Six Lectures on the Recorder, Welch, 1911.
http://www.archive.org/stream/sixlecturesonrec00welcuoft

A question was posed to me regarding the word "historiated," which was used in a previous post. Here is the explanation of the word from wikipedia.


A historiated initial is an enlarged letter at the beginning of a paragraph or other section of text, which contains a picture. Strictly speaking, an inhabited initial contains figures (human or animal) that are decorative only, without forming a subject, whereas in a historiated initial there is an identifiable figure or a specific scene. Both sorts became very common and elaborate in luxury illuminated manuscripts. These initials were first seen in the Insular art of the early 8th century. The earliest known example is in the Saint Petersburg Bede, an Insular manuscript of 731-46, and the Vespasian Psalter has another.

More from the West Coast:
The San Francisco Early Music Festival is holding two recorder workshops in 2011, July 10-16 and 17-23.  We are very proud to welcome an international faculty of magnificent performers and charismatic teachers: Annette Bauer (first week); Frances Feldon, Shira Kemmen (second week) and Hanneke van Proosdij from the Bay Area, Inga Funck and Rotem Gilbert from Los Angeles, and Tricia van Oers from New York state.  With a packed schedule of classes, master classes, lectures, faculty and student concerts, Wednesday afternoon mini-workshops...we guarantee an exciting and enriching experience for everyone....The Priory of St. Albert's in Oakland offers an ideal setting for this workshop, with comfortable classrooms, private bedrooms, and a beautiful church with splendid acoustics for our student and faculty concerts.  Surrounded by beautiful gardens, we are secluded from the outside world yet only blocks away from our favorite coffee shops, restaurants, and grocery store."  
The website is:  www.sfems.org

Large historiated initial on gold field. Three-side border with scenes painted, including monk taking the habit. Black and red initials. 15th Century.
Renaissance and medieval manuscripts collection, digital gallery/New York Public Library.

Our West Coast correspondent, Toni Ameslav, sent me this story about why Dolmetsch discontinued making their recorders.

TUCSON RECORDER SOCIETY information of interest:

Earlier this year, the Dolmetsch company sold the Dolmetsch name and stopped making their hand-made instruments. There has been some speculation on why this was done, and now that has been resolved. The following was on the Yahoo Recorder Group and may be of interest. Brian Blood is a director of the company.

From: "Dr. Brian Blood" 

Date: Fri Nov 19, 2010 2:56 pm

Subject: The Dolmetsch name  

   

In the early part of 2010 one of our craftsmen lost his father and

suffered a major mental breakdown. He was our main turner and this

event caused us to review the whole position and future of the Dolmetsch

manufacturing business.

Marguerite Dolmetsch is approaching 70 and I, Brian Blood, will soon be

in my mid-60s.  Our other contracted craftsmen are all approaching their

60s.

We decided to close the manufacturing unit and to lay off the remaining

staff as we believed we lacked the capability to continue a fully

effective one having lost one of our most experienced senior craftsmen...

continued

Esashi Oiwake played by Giulia Breschi
Barbara Kaufman sent me the link above to a YouTube video in which the performer is playing in the shakuhachi style.


For more on the shakusachi flute, visit this wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakuhachi

Click on this link--> A winter treat---204 country dances!

The NYS Baroque concert yesterday was wonderful. I was especially taken with the Corelli Christmas Concerto, the Locatelli Concerto grosso, which featured Julie Andrijeski, and the Telemann Suite for viola da gamba, which featured David Morris. But the piece de la resistance was the improvisation by harpsichordist David Yearsley between the first and second movements of Bach's Brandenburg number 3. As Seymour DeKoven used to say, OTW!

The New York State Baroque will be playing this Sunday, December 12, at 4 at the Unitarian Church in Ithaca.

And, also on Sunday, Myra Kovary, harpist, will be performing Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, at the First Presbyterian Church in Ithaca at 10 am. The performance is part of the regular church service and is free and open to the public.  The church is located at the corner of Court and Cayuga Streets.  

    

Saturday we performed at Borders at the Ithaca Mall. Sunday at the Roberson Museum in Binghamton. I'll post photos as soon as they come to me. Here's the first to arrive:

One of the decorated rooms at the Roberson Museum.

Sonata 2 Op. 2/4. Michel Corrette (1707-1795)

You may download this song by Thomas Ravenscroft (1590-1633), if you like. Click on the image and hold the mouse button down. Then either right or left click on a PC (not sure which), or hold the control key down on a Mac. You will be able to save the file to your desktop.


I have been looking online in the evenings and early mornings for interesting things to post. Let me know if you find things you'd like to have posted.

While reading about John Playford's Dancing Master's book (see audio file at right), I came across a reference to the Dance of Death. Of course, Playford's book doesn't have any such music. However, here are a few of Hans Holbein the Younger's woodcuts on the subject (1520s). Click on an image to enlarge it.

From the wikipedia article on Danse Macabre:
The deathly horrors of the 14th century—such as recurring famines; the Hundred Years' War in France; and, most of all, the Black Death—were culturally assimilated throughout Europe. The omnipresent possibility of sudden and painful death increased the religious desire for penitence, but it also evoked a hysterical desire for amusement while still possible;
a last dance as cold comfort. The danse macabre combines both desires: in many ways
similar to the mediaeval mystery plays, the dance-with-death allegory was originally a didactic dialogue poem to remind people of the inevitability of death.

More from Aldo Bova

13th century manuscript. Gregorian chant.

For a discussion in pdf form on the written notation of Medieval music, click on the link below.
from dolmetsch.com