Some Early Music Links

Other Early Music Forums in the UK :

Societies, Festivals, Web portals, etc.

Ashford Baroque Ensemble (Middlesex)
Under its director, Philip Buckmaster, the ABE aims for an authentic playing style, for practical reasons playing mostly at modern pitch. They play music from about 1550-1775.

Beauchamp Early Music Course
A residential Early Music week for instrumentalists and singers, directed by Philip Thorby and Alan Lumsden, with continuo support from Clifford Bartlett.
Held in July each year, organised as part of the Beauchamp House International Holiday Music Courses programme.

Benslow Music Trust
Residential Music Courses for Amateur Musicians
Little Benslow Hills, Benslow Lane, Hitchin, Herts SG4 9RP
Tel: 01462 459 446 (9am-5pm weekdays)
Email: info[at]benslow.org

Brighton Early Music Festival

British Harpsichord Society
Aims to promote the awareness, enjoyment, study, performance and ownership of harpsichords and related plucked keyboard instruments in Britain.
The website www.harpsichord.org.uk contains a wealth of links to harpsichord related information, including teachers, concerts, makers etc. It is entirely email and web based and is free to join.

Canterbury Gregorian Music Society
The Canterbury Gregorian Music Society was launched towards the end of 2007 by a group of enthusiasts who wanted to learn more about Gregorian Music and have opportunities to sing Gregorian Chant and meet others with similar interests. It is a secular society, in that it does not belong to any particular religious group.
CGMS hopes to explore the breadth of the Gregorian tradition as well as overlaps with other chant traditions such as the Jewish, Byzantine, Orthodox and Sufi traditions.
It is hoped to organise three or four events per year.

The Canterbury Waits
Shawms, cornett, sackbut and curtal provide the historical centrepiece of a five-piece shawm band specialising in loud ceremonial and dance music from the time of the Plantagenets to the Tudors and Stuarts. Whole consorts of crumhorns, kortholts, flutes, recorders and great recorders provide softer sounds more typical of indoor music. These are supplemented as appropriate by bass viol, rebec, psaltery, bagpipes, chalumeau, tabors, nakkers, and a variety of other medieval and renaissance instruments. The Canterbury Waits can provide music of the right period mood for fairs, medieval banquets, and plays, in costume if required. Lectures, demonstrations and concerts always include explanations and readings both amusing and enlightening.

Carolina Classical Connection
A collection of MUSIC LINKS for Multi-Period, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, & 20th Century Web sites

Dolmetsch Early Music Links

Early Music Network

Early Music Now (formerly called Winchester Early Music Festival)

Easter Early Music Course
This course began life as the Welsh Early Music Week at Swansea in 1984 and in 2000 found a new and comfortable home in St. George's School, Ascot. It is designed for players of viols, recorders and other early instruments.
info[at]easterearlymusiccourse.org.uk, 01439 788527

Goldberg : the Early Music Portal
GOLDBERGWEB.COM is a project set up by Goldberg Publications Ltd. to complement the Goldberg magazine.

The Generalls Music and Players
A group of musicians who have dedicated themselves to the performance of Music from the period of 1590 to 1660, using modern replicas of the original instruments of the era and researching the performance practices

The Hill Education & Conference Centre
The Hill is a member of the Adult Residential Colleges Association, and as such offers a variety of leisure and activity courses including recorders and early music.
Pen-Y-Pound, Abergavenny NP7 7RP
Tel: 01495333704; Email: hannah.watkins[at]coleggwent.ac.uk

Historical Violin newsletter
Dmitry Badiarov: Violin & Bow Maker, Historical Violin Workshop in Brussels. Offering historically informed violinmaking, Historical and Modern Violins, Violas, Viola d'Amore, Viola Pomposa, Historical Bows for the instruments of the Violin family.

Irish Recorder and Viol Course
One-to-a-part and ensembles for recorders, viols and other early instruments.
info[at]irishrecorderandviolcourse.org

Lacock
courses for singers and players of renaissance and baroque instruments

The Musick Cabinet
The Musick Cabinet is a group of like-minded musicians based in Kent, UK, playing a variety of instruments to bring to life a selection of curious old classical, baroque, renaissance and mediaeval music. For each playing session or performance, a different group of friends focus their instruments, interests and talents on the particular repertoire to be explored. Music played is mainly for small ensembles but from a wide historical range, from mediaeval through renaissance, baroque and classical to romantic and modern.

NORVIS (Northumbrian Recorder and Viol School)
NORVIS early music summer school is held annually in Durham England.
The course covers all aspects of early music and is suitable for beginners through to advanced and solo players.
There are technique classes for viols, recorders, singing, harpsichord, lute and baroque strings.
Other activities include consort playing, concerts, lectures, trio sonatas, renaissance band, choir, baroque orchestra and early dancing.
For further information please e-mail:
enquiries[at]norvis.org.uk

Royal Holloway Department of Music : Links pages
The Golden Pages: Links for musicians on the WWW: a wide range of on-line references sources and other information.

Triora Musica
Courses on early music for singers and players in the beautiful Ligurian hill town of Triora, Italy.
Run by leading musicians, courses cover a range of ability from complete beginners to advanced students and young professionals.
Triora Musica's director is Deborah Roberts who also intends to develop weekend singing courses in Brighton where she is co-artistic director of the Brighton Early Music Festival.

Viola da Gamba Society
From 2008, the Viola da Gamba Society Journal is available free of charge online.

The Waits Website
The Official Website of the International Guild of Town Pipers.
From medieval times up to the beginning of the 19th century, every British town and city of any note had a band of Waits. Their duties varied from time to time and place to place, but included playing their instruments through the town at night, waking the townsfolk on dark winter mornings by playing under their windows, welcoming Royal visitors by playing at the town gates, and leading the Mayor's procession on civic occasions.

To have a link put on this page, contact: David Shaw