Well, what a change since the last Diary! – of course, the first and most important thing is to say that I hope you, and all your families, are safe and well, and that you’re finding ways to keep playing and singing despite the fact that we can’t meet at present. As you know, our recent and forthcoming workshops have sadly had to be cancelled – or at least, we hope, postponed – though at the moment we are still hoping that the chamber music day at the end of September may be possible – watch the SWEMF Events page for updates.
There are, as I’m sure you know, an enormous number of online resources for musicians springing up, and here I’d like to say a big thankyou to Sara, our web editor, for compiling the excellent list of links on the website here – do have a look if you haven’t already done so. I have also been thinking about ways to offer you something in place of the workshops, and at the same time to provide our wonderful tutors with a little income at what is a very difficult time for all freelance musicians. I’m happy to say that there will indeed be a number of short videos by some of our favourite tutors shortly available on the website – more details soon.
And finally, I felt that I myself would like to give you a little help to keep your music going. So you will find at the bottom of this page an MP3 file of my singing the top line of a Morley canzonet; you can join in singing the bottom line, or playing on recorder, viol, whatever. I did this originally for my viol consort, and then thought I would share it with you. I’ve recorded it both at A440 and A415 – just choose the appropriate one. Many people will probably have the music, but if not, I’ve included a link to where you can find it on CPDL. I may do another one in a week or so!
Whatever you’re doing at the moment, stay safe, and let’s hope it’s not too long before we can resume at least some of our activities.
– Clare Griffel
Here is my recording of the top line of Sweet Nymph come to thy Lover, at both A440 and A415. You can find the music on CPDL here:
http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/imag
I hope you enjoy it!
– Clare