Renaissance Fair

An exciting collection of music for the Hammered Dulcimer as heard on Maggie Sansone's acclaimed recording A Celtic Fair. America's premier Hammered Dulcimer recording artist and player Sansone has created a perfect collection for all levels of playing including both a beginning 'melody-only' version and challenging intermediate versions with variations ornaments flams and bass runs. Two earlymusic pieces included present the melody and a version for duet and quartet with bass line. The music is drawn from jigs reels and airs from Ireland Scotland and Brittany France and Renaissance dance manuscripts. The sheetmusic is presented as the basic melody with chords and many of the tunes include a variety of advanced techniques (ornamentation flams rolls use of bass lines use of unusual modes and scales and interesting chord substitution)to add spice to the arrangements and challenge the player to reach towards the next level of advanced performance. Audio available online.

A Selection of Renaissance TunesInstrument : treble recorder and pianoNombre de Pages : 56Steven Rosenberg writes in the preface:This book is intended to give recorder players a repertoire of solo pieces from the Renaissance. Solo literature for the recorder is often dominated by music of the baroque era, while the music of Renaissance is primarily preformed by consorts. I hope that this collection will expand the solo repertoire by bringing to recorder players some of the most beautiful melodies of this period. I have performed all of these pieces in public and have taken care only to include music that is of performance quality. Some of the pieces are grouped in suites, but you should feel free to play them in the order of your choice. For those of you equally at home on descant (soprano) and treble (alto), fell free to intersperse pieces from the companion book for descant recorder.The edition is part of the ABRSM Summer 2006 syllabus (grades 1-3) and the Trinity syllabus 2007 (grade 6).Content : Four Elizabethan Masque Dances: 1. The Fairy Masque (Johnson) - Four Elizabethan Masque Dances: 2. Wilson's Love (Anon) - Four Elizabethan Masque Dances: 3. The Witches - Second Dance (Anon) - Four Elizabethan Masque Dances: 4. The King's Mistress (Anon) - Three English Country Dances from John Playford's Dancing Master: 1. The Merry Milkmaids - Three English Country Dances from John Playford's Dancing Master: 2. Dissembling Love (or The Lost Heart) - Three English Country Dances from John Playford's Dancing Master: 3. Newcastle - Two Country Dances from John Playford collection: 1. Bellamira - Two Country Dances from John Playford collection: 2. Pell-mell - Allemande (1) (Susato) - Allemande (2) (Susato) - Lady Bannings Almand (Sturte) - Le coeur est bon (Susato) - Pass et medio (Susato) - Pavane Mille regretz (Susato) - Recercada quinta (Ortiz) - Recercada segunda (Ortiz) - Recercada segunda sobre 'O Felici Occhi Miei' (Ortiz) - Ronde Mon amy (Susato) - Ronde III (Susato) - Ronde IV (Susato) - Ronde V (Susato) - Ronde VI (Susato) - The Leaves be Green (Phalese) - What if a Day (Dowland) - Woodycock (Anon)

In keeping with the efforts of developing a curriculum that fosters Comprehensive Musicianship, this string orchestra arrangement of three of the most popular Renaissance madrigals, will provide your students with a peak into this period of music history that is frequently overlooked. 'Now Is the Month of Maying,' 'Sing We and Chant It,' both by Thomas Morley, and 'Fair Phyllis,' by John Farmer, are basic choral repertoire found in most high school and college full SATB and madrigal ensembles. The string ensemble may perform the arrangement alone with the added Renaissance style percussion. Or, better yet, why not enhance the performance by adding an SATB chorus thereby sharing the stage with your school's most advanced choral ensemble? (5:00) / Orchestre A Cordes

Composed in the spirit of the Renaissance works written to Elizabeth I - fair Oriana - this soaring work for double chorus is in the signature Whitacre style with brilliant choral textures unfolding into a majestic final salute Long live Oriana!

A collection of 5 short works in pop style which can be performed by any kind of compilation. The titles can be presented on the programme as separate works but the Universal Band Collection can also be performed as a complete suite. From a didactic point of view it is a suitable work to teach musicians something about the structure in music. For this purpose not only the big structure but also the small structure was kept very clear.Western Girl : A girl from the west of the USA rides her horse across the prairie dreaming of her future. The rough structure: introduction - theme in a blues scale - the same thing in a different instrumentation - finale.Just a ballad : A balladin pop style with a rough A-B-A form. First there is the introduction of the main theme (A) then follows a tenor melody in minor with a rhythmical reference to the main theme (B). Finally there is the main melody performed tutti with a different rhythm in the drums (A').Play the Game : An English saying meaning: play fairly. Playful music in up-tempo with a wink to China where almost all games are manufactured nowadays. Once again an A-B-A structure here.San Diego : A Mexican fugitive enjoys his freedom in America but also remembers his place of birth with melancholy. A sad minor melody with a straight trendy beat appears twice. The second time it has a slightly different instrumentation in which the muted trumpets represent the Mexican feeling.Final Dance : Eventually there is a dance with an introduction in renaissance style followed by a fast dance in rock style. All this composed in a classical song structure: introduction verse bridge chorus shortened verse bridge chorus chorus.