Wednesday 12 January 2011

Material for 2011

Welcome to our blog! We are Vocal Ensemble Hieronymus, a 10 piece vocal group based in Edinburgh. Having never had a blog before this is all very new to us and so may take us some time to get into the swing of it.
We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who came to our most recent performance on the 18th December last year, when we performed 'Winter Songs' at St.James' Church, on Inverleith Row. Other than it being a cold night, we all enjoyed ourselves and appreciated having such a attentive and complimentary audience. As soon as we have any further concert dates, we will announce them here first, so do check back when you can. It may not be until the spring at the earliest though, as we are embarking on some new material, and have ambitious ideas about what to do with it!
This year, Vocal Ensemble Hieronymus are working on medieval music, primarily from the Llibre vermell.  The Llibre vermell is described by Chris Elmes in his performers edition transcripts, as "one of the most important collections of Spanish medieval songs".  The Manuscript originates from the monastery of Montserrat in Catalonia, and was written in the late 14th century.
It presents the following 10 songs, 'O virgo splendens', 'Stella splendens', 'Laudemus virginem', 'Splendens ceptigera', 'Los sept goyts', 'Cuncti simus', 'Mariam matrem', 'Inperayritz dela ciutat ioyosa' and  'Ad mortem festinamus' . We have previously worked on and performed 'Ad mortem festinamus' at our summer concert of songs on a theme of 'Love and Loss in the summer of 2010', although, Ad motem only really fitted the theme tenuously, with the implication being of the importance of "Renouncing" one's vanity. Ewan performed a solid and rousing lead vocal with the other  members dueting on a verse each, it was a lot of fun, but descended into giggles at various points, probably due to the fact it was the last song in the set, and every ones concentration had slipped  with the  relief that we had nearly got through the 'ordeal' of our first proper live performance! We had also worked on the two canons 'Laudemus virginem' and 'Splendens ceptigera' although these were only performed by myself (Helena) and Carole after an informal concert we did at Chris and Cait's(Gaita) flat, unfortunately due to the fact that most members had gone home by this point, Carole and I didn't necessarily do them justice after several false starts and some general confusion....to be worked on again and performed properly in the near future.
2011 has kicked of with 'Stella splendens' and 'Maria Martrem'.