by Marvin J. Ward

Holyoke, MA, 14 January 2008.  Yesterday afternoon, Arcadia Players repeated in Wistariahurst’s Music Room here a program entitled “The English Orpheus” given in the Caswell Library of Deerfield (MA) Academy the evening before.  It featured music from 17th century England played by a quartet of a kind typical then but rare today, with readings from contemporary commentaries and diaries interspersed.

It opened with one of Christopher Simpson’s four suites that bear the names of the seasons, Winter, consisting of a Fancy, an Ayre, and a Galliard, featuring Dana Maiben, violin, Tina Chancey, tenor viol, Alice Robbins, bass viol, and Gregory Hayes portatif organ.  It was so lovely that many feared the afternoon’s climax had been reached too soon, but much beauty followed with works by William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, John Jenkins, Matthew Locke, William Lawes, Tobias Hume, and Henry Purcell, whose Sonata of 4 Parts in F (The “Golden Sonata”) closed the program.  Its ending was light and inconclusive, very different from the standard wrap-up that we are accustomed to and that was a bit of a surprise.  Some members of the quartet played other instruments in other works.  There were pieces for two violins with bass viol and organ, others with treble viol instead of violin, and a few were duos or trios.  Hayes and Robbins stayed with their instruments throughout.

Robbins, with Chancey’s assistance, gave an interesting pre-concert talk about the string instrument families that were competing at the time, viols and violin/viola/cello/bass, but which were also often combined in a single concert and work, so the competition was far from a duel.  The performance that followed proved that they could join harmoniously and beautifully.  That the violin family prevailed and viols have fallen out of general use has more to do with fashion, concert hall size, and brilliant virtuosity than with the instruments themselves or their sounds.  Robbins was also responsible for the program planning.  Robert Eisenstein prepared the informative and scholarly program notes that gave details about the composers’ lives and contexts.  He reminded us that “the viol was the main recreational instrument of well-educated gentlemen” of that time, much as the piano might be today.

The appropriate and entertaining readings, selected and delightfully delivered by Arcadia Players’ Artistic Director, Ian Watson, featured commentaries on music, modes and fashions, specific composers, including John Jenkins’ tombstone poem, methods of playing the lute, reports on a 1660s Sunday service that featured music between the prayers, etc., by Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn from their diaries, and some comments by Purcell, whom Roger North called the "Orpheus Britannicus," on poetry and music.  Not all the sources were identified, unfortunately.

As Watson said at the conclusion of the last reading, this music is the root of the English Baroque, the core of the Arcadia Players repertoire, even though the musicians play works as late as Beethoven in other concerts.  It was a truly rewarding treat to return to those roots.  Few other groups in this region perform them; none with the level of quality and degree of beauty that these musicians infuse them with.