Programmes

Below is a list of sample programmes and repertoire ideas. This is not an comprehensive list but rather an example of the sort of performances we enjoy doing.

This is an example of a bespoke programme we prepared for a private recital at Lincoln’s Inn, where John Donne was the first prelate of the chapel. The programme is designed like a Baroque suite with five short sets incorporating combinations of spoken and sung poems, which have some thematic or symbolic connection.

While there are breaks between sets, this programme doesn’t contain an interval.

Donne in Love

  • The King of Denmark’s Delight - Tobias Hume (c. 1579-1645)

    The Bait - John Donne, William Corkine (fl. 1610-1617)

    Love’s Growth - Donne

    A Merry Conceit - Tobias Hume (c. 1579-1645)

    Break of Day - Corkine

    Stay, O Sweet - John Dowland (c. 1563-1626)

    Tombeau Les Regrets - Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe (1640-1700)

    Gigue La Petite - Marin Marais (1656-1728)

    Galliard à 2 - Alfonso Ferrabosco II (c. 1575-1628)

    So so, leave off - Ferrabosco

    Love Cannot Dissemble - Michael East (c. 1580-1648)

    The Flea - Lucine Musaelian (b.1997)

    Miraculous love’s wounding - Thomas Morley (c. 1557-1602)

    Air and Angels - Donne

    Time Stands Still - John Dowland

Inspired by Italo Calvino’s novel “Invisible Cities”, this programme weaves together music from Calvino’s home country of Italy with music of distant traditions and times. This includes 16th century Italian song, traditional Armenian music, an arrangement of a Handel aria, and original compositions by Lucine.

Full programme and lyrics here.

Italian Sounds

  • C. Simpson (1602-1669) - Divisions for Two Viols in G major

    G. Caccini (1551-1618) arr. Musaelian - Dalla porta d’oriente

    Di Rore/Dalla Casa (1515-1565/1543-1601) arr. Musaelian - Ancor che col partire

    Armenian trad. - Keler Tsoler

    Armenian trad. arr. Musaelian - Hov Arek

    Radiohead arr. Musaelian - Videotape

    INTERVAL

    D. Ortiz (1510-1570) - Recercada Segunda

    Sigismondo d’India (1582-1629) arr. Musaelian - Intenerite voi

    Armenian trad. arr. Musaelian - Chinar es

    M. Marais (1656-1728) - Le Badinage

    Armenian trad. arr. Musaelian - Sareri hovin mernem

    C. Monteverdi (1567-1643) arr. Musaelian - Si dolce è il tormento

    G. F. Handel (1685-1759) - Piangerò la sorte mia

    M. Marais - Les Voix Humaines

    L. Musaelian - Morning Light

This programme is made up of music which has inspired us from a wide range of styles and traditions, combined with some of Lucine’s own compositions. It features music by Marin Marais, Thobias Hume, François Couperin, Radiohead, The Beatles, The Killers, and Randy Newman, as well as traditional Armenian and Welsh folk music.

Full programme and lyrics here.

A Song I Heard

  • Marin Marais — Dialogues (Book V, Pièces de Viole)

    Tobias Hume — What Greater Griefe

    Tobias Hume — Spirit of Gambo

     

    Armenian trad. — Keler Tsoler

    The Beatles — Michelle

    The Killers — Read My mind

     

    Marin Marais — Le Badinage (Book IV, Pièces de Viole)

    Randy Newman — I think it’s gonna rain today

    Lucine — Morning Light

     

    Radiohead — Videotape

    Lucine — Mars

    François Couperin — Le Dodo

    Welsh trad. — All Through the Night

This programme deals with the subject of displacement and exile and its various emotional stages. Acknowledging how closely identity and home are connected to land, the Armenian folk songs discuss mountains and the cooling, healing breeze they provide. This breeze symbolically brings news from the homeland to its displaced citizens. “Antuni” in particular addresses homelessness and the nostalgic memories of the land that used to be home. “Amor, io parto” by Giulio Caccini similarly addresses the idea of leaving home against one’s will. Pieces like “La Revêuse,” “La Paysanne,” and “Tombeau les Regrets'' express the bittersweet nature of nostalgia and the memories of what used to be home. 

Far from Ararat

  • Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe (c.1640 - c.1700), “Tombeau Les Regrets,” Concerts à deux violes esgales. (9 min)

    “Hov Arek,” Armenian traditional folk song. (4 mins)

    Marin Marais (1656-1728), “La Paysane,” Pièces de Violes V (1725). (2 mins)

    “Tsovinar”, Armenian traditional folk song. (4 mins)

    Sainte-Colombe, “Quarillon,” Concerts à deux violes esgales. (2 mins)

    Interval

    Marais, “La Rêveuse, ” Pièces de Violes IV (1717). (6 mins)

    Giulio Caccini (1551-1618), “Amor, io parto,” Le nuove musiche (1602). (5 mins)

    Komitas (1869-1935), “Antuni,” arr. Lucine Musaelian. (5 mins)

    Sainte-Colombe, “Les Pleurs,” Concerts à deux violes esgales. (2.5 mins)

    “Sareri Hovin Mernem”, Armenian traditional folk song. (4 mins)

    Marais, “Les Voix Humaines,” Pièces de Violes II (1701). (4 mins)

    Sainte-Colombe, “Joye des Elizées,” Concerts à deux violes egales. (2 mins)

Water shapes land and determines where people settle. It is a life source, and its ever-changing, yet constant existence holds memory. This programme aims to explore water’s geographical significance through pieces like Schenck’s “Le Nymphe di Rheno” and traditional Scottish tunes including The Banks of the Severn and Bonny Boat Man, as well as its influence on culture and village life in Marais’s Feste Champêtre. 

Le Nymphe di Rheno

  • Marin Marais (1656 -1728), “Prelude en Harpègement,” Pièces de Violes V (1725). (3 mins)

    “Banks of the Severn”, traditional Scottish song. (3 mins)

    Johannes Schenk (1660 - c.1712), Sonata No. 7 in B minor: Adagio – Allegro – Adagio con affetto – Allegro – Aria amoroso, “Nymph di Rheno” (1702). (14 mins)

    Interval

    Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787), “Arpeggiata,” Drexel Manuscript.

    Banks of Siloe, traditional Irish song. (3 mins)

    Marais, “Le Badinage,” Pièces de Violes IV (1717). (5.5 mins)

    Marais, “Feste Champêtre,” Pièces de Violes V (1725). (4.5 mins)

    Bonny Boatman, traditional Scottish song. (3 mins)

    Antoine Forqueray (1672 - 1745), “La Ferrand,” Pièces de Viole (1747). (3.5 mins)

This programme showcases the rich, intimate, and vocal sound that two bass viols can create. It features music original to this combination, a few of our own arrangements of Armenian folk music, Irish music, a Radiohead cover, and some new music by Lucine. The progression of this programme reflects phases of sleep, and ends with the return of the morning.

All Through the Night

  • “Chinar Es", Armenian traditional folk song attributed to Komitas (1869-1935): (arr. Musaelian) (4 mins)

    Marin Marais (1656-1728): “Le Badinage,” from Pièces de Violes IV (1717), arr. Musaelian & Giorgetti (7 mins)

    Marin Marais: “Les Voix Humaines,” from Pièces de Violes II, (1701), arr. Musaelian & Giorgetti (4 mins)

    Anon. Aux Marches du Palais, arr. Musaelian & Giorgetti (4 mins)

    Anon. Ar Hyd y Nos (All through the Night), arr. Musaelian & Giorgetti (4.5 min)

    Radiohead (released 2007): Videotape, arr. Musaelian (4 mins)

    Ruaidhrí Dall Ó Catháin (c. 1650): “Da Mihi Manum”, arr. Musaelian & Giorgetti (3 mins)

    Lucine Musaelian (b. 1997): Mars (4 mins)

    François Couperin (1668-1733): “Le Dodo ou L'amour au Berceau” from Troisième livre de pièces de clavecin (1722), Ordre 15, arr. Musaelian & Giorgetti (4 mins)

    Lucine Musaelian (b. 1997): Morning Light (4 mins)

    Trad. The Banks of Severn, arr. Musaelian & Giorgetti (2 min)

    C. Simpson (c. 1602-1669): Bodleian Library MS Mus. Sch. C. 77 a and 77 b, no. 7 (5.5 mins)