The Piping Rock Singers present

Renaissance: Rated X

Date:	Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Time:	7:30 p.m.
Place:	Ovations Nightclub, in Rice Village, 2536 Times Boulevard #B Houston, TX
Admission:	$10 (students $8)
Information:	For more information on “Renaissance: Rated X” or other Piping Rock Singers events, please call Drea Legare, Business Manager at 832-928-9330.

Take a step back to late 16th century Florence, Italy, to the popular music of the day, to hear the deep, melodic voices of these madrigal singers. Pay attention: This particular set of songs is meant to conjure up less than pure images. The songs were considered to be racy and provocative for the time, before the world had Madonna and Britney Spears, television and the Internet. Listen to the two French wives talking of the cuckolded husband (coo-coo for the cuckold):

He is handsome and fine, my husband is,
There were two gossiping women in the village,
Saying one to the other, do you have a good husband?
He doesn't scold me, or beat me either.
He does the chores, he feeds the chickens
And I take my pleasure.
Really you have to laugh
to hear the cries of the chicks and hens:
Co, co, co, co, dae, little flirt, what's this?

Or Giles Farnaby's “Sometime, she would:”
Somtime she would and somtime not, & somtime not, the more request, the more disdaind, the each woman hath her gift god wot and, euer had since Venus raignd, and euer had since Venus raignd, and euer had since Venus raignd, though Vulcan, though Vulcan, though Vulcan, did to Venus yeeld, I would haue men to winne ye field

The Piping Rock Singers, resplendent in Renaissance garb, will perform songs in Italian, English, French and Spanish, from 16th and 17th century composers that speak to the flesh in a Botticelli painting -- much to the chagrin of the clergy in the Sistine Chapel, who banned secular music. The church pushed this music into town squares, streets, pubs and other gathering places to be performed and enjoyed.
Madrigal songs are of Italian origin, the center of the Roman Catholic Church and its wayward patrons, but so struck a chord with English, French, English and Spanish composers that each land's composers interpreted the genre to fit their own cultures.
T.J. Hoffman, the chorus director, chose the selection of songs especially for this program from across Europe. Among the composers represented are Nino le Petit (actually Johannes Baltazar, a singer in the papal chapel (fl. 1488-1501)), Juan Vasquez (c. 1500-1560), Jacotin (early 16th century), Pierre Passereau (1509-1547), Pierre Certon (c. 1510-1572), Orlando di Lasso (c. 1532-1594), Luca Marenzio (c. 1553-1599), Thomas Morley (1558-1603), Giles Farnaby (1565-1640), Frances Pilkington (1565-1638), Thomas Bateson (1570-1630), ande Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625).