As the door to the little church kitchen opens and closes, passersby on nearby Church Street may pick up the airy notes of woodwinds sounding through the night.
Upon venturing closer, the notes would lead them through the darkness of the street to find a small group of people sitting in a bright room alive with the sounds of music and laughter.
These unassuming quarters on the grounds of the First United Methodist Church hold one of Los Gatos's best-kept assets--it really isn't a secret--the Galliard Recorder Consort.
"Your sound is pretty wimpy. Don't play to me; play to the windows!" called out leader Carolyn Woolston to encourage the group during a recent rehearsal of "Now Is Born," one of the songs in the Consort's holiday repertoire.
"You're doing them way better than you need to! You can be a little sloppy," Woolston jokingly told Len Stonehill of San Jose during the next song, "Greensleeves." Stonehill, a tall, lanky man whose long bass recorder suits him well, was concerned about his execution of a string of sixteenth notes.
The recorder is an eight-holed relative of the flute with roots reaching past medieval times. It is played by blowing directly into a mouthpiece, rather than side-blown like a flute. Traditionally made of wood, some recorders are now manufactured in plastic, which is not particularly affected by hot, cold or moisture and is thus easier to keep in tune.
"Plastic gives a silvery, clear sound. Wood is a bit more hidden, a shadowed kind of sound," said Woolston, a Felton resident who is also a member of Early Muse, a Santa Cruz-based quintet.
When Woolston talks music, she knows of what she speaks. A pianist since age 10 and a longtime church-choir singer, she picked up her first recorder more than 15 years ago. She is familiar with the cortholt (a Renaissance reed instrument), bowed and plucked psalteries (ancient stringed instruments) and the harp.
When not directing the Consort, Woolston can be found joining them on her bass recorder. The alto is her favorite, however, and the one she recommends for beginners. It has a good range and what she calls a "warm, reedy, round sound." It also is the type called for in Baroque compositions--"in that sense, it's a real concerto instrument."
Recorders come in several keys, usually C or F, and eight different varieties, from the skinny, shrill garklein to the resonant and unwieldy great bass. Most popular are the four instruments used in the Consort: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Because each plays in a limited range, they complement each other.
"I've seen some people who are equally proficient on all four; I have great respect and envy for them," said Stonehill, whose wife, Pauline, plays the soprano recorder. "Nobody's under the gun as far as performing goes, but we do like to have good representation with the instruments."
The Consort consists of 10 to 16 music lovers who convene for two hours every Tuesday night. They practice and add to their large repertoire, make plans for upcoming gigs (particularly during the holidays) and discuss everything from the key in which a song is written to off-key anecdotes such as stray turkeys loose on someone's property.
"I just fell in love with the group. They were so talented and so eager," Woolston said. She took over several years ago after their longtime leader, local musician and music teacher Elizabeth Elbon passed away.
"We have a unique group, with the attention people give to it and the practice they do on their own," said Beulah Pease of Saratoga, a soprano recorder player who also dabbles on the piano. "I started because I wanted to do something with people, and I love music."
"We're all good friends and enjoy each other's company. That's important to any group," said Los Gatan Lorraine Nolan, who sang soprano for 30 years in the Methodist Church choir but quit when she began to lose some hearing. "I started this [recorder playing] later in life to have something to do musically when I knew I wouldn't be singing anymore."
Nolan began on the soprano recorder but soon switched to the tenor (both are in the key of C) because it's "more mellow," not only in sound but because tenors rarely play solos and are thus less "conspicuous." She also plays alto, which was challenging at first because she had to apply her fingering to an F-keyed instrument.
"I had to think about it every moment along the way; it's a matter of training your brain," she said, adding that the tenor remains her first love. Like Woolston, Nolan also plays with another musical group--The Tapestry Trio--a small, informal ensemble that meets on Monday afternoons.
"The recorder is a very social instrument; it invites groups to gather around it. You often find yourself forming ensembles," Woolston said.
Although Consort players meet at the Methodist Church, many are members of the Los Gatos Unitarian Fellowship, at whose services and other functions they perform as the smaller Tunitarian Recorder Ensemble. However, players need not be affiliated with any church to join the Consort. As Nolan pointed out, "it's a very ecumenical group."
Unitarian and Tunitarian Stonehill got his first introduction to recorders about 20 years at a dinner party. A friend, who decided he no longer wanted his alto recorder, proffered the wooden instrument and its instruction book to Stonehill. Although Stonehill enjoyed playing by ear, he also took a recorder class offered at West Valley College in the early 1980s. Currently he is learning to play the saxophone.
"I've always had a pretty good ear for melody. It's one thing to be a soloist; you can be as independent as you want. Once you join a group, though, you have to adapt to the group," Stonehill said, contrasting the extemporaneous playing he did for fun with the accordance he now follows in the Consort.
Two recent holiday gigs were a Nov. 29 program at the Los Gatos Neighborhood Center comprising a blend of Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, traditional and modern music and a Dec. 14 program at Life's Garden Retirement Community in Sunnyvale. In the latter, Consort members donned full Renaissance garb, transforming themselves into peasants, servants or nobles.
According to Nolan, she and the majority of her peers portray the nobility, going the whole nine yards with authentic costumes and fancy fabrics. One of her favorite opportunities for playing "in character" took place many years ago at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Novato's Black Point Forest.
Over the years, popular venues for the Consort have included churches, Renaissance-themed "feasts," senior-citizen centers, shopping centers and coffeehouses. The main motivation, though, and the tie that binds the group together, is the sheer joy of playing music they love.
"There's a long-standing feeling of community there," Woolston said. "Not just expertise, but wonderful spirit."
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, Wednesday, January 3, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.