Celebrate the Bard's Birthday with Market Square Concerts

Join us for the last concert of the season as Parthenia presents a program of music and poetry from the days of William Shakespeare. The performance will be held Saturday, April 24th, at 8pm in Harrisburg's Market Square Church.

"Parthenia, hailed by the New Yorker as 'one of the brightest lights in New York's early-music scene,' is a dynamic quartet exploring music from Tudor England to the court of Versailles and beyond. Known for its remarkable sense of ensemble, Parthenia has been presented in concerts across America and produces its own lively and distinguished concert series in New York City.

In the Elizabethan world, poetry and music were inseparable; poetry was conceived as song and music took its forms and phrasing from poetry. In Parthenia’s concert, dramatic readings of the poetry of Shakespeare and Donne are interspersed with instrumental and vocal musical vignettes.

In addition to her work as a member of the world famous vocal quartet Anonymous4, mezzo-soprano Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek has a reputation as a versatile and accomplished soloist. Paul Hecht made his Broadway debut in 1968 and has had a varied and successful acting career in theatre, film and television, including “Kate and Allie” and “Law and Order.”

Here's the program for their concert on April 24th... Notice that it's a short but very sweet program on what is believed to be the day after Shakespeare's actual birthday. I hope you find the prospect of hearing words and music from Elizabethan times as exciting as I do." 

- Ellen Hughes

PARTHENIA
Rosamund Morley, treble viol; Lawrence Lipnik, tenor viol; Beverly Au, bass viol; Lisa Terry, bass viol
with guests:
Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, mezzo-soprano
Paul Hecht, actor

When Music and Sweet Poetry Agree
Shakespeare, Donne and their Elizabethan musical contemporaries
(This program will be performed without intermission)

Prelude and Voluntary - bby William Byrd (c. 1539-1623)
The Triple Foole - by John Donne (1572-1631)
It was a lover and his lass - by Thomas Morley (c. 1557-1602)
The Good Morrow - by Donne
Fantasia á4 - by Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger (c. 1575-1628)
Go and Catch a Falling Star - by Donne
Galliard: The Fairy Rownd - by Anthony Holborne (1545-1602)
Come live with me and be my love - by William Corkine (fl. 1610-1620)
The Bait - by Donne
Fantasy on 'All in a garden green'  - by John Jenkins (1592-1678)
The Flea - by Donne
A Mery Conceit: The Queenes delight - by Hume (c.1569-1620)

Can she excuse my wrongs - by John Dowland (1563-1626)
Sonnet XCI: Some glory in their birth - by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Ah, dear heart, why do you rise? - by Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)
A Lecture Upon the Shadow - by Donne
A Gigge: Doctor Bull’s my selfe - by John Bull (c. 1562-1628)
Sonnet XXIII: As an unperfect actor on the stage - by Shakespeare
Farewell, dear love - by Robert Jones (c. 1577-1617)
Fantasia á4 - by William Byrd
Sonnet CIV: To me, fair friend, you can never be old - by Shakespeare
The Fair young virgin - by Byrd
The Apparition - by Donne
So, so, leave off this last lamenting kisse - by Alfonso Ferrabosco (c.1580-1628)
Fantasia á4 - by Giovanni Coprario (c. 1570-1626)

The Relic - by Donne
Harke, Harke - by Tobias Hume
Death be not proud - by Donne
Hugh Ashton’s Maske - by Hugh Ashton, attrib. (c.1485-c.1558)
Sonnet XXIX: When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes - by Shakespeare
Now, oh now I needs must part - by Dowland
Sonnet LXXI: No longer mourn for me when I am dead - by Shakepeare
Pavan: Paradiso - by Holborne
The Valediction: Forbidding Mourning - by Donne