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MUSIC IN SCOTLAND IN THE 16TH CENTURY
Early music in Scotland is bedevilled by scant surviving sources and, from the mid 16th century, a national church with a marked antipathy to the performing arts. Yet the early 1500s saw a great flowering in the music of both church and court. Anything but provincial, Scotland was well connected with stylistic developments in England, Flanders and Italy and in the composer Robert Carver produced a national champion of European stature.
Robert Carver ~ Missa Dum sacrum mysterium, Gloria
Josquin des Prez ~ Benedicta es caelorum Regina
Anonymous ~ Descendi in hortum meum
David Peebles ~ Si quis diligit me
Jachet of Mantua ~ Descendi in hortum meum
Anonymous ~ Missa Felix namque, Kyrie & Gloria
Robert Carver ~ O bone Jesu a19
Rory McCleery, who devised the programme, writes: ‘Sacred music from Renaissance Scotland is often unjustly overlooked, at least in part because of the paucity of surviving sources from the period. Those manuscripts that have stood the test of time and escaped the efforts of overzealous Calvinist reformers offer us a picture of a rich and vibrant musical landscape, and it is this that we will be exploring in this week in Edinburgh, from the compelling magnificence of the Carver choirbook to the latest European fashions and reformed writing of the Dunkeld music books and St Andrew’s Psalter.
‘Pride of place in the programme goes to Robert Carver, whose extraordinary nineteen-voice O bone Jesu is matched by his equally striking ten-part Missa Dum sacrum mysterium, likely written in celebration of the coronation of the infant James V at Stirling in 1513. Alongside these we will sing music by other Scottish composers of the period and Continental musicians whose music found its way north of Hadrian’s wall, including Josquin des Prez’s exquisite Benedicta es caelorum Regina and Jachet of Mantua’s sumptuous Song of Songs setting Descendi in hortum meum.’
Rory Wainwright Johnston is a British conductor and composer based in Berlin. He read music at the University of Manchester, followed by postgraduate studies in composition with Camden Reeves and Nina Whiteman. He then moved to Berlin and studied for a master’s degree in choral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’ under Justin Doyle.
Before moving to Berlin he worked with many choirs across the northwest of England and founded Manchester Renaissance Ensemble. He also worked as an associate conductor as part of The Hallé’s choral team. Previously, Rory had assisted Justin Doyle with RIAS Kammerchor’s 2017 performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, and Matt Hamilton with the preparation of the Hallé Choir for the Hallé’s performance of Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder. In 2018 he was the musical director for Manchester Contemporary Youth Opera, conducting a mixture of University of Manchester and RNCM students alongside the Vonnegut Collective in the production of 5 newly-composed mini-operas. He was also the Young Artist Musical Director for Waterperry Opera Festival in 2019. Rory is currently the musical director of Consortium Vocale Berlin and is regularly engaged as a workshop and course leader for early music throughout the UK.
As a composer, his music has been performed and workshopped by a variety of ensembles from across the UK, including ORA Singers, Kantos Chamber Choir, Echo, Psappha Ensemble, BCMG Next, The Orchestra of Opera North, QuatourDanel, Skipton Camerata, Chester Bach Singers, and Ad Solem.
THE COURSE
The Edinburgh Early Music Summer School is intended for experienced choral singers who are good readers, have a blending, straight voice (or one with a controllable vibrato) with full dynamic range, are used to normal choral discipline and are able to respond quickly to direction – the intention being to combine professional pace of work with amateur enthusiasm. There are places for eight sopranos, eight means/mezzos, eight altos, six tenors, six baritones and six basses. The plan is to start the course with an early evening (5pm to 7pm) session on Sunday the 10th of July. Then from Monday to Friday there will be rehearsals from 9.30am to 1pm and from 5pm to 7pm. All rehearsals will be held in Old St Paul’s Church and its adjoining hall. On Friday the 15th of July we will give a public performance in the church, followed by a group supper in a nearby restaurant, which will mark the end of the course. On other evenings we will dine in smaller groups. Meals are not included in the fee for the course. All the music will be printed in a booklet and sent to you before the course.
LACOCK STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS
Singers of student age – which we will not define too closely – are invited to apply for a full scholarship to the Edinburgh Early Music Summer School. These places are intended for current, recent or prospective university choral scholars, music students or other singers seriously interested in developing their vocal skills and ensemble musicianship. There will be opportunities to form smaller-scale groups outside the times of the choral sessions. The scholars are exempt from the course fee but pay for their own travel and accommodation costs. To apply, just email us giving brief details of your singing experience.
OLD ST PAUL’S CHURCH
The Summer School will take place in Old St Paul’s Church, a hidden gem of the Old Town, and its adjoining hall. It is in the centre of the city, near Edinburgh Waverley Station, St Giles’s Cathedral and the Scottish Parliament Building. Entrances in Carrubber’s Close and Jeffrey Street give little clue to the splendour within this historic episcopal church with a Jacobite past and magnificent and complete late Victorian original furnishings. Still, a massive tetraptych depicting tumbling folds of white cloth, painted by Alison Watt in 2004, is displayed in the memorial chapel. The address of the church is Jeffrey Street, Edinburgh EH1 1DH.
ACCOMMODATION AND TRAVEL
You arrange your own accommodation. Of course there is a bewildering choice – web sites such as https://www.visitscotland.com and https://edinburgh.org might be a good place to start. Old St Paul’s is three minutes’ walk from Edinburgh Waverley station via Market Street and Jeffrey Street. From the airport there is a tram to St Andrew Square or a Lothian Buses Airlink 100 service to Waverley Bridge, both running every eight minutes.
FEES AND ENROLMENT
The fee for the course is £535, payable in two parts: a deposit of £235 or the equivalent in euros on registration and a further £300 by the 1st of June. The deposit may be credited to another course if you have to withdraw and we are able to allocate your place to another singer. The fee includes the booklet containing all the music, which will be sent to you in advance. Accommodation and travel are not included.
