Mediaeval evening in Ytterlennes Old Church July 2010, pt. 2 of 2

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• published: 16 Oct 2010
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This is our annual mediaeval evening to celebrate the start of the summer visitors' season at the Old Church of Ytterlennes (Ytterlännäs) in Ångermanland, Northern Sweden. The basis of the group is those of us who work as guides and looking after the café, but we have music every day in the Old Church and anyone who wants to give a bit of time to singing is welcome. With mediaeval wall-paintings, renaissance sculptures and baroque furnishings, visitors come from all parts of the world, for seven weeks in the summer, seven days a week, seven hours a day ... Part 2 begins with three of John Dowland's dances played on recorder & harp. Morley's ballett ('a song for dancing to'), "Now is the Month of Maying" was first published in 1595, but we sing as it was known to a later generation, around 1650, with just melody and bass, though - as they did at the time - we've added extra parts so everyone has something to do. Thomas Tallis' "If ye love me, kepe my commaundementes" is often sung by choirs nowadays: but if you follow the normal 16thC. practice and sing with only one voice to each part, as we do here, you get a very different dynamic of human interaction and harmony. "En vänlig grönska" is perhaps the most popular Swedish summer hymn: this is how we do it with visiting coach groups: 'A rich costume of friendly greenery has adorned the valleys and the meadows'. "Gloria in excelsis" sets sacred words to one of Mozart's well-known arias. "Rise my Soul" is from the Southern-Baptist tradition of shape-note hymns, with our re-worked harmony parts.