Concert, Cookies, and Spring Break

We've been loading our freezer with freshly made cookie dough for the concert. We spent time over spring break playing new music....a new arrangement of the beautiful "Skye Boat Song" is in store for you, my friends, along with a Negro spiritual. And of course, we're practicing old favorites as well. We even got a song request by email from a fan! Saturday we went hiking with a group of friends. We're also rehearsing an Irish dance. Yesterday, the Voetbergs got back from touring California. Today, I got a lesson with one of Ireland's best fiddlers who is in the Northwest on tour. At the post office, we found several orders for tickets waiting. If you haven't got yours, you can write or call us anytime. Or you can buy them online in a few clicks. :D

Moments with the Dictionary of Music #9

Lento, lantamente [It.]. Slow. Lentissimo, extremely slow.

Moments with the Dictionary of Music #8

Adagio [It.]. A slow tempo, often said to be slower than andante but not as slow as largo. Some writers of the 18th and 19th centuries, however, regared the term as designating the slowest of all tempos, though the term itself could be modified to call for still slower tempos, e.g., adagissimo. In the 18th century, the term sometimes implied the need for ornamentation.

Moments with the Dictionary of Music #7

Largo [It., broad, large]. (1) Very slow; according to some 18th-century theorists, the slowest of the principal divisions of tempo, though then and later it was often placed between adagio and andante. (2) A movement whose tempo is largo.

Moments with the Dictionary of Music #6

Grave [It.]. (1) Grave, solemn. (2) Since the 17th century, slow, often equivalent to adagio. (3) With respect to pitch, low.


I’ve also heard grave defined as the slowest tempo indication.