so..
I have spent a long time trying to find ANY reasonable source for Gibbons' "Go from my window".
I found some from FSU library online, and I opened all the links and opened one at a time, only to find out that all of them were five sentences long CD reviews of some group's performance.
And i started wonder the possibility of finding any journal articles on Gibbons' work.
How? How do I find sources????
BUT,
I did it. I went on Grove's dictionary, and looked up every single sources they have cited for Biography of Gibbons.
I ended up being able to find four out of twenty sources they have cited!
I cried with joy.
So here they are:
1. Thurston Dart. "The Printed Fantasies of Orlando Gibbons." Music & Letters 37.4 (1956): 342-349. Accessed September 18, 2012, http://www.jstor.org/stable/730438/.
Dart focuses on the printed fantasies by Gibbons. By 'printed', Dart means engraved in copper plates-remember from my last source? I grabbed this source expecting that "Go from my window" to be one of these printed fantasies, but I found out that only nine of twenty four fantasies had been printed during Gibbon's lifetime, so Dart does not focus on "Go from my window", which was not printed then. Nonetheless, I still like this source because I got to learn about other composers' influence to Gibbons in writing fantasies, and traditional instrumentation for fantasias- 6 viols was not very common!
2. Oliver Neighbour. "Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625): The Consort Music." Early Music 11.3 (1983): 351-357. Accessed September 18, 2012, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3138023/.
Our friendly "Neighbour", Oliver Neighbour tells all about Gibbons' consort music, which is viol ensemble. I love this source because Oliver does a good job categorizing types of consort music by 3 part, 4 part, and so on. Oliver also writes a very detailed analysis on Gibbons' consort music as if he is a music theorist (he may be). He talks about Go from my window last (because it is 6-part, so numerically last), and I found it interesting that Oliver thought this piece showed Gibbons' weakness. I always thought Gibbons' music was so perfect, but he was a human with weaknesses, too.
3. Francias Baines. "The Consort Music of Orlando Gibbons." Early Music 6.4 (1978): 540-541+543. Accessed September 18, 2012, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3125751
This article is also from Early Music. This was published earlier than the one written by Neighbour. Francias Baines has friendlier approach to explaining Gibbons' Consort music. While Neighbour examined harmony and structure of Gibbons' work analytically, Baines talk about how they were played, how the performers would have felt, and so on. Baines' writing is more narrative like a story teller, which is much easier to understand for general public who does not know anything about early music. It is also very short-only four pages! I love how Baines describe bass viol part of "Go from my window" as "terrifyingly difficult".
4. Rockwell, J. "Music: Orlando gibbons." New York Times, 1984, 12-C.12. Accessed September 18, 2012, http://search.proquest.com/docview/425076266?accountid=4840
This article is from a newspaper, New York Times. Rockwell is obviously writing to a general public who does not have any knowledge on early music at all.
Rockwell actually wrote this article to review Davidoff's viol consort concert, who played several pieces by Orlando Gibbons, including "Go from my window".
Since this is a popular newspaper targeting general audience, the writing is very easy to read and informative without being overwhelming. On the other hand, there is not much of academical substance for the piece itself- the only way of explanation about the music is the use of imagery.
5. Gibbon, Orlando. Go from my window, variations in 6 parts for viols, MB40, Fretwork & Red Byrd, Virgins Classics, 1989, Compact Disk
This source is not a document! This source is a sound recording. It is easier to experience the music itself instead of trying to describe it with some obscure words.. One listening is better than millions of texts! So here it is..
The consort who is playing in this recording is Fretwork & Red Byrd. They have done a phenomenal job recording such a difficult piece of work. This recording gives anybody the direct experience of what Gibbons' music is like.
Magnificent Gibbons' Consort Music
Jinny --
ReplyDeleteExcellent work as always. I loved this post--your humor kept things very interesting for me :-)
I really think there's something to be said for good newspaper journalism. If you can write about something as foreign to most people as viola da gamba, and relate that to the lives of the general public, that's a pretty incredible feat. I think as writers, we should all strive for the same sort of clarity that they achieve (Or, as I said yesterday in class, quoting Bill Clinton, "Simple without being simplistic.")
I have a few points/questions:
1) In the Neighbour source, you say that he thinks this piece shows Gibbons's "weakness." How do you mean this? Does it show his weakness as a composer (in other words, is his writing here not as good as on his other pieces?) or does it show that he is an emotionally frail human being? Either way is fine, I just thought that you might want to clarify that.
2) make sure that you're citing everything properly. For instance, you misspell the composer's name in your final source. Be sure to keep your eyes open for things like that. Also, make sure your formatting is uniform. You switch from a sort-of "notes-style" format (first name/last name) to a bibliographic style (last name, first name). For this purpose, either one is, essentially, ok -- but I want to make sure that you know the difference, and that you know how to do each one correctly.
I don't have any any other comments now. Very excellent work; I'm glad you persisted and that you found some really excellent sources! Let me know if I can help you with anything else in the coming weeks! Thanks Jinny!