The Cranberry Coffee House will welcome the eclectic early-music duo Bells and Motley for a holiday performance on Saturday, December 20 at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Binghamton. Half of the duo, multi-instrumentalist John Bromka, says audiences can expect a wide-ranging celebration of seasonal traditions.
“We’re going to be doing all kinds of historic music and folk music relating to Christmas and New Year’s,” Bromka explains. “We have an extensive collection of wassail songs to toast to all of our friends and neighbors — and the neighbors’ cows.”
The group’s name itself speaks to their Renaissance roots. “It’s the attire of a court jester back from Renaissance times,” Bromka says. “I thought it described well this great array of sounds that we bring together — a big collection of instruments, kind of a patchwork sort of thing.”
That “patchwork” includes instruments many audience members may be seeing for the first time. “Among the most unusual things I bring are the hurdy-gurdy and the tromba marina,” Bromka notes. “I built a Swedish nyckelharpa, and we play Celtic harp, hammered dulcimer, squeeze boxes. I also play a couple of different kinds of bagpipes. And we sing — we have lots of choruses for the audience to sing along with us.”
Their repertoire spans centuries and cultures. “A lot of English and British Isles music, a couple of Scottish songs, a few medieval pieces in Latin, some in French,” he says. “Yeah, we like languages.”
For this performance, Bells and Motley will also be joined by longtime friends The Champions of Folly, a troupe connected to the Binghamton Morris Men. “They’ve been around probably about as long as I’ve been dancing with the Morris Men — about 40 years,” Bromka says. The group will present a traditional English mummers play during intermission. “It’s a number of odd characters strung together, usually around the story of St. George and the Dragon,” he explains. “I’ll be one of the walk-ons as Father Christmas. It’s a lot of fun.”
Bells and Motley perform Saturday, December 20 at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 183 Riverside Drive, Binghamton. More information is available at cranberrycoffeehouse.org.