Orcas a Cappella director Dennis Bonner. - Contributed photo
Contributed photo
Orcas a Cappella director Dennis Bonner.

A magical madrigal feast to be hosted by Orcas a Cappella


November 2, 2009 · 11:32 AM

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Come ye one and all to a magical madrigal feast.

Join Orcas a Cappella in the Lodge at Camp Orkila, Monday, Nov. 16, at 6:30 p.m. There will be a plethora of food and drink, along with the musical accompaniment of the singers in Renaissance regalia. Enjoy the music of the Elizabethan age of England and France as Orcas a Cappella, divided into small madrigal groups, serenade the revelers as they dine. All singers will join at the top of the evening to present Ralph Vaughn William’s Elizabethan Songs, with poetry by William Shakespeare and George Herbert, along with a remarkable arrangement of the traditional “Greensleeves.” Come in costume or naught.

Tickets are $35, available at Darvill’s and Eastsound Instrument and Supplies by the post office, or by calling Bev Leyman at 376-6811.

Madrigal music was a primary entertainment in all the courts of Europe during the 16th and early 17th centuries, and became popular in the home as well. It features a richly polyphonic style and is usually associated with the poetry of the day. The texts are secular, unless designated otherwise, e.g. “madrigal spiritualis.” Madrigals were cultivated particularly by Italian, Flemish and English composers, but permeated the rest of Europe in the vernacular of each country.

The name madrigal derives from the composition’s use of poetry in the mother tongue (matricalis, belonging to the womb). The tone is often satirical, and the subject matter is love related, idyllic or pastoral.

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