We have started a tradition of introducing pieces in concerts with limericks. Here are some of the greatest hits:
2021/22
We’ll play our way across the sea
And sail upon the key of e.
We’ll bow through every strait and narrow,
Channeling the “note”orious Jack Sparrow.
A catchy groove, a simple tune on top,
Is part of the style of Electro-pop.
Among the catchiest of recent such ditties
Is Safe and Sound, by Capital Cities.
We’re in seventeenth-century England
Amid royalty and courts,
And Henry Purcell’s Rigaudon,
A stately march of sorts.
A music box that almost talks
As it ticks and tocks and ticks and tocks
And winds in time around and round
Through rounds and rounds its sounds abound.
2017/18
We go to Chicago, and certain street names,
Dorchester and Hyde Park meet musical games;
A composition of little complication,
An intersection of inspiration.
Bach was a master of writing chorales;
Of them he showed no tiring.
A supreme example we will play for you –
“Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”.
“Sakura” - the Cherry Blossom Song
If we were in Japan, you might sing along.
A national symbol are these beautiful flowers;
We’ll play for you as if they were ours.
Clara, the Prince, the Kingdom of Sweets,
And seven decadent musical treats,
Danced each in their own special flavor;
The Reed Flutes - marzipan - for you to savor.
2016/17
Vivaldi's Four Seasons encompasses all -
A chilly winter, summer and fall
But now in the year when we hear the birds sing
Makes us celebrate the return of life, with Spring.
A song, upon the dozing eyes,
To wish a fond “goodnight”;
If it puts you fast asleep,
Then we’ll have played it right.
We’ve toured Italy and Venezuela -
And while we’re on a roll,
We’ll dance in France to some Bizet (Bee-ZAY) –
His lively Farandole!
Jedis and chocolate. Is that a song?
No, but in this medley they seem to get along.
Duel of the Fates and Willy Wonka make good peers,
Together with Ophelia by the Lumineers!
And lest you think that mixture tame,
How about a song from a video game?
Zelda’s Lullaby is on the scene,
With more Star Wars in between.
These songs are all our choices -
A valuable way to hear our voices!
Some will say that Spring is king -
A very welcome guest.
Others give that nod to Summer,
Holding it above the rest.
One does not need a reason
To have a favorite season,
But ask any you know, who’s a fan of snow -
They’ll say that Winter is best.
The consummate craft John and Paul -
Of emotion, their writing encompasses all.
Though some has a mysterious twist.
In Eleanor Rigby, that can’t be missed.
The subject is on the sad side of things,
Yet the music an almost upbeat energy brings.
The tempo and rhythm hint at jolly
While the lyrics are quite melancholy.
But let not the rhetorical question posed in this song
Prohibit you from singing along.
2015/16
The original power trio - Clapton, Baker and Bruce.
They rocked and rolled and played the blues - authentic, loud and loose,
With tunes and instrumental skill that fans would say was sent from above.
The best of Cream? Perhaps this one: Sunshine of Your Love.
2013/14
Let it be known that William Billings,
As dollars and cents replaced pence and shillings,
Penned what we now know today
As the first anthem of the USA.
Ahoy, me lads and lasses, set sail!
We ships of Ireland brave the gale,
the storm, the heat, the cold, because we,
with a song in our hearts, are at home on the sea.
Star Valley Suite, by Robert S. Frost
Robert “S” Frost (let that not be lost).
It is not by the poet,
Though as a kind of poetry we know it.
Upon a youth orchestra in Wyoming
did Robert S. Frost bestow it.
Vivaldi's Four Seasons encompasses all -
A chilly winter, summer and fall
But now in the year when we hear the birds sing
Makes us celebrate the return of life, with Spring.
Malaga, a Spanish port city,
I've never been; I hear it's quite pretty.
Malagueña - evoking its style,
Let's listen, and stay there a while.
We go where the streets do have names,
Hyde Park and Kimbark meet musical games,
A pair of movements of little complication,
An intersection of inspiration.
We adore the Fab Four,
Though of nonsense titles, they have a score,
"I am the Walrus", "Yellow Submarine",
"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da",
See what I mean?
Water Music is one of those gems
That Handel wrote for the king.
Performed en masse upon the Thames,
Throughout London they heard it ring.
(Hornpipe)
2012/13
“The Final Countdown” - Hair Metal at its cheesiest
“Firework” - Katy Perry at her breeziest
“Palladio” - from a commercial for diamonds
This last line is hard to rhyme-onds
“Fugue” means “chase”
But not a race,
from violin to bass,
we all keep pace.
From the Baroque,
arranged for strings,
Handel’s voice,
through Siennicki, sings.
Mozart
is not easy to play;
a hard route
to an easy way.
But, we took the chance,
and made the grade
with Mozart’s Dance
and Serenade.
A trip to Japan -
we can all be a fan
of their theatre: “Butoh”,
“Kyogen”, and “Noh”.
Avant-garde, funny,
and sometimes spooky,
join us,
while we dance Kabuki.
“Sakura” - the Cherry Blossom Song
If we were in Japan, you might sing along
A national symbol are these beautiful flowers
We’ll play for you as if they were ours.
Though silence is golden, it can be debated
The function of rests is overrated
Alternative sounds we have in our ranks
Silence? No thanks. Let's Fill in the Blanks.
“Belle nuit”, a lovely night
to set sail ‘neath the moonlight
upon a canal, our Venetian street,
and sing a song with you, my sweet!
Yes indeed, as it was said, we
Voted for another medley.
Six great tunes we love and know -
Random, though together they flow.
To start, we will toe the line,
And commence Walking on Sunshine.
Then we thought it would be nice
To take a trip to Paradise
And give away some Secrets deep
One Republic couldn't keep.
We'll then sample a delicious ration
Of Pure Imagination.
The sound of My Favorite Things
Almost to the end us brings
But not before we feel the power
of “88 miles per hour!”
(alternate ending: But not before we stop on by,
and go Back to the Future. "Hey, McFly!")
2011/12
Though Shakespeare did not write these songs,
Some credit for their words to him belongs.
“Go From My Window” - Hamlet, “Greensleeves” - Merry Wives,
“Nobodyes Gigge” - we’re not sure, but in the same vein it survives.
A fiddle tune, arranged by Merle,
We happen to think he chose a pearl,
Showing off our violins (though the bass part’s not weak!),
We hope you enjoy “Cripple Creek”.
Some British pop we have for you now,
Though some think it rock, if pop will allow.
Not the Beatles or Clapton, though we may some day,
but something more recent, “Viva la Vida”, by Coldplay.
Haida Haida, a Hasidic folk song,
with simple lyrics, hard to get wrong.
A catchy melody, a foot-stomping ground,
and, while we’re at it, we’ll do it as a round!
Many an eighth-note does Offenbach dot. Oh...
That means he wants us to play spiccato!
Bows bouncing hither and yon,
as long as the correct string our bows stay on.
Grieg writes plenty a musical hint
In this famous movement from “Peer Gynt”.
Goblins, trolls, many a spooky thing
You will find in the Hall of the Mountain King!
Bach was a master of writing chorales;
Of them he showed no tiring.
A supreme example we will play for you –
“Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”.
The music, for the TV show,
Many fans it has won,
Thanks to Henry Mancini,
And his theme from Peter Gunn.
We’ve played Habanera,
And while we’re on a roll,
We’ll end our concert with some more Bizet –
His lively Farandole!