The City Waites is a British
early music
Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad musical era for the beginning of Western classical m ...
ensemble. Formed in the early 1970s, they specialise in
English music English music may refer to:
* Folk music of England
* Music of the United Kingdom
Throughout the history of the British Isles, the United Kingdom has been a major music producer, drawing inspiration from Church Music.
Traditional folk music ...
of the 16th and 17th centuries from the street, tavern, theatre and countryside — the music of ordinary people. They endeavour to appeal to a wide general audience as well as to scholars. They have toured the UK, much of Europe, the Middle East, the Far East and the USA, performing everywhere from major concert halls and universities to village squares. Collaborations include the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare's Globe. They can be heard on several movie and TV soundtracks; they broadcast frequently and have made more than 30 CDs.
Performers
Lucie Skeaping
Lucie Skeaping sings and plays the
baroque violin
A Baroque violin is a violin set up in the manner of the baroque period of music. The term includes original instruments which have survived unmodified since the Baroque period, as well as later instruments adjusted to the baroque setup, and moder ...
. She is also founder-director of the Burning Bush, a band which explores
klezmer
Klezmer ( yi, קלעזמער or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for l ...
(traditional
Jewish music
Jewish music is the music and melodies of the Jewish people. There exist both traditions of religious music, as sung at the synagogue and domestic prayers, and of secular music, such as klezmer. While some elements of Jewish music may originat ...
) as well as
Arab-influenced music (another member of the band, Robin Jeffrey, plays Middle Eastern instruments). She presents
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...
's ''Early Music Show'' and other programmes which showcase early music ensembles of the UK and other countries. She has written the award-winning school book ''Let's Make Tudor Music'' and her "Musical Mystery Tour" visits numerous schools each year. Her many CDs include ''Home Sweet Home'' (with Ian Partidge), a celebration of 19th century parlour music, and ''English National Songs''. Her book ''Broadside Ballads'' won the Music Industry Award for Best Classical Music Publication 2006. Her latest publication is ''Who Gave Thee Thy Jolly Red Nose?'', an anthology of recorder music.
Douglas Wootton
Douglas Wootton is one of the few
tenors
A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is widel ...
who accompany themselves on the
lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
. He also plays
bandora,
cittern
The cittern or cithren ( Fr. ''cistre'', It. ''cetra'', Ger. ''Cister,'' Sp. ''cistro, cedra, cítola'') is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is d ...
, and
tabor
Tabor may refer to:
Places
Czech Republic
* Tábor, a town in the South Bohemian Region
** Tábor District, the surrounding district
* Tábor, a village and part of Velké Heraltice in the Moravian-Silesian Region
Israel
* Mount Tabor, Galilee ...
. Due to his promotion of the band they were voted the second-best ''Folk Band of the Year'' in the pages of ''Melody Maker''. His down-to-earth approach sets the tone for the band. He also writes musicals for children.
Roddy Skeaping
Roddy Skeaping was involved in the Early Music revival from its earliest days, working with the Academy of Ancient Music, David Munrow's Early Music Consort and
the Consort of Musicke
The Consort of Musicke is a British early-music group, founded in 1969 by lutenist Anthony Rooley, the ensemble's Artistic Director. Members of the group have included such well-known artists as sopranos Emma Kirkby and Evelyn Tubb, alto Mary Nich ...
. He was appointed
Leverhulme
The Leverhulme Trust () is a large national grant-making organisation in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1925 under the will of the 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), with the instruction that its resources should be used to suppo ...
Research Fellow at the
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...
where he also taught the
viola da gamba
The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...
. As a composer he creates all the group's musical arrangements and has also written scores for the
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...
,
Shakespeare's Globe
Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays, in the London Borough of Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames. The original theatre was built in ...
, the
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...
and several historical feature films.
Nicholas Perry
Nicholas Perry trained as a horn player at the
Guildhall School of Music
The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...
going on to study instrument making as a
Crafts Council
The Crafts Council is the national development agency for contemporary craft in the United Kingdom, and is funded by Arts Council England.
History
The Crafts Advisory Committee was formed in 1971 to advise the Minister for the Arts, David Eccles ...
apprentice. He has performed and recorded for many London-based early music ensembles including the Gabrieli Consort, the English Baroque Soloists. The
Taverner Consort
The Taverner Choir, Consort and Players is a British music ensemble which specialises in the performance of Early and Baroque music. The ensemble is made up of a Baroque orchestra (the Players), a vocal consort (the Consort) and a Choir. Perform ...
and His Majesty’s Sagbutts and Cornetts. He is a regular player at Shakespeare’s Globe and the Royal Shakespeare Company and continues to work as an early brass instrument maker. He is currently the UK’s only professional serpent leatherer.
Michael Brain
Michael Brain plays
curtal
The dulcian is a Renaissance woodwind instrument, with a double reed and a folded conical bore. Equivalent terms include en, curtal, german: Dulzian, french: douçaine, nl, dulciaan, it, dulciana, es, bajón, and pt, baixão.
The predeces ...
, baroque
bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...
,
recorder
Recorder or The Recorder may refer to:
Newspapers
* ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper
* ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US
* ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...
,
oboe
The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range.
A ...
and sings. He was a
chorister
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...
at
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
. He is related to the
horn
Horn most often refers to:
*Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound
** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments
*Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...
player
Dennis Brain
Dennis Brain (17 May 19211 September 1957) was a British horn player. From a musical family – his father and grandfather were horn players – he attended the Royal Academy of Music in London. During the Second World War he served in the Roya ...
. On stage he gives spirited descriptions of how the instruments are constructed. He also works as a
plumber
A plumber is a tradesperson who specializes in installing and maintaining systems used for potable (drinking) water, and for sewage and drainage in plumbing systems. .
Former members
The Skeapings and/or Douglas Wootton have been core of a constantly changing line-up. Musicians who have worked with the group previously include:
*Joe Skeaping - violin
*Keith Thompson - woodwind
*Barbara Grant - soprano, violin
*Nicholas Hayley - bass viol
*Robin Jeffrey - lute
*Richard Wistreich - baritone
*Graham Wells - woodwinds
Discography
* The English Stage Jig (Hyperion) - released March 9
* The English Tradition (ARC)
* Low and Lusty Ballads (Regis)
* Penny Merriments (Naxos)
* Bawdy Ballads of Old England (Regis, 1995) formerly the Mufitians of Grope Lane (Musica Oscura)
* Christmas Now is Drawing Near (Saydisc) CD-SDL 371
* How the World Wags (Hyperion, 1981) A 66008
*
Pills to Purge Melancholy
''Wit and Mirth: Or Pills to Purge Melancholy'' is the title of a large collection of songs by Thomas d'Urfey, published between 1698 and 1720, which in its final, six-volume edition held over 1,000 songs and poems. The collection started as a sin ...
(Saydisc, 1990) CD-SDL 382
* The Music of the Tudor Age
* Music of the Middle Ages
* Music of the Stuart Age
* Music from the Time of Henry VIII
* Music from the Time of Charles II
* A Madrigal for All Seasons
On LP
* The City Waites (Decca, 1976) SKL 5264
* A Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions (EMI, 1974) EMC 3017
[Pohle (1987)]
References
External links
Official WebsiteLucy Skeaping website:
{{DEFAULTSORT:City Waites
Mixed early music groups
British early music ensembles
Musical groups established in the 1970s
Musical groups from London