Green ladies concert programme

The 21th Galway Early Music Festival May 12 - 15, 2016

GREEN LADIES THIS EMERALD ISLE MEETS THE GREEN AND PLEASANT LAND

THE GOOD LADIES OF GALWAY SATURDAY, MAY 14, 2016 4:00 pm CONNACHT PRINT WORKS

Galway Early Music would like to thank its sponsors and friends, without whose support the Festival would not happen.

SUPPORTED

BY

MEDIA SPONSORS

PRINT PARTNER SILVER PATRONS Michael & Clare Cuddy Tom Grealy Kimberly LoPrete

Riana & Pat O’Dwyer Seán & Lois Tobin Janet Vinnell

WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO St Nicholas Collegiate Church Vestry Connacht Tribune for The Connacht Print Works Opus II for ticket sales and piano Centre for Ancient, Medieval & Pre-Modern Studies, NUI Galway Tom Grealy for sponsoring the Good Ladies of Galway

GALWAY EARLY MUSIC supports Galway for European Capital of Culture

Galway Early Music is a member of REMA - The European Early Music Network

Galway Early Music

@gwy_earlymusic

A MAYTIME TASTING MENU IN EIGHT SHORT COURSES

With original drawings by Penny MacBeth for you to colour!

I A MEDIEVAL SPRING COCKTAIL WITH HINTS OF PARADISE A Spring Song Neidhart von Reuenthal C13th Kalenda Maya Raimbault de Vaqueiras late C12th Estampie In May, when the little nightingale sings Colin Muset C13th Song of Maytime Moniot d’Aras,C13th Huic Main C13th Motet Ductia C13th Dance Echo la Primavera Francesco Landini, C14th II A TASTE OF MAY MORNING WITH A TRIO OF GEMSHORNS ON A BED OF FRESE NOUVELLE Alleluia Psallat: School of Worcester C14th Motet Sumer is Icumen in mid C13th Le Rossignol C13th Pastourelle C13th Ja nun hons pris Richard Coeur-de-Lion, C12th A Paris, Frese Nouvelle C13th Motet Alle psallite - Alleluya C13th Motet III A REGRET OF TIMES PAST SERVED WITH PICANTE SAUCE AND A COURTLY AIR Ah Robin William Cornysh, C15th Helas Madame attrib Henry VIII And I were a Maiden attrb Henry VIII IV A REDUCTION OF FOUR BRANSLES, TWO RONDES, A SALTERELLE, A BERGERETTE AND A BOUFFONS from Tielman Susato’s ‘ Danserye C16th Les Quartre Bransles Bergerette Sans Roch Ronde II Mon Amy Ronde VI and Saltarelle Bouffons

V A GARNISH OF PARSLEY, SAGE, ROSEMARY AND STOLEN THYME Scarborough Fair English trad.

The Grenadier and the Lady arr Ann Priestley Smith Bushes and Briars arr Ann Priestley Smith Let no Man Steal your Thyme arr Ann Priestley Smith VI AN ABUNDANCE OF LUSTY GREENS EATEN ‘ A LA FRESCO’ Under The Linden Tree arr Sue Marshall and Ann Priestley Smith The Leaves be Green arr Ann Priestley Smith Greensleeves attrib. Henry VIII arr Ann Priestley Smith O Lusty May ! Anon Scottish C16th VII A SOOTHING RUSTIC TONIC WITH A BITTER AFTERTASTE From Playford’s ‘ English Dancing Master 1650-1686, arr. Ann Priestley Smith The Green (Wo)Man Lull be beyond thee All in a Garden Green Never love thee more VIII A SPLASH OF WHISKEY AND ANISEED WITH SALT WATER TEARS (AND A CASE OF THE TROTS) From Playford’s ‘ English Dancing Master 1650-1686, arr. Ann Priestley Smith Irish Trot The Irish Lady / Aniseed Water Robin Attr Turlough O’Carolan, 1670-1738, arr Ann Priestley Smith Lord Galway’s Lamentation Ode to Whiskey Carolan’s Favorite Jig Tune without Title

Why have The Good Ladies gone Green?

In ‘Green Ladies’, The Good Ladies of Galway have chosen a programme of music and poetry spanning eight centuries in which they demonstrate the archetypal tripartite characterisation of women as virgins, mothers or whores.

Their performance includes a range of wind instruments which would have been unthinkable territory for ‘ Ladies’ at the time these pieces were written and first performed (including their memorable consort of gemshorns!)

Medieval references to women playing wind instruments are rare and even in aural tradition today often have negative social connotations related to phallic imagery. In the past, men set the contexts in which women’s music making was legitimate and blowing into pipes in public was most definitely discouraged!

In reference to our May Festival,’Green Ladies’ are to be found celebrating the spring, acting as temptresses to unrequited lovers, and getting taken for a ride by unscrupulous male lotharios. It is worth remembering that the narratives in the lyrics and readings you will hear are not the voices of real women, but spoken on their behalf by men who either idealised or denigrated them. We offer them up for your entertainment and to demonstrate the greater freedoms we enjoy as female musicians in the modern world where we can play what we like and perform freely in the town square without being branded as prostitutes!

Ranging from C13th celebrations of Maytime in its green abundance to the elegant yearnings of Renaissance Courtiers and traditional folk songs which express both the frustrations and rewards of being female, ‘Green Ladies’ is a programme which both embraces androcentric stereotypes and overturns them with good humour .

Penny MacBeth, 2016

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Tom and Mary Grealy for their support for this concert.

The Good Ladies of Galway Ann Priestley Smith, recorders, gemshorn, keyboards, psaltery Penny MacBeth, recorders, gemshorns Katharine MacMághnuis, recorders, fiddle, gemshorn Maura Ó Cróinín, recorders, gemhorn, harps Our all female quartet was formed in 1993 after hearing The York Waits play a bravura concert at Lismore Early Music Festival. We were christened by The York Waits, who used ‘You Good Ladies of Galway’ as a quaintly old fashioned form of address !

The Good Ladies of Galway’s formation coincided with the renovation of Galway’s Medieval Quarter and with an increasing awareness of Galway’s rich medieval heritage. The newly restored Latin Quarter provided a fitting backdrop to ‘The Good Ladies’ activities and to the Galway Early Music Festival itself, later founded by two of our members, Ann Priestley Smith and Maura Ó Cróinín.

Our ambition from the outset was to bring early music alive for Galway audiences to whom the genre was largely unknown at the time. We aimed to make our repertoire accessible for a non-specialist audience by use of costume and choreography and by selecting atmospheric settings for our performances.

Without taking ourselves too seriously, we devised programmes which included Ann Priestley Smith’s own settings and arrangements of early and traditional tunes, Maura Ó Cróinín’s historian’s eye for period detail, Katharine MacMághnuis’s spirited traditional fiddle playing skills and Penny MacBeth’s colourful sets and costumes.

The Good Ladies’ reunion concert for Galway Early Music Festival 2016 is a celebration of our legacy and of the flourishing early music scene which Galway now enjoys.

More to colour!

Join the Good Ladies of Galway FB Page & post your colouring.

Thank you for coming!