The news letter for June 2021 is now available on the members page. Elizabeth Dodd is back as newsletter editor and this is her second edition. There are reviews of two recent Zoom presentations and notice of the first of our Autumn workshops which is on Usper and Bassano and is being taken by our president Roger Wilkes.

Future plans

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.

john-bryan-17th-april Download

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.

elizabeth-dodd-20-march Download

NEW CHARITY RAISES £100,000 TO BOLSTER PERIOD-INSTRUMENT ENSEMBLES

Continuo Foundation Press Release Final 29 January Download

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.

tvemf-john-bryan-9th-feb-2021-flyer

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

The latest newsletter is now available on the members page.

What to do in lockdown.