Colligenous Trenchan...never mind. Lute folk,
A few years back, I used to run a very loose Sing It Yourself Messiah in these parts. Basically, instead of the carefully rehearsed orchestra and soloists with 'pick up' chorus, we just gathered a very small core band (in those days, just a string trio) and then supplemented with any string player, oboist and bassoonist who wanted to play, chose the soloists out of the volunteer chorus (or used the whole section if no one felt brave enough to volunteer), and went for it. We did this three times, then between my wife's heart problems, my going to college (just graduated) and other things, we stopped doing it. This year, I succumbed to the requests and will be doing it again. The core orchestra has grown some (I actually had a full quartet and the bassoonist came for one rehersal), and some of the folk who are going to add to the orchestra will be quite talented amateurs. The choir and soloists are still going to be up-for-grabs. It is guaranteed to be fun (since most of the people who get horribly bored between the Pifa and Why do the Nations don't come.) However, this year has been pretty busy, and I totally forgot to invite a harpsichord player. For the most part, this is ok: we're well covered for the choros and Arias, but some of the Recitativos can be painful without some kind of continuo. We're doing it this afternoon. I have a theorbo-like instrument which I'm not afraid to use. But I'm only just sitting down to write out tab, because I'm going to be too busy getting people through their solos to be improvising. Has anyone else done this already, who would be willing to share? I'm conducting the whole thing, so all I need are the Recit's. I'd be very grateful. ray To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
