For our plans for the rest of 2021 please do visit the workshops page.
Josquin des Pres revisited: the myths, the man and his music
Zoom Presentation by John Bryan
Saturday 17 April 2021, 10:00 am
While the 2020 celebrations for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth suffered badly due to the pandemic, let’s hope that 2021 is kinder to Josquin, marking the 500th anniversary of his death. A contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci, and working in many of the same Italian cultural centres, we know far less about Josquin’s life and career than about Leonardo’s. Much of what we thought we knew has been revealed to be ‘fake news’, or at least unsubstantiated hypotheses resulting from his celebrity status in his own lifetime. Soon after his death publishers began to attribute pieces to him in order to boost sales of their part-books, and musicologists are still debating whether some of his best loved pieces are genuinely by him. Nevertheless, the securely attributed music, and other pieces that are thought to be his, give us much to celebrate in this anniversary year. In this illustrated talk, I will survey what is known about Josquin’s career, investigate some of the ‘myths’ that grew up about him in the sixteenth century, and see some of the ways in which his music influenced other composers in the years after his death.
The application form is below.
Sinking under a Sink-A-Pace?
Dowland and Dance
Elizabeth Dodd
A Zoom presentation Saturday 20th March at 10.30
In this presentation Elizabeth shares ideas she has been having over the years on John Dowland’s appreciation of dance, his use of it in his vocal and instrumental works and how our understanding of his skill can inform our performance. We hope it will be of interest both to singers and to instrumentalists. Anyone who possesses copies of the First and Second Books of Songs and the Lachrimae may like to have them handy but Elizabeth plans to display some of scores she will be talking about as well as playing recorded examples.
Follow the link below for the full details and booking information.
NEW CHARITY RAISES £100,000 TO BOLSTER PERIOD-INSTRUMENT ENSEMBLES
The details are in the link above.
Reading Between the Lines
There is an illustrated talk by John Bryan on “Reading between the lines”: how contemporary written descriptions can help transform early musical notation into sound. John will be looking particularly at four pieces for which we have some contemporary form of verbal description, by Francesco Corteccia, Edward Johnson, Giaches de Wert and Thomas Tallis. Tuesday the 9th February at 7.30 pm.
For these straightened times.
Tallis Spem in Alium sung by Stile Antico https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfnEbwcLq0E&feature=youtu.be
Recorder consort music downloads https://www.helenhooker.co.uk/downloads
Backing tracks for recorder players https://www.srp.org.uk/david-moses-downloads/
i Fagiolini’s Sing The Score (+Extra). Robert Hollingworth and his group have made ‘sing along’ videos:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsdmpGkkaBlCmyiEyHtUjBAEIjbb4bVXp and www.ifagiolini.com/singthescore
Peter Holman has an online concert at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-qIJ232JWc.
Play along (with) MIDI Files for Viola da Gambas & Recorders: https://tpgettys.weebly.com/
Or with the Chelys Consort (viols): http://www.chelysconsort.co.uk/consort-minus-one.html
Cappella Nova Outreach in association with Strathclyde University’s Centre for Lifelong Learning:https://mycll.strath.ac.uk/MyCLL/Classes?cid=76&cname=Music+%26+Singing+in+collaboration+with+Cappella+Nova+Outreach
Clare College choir video: https://www.clarecollegechoir.com/videos
Ex Cathedra have made recordings, e.g. sing-alongs for young children, see https://mailchi.mp/excathedra/may-2020-enews?e=994f568de2
A Web page of on-line events is being maintained by SWEMF at https://www.swemf.org.uk/events/online-events/ ,
by EEMF at www.eemf.org.uk/lockdown_links.html
and by BMEMF at www.bmemf.org.uk/online-activities.html
An Alison Kinder lecture-recital on the music of Tobias Hume is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=amqG1fSKXGs&app=desktop;
she has many other videos via
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnMc0tcKenkLzpbAfyFpkng .
The Sixteen have online performances and talks at https://thesixteen.com/quarantine-with-the-sixteen/ and What’s On – The Sixteen (A Choral Odyssey sequence).
There are backing tracks for a variety of early music instrumental works at https://www.catonthekeysmusic.co.uk/ . A few tracks are free.
David Hatcher has consort music minus one part – for you to fill in! – see
The City Musick also have recordings minus one part – see https://www.tcmusick.com/cck-music-store – but you do have to pay.
Unlock your Singing with Jennie Cassidy at https://www.connectandteach.com/lesson/unlock-your-singing/
PlayScore 2, currently for IPhone/iPad only (www.playscore.co ) allows you to take a photo of your music and it will play it, or you can import a PDF to play. It allows you to play at any speed you like, and you can set the instruments and transpose. It also exports MIDI if you want.
Some on-line lessons are being offered by
Alison Kinder, viols, www.alisonkinder.co.uk
Oonagh Lee, historical oboes and recorders, www.oonaghlee.com
Richard MacKenzie, lutes and guitars, http://magnatune.com/artists/richard_mackenzie/
Regular Events
The Telling Wednesday evenings, Fridays 11am: https://www.thetelling.co.uk/concert-diary
David Allinson Lunchtime Live, Fridays at 1pm: http://davidallinson.com/diary/
Online Early Music Forum, three times per week; make harmony over the Web via Jamulus: oemf@josquin.com
Wednesdays 1pm. Ensemble Hesperi. Lunchtime baroque concerts. www.ensemblehesperi.com
Trouvere Medieval Minstrels. Wednesday evenings 7pm on their Facebook page
SingTheScore Friday at 6pm but available afterwards https://www.ifagiolini.com
Fridays 29 Jan to 5 March, 7pm. 6 Platinum Consort workshops, also available on demand afterwards. Bach: Jesu meine Freude at A=415. https://www.platinumconsort.com/jmf.html
Newsletter
The latest newsletter is now available on the members page.
What to do in lockdown.
Tallis Spem in Alium sung by Stile Antico https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfnEbwcLq0E&feature=youtu.be
Recorder consort music downloads https://www.helenhooker.co.uk/downloads
Backing tracks for recorder players https://www.srp.org.uk/david-moses-downloads/
i Fagiolini’s Sing The Score (+Extra). Robert Hollingworth and his group have made ‘sing along’ videos:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsdmpGkkaBlCmyiEyHtUjBAEIjbb4bVXp and www.ifagiolini.com/singthescore
Peter Holman has an online concert at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-qIJ232JWc.
Play along (with) MIDI Files for Viola da Gambas & Recorders: https://tpgettys.weebly.com/
Or with the Chelys Consort (viols): http://www.chelysconsort.co.uk/consort-minus-one.html
Cappella Nova Outreach in association with Strathclyde University’s Centre for Lifelong Learning:https://mycll.strath.ac.uk/MyCLL/Classes?cid=76&cname=Music+%26+Singing+in+collaboration+with+Cappella+Nova+Outreach
Clare College choir video: https://www.clarecollegechoir.com/videos
Ex Cathedra have made recordings, e.g. sing-alongs for young children, see https://mailchi.mp/excathedra/may-2020-enews?e=994f568de2
A Web page of on-line events is being maintained by SWEMF at https://www.swemf.org.uk/events/online-events/ ,
by EEMF at www.eemf.org.uk/lockdown_links.html
and by BMEMF at www.bmemf.org.uk/online-activities.html
An Alison Kinder lecture-recital on the music of Tobias Hume is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=amqG1fSKXGs&app=desktop;
she has many other videos via
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnMc0tcKenkLzpbAfyFpkng .
The Sixteen have online performances and talks at https://thesixteen.com/quarantine-with-the-sixteen/ and What’s On – The Sixteen (A Choral Odyssey sequence).
There are backing tracks for a variety of early music instrumental works at https://www.catonthekeysmusic.co.uk/ . A few tracks are free.
David Hatcher has consort music minus one part – for you to fill in! – see
The City Musick also have recordings minus one part – see https://www.tcmusick.com/cck-music-store – but you do have to pay.
Unlock your Singing with Jennie Cassidy at https://www.connectandteach.com/lesson/unlock-your-singing/
PlayScore 2, currently for IPhone/iPad only (www.playscore.co ) allows you to take a photo of your music and it will play it, or you can import a PDF to play. It allows you to play at any speed you like, and you can set the instruments and transpose. It also exports MIDI if you want.
Some on-line lessons are being offered by
Alison Kinder, viols, www.alisonkinder.co.uk
Oonagh Lee, historical oboes and recorders, www.oonaghlee.com
Richard MacKenzie, lutes and guitars, http://magnatune.com/artists/richard_mackenzie/
Regular Events
The Telling Wednesday evenings, Fridays 11am: https://www.thetelling.co.uk/concert-diary
David Allinson Lunchtime Live, Fridays at 1pm: http://davidallinson.com/diary/
Online Early Music Forum, three times per week; make harmony over the Web via Jamulus: oemf@josquin.com
Mystery,
Somebody has paid their subscription fee but left no contact information. We are not certain if it is new member or an existing member who has changed their name. The name we have is E Bright. Could you please make contact with us via the contact page so we can sort this out.
News from The Sixteen
The Sixteen: A Choral Odyssey 6 part series presented by Simon Russell Beale, broadcast weekly from 18th November – 23rd December 2020. From the 18th November, The Sixteen will be presenting a six-part series of programmes: A Choral Odyssey. Presented by Simon Russell Beale and featuring 1,000 years of choral music performed in iconic, pertinent surroundings – from Byrd in Elizabeth I’s childhood home of Hatfield House, to Purcell in the reconstructed 17th Century Theatre of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse – this promises a fantastic restoration of the acclaimed Sacred Music series broadcast by the BBC nearly a decade ago. Further details and how to watch can be found here: https://thesixteen.com/a-choral-odyssey
