GEES Project Podcast

Over the same weekend in the spring of 2025 Alison Findlay, Professor at Lancaster University and Ruby Bones both directed separate productions of Lady Rachel Fane's May Masque of 1627. Professor Deanne Williams of York University and author of Shakespeare and the Performance of Girlhood and Girl Culture brought Alison and Ruby together to discuss their productions and the remarkable young author...

'Parthenia or the Maydenhead of the first musicke that ever was printed for the Virginalls (in England at least), composed by three famous masters: William Byrd, Dr. John Bull and Orlando Gibbons' was probably printed in 1613 probably as part of the celebrations for a royal wedding. MIO's Artistic Director John Edwards talks to keyboardist Louise Hung about pitch and temperament - how early keyboa...

'Parthenia or the Maydenhead of the first musicke that ever was printed for the Virginalls (in England at least), composed by three famous masters: William Byrd, Dr. John Bull and Orlando Gibbons' was probably printed in 1613 probably as part of the celebrations for a royal wedding. MIO's Artistic Director John Edwards talks to Prof. Deanne Williams about the plays by Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fle...

'Parthenia or the Maydenhead of the first musicke that ever was printed for the Virginalls (in England at least), composed by three famous masters: William Byrd, Dr. John Bull and Orlando Gibbons' was probably printed in 1613. As the chief counsellor in the last years of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign and the first years of James I’s, Robert Cecil, the Earl of Salisbury was at the centre of a web of po...

'Parthenia or the Maydenhead of the first musicke that ever was printed for the Virginalls (in England at least), composed by three famous masters: William Byrd, Dr. John Bull and Orlando Gibbons' was probably printed in 1613. MIO's Artistic Director John Edwards talks to harpsichordist Louise Hung about the terminology of plucked string keyboard instruments in the Elizabethan and Jacobean period,...

Profs. Matt Kavaler and Deanne Williams talk with John Edwards about the paintings of the Master of the Female Half-lengths and their shared context with Anne Boleyn's songbook. We hear the Basse Danse La Magdalena by Pierre Blondeau played by John Edwards. This episode was originally released on the Musicians In Ordinary's podcast feed. 

The Rev. Dr Lisa Wang speaks to John Edwards about the adoration of the Virgin Mary and the Song of Solomon in the context of the Anne Boleyn Songbook. We hear Sicut Lilium by Antoine Brumel sung by The Musicians In Ordinary, Julia Morson, Whitney O'Hearn and Katherine Anderson, led by Hallie Fishel with John Edwards on lute. This episode was originally released on the Musicians In Ordinary's podc...

John Edwards talks to Prof. Deanne Williams about performance practice questions thrown up by the Anne Boleyn Songbook. We hear Alma Redemptoris Mater composed by Jacob Obrecht performed by Julia Morson, sop. Whitney O'Hearn, mezzo, Katherine Anderson alto, Eleanor Verrette, vielle, John Edwards, lute all led by Hallie Fishel, singing alto.  This episode was originally released on the Musicians In...

Prof. Deanne Williams talks to John Edwards about Anne Boleyn's Songbook. We hear the anonymous Gabrielem Archangelum sung by Julia Morson, Whitney O'Hearn and Hallie Fishel. This episode was originally released on the Musicians In Ordinary's podcast feed. 

Director Heather Davies and theorbo player and music director John Edwards chat about the music in John Milton's masque Comus and especially about the dance music of masques in general, and the dances of William Lawes which we used in our production. Visit https://musiciansinordinary.ca/episodes to click through the series and download mp3s to add to your music playlist. This episode was originall...

Director Heather Davies and theorbo player and music director John Edwards chat about the music in John Milton's masque Comus and especially about the original songs by Henry Lawes. Visit https://musiciansinordinary.ca/episodes to click through the series and download mp3s to add to your music playlist. This episode was originally released on the Musicians In Ordinary's podcast feed. 

Director Heather Davies discusses the special challenges of the masque form, Milton’s verse and the rehearsal process in the time of covid with John Edwards. Visit https://musiciansinordinary.ca/episodes to click through the series and download mp3s to add to your music playlist. Heather Davies was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and grew up in Toronto, Ontario. She’s trained as a dancer, singer, actor...

Deanne Williams is professor in English at York University, a Fellow of the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies and a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada. She was dramaturge for our production of Comus, has written extensively on girl performers in the Early Modern Period and dedicates a chapter to Milton’s character of The Lady...

John Milton's Comus (Bridgewater manuscript version), with the original songs set by Henry Lawes and dance music by William Lawes, directed by Heather Davies, performed by Roger Honeywell - Attendant Spirit, Paul Hopkins - Comus, Bethany Jillard - The Lady, Tracy Ryan - Elder Brother, Beryl Bain - Second Brother, and Tahirih Vejdani - Sabrina, with The Musicians In Ordinary string band led by Chri...

John Milton's Comus (Bridgewater manuscript version), with the original songs set by Henry Lawes and dance music by William Lawes, directed by Heather Davies, performed by Roger Honeywell - Attendant Spirit, Paul Hopkins - Comus, Bethany Jillard - The Lady, Tracy Ryan - Elder Brother, Beryl Bain - Second Brother and Tahirih Vejdani - Sabrina, with The Musicians In Ordinary string band led by Chris...

George Torres, Prof. in Music at Lafayette College, Deanne Williams, Prof. in English at York University, and John Edwards discuss correspondences between lute instruction manuals and manuals on civility from 16th and 17th century in France & England, how lute lessons were also decorum lessons, & the lute lesson in Taming of the Shrew. We hear Delyght Pavan & Gallyard (Johnson) & I...

Prof. Deanne Williams, author of Shakespeare and the Performance of Girlhood, discusses the Stuart masque, its meaning and its participants. From Margaret Board's Lutebook we hear lute arrangements of The Antiq Masque, The Witches Daunce, The Lady Phyllyes Masque, The Lady Elyza, her Masque, The Prince his Almayne and The Prince his Corrento played by John Edwards. This episode was originally rele...

Prof. Tom Bishop (Univ. of Auckland) talks to John Edwards about plays, theatres, playgoers and pieces in Margaret Board's Lutebook she’d need to know to get all the references in the plays of Jacobean London. From Margaret’s book we hear Lachrymae, by John Dowland, referenced in Knight of the Burning Pestle, anonymous settings of ballads Poore Tome (King Lear) and Bony Sweete Robyn (Hamlet), and...

Margaret Board was born in 1600, the daughter of a rich merchant, and had Europe's leading lutenist, John Dowland, as a teacher. Her book of lute pieces, notated in tablature in her hand and that of her teacher, is a collaboration between what her lute master thinks she needs to know and her taste as a young woman in Jacobean London. This episode was originally released on the Musicians In Ordinar...

This is the first of two episodes about the GEES Project's film of The Concealed Fancies (which you can find on YouTube or by clicking a link at geesproject.com), a play written by Jane Cavendish and Elizabeth Brackley, née Cavendish, during the English Civil Wars with an induction by Paul Hopkins to move the action from the Cavendish sisters’ house arrest during wartime to the confinement we expe...

This is the first of two episodes about the GEES Project's film of The Concealed Fancies (which you can find on YouTube or by clicking a link at geesproject.com), a play written by Jane Cavendish and Elizabeth Brackley, née Cavendish, during the English Civil Wars with an induction by Paul Hopkins to move the action from the Cavendish sisters’ house arrest during wartime to the confinement we expe...

An oral history of the extraordinary life of Prof. Stephen Orgel, in a series of conversations with Prof. Deanne Williams. Prof. Orgel is best known for his work on the Stuart Court Masque but these conversations also touch on his contribution to and gender studies, his work as an editor, and his lifelong passion for book collecting. In our last conversation we discuss his passion for book collect...

An oral history of the extraordinary life of Prof. Stephen Orgel, in a series of conversations with Prof. Deanne Williams. Prof. Orgel is best known for his work on the Stuart Court Masque but these conversations also touch on his contribution to and gender studies, his work as an editor, and his lifelong passion for book collecting. Here we discuss his book, Impersonations, dedicated to friends l...

An oral history of the extraordinary life of Prof. Stephen Orgel, in a series of conversations with Prof. Deanne Williams. Prof. Orgel is best known for his work on the Stuart Court Masque but these conversations also touch on his contribution to and gender studies, his work as an editor, and his lifelong passion for book collecting. In our second conversation, we discuss his research at the Warbu...

An oral history of the extraordinary life of Prof. Stephen Orgel, in a series of conversations with Prof. Deanne Williams. Prof. Orgel is best known for his work on the Stuart Court Masque but these conversations also touch on his contribution to and gender studies, his work as an editor, and his lifelong passion for book collecting. In this first conversation we discuss his childhood and schoolin...