TAKE IT FROM THE TOP

A cappella choral group Ariose makes its debut

By Bruce Willey

Leta Miller, dressed in brown shoes, brown pants and a brown top that matches her hair, stands at a wobbly podium conducting the newly formed a cappella choral group Ariose. In front of her stand seven men and seven women singers wrapped in a quarter moon around the medium sized stage where the group holds rehearsals at Temple Beth El in Aptos on Thursday nights. Sopranos, tenors, altos and basses, most with plastic water bottles at their feet, are dressed like they changed into something comfortable after work. An alto forgoes shoes.

But this isn't your regular homespun choral group out for a night of musical slackery. Ariose is a crack vocal unit headed by one of the top musicologists in the country.

"Sopranos," Miller says, stopping the group mid-piece. "Let's not go so softly there or you won't hear the notes. We finally hear the basses, now let's get the sopranos. Ready? And ...now."

Miller gestures generously with her arms and the music begins softly then builds as she raises her hands higher. There is that indescribable feeling from hearing the human voice in collaboration, voices that counterpoint each other in different tones and timbres, and enough musical beauty to initiate goosebumps.

"I like that. Nice. That's the best I've heard yet," Miller says when the piece, a secular Renaissance madrigal, comes to a regal conclusion. Ariose, which is an Old English term meaning "tuneful," is both fitting in the type of music they are singing and the music itself. For their debut concert as part of the Santa Cruz Chamber Players concert series on Saturday Nov. 10, Ariose is concentrating on a "Renaissance Love Fest," love songs from the 16th and 17th centuries.

And surprisingly, in an example of how little the pursuit of love and sex has changed in over 500 years, the set list reads like contemporary lyrics ripped from a Backstreet Boys or Christina Aguilara concert. All of love's themes are laid out, sometimes in precious predictable ways and others in precarious hot loined ways --- enough to get a Tipper Gore parental warning slap. One bawdy song in particular stands out. "Let me go now, baby, you commit great sin/ But when she came to feel the sweet moment, you would have seen her move so tenderly." This from composer Clement Janequin (French of course) who was born in 1485 no less.

Miller, a world-class flutist with over 16 CDs, author and UCSC professor, did her Stanford University doctorate dissertation on English and Italian madrigals (secular songs) and the French version of madrigals, the chansons. She explains that there are problems with presenting this music because it was written in a very different musical notation than is used by modern musicians. As a result Miller has had to transcribe much of the music into modern scores, a task that has its own set of problems.

"There are very few performing directions in this music," she says. "They (the composers) didn't have in mind that people 400 years later were going to be performing it. Most times, the composer was right there. So there's no tempo, no dynamics. Sometimes it's unclear where the notes and the words go together. So we have to make decisions about what we call text underlay; how the text fits into the music."

Although Miller says Ariose remains as faithful as they can to the original text there is debate, sometimes heated debate, in the musicology world as to what interpretation is authentic. Obviously, the further back in history, the fewer directions are still available. Nevertheless, Miller has found the time to transcribe 80 madrigals and over 150 chansons into readable scores for modern singers, a task that not only requires a scholarly intrepidness, but also the ability to be the musical equivalent of an archeologist on a dig with a fine brush, sweeping the grit from the bone one note at a time.

"We have a little license to play around though," says Miller. "But we also use common sense to say this music is an expression of the poetry. So what can we do to enhance the poetry to convey the meaning of the text. It takes some imagination to look at the score and translate it into an emotionally convincing performance."

So far, in rehearsals at least, it seems to be working. When you hear the madrigals or chansons performed live there is a definite time warp on two levels. One is that you are hearing actual history become alive and animated; almost like gazing at a cracking Rembrandt painting in a museum. And two, here, in Aptos of all places, it's as if the music takes you back to lavish Renaissance courts. Back to Italian city states or English castles where much of this music was originally performed. Musically, it's a strange and wonderful feeling.

"0 Care, thou Wilt dispatch me." The group sings. "0 care, thou wilt dispatch me, if music do not match thee."

It's a piece about how music can heal all wounds, love or otherwise. Miller recalls how the group didn't feel like singing after the Sept. 11 events. "And then, we would find that we would get into this material and we would find that this music is very healing. We all felt that coming together and making beautiful music helped us find a commonality, and a hope for the future. It's a good time for love songs. It's always a good time for love."

Ariose plays Nov. 10 at Temple Beth El, 3055 Porter Gulch Road in Aptos. They will be joined by the recorder ensemble I Flauti Dolci, directed by Carol Panofsky. For information call 425-3149 or visit www.scchamberplayers.org.

Santa Cruz Good Times, November 8, 2001

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