RAF Concert Pifaro by IPCBirmingham

Religious Arts Festival Concert

January 31, 2025 | 7:00 PM

Piffaro, The Renaissance Band

Philadelphia, PA

Priscilla Herreid, Artistic Director – shawm, recorder, krumhorn, bagpipe

Stephanie Corwin – dulcian, shawm, recorder

Héloïse Degrugillier – recorder, bagpipe, flute, krumhorn, shawm

Grant Herreid – lute, recorder, shawm, straight trumpet, percussion

Greg Ingles – sackbut, recorder, straight trumpet, krumhorn

Sian Ricketts – shawm, recorder, bagpipe, dulcian, krumhorn

Erik Schmalz – sackbut, recorder, slide trumpet, krumhorn

Rev. Kevin J. Long, Pastor

Independent Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL

il Piva (the Piper)

"Piva alla Venetiana".............................................................. Joan Ambrosio Dalza, arr. Grant Herreid (fl.1508)

Civic

Musicians

in Venice

“T’meisken was jonck”......................................................................... Jacob Obrecht or Heinrich Isaac (c.1457-1505) (c.1450-1517)

“Es suld eyn man keyn moele farn”............................................................ Anon. Glogauer Liederbuch (c.1480)

“Rompeltier”..................................................................................

Anon. Hamonce Musices Odhecaton (1501)

“Pavana alla Venetiana”........................................................................ based on Dalza, arr. G. Herreid

A Consort for a King

“Puzzle Canon”..................................................................................................................... John Lloyd (c.1475-1523)

“Fantasia con pause, e senza pause”.......................................................................... Philip van Wilder (c.1500-1554)

“Fortuna desperata a3”.................................................................................................. Antoine Busnois (c.1430-1492

“Fortune esperee”............................................................

Anon. “after Busnois,” Henry VIII Manuscript (c.1510)

“Fortuna desperata a6”............................................................................................. Alexander Agricola (c.1445-1506)

Courtly Dance

“Gallarde Faraboscho”...............................................................................

Anon. ‘T Uitnemend Kabinet (1646)

“Pavana a5, No. 2”................................................................................................... Augustine Bassano (before 1530-c.1604)

“Galiarda a5. No. 4”.............................................................................................................. A. Bassano

“Paven” ................................................................................. A. Bassano, Matthew Holmes Lute Book (1590)

”Pavana a5, No.1".....................................................................................A[lfonso] F[errabosco], Junior (1575-1628)

Third line by Peter Holman

Grandeur and Devotion

"Fantasia No. 5"......................................................................................................... Giovanni Bassano (1558-1617)

“Divisions on Susanne ung jour”....................................... Orlando di Lassus, divisions by G. Bassano (c.1532-1594)

“Susanne ung jour”............................................................................................................. O. di Lassus

“Tra verdi campi a la stagion novella (Yoshev marom hazaq)......................................... Orazio Vecchi (1550-1605)

“Barechu”...................................................................................................................... Salamone Rossi (c.1570-c.1630)

Music for the Theatre

“Courtly Masquing Ayre 13 (Williams’s love)”...................................................................... John Adson (c.1587-1640)

“O Mistress Mine”........................................................................ Thomas Morley, adapt. Grant Herreid (c. 1557-1602)

“The First Witches’ Dance”..................................................................... Anon The Masque of Queens (1609)

“It was a lover and his lass”.................................................................. T. Morley, duet vers. G. Herreid

“Paradizo”.................................................................................................................. Anthony Holborne (c.1545-1602

“Hackney”................................................................................................................ Clement Woodcock (c.1540-1590

A Musical Legacy

“Fantasia a5, No. 1”.................................................................................................... Jerome Bassano (c.1559-1635)

“Ah the sighs”.......................................................................................... William Cornysh, the Younger (d.1523)

“My love she mourneth”....................................................................................................... W. Cornysh

“Taunder naken”..................................................................................................................... Henry VIII (1491-1547)

“Philip’s Dump”............................................................................................................ Philip Van Wilder (c.1500-1553)

“Pastime with Good Company”................................................................................................Henry VIII

PROGRAM NOTES

This program is about a family – a large, multi-generational, very musical family. Some of them formed the cornerstone of Venetian professional music-making for decades. Others were the most influential group of wind players at the English court, also for decades. This family’s roots can be traced back to the Italian town of Bassano del Grappa, where they were referred to as the family Piva – the Italian word for bagpipe, or piper –so they may have been a family of bagpipe players. The Piva alla Venetiana (an arrangement from a lute solo) takes our pipers from town to metropolis, where from about the year 1500 on, they are known as the Bassano family.

In Venice, the Bassanos were members of the illustrious civic wind ensemble, the pifferi del doge. Their repertoire would have included vocal motets and instrumental pieces from sources like the Harmonice Musices Odhecaton and the (German) Glogauer Liederbuch. Tunes from books like Glogauer could have easily been brought to Venice by imported German sackbut players. The pifferi would typically have more players than needed for much of their music (five people in an ensemble playing mostly 4-part music, for example). In this case, it’s likely that the players sometimes traded off every couple of pieces and took a break. We also love taking breaks, so we pay homage to this idea with T’meisken was jonck (which exists in both 3- and 4-part versions) and Es suld eyn man (a 3-part piece which is the basis for the 4-part Rompeltier). The pifferi would also have participated in elaborate Venetian processions. Depictions of these processions often show two instrumental ensembles: the pifferi, and groups of very long, straight trumpets. We incorporate trumpets and shawms into Dalza’s lute arrangement of Pavana alla Venetiana, giving a taste of what these processions might have sounded like (albeit with far fewer players!).

Meanwhile, King Henry VIII was searching Europe for the best musicians to bring to the English court. His Venetian agent reported that not only were the Bassanos “all excellent and esteemed above all others in [Venice]” but that they were also instrument makers. Henry was an avid collector of instruments, and a recorder player himself.

While the Bassanos were the best of the best in Venice, they apparently could not always depend on a paycheck. They were also almost definitely Jewish, so may have considered the job in England a pragmatic move. They would probably have been living a perilous existence in Venice, even if they had (at least outwardly) converted. Jewish people were technically banned in Tudor England, but the Bassanos may have known that King Henry, who expressly invited them, was likely to have selfish reasons to take care of his musicians.

The original five brothers who moved to England were hired as shawm and sackbut players, but they seem to have quickly switched gears, becoming the King’s recorder consort. The set of pieces for our own recorder consort begins with two pieces by other musicians at the English court. John Lloyd’s Puzzle Canon features a repeating four-note pattern in the tenor, which loses a beat on every repeat. Henry VIII’s court lutenist, Philip van Wilder, wrote two versions of a 4-part fantasia – one with rests (con pause) between the notes, and the other without rests (senza pause). Busnois’s Fortuna desperata was one of the most popular songs of the 15th century, used as the basis for around 30 other compositions, including Fortuna esperee (a 4-part version found in the King’s collection of pieces). As seen before, there were often more players in the consort than needed for most pieces. Other than players taking breaks, another convention would probably have been to double a part. You’ll hear this in the final setting of Fortuna desperata, where we double the melody (played in the tenor part), and again in the final set of the concert; Jerome Bassano’s Fantasia a5 has a very rangey bass part, so we’ve decided to share it with two different bass sizes.

Before intermission, we hear music that would have certainly been played by the Bassanos at the English court – dances written by a member of the second generation of the English Bassanos (Augustine), and another important court musician, Alfonso Ferrabosco.

A branch of the family continued as musicians in Venice, and were as powerful a force in that city as the branch at the English court. Giovanni Bassano, director of the instrumentalists at the Basilica of St. Mark’s, is considered an early member of the Venetian School of composers, charting a path forward for musicians like Giovanni Gabrieli. Giovanni Bassano’s legacy mainly lies with his book on ornamentation (Ricercate, passaggi et cadentie, 1585) and his ornamented versions of pre-existing pieces, the most famous being these divisions on Susanne ung jour, which we will follow with the original chanson (song) by di Lassus.

Whether the Bassanos were Jewish is a question that probably has no definitive answer. Certainly Giovanni Bassano would not have been able to openly practice Judaism as an employee of the Basilica of St. Mark’s. But there is a substantial amount of evidence that point to the family having Jewish background, whether any members of the Venetian or English branches were still outwardly or secretly observant. At about the time that Giovanni Bassano was working, the Rabbi Leon da Modena was bringing polyphonic music into Venetian synagogues and collaborating with Jewish composer Salamone Rossi. Leon da Modena set Hebrew text (Yoshev marom ḥazaq – a plea for the Messiah to come) to a pre-existent canzonetta by Orazio Vecchi, Trà verdi campi a la stagion novella (“among green fields in the new season”).

Back in England, playhouses were filled with music, and the Bassano family would have certainly known the playwrights, and the tunes, that were taking England by storm. The most famous Bassano today, Emilia (the daughter of one of the original five English brothers) has been put forth as possibly being the “Dark Lady” of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Our theatre set includes music from various theatrical entertainments, pieces that could have been used as incidental music in plays, and two songs found in Shakespeare’s plays (O Mistress Mine from Twelfth Night; It was a lover and his lass from As You Like It).

Our program ends with music that honors the long legacy of the Bassanos at the English court. A fantasia by yet another Bassano (Jerome, or Jeronimo) leads us into two pieces by one of Henry’s most important musicians, William Cornysh (Ah the sighs and My love she mourneth both begin with a solo melody, followed by a trio). Henry himself proves his estimable compositional skills with his version of Taunder naken, a simple melody that was used by many composers as a foundation supporting newly-written virtuosic lines. A gorgeous lute solo by van Wilder leads us into one more tune by the King, his beloved Pastime with Good Company.

Priscilla Herreid

About Piffaro, The Renaissance Band

Piffaro, The Renaissance Band’s mission is to delight audiences with historically informed performances of music from the late Medieval, Renaissance and early Baroque periods, in the manner of the civic, court and chapel wind bands, which existed roughly between the years 1450-1650. We aim to entertain and educate others in the music itself, in its role in the culture of those periods, and in its link to music of our day. To that end we conduct extensive research and inquiry into the music, history, and performance practices of the Renaissance period. Our ever-expanding instrumentarium includes shawms, dulcians, sackbuts, recorders, krumhorns, bagpipes, lutes, guitars, and a variety of percussion — all careful reconstructions of instruments from the period.

Founded in 1980 by Joan Kimball and Bob Wiemken and now under the artistic direction of Priscilla Herreid, the world renowned pied-pipers of Early Music present an annual subscription concert series in the Philadelphia region that also reaches an international audience online; tour throughout the United States, Europe, Canada and South America; and appear as performers and instructors at major Early Music festivals. Recordings are a significant part of the ensemble’s work, and 18 CDs have been released since 1992, including 4 on the prestigious label Deutsche Grammophon/Archiv Produktion.

Piffaro has been active in the field of education since its inception and has been honored twice for its work by Early Music America, receiving the “Early Music Brings History Alive” award in 2003, and the Laurette Goldberg “Lifetime Achievement Award in Early Music Outreach” in 2011. In June 2015, the American Recorder Society honored Piffaro with its Distinguished Achievement Award. In 2022, founders Joan Kimball and Bob Wiemken received Early Music America’s Howard Mayer Brown Award for lifetime achievement in the field of early music.

Artist Biographies

Priscilla Herreid is a musician in the ancient and living tradition of woodwind doubling. Her formative years studying recorder at Philadelphia’s Settlement Music School led her to the High School for Creative and Performing Arts. She studied oboe with Louis Rosenblatt at Temple University, where she began playing renaissance wind instruments in Temple’s Early Music Ensemble, directed by former Piffaro co-director Bob Wiemken. Further studies in baroque oboe with Gonzalo Ruiz took her to The Juilliard School where she received her MM in Historical Performance.

Priscilla became a member of Piffaro in 2007. Artistic Director since 2022-2023, Priscilla has the honor of continuing Piffaro’s mission of bringing the renaissance wind band and its repertoire to ever wider audiences. Priscilla is also an avid educator, teaching at the Madison and Amherst Early Music Festivals and coaching existing ensembles in the art of playing renaissance polyphony – a form she believes is inherently satisfying for amateurs and professionals at every level.

Priscilla regularly performs on renaissance winds, early oboes, and recorder with many other prominent early music ensembles. Her appearances include The Handel + Haydn Society, Tenet Vocal Artists, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, The Waverly Consort, The Metropolitan Opera, Tempesta di Mare, The Gabrieli Consort, The City Musick, The Dark Horse Consort, Philharmonia Baroque, The Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Boston Baroque, American Bach Soloists, Choral Arts Philadelphia, Night Music, Arion Baroque, Portland Baroque, Venice Baroque, Ex Umbris, The Bishop’s Band, New York Baroque Inc., The Sebastians, Les Delices, Ruckus, and Mr. Jones & the Engines of Destruction. She also accompanies silent films with Hesperus, sings the Latin Mass around New York City, and was part of the onstage band for the Broadway productions of Twelfth Night and Richard III starring Mark Rylance. Priscilla’s playing has been called “downright amazing” by The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The New York Times has praised her “soaring recorder, gorgeously played…”

Grant Herreid performs frequently on early reeds, brass, strings and voice with many US early music ensembles. A specialist in early opera, he has played theorbo, lute and Baroque guitar with Chicago Opera Theater, Aspen Music Festival, Portland Opera, New York City Opera, and others. A noted teacher and educator, he is the recipient of Early Music America’s Laurette Goldberg award for excellence in early music outreach and education. On the faculty at Yale University, he leads the Yale Collegium Musicum and the Yale Baroque Opera Project. Grant also directs the New York Continuo Collective, and often sings Gregorian chant for the Tridentine mass. He has created and directed several theatrical early music shows and devotes much of his time to exploring the esoteric unwritten traditions of early music with the ensembles Ex Umbris and Ensemble Viscera.

Greg Ingles attended high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy and went on to graduate from the Oberlin Conservatory and SUNY Stony Brook. Before his career in early music, Greg was the Solo Trombone in the Hofer Symphoniker. He enjoys unearthing rarely heard gems as the music director of the early brass ensemble Dark Horse Consort. Greg is a member of Piffaro and made his Carnegie Hall debut with Quicksilver last season. He has played with such ensembles as the American Bach Soloists, Chatham Baroque, Concerto Palatino, The Handel & Haydn Society of Boston, Philharmonia Baroque and Tafelmusik. He played with the Globe Theater in their Tony nominated Broadway debut of Twelfth Night and Richard III. Greg is currently the Lecturer in Sackbut at Boston University.

Erik Schmalz, a specialist in trombones and performance from the Renaissance to the Romantic periods, works internationally with many prestigious ensembles. Among others, these include Dark Horse Consort, Tafelmusik, Piffaro, Ciaramella, Green Mountain Project, The Toronto Consort, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Opera Lafayette, and Handel + Haydn Society. Performing on period trombones, renaissance slide trumpet, and recorder, his versatility also led him to be cast as one of the seven instrumentalists in the Globe Theater’s Shakespeare on Broadway productions of Richard III and Twelfth Night. Erik received degrees in trombone performance from Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied with Ray Premru, and from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with Tony Chipurn.

Héloïse Degrugillier has worked extensively as both a recorder and traverso performer, and teacher throughout Europe and the United States. She has performed with leading period ensembles, including Handel + Haydn Society, the Boston Camerata, Boston Early Music Festival, Aston Magna and Tempesta di Mare. Heloise also enjoys an active teaching career. She teaches at Tufts University and Rhode Island College. She is the president and music director of the Boston Recorder Society. She has completed her studies in the Alexander Technique and has a Masters in Music from the Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands.

Sian Ricketts enjoys a multi-faceted career as a period woodwinds specialist, singer, and medieval pedagogue. She is a core member of Piffaro and Alkemie, and she also performs and records medieval, Renaissance and baroque chamber music and orchestral repertoire with ensembles including Makaris, Trobár (OH), Apollo’s Fire (OH), Theotokos (NY), and Science Ficta. As a co-managing director and performer with Alkemie, she has appeared on series including the Berkeley Early Music Festival, Arizona Early Music, the Five Boroughs Music Festival, Music Before 1800, and the San Francisco Early Music Series. With Alkemie she co-produced and performed on the soundtrack for the BAFTA award-winning videogame Pentiment by Obsidian Entertainment (pub. Xbox), as well as A Fine Companion (a dream-pop/shoegaze/psychedelic rock rendering of troubadour texts) and Love to My Liking (a historically-informed realization of trouvère melodies and lyrics). Sian also co-leads the experimental ensemble Freelance Nun, creating music that transcends boundaries of time, genre, and dimension. Freelance Nun is currently exploring early American ballad traditions as well as creating acoustic + electric arrangements of the music and texts of Hildegard von Bingen and Herrad von Hohenburg.

Sian holds a D.M.A. in historical performance practice from Case Western Reserve University with concentrations in voice and baroque oboe, and has served as faculty at Fordham University and the Amherst Early Music Festival. When not making music, Sian can be found reading science fiction and fantasy novels, baking, or tie-dying.

Stephanie Corwin enjoys performing and teaching music of the past four centuries on modern and historical bassoons. Her vocation has taken her throughout the US and abroad, simultaneously satisfying her love for travel and her desire for connecting with people on and off the stage. Highlights include solo appearances at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall and concerts with many of North America’s prominent early-music ensembles, including Tafelmusik, Piffaro, the American Classical Orchestra, and the Handel and Haydn Society. Stephanie is the inaugural winner of the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition and has received prizes at the Fischoff, Coleman, and Yellow Springs chamber music competitions. After graduating from Davidson College, Stephanie earned her MM from Yale and DMA from Stony Brook, studying with Frank Morelli at both institutions. Intrigued by performance practice, she completed a Performer Diploma in historical bassoons at Indiana University with Michael McCraw. Stephanie has served on faculty at the University of Virginia, the Chamber Music Conference, Amherst Early Music Festival, and the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute.