St. George’s Canzona (English early music ensemble)

St. George's Canzona is a British musical ensemble. In Britain at least, it may be said that the early-music movement was initiated by Arnold Dolmetsch (b. 1858) and his family who (it seems) are all but forgotten today, even though their influence lingered on until the 1960s. Following the Dolmetschs came a second wave, in which Michael Morrow's group, Musica Reservata (see Thomson, J. M.; Sothcott, John; Fallows, David; Page, Christopher (August 1994). "Michael Morrow Obituory". Early Music. 22 (3): 537–539. doi:10.1093/earlyj/xxii.3.537. JSTOR 3128106.) was the foremost influence, and of which John Sothcott was a highly accomplished recorder player and founder member. Initially, Morrow's field of activity was medieval music, and possibly the first occasion upon which they came into prominence was whilst touring in Brian Trowell's production of The Raising of Lazarus, a medieval miracle play (1962). Leading the procession of disciples, they leapt straight out of a Bruegel painting; the three virtuoso minstrels - Michael Morrow, John Beckett and John Sothcott - followed by the impressive figure of Jeremy Montague, who beat an all-pervasive staccato accompaniment on the nakers (a small pair of drums hung at the waist). Thus they demonstrated exactly how such music might be lifted from the ancient manuscript, and be made to live and breathe again. But in spite of such success, Michael began to harbour doubts regarding his tough approach to the performance of Medieval music. In his search for authenticity therefore, a change of direction became imperative, so that he now steered his vessel into the better charted waters of the Renaissance. His first venture into this period was a highly ambitious one, namely the Florentine Intermedii, which served as light musical interludes between the extravagantly staged acts of some 16th. century plays. These were scored in the multi-layered polychoral manner, and therefore required the participation of perhaps forty artists. Consequently, the assembled company came to include young performers who would constitute the next prominent generation of early musicians, including Phil Pickett and the ill-fated David Munrow. But also amongst those who would subsequently strike out on their own was John Sothcott himself who - living in Essex - had formed the Harlow Canzona Ensemble. Made up of local enthusiasts, it was originally simply a recorder consort, but soon acquired a veritable arsenal of other period instruments, regarding which Mike Oxenham's impressive array of autophones deserves a special mention. Consequently, this group was called upon to participate in the forthcoming concert and its attendant recording for Decca. Amongst those who attended that night at the Royal Festival Hall was an actor - George Murcell - whose ambition it was to convert a disused Victorian church (St. George's Church, Tufnell Park, London) into a Shakespearean theatre-in-the-round, like the original Globe Theatre. This was a project which needed funds, a contribution to which was to come from the sales of a record featuring various extracts from the works of the Bard. For this George had already recruited a formidable array of talent - actors such as Paul Scofield, Dorothy Tutin and Christopher Plummer, the last being hot from his success in the film, The Sound of Music; and it was this last element that George needed to leaven his loaf! Musica Reservata (he thought) would fill the bill admirably. But Michael Morrow - for reasons of his own - would have none of it. So Frank Grubb - a member of the Sothcott group - promised George Murcell that - in the event of Michael's continuing intransigence - the Canzona Ensemble would step into the breach. An so it transpired that Frank - being already Musica Reservata's recording agent - would form a partnership with John Sothcott for the purpose of making records which would operate amicably during the creation of a dozen future albums. Subsequently, changing its name to suit that of the budding theatre, the St. George's Canzona now turned professional by virtue of being featured on Decca's ARGO label. At the time, Frank Grubb was also contracted to PYE Records, for whom he was setting up albums of Early Music with other artists, as a consequence of which he was able to secure the services of PYE's celebrated recording engineer, Bob Auger, solely on the promise of royalties from this unknown group. In the event, Bob made two recordings for the Canzona, namely The Music of Henry VIII and To Drive the Cold Winter Away (the latter 1975), in respect of which, and to his amazement, royalties actually began to plop onto his doormat. Meanwhile, John Sothcott began to make his own stringed instruments, initially rebecs (for which the only exemplars were Medieval illustrations) but shortly afterwards he turned his attention to the vielle. For this the evidence was slender indeed; but of it, the Medieval theorist Grocheo had observed that this instrument included within itself all other instruments. Such words eventually convinced John that the vielle was an early form of fiddle whose bowed strings were concordantly tuned (e.g., G D g d), but to which was added a fifth drone string, so affixed to the peg box that it might be plucked rhythmically with the thumb of the left hand. By this means, the performer became a kind of one man band. John then proceeded to claim this instrument for his very own, so that - whilst others have since attempted to simulate its sound by other means - nobody else has actually mastered the vielle itself. At about this time (1970), another recording engineer - John Boyden - had been signed up by EMI to their ‘Classics for Pleasure’ label. A Canzona release on this label would clearly be a step forward, but a ‘demo’ disc was needed. This was compiled from tracks made for the Elizabethan Appeal album, and achieved with the help of one of the Skeapings (who appropriately lived in a house named ‘Findings’!) and who possessed the necessary technical know-how and equipment. Received by John Boyden with the suggestion that his brand would benefit from an injection of medieval music, the outcome was a Christmas album entitled A Tapestry of Early Christmas Carols. For this, the choir was made up from the ‘orchestra wives’, whilst young up-and-coming soloists such as Philip Langridge (who died in 2010), Mike Rippon and David Thomas (but to whose distinguished company the Canzona's own counter-tenor, Derek Harrison, needed to yield nothing!) were engaged to spice up the credits. It was a great success, and demand necessitated a second pressing before the end of the festive season. A follow-up was required whose title track was England be Glad, and which featured music from the period of the Hundred Years War. It did not, however, enjoy the success of the previous record, partly (it would seem) on account of a less striking cover illustration by means of which to attract buyers. A further spin-off from the album for St. George's was the Canzona's folk-rock record, ‘Giles Farnaby's Dreame Band’. This was the brainchild of A & R man Kevin Daly who also worked for the ARGO label, but on the folk side of the house. His idea was to combine the Canzona with a group of folk singers (The Druids), bass guitar and drums, and for good measure an unconventional and musically illiterate folk group called ‘The Broken Consort’. These hailed from the West Country, and their principal, Trevor Crozier, actually signed on at a London Job Centre as a shepherd! How exactly this programme of folk songs and tunes from Playford's ‘English Dancing Master’ was to be made was indeed perplexing; but the ever-resourceful John Sothcott solved the problem by handing out four-part settings of the music, to which the Broken Consort simply busked along. As for bass and drums, these were added ‘ad hoc’ during this early eight track recording. The outcome was a foot-tapping, infectiously rhythmic rendering of England's