St George's Canzona

Early years: Musica Reservata and the Harlow Ensemble

In Britain, the early-music movement was initiated by Arnold Dolmetsch (b. 1858) and his family, whose influence lingered until the 1960s. A second wave followed, led by Michael Morrow's group Musica Reservata, of which John Sothcott was a founder member and highly accomplished recorder player. Morrow initially focused on medieval music, and the group came into prominence while touring in Brian Trowell's production of The Raising of Lazarus, a medieval miracle play in 1962.

The three virtuoso minstrels—Michael Morrow, John Beckett and John Sothcott—were followed by Jeremy Montague beating a staccato accompaniment on the nakers (a small pair of drums hung at the waist). Despite this success, Morrow began to doubt his tough approach to medieval music and shifted to Renaissance repertoire, beginning with the Florentine Intermedii, which required about forty performers. This brought in younger musicians including Phil Pickett and the ill-fated David Munrow.

John Sothcott, living in Essex, had formed the Harlow Canzona Ensemble, originally a recorder consort that soon acquired other period instruments, including Mike Oxenham's impressive array of autophones. This group was called upon to participate in a concert and its attendant recording for Decca.

The beginnings of St George's Canzona

Among those attending that night at the Royal Festival Hall was actor George Murcell, who aimed to convert a disused Victorian church, St. George's Church, Tufnell Park, London, into a Shakespearean theatre-in-the-round. To raise funds, he planned a record featuring extracts from Shakespeare's works, with actors such as Paul Scofield, Dorothy Tutin and Christopher Plummer, the last hot from his success in the film The Sound of Music. Murcell wanted Musica Reservata to provide the music, but Michael Morrow refused.

Frank Grubb, a member of the Harlow Canzona Ensemble, promised that if Morrow remained intransigent, the Canzona Ensemble would step in. Grubb, already Musica Reservata's recording agent, formed a partnership with John Sothcott to make records. The group changed its name to St. George's Canzona, matching the budding theatre, and turned professional by being featured on Decca's ARGO label. Frank Grubb, also contracted to PYE Records, secured the services of PYE's celebrated recording engineer Bob Auger solely on the promise of royalties.

Auger made two recordings for the Canzona: The Music of Henry VIII and To Drive the Cold Winter Away (the latter 1975), and to his amazement, royalties actually began to arrive.

The Tapestry recordings

The Canzona's dream of a contract for a series of recordings came unexpectedly when John Boyden, who had left EMI to found his own classical label Enigma, needed a series of half-a-dozen albums, each with a specific historical theme. He reused the Tapestry concept for albums on Robin Hood and his Merry Men, Christopher Columbus and his Crew, Good King Wenceslas and his Page, The Black Prince and his Knights, and a double Civil War album for Cromwell and his Roundheads and King Charles and his Cavaliers.

Recording began in 1976 and was completed in three years. The first two Tapestries went well enough, although they were not quite of top drawer quality, but the Canzona then created four further albums of a standard seldom surpassed in early music. For the Wenceslas album, John Sothcott believed that clues to authentic performance of medieval music had been preserved by folk musicians, especially from Eastern Europe. Research included assembling a suite of such music, with Ray Attfield's folksy voice making an indispensable contribution.

For the Black Prince Tapestry, the music required a lighter touch, as much of it dated from the Gothic period, and many tracks sparkle like cobwebs glistening with morning dew.

Later developments

These were CDs that equalled the stature of other early music albums flooding the market. John Grubb formed his own group, The Noise of Minstrels, which leaned towards folk music, playing drone-based instruments such as the hurdy-gurdy and bagpipes.

Bob Auger made their debut album Pass the Hat on a speculative basis. The torch of early music, lit by the Dolmetsch family and passed to Michael Morrow and John Sothcott, was received by those who would keep it alight into the 21st century. The Canzona contributed by joining Phil Pickett in a successful tour of Italy and Greece lasting several weeks, which was its swan song.

Stringed instruments

John Sothcott began to make his own stringed instruments, initially rebecs (for which the only exemplars were Medieval illustrations) but shortly afterwards he turned his attention to the vielle. For this the evidence was slender; but the Medieval theorist Grocheo had observed that this instrument included within itself all other instruments.

Such words convinced John that the vielle was an early form of fiddle whose bowed strings were concordantly tuned (e.g., G D g d), but to which was added a fifth drone string, so affixed to the peg box that it might be plucked rhythmically with the thumb of the left hand. By this means, the performer became a kind of one man band. John then proceeded to claim this instrument for his very own, so that—whilst others have since attempted to simulate its sound by other means—nobody else has actually mastered the vielle itself.

St George's Canzona recordings

At about this time (1970), recording engineer John Boyden had been signed up by EMI to their Classics for Pleasure label. A Canzona release on this label would be a step forward, but a demo disc was needed. This was compiled from tracks made for the Elizabethan Appeal album, and achieved with the help of one of the Skeapings (who lived in a house named Findings) who possessed the necessary technical know-how and equipment. Received by John Boyden with the suggestion that his brand would benefit from an injection of medieval music, the outcome was a Christmas album entitled A Tapestry of Early Christmas Carols.

For this, the choir was made up from the orchestra wives, whilst young up-and-coming soloists such as Philip Langridge (who died in 2010), Mike Rippon and David Thomas (but to whose distinguished company the Canzona's own counter-tenor, Derek Harrison, needed to yield nothing) were engaged. It was a great success, and demand necessitated a second pressing before the end of the festive season. A follow-up was required whose title track was England be Glad, and which featured music from the period of the Hundred Years War. It did not enjoy the success of the previous record, partly on account of a less striking cover illustration.

Spin-off projects

A further spin-off from the album for St. George's was the Canzona's folk-rock record, Giles Farnaby's Dreame Band. This was the brainchild of A & R man Kevin Daly who also worked for the ARGO label, but on the folk side of the house. His idea was to combine the Canzona with a group of folk singers (The Druids), bass guitar and drums, and for good measure an unconventional and musically illiterate folk group called The Broken Consort. These hailed from the West Country, and their principal, Trevor Crozier, actually signed on at a London Job Centre as a shepherd.

How exactly this programme of folk songs and tunes from Playford's English Dancing Master was to be made was indeed perplexing; but the ever-resourceful John Sothcott solved the problem by handing out four-part settings of the music, to which the Broken Consort simply busked along. As for bass and drums, these were added ad hoc during this early eight track recording. The outcome was a foot-tapping, infectiously rhythmic rendering of England's best loved and most popular 17th century songs and dances.