Sunday 12 August 2018

Next project - Capriol

I've been wondering what to do after drawing a line under My Lords and Ladies.

I had a few ideas, I've tried some Monteverdi and some Italian dances in general.

A very long time ago I started looking at the score for Peter Warlock's Capriol Suite. Having pulled that out again and started to do a little work on it, it's clear that it's going to work out well.

Peter Warlock wasn't a 16th Century composer (early 20th Century). He wasn't really called Peter Warlock (he was Philip Hestletine - Peter Warlock is a much cooler name). But the 6 movements in the suite are all based on 16th century dances.

Here's the first rough demo. I really like the arrangement (I've pretty much just played notes off the score). An opportunity to play lots of brass.

I usually work like this - record all the parts without worrying too much about perfection, to get an idea of how it'll sound, and get ideas about any modifications I might want to do. There are some wrong notes in it. Some are my mistakes, but you also discover errata on the score. For example, if you've downloaded the string orchestra score from IMSLP, the 12th bar of B has a wrong note in the bass. The rest of the parts are obviously playing notes from a D major chord (D, F#, A) but the bass has a Bb, which clashes horribly and I think should be a D.

Capriol 2 - Pavane mp3

Update 30 Aug 18, more work in progress

Capriol 1 - Basse Danse mp3