Online activities

We may not be able to attend concerts, workshops and the like during the Covid 19 lockdown, but there are plenty of online activities that we can access.


  • Sing and Discover Online Workshop with John Hancorn and Richard Wigmore
    Saturday 11 July, 4-6pm: Bach’s Magnificat and Mass in B Minor.
    Join John Hancorn and Richard Wigmore for this two-hour online workshop. John and Richard will look at the origins and cultural background of these magnificent works and explore the music in some detail, with recorded illustrations. You will then join in with several choruses.
    The session costs £10 (plus booking fee) and tickets are available from Trybooking - click on the link below: 
    Saturday 11 July, Bach: https://www.trybooking.com/uk/SNQ
    When you sign up you will receive details on how to join the Zoom online session and links for accessing the music on Youtube. If you have your own scores please do use them. 
    An informal Online Early Music Forum has been created using Jamulus, open to all, to allow people to sing and play together online. For more information, click here.
  • David Hatcher has created another set of pieces for Music MInus One. These are Palestrina’s twenty-nine 5-part settings of Canticum Canticorum, the Song of Songs. He says: 'These astoundingly beautiful pieces were first published by Gardano in Rome in 1584 and reissued in Venice in 1587. It is this second print that I have used as the source for my edition." You can access the “catalogue” and some sound samples from the Consort-music-minus-one page on David's website, http://www.dhatcher.co.uk/consort-music-minus-one
  • Click here to listen to Sally Dunkley discussing the history of polyphonic music.
  • The Early Music Shop is providing videos on Monday to Friday at 1.00 pm. There is a complete index to them at https://earlymusicshop.com/blogs/early-music-1.
  • Alison Kinder gives an Angel Early Music Lecture-recital on the music of Tobias Hume. Click here.
  • David Hatcher has just finished his second collection of Consort-Music-Minus-One pieces.  This collection is really singer-friendly: the beautiful settings of Petrarch’s Le Vergine by Cipriano de Rore, published in his Il terzo libro de madrigali a cinque voci, in 1548 by Gardano in Venice. These come with completely new editions of the eleven pieces prepared specifically for this project and presented as scores and parts. As they are in five voices, there are six sound files with each piece: a complete version, then five more with a different part missing in each. Each madrigal is £6 (score, parts and six sound files). Please contact David at djhatcher@icloud.com if you would like to make a purchase.
  • Cat on the Keys Music is producing a series of backing tracks for a variety of early music instrumental works. From baroque sonatas for recorder, violin and oboe by Bach, Handel and Albinoni, to Renaissance divisions and grounds, and Purcell songs. Each work comes in a variety of tempi and pitches to suit modern and Baroque instruments, learners and more experienced players. A few tracks are free to download, with a low price-tag for all other works. To find out more, go to https://www.catonthekeysmusic.co.uk/ 
  • The Sixteen (Musical Director Harry Christophers) are producing a range of online performances and talks: click here.
  • To learn more about Ex Cathedra's activities during the lockdown, and to see how you can get involved, click here.
  • Renaissance wind band The City Musick are offering downloads of 'music minus a part': for £5 per piece you get access to a score pdf [and parts where necessary], a high quality audio file of the full piece, and audio files of the piece minus the part you wish to play. See https://www.tcmusick.com/cck-music-store
  • Flute playing was a popular pastime in the eighteenth century and a number of pocket-sized collections of music were published for the instrument. Peter Harrison has made a video of excerpts from three of the collections and a version of the Hallelujah Chorus from 'Harrison's New German Flute Magazine' of 1787. https://youtu.be/vRSgyN-EFss . He would like to raise funds for the Railway Children Charity. The Charity supports street children in India, Africa and also has refuges in the UK. Recently h spent some days working with the organisation in Delhi and I now know from personal experience what excellent, committed and caring work is done. Please make a donation if you can: www.railwaychildren.org.uk
  • Knowing that many of us are missing playing consorts with each other, David Hatcher has made it possible for us to play with him!  See here for more about the project and/or email him to place your order.
    Allt these pieces have a mere (?) four parts, so to celebrate completing the 39th and final piece, David has produced Wylkynson’s 13-voice canon Jesus autem transiens/Credo from the Eton Choirbook, on 13 bass viols!  Here’s the link:
    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4f3rjd8d4ddadqc/AADOVaFwwrymKjI6TwSZKmNsa?dl=0.
  • Julia Bishop is offering one-to-one Baroque violin lessons on Zoom. Baroque repertoire of your choice and guidance on technical issues, Baroque performance practice etc. Fee £30.00 per hour.To find out more, email her on julia@redpriest.com 
  • Viol players may be particularly interested in this link. 
  • I Fagiolini have sent us links to sites where you can enjoy their work. Firstly,  a new series of videos coming out once a week (two already up) where a Fagiolini track is played with the score appearing simultaneously. If you like it, they ask that you subscribe to the series - it's free of charge. Click here to visit it. They also have a site where they have uploaded a number of performances, interviews etc: click here to visit.