Monday, January 9, 2017

Episode 350 (1-9-17): Old English Music Helps Preview the Old Dominion’s 2017 General Assembly


CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (3:50)

Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, an image, and additional information follow below.

All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 1-6-17.


TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO

From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of January 9, 2017.

This week is our annual preview of the Virginia General Assembly.  We start with some music that dates back to the time when Virginia’s legislature first convened.  Have a listen for about 30 seconds.

MUSIC – ~34 seconds

You’ve been listening to part of “Sir John Smith, His Almayne,” performed by Timothy Seaman, from the 2006 album, “Jamestown—On the Edge of a Vast Continent,” from Pine Wind Music.  This tune—written NOT for Captain John Smith but for another Englishman with that name—was composed by John Dowland, a popular English musician during the early 1600s reign of King James I, for whom the English settlement on Jamestown Island was named.

At a Jamestown church in 1619, 22 colonists gathered for the first meeting of the Virginia House of Burgesses, which along with the royal governor and his council formed the colony’s General Assembly.  2017 marks the 399th year of this annual Assembly.  Beginning this year on January 11, 100 members of the House of Delegates and 40 state senators will consider some two-to-three thousand bills and resolutions, along with amendments to the Commonwealth’s current biennial budget.  Water will be part of that agenda, just as it has been since Captain John Warde’s fishing success was a consideration in his being seated as one of the original burgesses.   Probably 100 to 200 bills will address aquatic environments, fisheries, water supplies, wastewater systems, or energy and land uses that affect water.  The session will move fast, and the decisions may have widespread and important consequences.  You can be part of Virginia’s 399-year tradition of representative government by following the General Assembly’s work and by contacting your delegate or senator about issues of concern.

Thanks to Timothy Seaman for permission to use this week’s music, and we close with a few more seconds of the almayne for Sir John Smith.

MUSIC - ~ 10 seconds

SHIP’S BELL

For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close the show.   In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

“Sir John Smith, His Almayne,” from the 2006 album “Jamestown: On the Edge of a Vast Continent,” is copyright by Timothy Seaman and Pine Wind Music, used with permission.  More information about Timothy Seaman is available online at http://timothyseaman.com/en/.

According to Timothy Dickey (“John Dowland—Sir John Smith, his Almain, for Lute, P47,” AllMusic Web site, online at http://www.allmusic.com/composition/sir-john-smith-his-almain-for-lute-p-47-mc0002373007), an almayne, or almain, is a dance typically considered to be of German origin, or a tune for such a dance.  The “John Smith” in the title is not the Captain John Smith, famous for his role in the Jamestown settlement, but another Englishman with that fairly common name.

IMAGE
List of the first members of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619.  Page vi. of the Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1619–1658/59, H. R. McIlwaine, ed., Virginia State Library, Richmond, 1915.  Image accessed at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities’ Encyclopedia Virginia, “Primary Resource: Burgesses for the Assembly of 1619,” online at http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Burgesses_for_the_Assembly_of_1619.

EXTRA FACTS ABOUT THE FIRST MEETING OF THE VIRGINIA HOUSE OF BURGESSES

Following are the 22 colonists elected to serve in the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619, listed by the areas or plantations that they represented (* = representatives not allowed to serve).

Argall's Gift: Thomas Pawlett, Edward Gourgaing;
Charles City: Samuel Sharpe, Samuel Jordan;
Flowerdieu Hundred: Edmund Roffingham, John Jefferson;
Henricus: Thomas Dowse, John Polentine [probably Pollington];
James City: William Powell, William Spense (Spence);
Kiccowtan: William Tucker, William Capp;
Lawne's Plantation: Christopher Lawne, Ensign Washer;
Martin's Brandon: * Thomas Davis, Robert Stacy;
Martin's Hundred: John Boys, John Jackson;
Captain Warde's Plantation: John Warde, John Gibbes;
Smythes Hundred: Thomas Graves, Walter Shelley.

Source: Virginia Foundation for the Humanities’ Encyclopedia Virginia, “Primary Resource—Burgesses for the Assembly of 1619,” online at http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Burgesses_for_the_Assembly_of_1619.

SOURCES

Used for Audio

Timothy Dickey, “John Dowland—Sir John Smith, his Almain, for Lute, P47,” AllMusic Web site, online at http://www.allmusic.com/composition/sir-john-smith-his-almain-for-lute-p-47-mc0002373007.

Encyclopedia Britannica: “John Dowland—English Musician” (October 24, 2003), online at https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Dowland; and David Mathew, “James I—King of England and Scotland” (Feb. 25, 2014), online at https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-I-king-of-England-and-Scotland.

Historic Jamestowne, “The First General Assembly,” online at http://historicjamestowne.org/history/the-first-general-assembly/.

Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia Web site US History.org, “Britain in the New World/House of Burgesses,” online at http://www.ushistory.org/us/2f.asp.

Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, “John Dowland,” online at http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/john-dowland.

Sarah J. Stebbins, “A Short History of Jamestown” (April 2011), National Park Service, online at https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/a-short-history-of-jamestown.htm.

Virginia Foundation for the Humanities’ Encyclopedia Virginia: 1) Matthew S. Gottlieb, “House of Burgesses,” online at http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/House_of_Burgesses; 2) John G. Kolp, “Elections in Colonial Virginia,” Virginia Foundation for the Humanities’ “Encyclopedia Virginia,” online at http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Elections_in_Colonial_Virginia; and 3) “Primary Resource—The General Assembly Convenes (1619),” online at http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/The_General_Assembly_Convenes_1619 (please see the latter reference for minutes from the 1619 gathering's consideration of Captain John Warde's contribution of fish to the colony during deliberations about whether to seat him as a member, as was mentioned in the audio).

Virginia General Assembly, “About the General Assembly,” online at http://virginiageneralassembly.gov/index.php (click on “Virginia’s Legislature,” then “Legislative Essentials”).

For More Information about the Virginia General Assembly

Virginia Legislative Information System, online at http://leg1.state.va.us/.  This site provides access to member bills and the state budget for each session going back to 1994. I t also has information on members and committees, the Virginia Code, the Virginia Constitution, and more.

For More Information about Music in Colonial Virginia

John W. Molnar, “A Collection of Music in Colonial Virginia: The Ogle Inventory,” The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Apr., 1963), pp. 150-162, Oxford University Press, online at http://www.oxfordjournals.org/en/ (direct link, requiring subscription: https://www.jstor.org/stable/740643?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents).

RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES

All Water Radio episodes are listed by category at the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html).

Previous episodes on the Virginia General Assembly are the following:
Episode 143, 1/7/13
– Music for the Past and Present of the Virginia General Assembly;
Episode 147, 2/4/13
– Committees Guide the Flow of Bills in the Virginia General Assembly;
Episode196, 1/13/14
– The Virginia Legislature on its 396th Opening Day, January 8, 2014;
Episode 247, 1/5/15
– January Means State Budget Time in the Virginia General Assembly;
Episode 252, 2/9/15
– Voting on Water in the 2015 Virginia General Assembly;
Episode 297, 1/4/16
– Water’s on the Agenda—along with a Whole Lot Else—When the Virginia General Assembly Convenes;
Episode 302, 2/8/16
– Voting on Water in the 2016 Virginia General Assembly.

STANDARDS OF LEARNING (SOLs) FOR VIRGINIA TEACHERS

This episode may help with the following 2010 Science SOLs:

Grades K-6 Living Systems Theme
6.7 - natural processes and human interactions that affect watershed systems; Va. watersheds, water bodies, and wetlands; and water monitoring.

Grades K-6 Earth Resources Theme
6.9 – public policy decisions regarding the environment.

Life Science Course
LS.11 - relationships between ecosystem dynamics and human activity.

Earth Science Course
ES.6 – renewable vs. non-renewable resources (including energy resources).
ES.10 – oceans, including economic and policy decisions affecting oceans, the coastal zone, and the Chesapeake Bay.
ES.11 – the atmosphere, including human influences on climate.

Biology Course
BIO.8 – dynamic equilibria and interactions within populations, communities, and ecosystems; including effects of natural events and human activities.

The episode may also help with the following 2008 Social Studies SOLs:

Virginia Studies Course
VS.3 – first permanent English settlement in America.

Civics and Economics Course
CE.1 – social studies skills that responsible citizenship requires.
CE.7 – government at the state level.
CE.9 – public policy at local, state, and national levels.

World Geography Course
WG.10 - cooperation among political jurisdictions to solve problems and settle disputes.

Government Course
GOVT.1 – social studies skills that responsible citizenship requires.
GOVT.8 – state and local government organization and powers.
GOVT.9 – public policy at local, state, and national levels.
GOVT.16 – role of government in Va. and U.S. economies, including examining environmental issues and property rights.

The episode may also help with the following  2015 Social Studies SOLs, which become effective in the 2017-18 school year:

Virginia Studies Course
VS.3 – first permanent English settlement in America.
VS.10 – knowledge of government, geography, and economics in present-day Virginia.

Civics and Economics Course
CE.1 – social studies skills that responsible citizenship requires.
CE.7 – government at the state level.
CE.10 – public policy at local, state, and national levels.

World Geography Course
WG.18 - cooperation among political jurisdictions to solve problems and settle disputes.

Virginia and United States History Course
VUS.4 – Major pre-Revolution events.

Government Course
GOVT.1 – social studies skills that responsible citizenship requires.
GOVT.8 – state and local government organization and powers.
GOVT.9 – public policy at local, state, and national levels.
GOVT.15 – role of government in Va. and U.S. economies, including examining environmental issues and property rights.

Virginia’s SOLs are available from the Virginia Department of Education, online at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/.