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.​ Other EMFS are offering a huge range of online opportunities: see the 'links' page to visit their websites.​​​
  • Saturday 15 May, 11am: 'Definitely not the Pope - the music of Clemens Non Papa'. Workshop for singers hosted by MEMF with tutor Rory McCleery. Book here.​
  • Tuesday 18 May, 8pm: Talk by Patrick Craig on the melodramatic motets of Giaches de Wert, illustrated with suitably dramatic artworks! Organised by TVEMF. Book here.
  • Saturday 29th May: Early Music Keyboard workshop, organised by EMFS. This will take place by Zoom 10:30am - 12 noon. Tutor: Julian Perkins. The price will be £7.50 (£5 for students and low wage). Julian Perkins will introduce exercises in figured bass so that players can become comfortable with playing regular harmonic patterns and chord progressions. While a basic keyboard technique is required, the session can accommodate those who are new to figured bass as well as those who have had some experience playing with others. The session will also address principles of keyboard technique including posture and fingering.
    To book your place: (1)   Pay your fee by direct bank transfer,
    Bank Account: Early Music Forum of Scotland
    Bank: Co-operative Bank
    Sort Code: 08-92-99
    Account: 65690662
    PLEASE IDENTIFY YOUR BANK TRANSFER USING THE CODE "KEYBD"
    You can also send a cheque payable to EMFS to: Sue Owen, 15 Kirkton Bank, Penicuik, EH26 9HY
    (2) When you have paid or posted your cheque, please Email sue@emfscotland.org.uk
    Include your name, the name that appears on your Zoom screen, your Early Music affiliation (if any), and confirmation that you have paid.
  • Saturday June 5th, 11 am:  "...The dance and music must so nicely meet, Each note must seem an eccho to your feet":  An Introduction to Baroque Dance Rhythms: gavotte & gigue, with Philippa Waite, including opportunities to practice the steps in the privacy of your home!  Full details/registration at www.swemf.org.uk
  • World-renowned vocal ensemble Stile Antico is launching a new series of films this Spring illuminating music by composers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Spotlights will feature a key piece of Renaissance repertoire alongside interviews with expert academics, discussion between members of the group, and music connected with the composer or period. From 25th April, 4 online weekly episodes will examine the music of Palestrina, Alonso Lobo, Robert Ramsey, and John Taverner. Stile Antico is pleased to be joined by historians Professor Simon Ditchfield (University of York) and Dr Clare Jackson (University of Cambridge), and musicologists Dr Stephen Darlington (University of Oxford), and Professor Owen Rees (University of Oxford) to help discuss the music and their contexts.
    Filmed in 4K, high definition video in the beautiful church of St Augustine, Kilburn, these 4 films will be available through Vimeo On Demand, for £10 per episode, or £30 for the whole series. They will be available to watch for 3 months after the broadcast date once you have bought access.
    ​To watch a trailer and to find out more, go to     www.vimeo.com/ondemand/spotlights. 

  • ​Saturday 15 May: Virtual Pride and Prejudice Ball. For more information, and to book a place, please email the organiser.
  • David Hatcher has been busy editing and recording his way through Odhecaton for the latest in his 'Consorts minus one' series. He has now completed the first three quarters of the collection. Please see his website dhatcher.co.uk/consort-music-minus-one, where you will find the catalogues to the first three volumes of Odhecaton, along with all the other collections.
  • ​David Hatcher has created another set of 'music minus one' tracks, which include Josquin’s monumental setting of Psalm 50, and four settings of Savonarola’s words - Infelix ego, omnium auxilio destitutus  by Adrian Willaert, Cipriano de Rore, Orlando di Lasso and William Byrd. In addition to these, there will be Tribularer si nescirem, a liturgical text for Lent, so far those by Palestrina and Gesualdo plus other motets associated with the friar. Samples of the opening pages of the scores and some sound samples can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/j3qzp7n2cltta2m/AABIpb7ZUZRX2A9O4ccqeCuna?dl=0 Given the length and complexity of these six-part pieces, the cost is £12 each for them (The Gesualdo - shorter and in five parts, is the usual £6). For this, you will receive a score, parts and the usual selection of sound files.
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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. All 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.