The Moss Bay Recorder Society is a chapter of the American Recorder Society, based in the Greater Seattle area. We meet monthly, October through March, in the King County, Snohomish, or Seattle Public Library systems, usually on the second Saturday of the month, 2-4:30 pm. Our meetings are led by Director Laura Townsend or guest artists. Each April we gather on a Saturday to play all day at the annual Northwest Recorder Meet, co-presented by the Moss Bay Recorder Society and the Seattle Recorder Society.
Our next meeting date will be Saturday Dec. 14, 2024, 2-4:30 at the Shoreline Library Large Meeting Room, 345 NE 175th St. Shoreline, 98155. We welcome Larry Stark as guest director for this meeting.
Future monthly meeting dates and locations will be found here: next meeting location.
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December music notes from guest director Larry Stark:
This season of the year always brings a great deal of music. Some forgettable but much of it fabulous. So many cultures celebrate a festival of lights, and composers through the ages have responded with a great variety of sounds to cheer us in these times of diminished light.
I have chosen, for the December meeting, music by composers with ties to Germany. Of the European peoples the Germans may be the most enthusiastic at celebrating the season. Certainly they have contributed much wonderful music to it.
I like to begin playing sessions with a chorale by J. S. Bach. I chose Jesulein Süß for purely sentimental reasons. When I was in high school our women’s choir would sing this every year. It always brings back those times for me. But I decided that it would be interesting to see what other composers have done with this tune. It was written, as far as I can tell, by Samuel Scheidt. Others have used this tune as a basis for new settings. Max Reger is known, in these times, as an organist. Heinrich Kaminski taught at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin, and is known as a mentor and teacher of Carl Orff.
Michale Praetorius is known to many recorder players for his dance music. He published volumes of liturgical music, much of it settings for Christmas. He set the words “Puer Natus in Bethlehem” many times, in pieces ranging from two to eight parts. We will do a duet setting, and then one that accumulates voices as it goes; it starts with two and ends with six.
To end the day, I’ve looked again at a festive seasonal chorale – Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr. We will play several choral settings by Mendelssohn and Crüger, and a polyphonic setting by J. Gottfried Reiche. Reiche was a minor composer who worked in Leipzig in the first third of the 18th century. He is best known though as a trumpeter. Not a run of the mill trumpeter, but as the one for whom Bach wrote so many amazingly brilliant parts.
Music for the December session will be sent in an email link before the meeting.
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November music notes, remembering Michael Bancroft
Dear Recorder-Playing Friends and MBRS Community,
I am so sad to share with you the news of the passing of Michael Bancroft, our long-time member, president, and intrepid late-night library-finder. His enthusiasm for the recorder was unwavering and he worked to support and strengthen the Moss Bay Recorder Society as well as the Seattle Recorder Society. We were so lucky to have him playing with us for so many years!
Michael joined my studio in February, 2011 saying that he wanted to “knock the rust off” his recorder playing and get back into active participation. He had taken lessons with Peggy Monroe and, of course, especially loved English country dances. He sought out every opportunity to play with others: in ensembles, chapter meetings and workshops, welcoming any newcomers and providing an enthusiastic, encouraging word. He often did extra research on pieces we were playing and came up with fascinating facts and lovely links to share. He will be deeply missed and his legacy appreciated by many of us for years to come.
There are two versions of his obituary:
https://www.funerals.coop/obituaries/michael-bancroft
https://obituaries.seattletimes.com/obituary/michael-holzman-bancroft-1091729276
This month our music will include a song dear to Michael’s heart, Vine and Fig Tree. I’m working on an arrangement of this gorgeously simple traditional Hebrew melody that we will sight read (to give me more time to make it wonderful!). The music for November includes a potpourri of pieces that bring me joy and delight to play and I hope you will come join us from 2-4:30pm on Saturday, November 9 at the Mountlake Terrace Library, 23300 58th Avenue W.
The Moss Bay Recorder Society is a tiny organization with a small but mighty volunteer board. We are looking for a few more people to get involved in helping behind the scenes, either on the board or on an occasional basis. Now that we are enjoying snacks at our break again, we also need a new Snacks Coordinator to put out a sign-up sheet and take charge of our (very manageable) bag of paper goods. Please let me or any board member know if you are interested or have any questions.
Music for the November session will be sent in an email link before the meeting. Email me at the address below if you would like me to print music and bring it for you. A few extra copies will be available at each meeting.
Laura Townsend
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2024-25 Season, Opening Greetings
Happy Fall, Everyone!
I hope you all are enjoying the change in weather and the return to our regular routines and more indoor-oriented pursuits.
This year we have invited some special guests to join me in leading our playing sessions, and I am really looking forward to sharing some fabulous music with all of you throughout the year. The Moss Bay Meet has a new name: The Northwest Recorder Meet. We are delighted to once again join forces with the Seattle Recorder Society to present our traditional full day of music making and we decided to make the title a bit clearer for those who have not heard of it before. See the meeting schedule for our full schedule of dates and leaders.
Music for each playing session will be sent in advance of the meeting by email. Email me at the address below if you would like me to print music and bring it for you. A few extra copies will be available at each meeting.
Did you learn any music this summer that you’d like to share with our group? All members are invited to share up to 5 minutes of music at the start of any regular meeting. It can be a polished performance, a piece you composed, or something you’re excited about at any level. Contact me at the email below to sign up.
Fall is the best time to renew your Moss Bay Recorder Society membership if you have not already done so for this program year. We deeply appreciate the support of our members and truly could not do it without you! Since our meetings are all absolutely free to the public as we use public library spaces, membership dollars and donations are our only source of funds for our regular programming. The form can be found on our website or you can renew at a meeting. Thank you!
I can’t wait to see you all, catch up on summer adventures, and make some music together! Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Laura Townsend
Music Director, Moss Bay Recorder Society
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2024-2025 Season
October 12 – Laura Townsend, Shoreline Library, 345 NE 175th St.
November 9 – Laura Townsend, Mountlake Terrace, 23300 58th Ave. W
December 14 – Larry Stark, Shoreline Library, 345 NE 175th St.
January 11 – Laura Townsend
February 15 – Laura Townsend
March 15 – Laura Kuhlman
April 19 – Northwest Recorder Meet 10am-5pm
presented by the Moss Bay and Seattle Recorder Societies
Laura Kuhlman, Peter Seibert, Laura Townsend
For more information: www.mossbayrecorders.org
beginbaroque@gmail.com or 206-619-0671
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In Person Protocols:
- Email Laura your intent to come and desired part, if known.
- No blowing mouthpiece condensation outward; “sucking” is OK!
- We prefer that you are up to date with your COVID vaccinations but do not require it.
- We prefer that you test for COVID within 24 hours of attending the meeting, if feasible, but do not require it.
- Please stay at home if you are coughing, feeling ill, or suspect you have been exposed to Covid or the flu.
Email Laura Townsend: beginbaroque@gmail.com
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MOSS BAY MEET, 2024
Twenty-five enthusiastic participants gathered for the annual Moss Bay Meet on Saturday, April 27, 2024 at the Sand Point Community Church. This year the Meet was co-presented with the Seattle Recorder Society. Peter Seibert led us through a selection of pieces from medieval through classical periods, culminating with his own composition “Short (and) Suite”, complete with soloists. Vicki Boeckman selected several beautiful renaissance-baroque choral pieces, and an 8-part double-choir Sinfonia. She closed the session with Arthur Sullivan’s lovely “The Long Day Closes”. In the last session we rearranged ourselves as Laura Townsend challenged us with contemporary compositions by Steve Marshall, including his four-choir, 16-part “All Creatures of our God and King”.
A heartfelt thanks to all the directors for a sensational musical day!
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ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Sept. 2022
Welcome to our new Music Director, Laura Townsend
We are delighted to announce that we have a new Music Director, Laura Townsend, known already to many of us. Laura is looking forward to working with us starting in the fall. Here is more about Laura’s background and interests:
Laura combined her two passions, recorder playing and teaching, about 10 years ago and has been developing her skills as a recorder teacher and ensemble leader ever since. She has had the privilege to teach dozens of students both individually and in small groups in her studio as well as to lead SRS’s Back Room Gang and a few MBRS meetings and meet sessions. Originally trained as a developmental psychologist, she’s dedicated to discovering the most effective ways to learn and is committed to continuing to grow her own skills. She takes lessons with Vicki Boeckman, plays with the Recorder Orchestra of Puget Sound, studied conducting with Peter Siebert, performed with the ensemble Quintessence and attends workshops as much as possible. Covid has paved the way for even more new skills to use for both teaching and learning: online lessons and workshops and weekly hybrid ensemble classes.
Laura Townsend, beginbaroque@gmail.com
Photo by Bill Stickney.
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Miyo Aoki, our former Music Director has moved to Indiana with her husband Jonathan Oddie. We thank her for her leadership and inspiration, and wish them well in their new home .
A Farewell from Miyo
Dear friends,
As some of you already know, my husband Jonathan recently accepted a teaching position at Indiana University, starting this Fall. I am overjoyed for him but devastated to have to leave the dear friends, community, and landscape that have brought me so much happiness in the seven years I have lived here. The Seattle and Moss Bay Recorder Societies have played important parts in my life, and I am deeply grateful for the substantial community of recorder players that welcomed me here and introduced me to so many wonderful people. Thank you all for your kindness, warmth, generosity, and, of course, music. I will miss you!
I will be here until the end of September and am looking forward to seeing some of you at the Fall Fipple Flute Forum or perhaps the upcoming Farallon concert. Jonathan, Nathaniel, and I intend to visit the Seattle area regularly, so I am hopeful that I will continue to see and make music with you all; and if you ever find yourself near Bloomington, Indiana, please do give me a call!
With gratitude and warm wishes to you all,
Miyo
miyoaoki@gmail.com
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Memorial tribute to Wini Jaeger and Mary Whittington
Mary Whittington wrote that MBRS founding Music Director, Wini Jaeger, passed away at age 95 on February 10 of this year, 2022. Mary passed away on July 4, 2022, just a few months after Wini.
In the SRS newsletter of February 2009, Wini wrote about founding MBRS:
In March 1979, Mary Whittington and I moved to Kirkland, after many years in Santa Barbara, CA, where we had been active in the recorder scene and close to Erich Katz, who died in 1973. In April 1979, we attended an SRS meeting, joined the organization and became regular members. Within the following year, we met enough recorder players, including SRS members, who were interested in forming a sister organization to the SRS, and in the fall of 1980, the Moss Bay Recorder Society (MBRS) became a Chapter of the American Recorder Society (ARS).
A tribute to Wini and Mary is posted on the Haiku Northwest website (www.haikunorthwest.org) where they were both active and beloved members. The tribute includes information about their lifelong association with recorders and many wonderful photos. Go to “Celebrating our 35th Anniversary”, click on Poems by Haiku Northwest Members, Winifred Jaeger, Remembering Wini.
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Our operating expenses are covered by voluntary membership dues of $45/year and by contributions. We thank you for your continued support, and we hope that you’ll remain (or become!) an MBRS member. We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting!
Please take care of yourselves, keep making music, and stay well!