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"Scenes From A Tudor Court"

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"Scenes From A Tudor Court"

Postby Grawnque » Tue May 21, 2013 2:07 pm

Sorry I was out of the loop so long - somebody challenged me to write an operetta and that took awhile. But now I'm back with another concerto, this time featuring carillon - which was an interesting challenge from the start considering that the carillon is the instrument that does not play well with other. The carilloneur performs in a room inside a tower where you can't see him and he can't hear or see you. Or at least that used to be the case - there's somebody who has his attached to an iron framework on wheels, which he tows about the country giving concerts.

I had in mind the early years of Henry VIII's reign, while he was married to Catherine of Aragon:

https://www.box.com/files/0/f/894792962 ... r_Carillon

The First Movement deals with the coronation of Henry and Catherine, a seriously grand affair. Their wedding shortly before that was a rather muted affair with no one in attendance other than the required officials as Henry was still officially in mourning for his death of his father, Henry VII. The coronation was an official function, and they made up for their quiet wedding.

Unfortunately, Henry needed a surviving male heir to stave off a possible civil war, lead by those who felf that Henry's throne would have fit much better under their own butts. The crisis was relieved when Catherine gave birth to their first son, Henry. Problem solved, as he would grow up to be Henry IX, except that he only lived a total of seven weeks. It was a harbinger of disasters yet to come. The Second Movement is based upon his death.

But, life goes on, and if the Renaissance produce anybody who qualified as a party animal, it was Henry VIII. Henry loved a good revel, and even if the Queen was several years older than he was, she seems to have felt the same. In the Third Movement, I used a piece written by Henry, Passetyme with Good Companye, which has all the earmarks of a first rate drinking song. For Catherine I used the Flamenco form, even though it really hadn't come into use yet - though how much difference there was between it and what was currently leading to it is anybody's guess. (The same can be said for the carillon as well, actually...) I picture Catherine challenging Henry with her dancing, which I would imagine he would have loved - provided he won the contest in the end. This is represented by the movement being essentially a duet between the carillon and the tubular bells. Such a contest would never likely have happened, but we're going for how I think they would have thought.

Enjoy!
Grawnque
 
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