Drumbeat September 2009
COME, COME, COME TO THE FAYRE ~ YOU’LL SEE US THERE!
Yes from 2pm this coming Saturday, 26th September as ever was, we shall be on parade and banging the drum for Lympstone Entertainments. As you must know by now, this is the penultimate event in the month-long celebrations of the 600th anniversary of the consecration of Lympstone Parish Church. And it was there in the church that we set the whole month’s merriment in progress when we presented The Daughters of Elvin. Their performance was most warmly received by a very good audience, and by none better than this month’s reviewer, Jenny Moon. Read her reaction to the show below.
But back to the Pageant and Fayre: proceedings will begin outside the Globe Inn where the Royal Marine band will lead the assembled company, in their medieval finest, to the church and thence into the Lupton’s orchard behind Glenhaven Cottage. That’s where we shall have set out our stall; and that’s where we hope to see lots of you. It will be a showcase of our past presentations and a shameless pitch to sell tickets for the events coming shortly, including
The Bridge Quartet of London
will be back by popular demand for a concert comprising
Schubert’s Quartetsatz
Britten’s Quartet no 1 in D
Dvorak’s American Quartet in F
in the Parish Church
on Saturday 17th October at 7.30pm
Tickets (£10.00 centre or £8 side & rear)
now available at Lympstone Post Office
or by telephone on 01395 263928
‘RICH, DIVERSE AND COLOURFUL’ says Jenny Moon of the Daughters of Elvin
We had listened to fine music during the first half but now, from behind the white curtain at the back of the old church, five demons emerged, swaying and dipping, viewing the pews with glaring, fixed stares. From the tufts of ragged hair on each head, sprouted two small but ominous horns. The demons played on instruments that wove the tune to which they moved. Shifting ahead of them was one with a blue face, who moved up the aisle reeling, sliding and with lurching paces, responding to the tune. He, for surely a ‘he’ it must have been, offered his rough and rugged cheek to various of the onlookers, but appeared somewhat distracted by the offering by one, of a rosy pair of lips. On he danced, round and about the side aisles, teasing and communing with individuals as the main group of them moved forward into the nave. When they reached the stage in the nave, the masks came off and the four musicians and singer were back in the mode of the first half...
The medieval music and dance theatre group, ‘Daughers of Elvin’ (with dancer, Ricardo Barros and soprano, Siona Stockel), was presented by Lympstone Entertainments as their contribution towards the celebration of the 600th anniversary of the consecration of Lympstone church. While internationally known, the group is based in Devon. The event was rich, diverse and colourful with moments of humour and moments of stirring depth generated through wonderful singing, the range of instruments and the theatrical dance.
The music was largely from the 12th to the 14th centuries and involved tunes mainly written in Italy, France and Spain. Some were prayers, some were beguiling love songs and some were the dances that were the pastimes of Spanish pilgrims as they wended their ways across the country. Some of the dances were not to the approval of the church, but for all that, they appear not to have been lost! The instruments which were played included bagpipes, recorders, pipes (sometimes with two played at the same time), a salterio (a stringed drum), hurdy gurdy, harp, cittern, dulcimer, base and treble viols and a variety of percussion instruments. Not only was the listening good, but there were always intriguing instruments to be watched.
Siona Stockel’s singing was wonderful. The sustained high notes of her voice rung through the spaces of the church, aided by its acoustics. There was poignancy and depth or laughter in the songs that reflected life, love and the everyday events of the time of the consecration. It was certainly a celebration of an age. Celebration was also in the church. A glass of wine and time in the interval to meet and greet, amidst the beautiful banners that decorated the building were as much part of the event as the music and dance. It helped too that there were many in the audience who were wearing the clothes of the time (well, approximately!).
And I end where I begun – this time with a white unicorn dancing and reeling in the aisles, playing around the musicians, playing round the audience with paper butterflies, and opening a skull to a further fluttering crowd of pink butterflies that landed all over the stage.
Photographs courtesy of
STONEFREE PHOTOGRAPHY & DESIGN
