Music at Paxton: Amyas Ensemble

St Cuthbert’s Church, Norham 23/7/26

Amyas Ensemble

Emily Baines recorders, bagpipes, voice, Arngeir Hauksson gitterns, lute, percussion, symphonie

Members of St Cuthbert’s Church Choir

The Amyas Ensemble are Emily Baines and Arngeir Hauksson, musicologists, multi-instrumentalists and singers who specialise in historic performance, often, as this afternoon, tailored to the location of their concert. They’re performing with members of the church choir to present a programme with musical links to St Cuthbert. As Paxton’s Artistic Director Angus Smith says, some of tonight’s music may well have been heard in this building 700 or 800 years ago.

This very old music forms the culmination of the first medley presented by the Ensemble. Emily explains that Medieval music, unlike the shorter spans of Baroque and Classical music, lasted for hundreds of years. The group’s selections intersperse religious and secular song with dance tunes played on large and small recorders, a lute, and the smaller gittern. The couple sing another old chant, before the St Cuthbert Choir present the Officium of St Cuthbert, from an early medieval manuscript, known for many years to include this music, but only recently deciphered. They sing, from the choir stalls, the unison chant, recognisable in its flexible rhythm as a precursor of later plain song, but entirely new to the listeners. The choir and their conductor Patricia Bonia are to be congratulated on making this music sound so fresh yet entirely at home in its setting.

The choir follows this up with a second fine Latin chant ‘Magnus milles’, which is an excellent contrast to one of the earliest vernacular English religious poems, ‘Caedmon’s Hymn’, spoken in Old English by Arngeir. St Cuthbert’s legacy is also celebrated in two stories told by Emily, a comic tale of crows on Lindisfarne, and later, a sad tale of a weeping child.

Emily’s clear witty expositions clarify the relationships between the music and legends, mostly from Northern Europe, with a particular reference to the Scandinavian countries. She and Arngeir also explain the simple wooden box with handle, which is the medieval symphonie, often used in churches and predecessor of the hurdy-gurdy. The handle sets up the drone sound while a finger plate controls the internal keys. This instrument, like the lutes, becomes temperamental in hot weather. Arngeir also plays two drums, unnamed in the programme, a small bodhran which he hits with his hand, and a decorated side-drum played with sticks. Emily specialises in wind instruments – she skilfully produces ornate trills by playing two flutes – visually strange but a lovely sound. She and Arngeir also sing well, often singly or in unison, with one delightful two-part Early English song near the end of the concert.

The large audience clearly appreciates the varied programme and are happy to join the Choir and the Ensemble in the chorus of 'The Robin's Song'. The Amyas Ensemble make their exit to ‘Sumer is Icumen in’ played by Emily on bagpipes (Galician, I think) with Arngeir on recorder and side-drum. They return, after loud applause, for an encore by French composer Guillaume de Machaut.