| By most accounts, the Baroque Period of Music began about 1650 or so and Madrigals are pretty much considered to have been passe by 1628 with the publication of Michael East's "Seventh Book Of Madrigals". So, to my mind, anything after 1645 is "modern". I arrived at this figure by computing the number of toes on a newt, times the angels on the head of my pin, divided by the number of lies told by G. W. H. Bush in his first 100 days in office, and factored in the chances Gore had of unseating him, which produced a figure of -0632. I immediately rejected this as being an un-scientific result ( i.e.: it wasn't the result I had wanted) and so selected the date in question "out of thin air", that being the method seemingly used today by most academics and economists. |
| David W. Solomons is an Englishman who has been blessed with a counter-tenor and a range I would kill for. He records and performs choral music as well as creating multi-part compositions for recorder and other instruments. His work may be found at www.dwsolo.com as well as being included in the "toptempo" websites and many others. He is also a charter member of the Madrigal YahooGroup. Here we have a piece from about 1780, (words by "The Bard") with music by W. Shield. The piece as transcribed below was arranged for three female voices (S S A) by Henry Leslie and was kindly supplied to me by David, for which I (although not my optometrist) thank him. In the MP3 below he sings it in a somewhat lower register (Mez Mez B) and in a different key. "O, Happy Fair" (or, "The Lodestars") :: NWC :: MIDI :: PDF :: MP3 :: Thanks, David! |
| So: from the sublime we proceed to the perigee of the art, while STILL remaining within the sphere OF art... no small accomplishnment (or concept) I may state without fear of circumlocutional opposition. F. L. Dunkin-Wedd. Really, no more need be said than to give you the URL and let you go and enjoy the insanities. |