The Clerks Songbook
The Hit-Parade circa 1500
“One of the most inventive early music groups around”
Musical Opinion, July 2008
For the past fifteen years, The Clerks have been immersed in the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. They now present their exclusive choice of chart-busting songs and motets, each one a classic of its age.
Presenting songs in the original, and in new translations by some of Britain's leading poets, The Clerks Songbook introduces audiences to the pieces which were breaking new ground in the Renaissance: songs by the likes of Guillaume Dufay, Jean Ockeghem, Gilles Binchois, copied and re-copied by eager musicians, and inspiring numerous adaptations and 'contrafacta' (new texts set to old-established melodies).
Through new, specially-commissioned contrafacta, the humour, pathos and romance of these songs can be appreciated in a fresh light.
There is an interactive element to the programme, too, with the audience's listening capacity and aesthetic judgements contributing to a light-hearted 'nationwide survey'.
The selection of songs is complemented by a notable recent addition to The Clerks Songbook, Christopher Fox's humorous and poignant sequence 20 Ways to Improve Your Life, recently premiered at the Spitalfields Festival in London.
These short, pithy settings of e-mail spam and items found in personal ads columns provide a witty counterpoint to the passions and politics of our Renaissance songsters.
Forthcoming Performances: See the Events Page
Works include:
- After the Mass/Post missarum sollempnia Anon/words – Ian Duhig
- Hot Soup!/Se je chant Anon/words – Ian McMillan
- So ys emprentid Walter Frye
- Ma bouche rit Jean Ockeghem
- Adieu ces bons vins de Lannoy Guillaume Dufay
- Fortuna desperata (and contrafacta) Anon/Antoine Busnois?
- Comme femme desconfortée Gilles Binchois
- 20 Ways to Improve your Life Christopher Fox
Educational Work
In addition to the concert, the programme can be linked to a children’s creative writing workshop. This would entail a school visit by Edward Wickham, a poet and two other members of The Clerks (where possible), during which pupils will be encouraged to compose new lyrics to a Renaissance song. Taking as a starting point the famous example of The Beatles’s Yesterday, which started out as a melody with several possibilities for lyrics, the workshop will encourage pupils to think about the many challenges – poetic and musical – involved in putting words to music. The best examples will be included in the concert programme itself.
This workshop will be best suited to Year groups 6-10. It will ideally involve two half days, a few weeks apart, giving time for the children to work up some ideas developed in the first session.
