SPRING GLEE CLUB - MAY 14 - with SAN FRANCISCO RENAISSANCE VOICES
Ever want to be a Wiffenpoof? ... Ever wonder what it would be like to sing with San Francisco Renaissance Voices?  Join San Francisco Renaissance Voices for our first Spring Glee Club and learn the popular musical forms from the past of Catch and Glee with plenty of group sing-a-long under the baton of San Francisco Renaissance Voices' Assistant Music Director Katherine McKee and special guest instructors.  Instruments (especially recorders) are invited to come and play along - join us for a half or whole day! 

SCHEDULE:Morning session (registration begins at 9:30 AM) 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

Potluck Lunch (beverages will be provided)

Afternoon session (registration begins at Noon) 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

DATE:  Saturday, May 14

LOCATION:  Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church, 1329 Seventh Avenue, San Francisco

TICKETS:  $25 for half day, $40 for full day session - at the door or online at:  www.SFRV.org

This is San Francisco Renaissance Voices’ spring fundraiser so if you can’t attend, consider making a donation on-line at:  www.SFRV.org!

What are Catches and Glees?
Long, long before the popular TV show the musical forms of Catch and Glee were inextricably mixed in origin with part songs, rounds and madrigals.

A Catch meant specifically a round for three or more voices, written only in a single voice part, so that each succeeding singer, upon his entry with the melody, had to "catch" his part at the proper time. With the passage of years, to quote Groves, "words were selected so constructed that it was possible, either by mispronunciation or by the interweaving of words and phrases given to the different voices, to produce the most
ludicrous and comical effects. The singing of catches became an art."

Glee is a looser term, coming from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "music". In the 18th century it came to mean a song of massed harmony in contrast to the polyphonic Catch. The first Catch Club, in which "noblemen and gentlemen'' came together to sing catches, canons and glees, started in 1761, with the Prince of Wales (later George IV - pictured) becoming a member in 1786. The first Glee Club, with a middle-class membership, was established in 1787.

San Francisco Renaissance Voices are Artists-in-Residence with Seventh Avenue Performances (San Francisco) and made their debut in 2004 with a sold-out performance of Victoria's Requiem.  Under the leadership of Todd Jolly, Music Director and Katherine McKee, Assistant Music Director, the group has consistently earned praise for our "gossamer sound ... a sound something akin to spiritual levitation" as well as recognition for our imaginative programming and lauded as "a standout within the crowded field of Bay Area early music ensembles" by San Francisco Classical Voice (July 2009).  We are dedicated to performing and exploring the a cappella choral music of the Renaissance particularly lesser-known and rarely-performed works, as well as exploring music from this period outside of the traditional European canon and have been featured by such publications as The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Newsday, USA Today and the national magazine Early Music America, among others.  Most recently, San Francisco Renaissance Voices was selected as "Best Classical Music" for 2010 by SFWeekly.

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