EASTERN EARLY MUSIC FORUM

 

Monteverdi: Vespers of 1610

4th – 6th May 2007
St. Stephen’s Church, Norwich


Tutored by Philip Thorby

 

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HILIP Thorby guided us through the music with his usual expertise, patience and humour. Notable quotes scrawled in my score include: “basses: try and sound like Rabbinical Daleks”, “the Dixit Dominus is sex and violence, we’ve had the violence, so now...”, “sopranos: you negotiate with aplomb something infinitely more complex than Monteverdi ever envisaged”, “what’s the problem with the ‘amen’ – is it the words or the music?”

 

THE weekend was character building. Not only did some of us have to learn some quite tricky vocal lines, but we also had to negotiate Norwich’s cornucopia of pubs, not to mention bucket loads of Sangria on Saturday night. A select few were further toughened up when their hotel’s fire alarm went off at two in the morning, necessitating a full evacuation in pyjamas. Fortunately this was rather nicely offset by some very effective catering, including the frequent administration of home made cakes and tea.

 

FOR the gig itself, some last minute shifting of venues saw us installed at St Stephen’s, a late mediaeval church, whose central stained glass window rather auspiciously had the number “1610” (presumably the year of installation) in the middle. A narrow chancel and the usual Oxford Movement collegiate choir stalls – why do churches hang on to them?! – didn’t help but after a bit of shuffling, a spot was found for everyone, even if the results were slightly reminiscent of the works of M.C. Escher.

 

ALARMINGLY, what had been billed to me as a “workshop performance” for family and friends, seemed to have produced a full house, their faces beaming with alarming expressions of expectation. The queue for the church’s single toilet delayed the start of the performance, the memorable quote being, “I’m not playing that bloody toccata until I’ve had a wee.” The proceedings then roared into life and were well received by all and sundry.

 

THE only less than delightful thing about the weekend was the weather.

 

Dennis Cook

 

Extracted from EEMF Newsletter 66, November 2007

Photographs