interest in early music of English/Scottish heritage has also led them to
delve into the rich trove of traditional music preserved in North America. Recently, they have
developed a program of music from Renaissance Spain. Recordings on the Dorian label have earned
them recognition as Top Classical-Crossover Artist of the Year (Billboard). Besides touring in
the U.S. and abroad, they have often performed on such syndicated radio broadcasts as St. Paul Sunday,
Performance Today, Harmonia and the CBC’s OnStage. They have also enjoyed many teaching
residencies at K-12 schools, as well as at the Madison Early Music Festival and other university
engagements.
Mary Anne Ballard researches many of the Consort’s programs. She also plays with Galileo’s
Daughters, Brio andFleur de Lys. Formerly, she directed or coached early music at the Peabody
Conservatory, Princeton University,and the University of Pennsylvania, where she founded the
Collegium Musicum and produced medieval music drama. She is now on the faculty of Oberlin’s summer
Baroque Performance Institute. A resident of Indiana and New York City, she recently music-directed
the Play of Daniel for 50th Anniversary at The Cloisters in NYC.
Mark Cudek is Director of the Early Music program at the Peabody Conservatory, and also Artistic
Director of the Indianapolis Early Music Festival. In recognitioin of his work as Founder/Director of
the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble and also the High School Early Music Program at the Interlochen
Arts Camp, Mark received from Early Music Aerica the 2001 Thomas Binkley Award and the 2005 Award for
Outstanding Contribution to Early Music Education. He has regularly performed with Apollo’s Fire, The
Catacoustic Concort, and Hesperus.
Larry Lipkis is Composer-in-Residence and Director of Early Music at Moravian College in Bethlehem PA. His
cello concerto, Scaramouche, appears on the Koch label, and his bass trombone concerto, Harlequin,
was premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic to rave reviews. The trilogy was completed when his
bassoon concerto Pierrot was performed by the Houston Symphony. He has also served as Director of
Pinewoods Early Music Week, and is currently a Music Director for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival.
Ronn McFarlane has released over 25 CDs on Dorian, including solo collections, lute songs,
Elizabethan lute music and poetry, and the Baltimore Consort. Recently, in the tradition of the
lutenist/composers of past centuries, Ronn has composed new music for the lute. These original
compositions are the focus of his solo CD, Indigo Road, which received
a Grammy Award Nomination in 2009. His newest CD release, One Morning, features
“Ayreheart,” a new ensemble brought together to perform Ronn’s new music.
www.ronnmcfarlane.com.
Mindy Rosenfeld, a founding member of the Baltimore Consort whose playing graced our first
decade, is also a longtime member of San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Fluent in a wide
range of musical styles, she plays both wooden and modern flutes in addition to recorders, whistles,
crumhorns, and early harp. Mindy actively freelances on the West Coast and is Principal Flute at the
Mendocino Music Festival in her hometown. The mother of five boys, she loves dancing and tending her
organic garden at home on “The Boy Farm”.
Danielle Svonavec, soprano, is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame (BS in mathmatics,
1999, and MM in Voice, 2003) where she now teaches voice. While still a student, she stepped in on
short notice as soloist for the Baltimore Consort’s nine-concert 1999 Christmas tour. Since then she
has toured with the Consort and appeared with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, Pomerium, the South
Bend Chamber Orchestra, and the South Bend Symphony. She currently serves as the Cantor for the
nationally televised mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame. Danielle lives with her
husband and three daughters on a farm near Goshen, Indiana.
Baltimore Consort CDs on the DORIAN label:
On the Banks of Helicon: Early Music of Scotland DOR 90139
Watkins Ale: Music of the English Renaissance DOR 90142
The Art of the Bawdy Song (with The Merry Companions) DOR 90155
Custer LaRue Sings The Dæmon Lover (traditional ballads) DOR 90174
La Rocque ‘n’ Roll: Popular Music of Renaissance France DOR 90177
Bright Day Star: Music for the Yuletide Season DOR 90198
A Trip to Killburn: Playford Tunes and their Ballads DOR 90238
Tunes from the Attic: An Anniversary Celebration DOR 90235
The Ladyes Delight: Music of Elizabethan England DOR 90252
The Mad Buckgoat: Ancient Music of Ireland DOR 90279
Amazing Grace: Spiritual Folksongs of Early America DOR 90296
The Best of the Baltimore Consort DOR 90023
Adew Dundee: Early Music of Scotland DOR 90314
Gut, Wind, and Wire: Instruments of the Baltimore Consort DSL 90601
The Baltimore Consort LIVE in Concert DSL 90801
Adío España: Romances, Villancicos, & Improvisations…circa 1500 DSL 90901