1535: A Year in the Life of Pierre Attaingnant
Tutor: Peter Syrus
St Agnes and St Pancras, Toxteth Park, Liverpool L17 3AS
VOICES & INSTRUMENTS A=440
BOOK ONLINE BY 31 OCTOBER 2026 for early bird discount
A workshop for singers (in all ranges) and players of viols, recorders (tenors downwards), sackbuts and curtals (pitch = A440).
Peter writes: ‘This workshop is a logical successor to the October one in which Lizzie Gutteridge investigates Petrucci’s momentous ‘first’: the application of printing to polyphonic music in 1501. We now leave Venice and head for Paris, then the most populous city in Europe, to freeze frame a richly productive year. While his publications were less beautiful to the eye than Petrucci’s, Attaingnant’s were more cost effective, and by 1535 he’d established a much wider market eager for his wares, sacred and secular, vocal and instrumental. Our selection will include motets by L’Héritier, Claudin de Sermisy and Manchicourt, alongside chansons by Janequin and Claudin. There will be two settings of the joyful Marian antiphon for Easter, ‘Regina caeli laetare’: one for five voices by Willaert, the other an extraordinary twelve voice concoction by Gombert.’
The expected timetable is as follows, but may be subject to minor changes on the day.
TIMETABLE
10.00 Registration and tea/coffee
10.30 Morning session (with short comfort break)
12.45 Lunch break
14.00 Afternoon session (with tea/coffee break)
17:00 Conclusion
Venue – St Agnes and St Pancras, Toxteth Park, 1 Buckingham Avenue, Liverpool, L17 3BA
St Agnes and St Pancras Church is a striking Victorian Anglican church in the Toxteth Park area of Liverpool, close to Sefton Park. Built in the late 19th century in the Gothic Revival style, it is renowned for its impressive architecture, richly decorated interior, and beautiful stained-glass windows.
There is on street parking available outside the church on Buckingham Avenue and Lancaster Avenue, which we would ask you to leave for those who need to park close to the church. For everyone else, we will once again have the use of the staff car park at St Hilda’s Church of England High School opposite the church.
If you are travelling by public transport, please consult the MerseyTravel website – the church is about a 20 minute bus ride from the centre of Liverpool.
The church provides tea and coffee for a donation, along with sandwich meal deals for lunch (at a cost of about £6), as a way of raising money for the church. If you’d like to pre-order lunch, let us know in the booking form, and more details will be given nearer the time.
Please join as a member before submitting your workshop application form.
Workshop fees
Please book as soon as possible – apply by 31 October to benefit from the early bird discount. All applications should be received by 7 November so we can prepare sufficient scores for all participants (please contact us if you can only apply after this date).
- £20 for NWEMF members (and other EMF members) before 31 October (£25 if booked after this date)
- £25 for non-members before 31 October (£30 if booked after this date)
- £5 Full-time students
Payment details
The best way to pay the workshop fee is by bank transfer, and we have recently set up a new Co-operative bank account with the following details:
Account Name: North West Early Music Forum
Sort Code: 08-92-99
Account No: 67560004
Payment reference – “21Nov” followed by your own surname (eg 21NovSmith)
You can also pay by cheque made payable to “North West Early Music Forum” or by cash – either bring it with you on the day (let us know that you intend to do this), or send it to the Treasurer (email treasurer@nwemf.org for details). You can also contact Peter Syrus by email at petersyrus4@gmail.com.
Please complete the online application below (please complete a separate form for each person attending).
If you are attending as a family, please complete only one form, and in the “Any other information” box, add the names and voice/instrument for each person attending, along with note of the total due.
Your place on the workshop will not be confirmed until payment has been received.
Thank you – we will be in touch shortly
In the rare event that any technical issues persist after a few attempts, simply email Peter with the required information to petersyrus4@gmail.com.
If you would prefer to download and print the application form, click here.
The Tutor
Peter Syrus graduated with first-class Honours from the University of York in 1971. Research there into fourteenth-century Italian music followed, prior to a move to join the staff of the RNCM in Manchester in 1975. Peter plays a key role in activities of the regional Early Music Forums, of which the first was established in the North West fifty years ago. He has taught at several universities in this country, while day schools and residential courses have provided numerous platforms for practical music making, engaging with singers and instrumentalists on repertoire ranging from the late Middle Ages to the mid-seventeenth century.
