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Old 07-01-2016, 03:11 PM
dj dj is offline
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Join Date: Jan 1970
Location: Balderson, Ontario, Canada, 100 kms (60 miles) from Ottawa
Posts: 799
Default Some pieces for Canada Day

Hello, all around the world:

It's Canada's 149th birthday and I thought I'd share some pieces from a production we are opening next week.

It's called The Great Perth Temperance Soiree and it's a musical and often comic look at the rise and fall of the Temperance movement in Perth, Ontario in the 19th century. Sounds dull, but it's actually quite fun and it's taken directly from the pages of our local paper, which began publishing in 1834 and was prominent in the Temperance cause.

Our town of Perth, by the way, is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year.

Sandwiched in between the Canadian federal election last year and the American one coming up, I thought I'd share a song written about a local election here in the 1850s.

Back then, two of the principal enticements for gathering votes were liberal (small l) amounts of free whisky and threats of (and actual) violence to those who didn't vote your way. The first song is about both and mentions several of the local candidates, belonging to the Grit (Liberal) or Tory (Conservative) parties. It's called A New Song To Brose And Butter, which was an old slip jig in 9/8. Try as I might, I couldn't make the localized lyrics work in 9/8, so I cheated it to 6/8 and it works. It also shows our region's very strong Scots heritage.

The second is called Here Rest My Wife, a very silly a capella four-parter (a madrigal, really) about a man whose wife is no more. It's a lot of fun for four men to sing.

And finally, a beautiful SATB song that we are really enjoying called Love At Home. Sort of a hymn, I would say, but with a secular lyric.

As it's Canada's National Holiday, I am observing it by going in to the theatre and spending the day in the dark, as I always do.

Bon fête national!
Attached Files
File Type: not No 23 A New Song To Brose And Butter.not (65.0 KB, 8 views)
File Type: not No 8 Here rests my wife.not (52.3 KB, 4 views)
File Type: not No 31 Love at Home.not (70.0 KB, 3 views)
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