Plain Delight: music with the harpsichord
Plain Delight is left to right, Sue Innes, Mary Brown, Nancy Washeim and Sally Brown.
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Music Doth Attend Thee
Once again, on Friday, Oct. 2, local musicians organized by Shirley harpsichordist Mary Brown will present an evening of tuneful and elegant music from before 1800. 2009 marks important anniversaries for two great composers, Purcell and Handel, so the concert features four of their songs. These will be sung by soprano Nancy Washeim, whose lovely voice and winning stage presence have made her highly popular with local audiences. Three of them celebrate music, one of them being Art thou troubled? from which the title of the concert is taken.
This lovely song, made popular for an older generation by singers like Kathleen Ferrier and Maureen Forrester, is ascribed to Handel but he never even heard the words! They were written years after his death by an English school inspector, who wished to improve school music. So he wrote English words to the tune of Handel’s operatic aria Dove Sei to make a suitable song for children.
Another special feature will be music and poetry inspired by The Virgin Mary. The songs range from the Middle Ages to the present, from carols to high art, while three poems will reflect more recent responses to this revered figure. There will also be harpsichord pieces by the great French Baroque composer, Rameau, a violin duet sonata by Telemann and recorder consort music.
Most of the Marian music will be performed by Grace Notes, a vocal ensemble of six local women singers, Pat Chapple, Karen Davies, Lynn Goodacre, Mary Holland, Suzanne Manley and Debbie Needham. Mary Brown will play her French Double harpsichord and alongside will be well-known, local string-players, Sue Innes (violin) and Sally Brown and Ellen Himmer (cellos), as well as Victoria violinist, Anja Rebstock. Sooke’s Pothole Pipers made up of Gerda Alderson. Theo Holzken and Warren Moore, will provide the recorder music and Mary Holland, Shirley Roodbol and Philip Wadham will read the poems.
Admission is by donation and net proceeds will go to Holy Trinity Anglican Church. For more information call Mary at 250 646 2532.
This is Plain Delight’s fifth concert, the first being in 2004 after Mary Brown met Nancy Washeim at a Sooke Philharmonic concert. Nancy had obtained a Master’s in Baroque Vocal Performance at McGill while Mary was seriously studying the harpsichord with distinguished veteran harpsichordist Colin Tilney, after years of singing and playing Early Music.
Sharing a common interest, they decided to put on a concert, an idea taken up by the then Rector of Holy Trinity, Harry Eerkes, as a way to raise funds for the church’s new outreach initiative, Vital Vittles. The concert went ahead despite the move away from Sooke of professional conductor Christopher Symons, who’d been invited to direct the performance. It elicited a positive audience response and the rest is history.
The concert takes place at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, 1962 Murray Road at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 2
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