This past week we have put the finishing touches on the Early Music Hawaii program, “Masters of the English Reformation” which will be aired beginning Friday, October 23rd at 7:00 pm and will be available on the website for one week.

The program really consists of two parts: Sacred music, which will be aired on October 23rd, and will open with the joyful “Hosanna to the Son of David” by Thomas Weelkes in addition to the monumental motets, “Magnificat” from the Second Service by Orlando Gibbons and “O Lord my God” by John Bull, and the sublime “When David Heard” by Thomas Tomkins. There are several solos: “I laid me down” by William Byrd and “Never weather-beaten sail” by Thomas Campion. I also play several organ works: “Gloria Tibi Trinitas” by Thomas Tallis, “Variations on a Dutch Chorale” by John Bull, and “Clarifica me pater” by Thomas Tomkins.

At the same time we also recorded a whole program of Secular music, which will be aired sometime in January 2021. This program includes “As Vesta was from Latmos Hill descending,” by Thomas Weelkes, “A Silly Sylvan” by Orlando Gibbons, “Why do I use paper, ink and pen” by William Byrd, “Come again” and “Can She Excuse My Wrongs” by John Dowland, “I go before my darling” and an absolutely gorgeous “Sweet Nymph” by Thomas Morley, and “Now, o now, I needs must part” by John Dowland. As is the custom in Early Music Hawaii concerts, there are ensemble pieces as well as solo opportunities for individual singers to shine. In this concert, I play two harpsichord solos, “Worcester Braules” by Thomas Tomkins and “La Volta” by Thomas Morley.

Originally we had planned to air the secular program one week after the sacred concert but as you know, we had to delay all of our rehearsals due to the lockdown in Hawaii because of the increased cases of coronavirus. And because the mainland group, “Les Délices” already had a program scheduled for November, we thought it might be too much of a good thing to have so many early music concerts scheduled so close together!

Taken together, the sacred plus the secular equals a whole lotta music! I was personally involved in five separate recording sessions plus three ensemble rehearsals—and it took a lot longer than preparing for a regular concert. As I’ve said before, recording is a whole new ballgame rather than performing for a live audience. Having people in the pews gives you a little bit more adrenaline rather than performing for a bunch of iPhones and iPads! And with the knowledge that you can always do another take in case you make a traumatic mistake gives you a false sense of support. In every single piece (without exception!) we did at least two takes, if not more.

There was also one whole recording session which we threw out completely because while the audio was fine, the video was not recorded and had to be completely redone. (Groan!)

Now … to why I’m calling this post “Definitely OLD school!” Sure, this music is all OLD, with music by composers from 16th century England. And in looking around the room to my fellow performers, I am definitely OLD (!) with the rest of the group the age of my son (or younger!)

The real kicker is that every single singer read music from a tablet or iPad and I used old-fashioned music printed on paper! I took some photos to show you.

There was one piece we performed where I had tons of page turns and repeated sections which required turning back a page. There was no way to have a separate page turner, and out of frustration (my failure to successfully turn the pages), Tomás Hernandes offered to let me use his iPad while he used my music in a three-ring notebook. At first, I had real difficulty, because swiping the screen to turn the page resulted in either turning two pages at once or not turning it at all. With a little practice, I conquered this technical hurdle for our final performance.

You might remember I had this paper vs. tablet discussion before (“Paper is best?“) where I ended up by posting this video:

I am afraid I am definitely OLD SCHOOL!