Sunday, March 22, 2015

Ah Robin, Gentle Robin (Repertoire 1)

Here is the link to the score:
http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/images/2/2e/192.pdf

Ah Robin, Gentle Robin is a short piece by William Cornysh.  This piece is worthy of consideration for many reasons:

  1. It is historical, but still very accessible to inexperienced singers
  2. The text is interesting because it tells a story and has literary merit (vocabulary and metaphors)
  3. The text is still applicable to singers today (gossip and love)
  4. The line of the music lends itself to musicality and shaping
This piece is very flexible.  In the key it is currently notated, it works well for older inexperienced singers.  But it could be easily transposed (up) to accommodate younger voices.  The piece is musically simple enough to be accessible to inexperienced singers, but it could easily serve as a lesson in line and story telling for experienced singers.  I could see this being used with groups anywhere from children's choir to groups like Burcham Sings.

The current range of the piece is the A below middle C to the D an octave and a step above.  However, as I mentioned before, this piece could be easily transposed as it is an a cappella round.  All of the voices sing all parts so the tessitura is not clear, however a good deal of time is spent between D above middle C and F.

This piece lends itself very well to legato singing and phrasing.  The piece demands varied dynamics to give an interesting performance.  The singers could also learn quite a bit historically from this piece about independence of line and absence of traditional metric stresses.

The text is full of metaphors and period language.  Familiarity with this sort of writing could be very helpful to students, especially if students were also studying Shakespeare or other writers of this time period.  The text also tells a story of gossip that is still relevant to today.  And on the plus side, the less sexist man gets the final word.

As for adaptation, key should be altered to match the choir's vocal capabilities.  There is also the possibility for solos during the verses.

I really do like this piece a lot.  I could see myself using it with students of all ages and abilities.  And, it's completely free.  Win!

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