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  • Deep Dives
    • 2024-2025 Concerts >
      • William Byrd: Angelical and Divine
      • Heinrich Schütz: The Orpheus of the 17th Century
      • George Frideric Handel: Messiah
      • Samuel Scheidt: The Art of Variation
      • Ludwig Senfl: A Gifted Imagination
      • Claudio Monteverdi: A New Manner of Composing
      • J.S. Bach: Bach Around Thirty
    • Donate today!
  • Tickets
    • Tickets
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  • Who we are and What we do
    • Board of Directors and Staff
    • Mission Statement
  • Our Ensembles
    • Sonoma Bach Choir
    • Circa 1600
    • Green Mountain Consort
    • Live Oak Baroque Orchestra
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Sponsor a Singer!
    • Escrip & Amazon Smile
  • Resources
    • Virtual Offerings - Archive >
      • The Choir Loft
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      • Adventures in Sightsinging
      • Madrigal Mondays
      • Chorale Wednesdays
      • Motet Fridays
      • Virtual Recording Projects
      • Virtual Concerts >
        • Live Oak Baroque Orchestra
        • Music for these Distracted Times - Barefoot All-Stars
        • Agave Baroque American Originals
        • Bach's Long Walk to Lübeck - Anne Laver, organ
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Ihr Brüder, lieben Brüder mein by Johann Hermann Schein
Well, here it is, in musical form. It's called 'Ihr Brüder, lieben Brüder mein', and it's from Johann Hermann Schein's 1626 publication, 'Studenten-Schmauß'. The volume contains all kinds of songs which might be sung at a festive gathering of students and perhaps some of their professors. This is not just an imaginary situation: Schein was known for his love of such events, many of which he hosted at his own home over the years.

Our song is what might be called a toasting-song (often sung by toasted people). It is strophic (that is to say, in multiple verses, with the same music applied to each verse), and it comes replete with an onomatopoetic refrain, the classic 'lirilirum', which is meant to simulate the strumming of a lute or similar instrument. At the end of each verse, there's a little extended faux-lute solo.

The piece is so fun to sing! Give it a try, even if the German seems daunting. Certainly you can manage the lirilirums; you can sing the rest on doo. Or if you don't feel up to singing out loud, sing inside yourself--almost as therapeutic as the real thing--see poem below.

The materials for a good time (you do have to supply your own libations) are attached herewith.
Lots of love and copious quantities of cracking good cheer,

BobFrom More Evidence—Mary Oliver (b. 1935)
Let laughter come to you now and again,
That sturdy friend.
The impulse to leap off the cliff,
When the body falsely imagines that it might fly,
May be restrained by reason,
Also by modesty. 

Of the two possibilities,
Take your choice, and live.
Refuse all cooperation with the heart’s death.
Sing, if you can sing.
And if not,
Still be musical inside yourself.
Click here to download learning materials
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