Saturday 5 July 10.00 am- 4.30 pm



Josquin & Gombert – in Exile; workshop led by Robert Hollingworth



St Aelred's Hall, 216, Fifth Avenue, Tang Hall, York, YO31 0PN



Josquin is the great classicist of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, whose supposedly humanistic approach and reputation loomed over the century that followed him. In 1540 Georg Forster said, "Now that Josquin is dead, he is putting out more works than when he was alive"!



This day will focus on works written while in Italy, including mass movements. These will be accompanied by music of Nicolas Gombert, who was exiled to the galleys for indiscretions with some of the choristers in his charge. His work is dense, rich, and rewarding to perform, with a predominance of lower parts. So we will need singers and players, with as many male singers, and players of tenor and bass instruments as possible!



Ornamentation will not be encouraged! Josquin is known to have berated at least one singer exclaiming 'You donkey, why did you add embellishments? If I had wanted them, I would have written them myself. If you wish to correct musical works that have been composed in a natural or plain style, then write your own, but leave my works unaltered.' That'll have learned him.



Places must be booked in advance. Download application form. Or email chairman@neemf.org.uk or ring 07979 866303 for further details.


Applications will be accepted until 21 June





Sunday 6th July




The Chigi Codex - Joint workshop for singers with the
International Medieval Congress, led by Simon Lillystone



Weetwood Hall, University of Leeds, Otley Road, Leeds LS16 5PS




A workshop for singers on the music of the Chigi Codex. The Chigi Codex,
now housed in the Vatican Library under the call mark Chigiana, C. VIII.
234.,
is one of the richest sources of Franco-Flemish polyphony of the last half
of the fifteenth century, and is also one of the most elaborate and precious
of all illuminated music manuscripts. Mass settings predominate, including
thirteen by the great Flemish composer Johannes Ockeghem (ca. 1420-97), and
a large and exceptional early collection based on the tune L'homme armé.
The Codex also includes motets and hymns by Johannes Regis (a pupil of
Guillaume
Dufay), Isaac, Compère and Pierre de la Rue. (See preview article in Neemf newsletter.)

Download further information and application forms; or contact the IMC, 0113 343 3614,
e-mail imc@leeds.ac.uk and see IMC website





Saturday 20th September 10.00am to 4.30pm


Cantica Canticorum Solomonis - motets from Palestrina's Song of Songs
led by Margaret Westlake



Scarcroft Primary School, York, YO23 1BS




A workshop for SATTB voices and players of soft instruments to rehearse
and play through some of the twenty nine five-part motets forming
Palestrina's 1584 setting of the Song of Solomon. We shall require
recorders, viols, and players of plucked instruments able to play from
staff notation. Tenor singers especially welcome! Downloadable application
form to come. Further information from John A. Murdie -
secretary@neemf.org.uk Tel. 01904 645964 after 6pm.




Saturday 4th October



Workshop with Horses' Brawl



10.30 am - 4.30 pm at Queen's Hall Arts Centre, Beaumont Street, Hexham, NE46 3LS



A day’s practical music-making for players of soft winds (recorders, flutes, etc) and strings (all kinds of plucked or bowed). Laura Cannell (recorders, fiddle and crumhorns) and Adrian Lever (guitar, also bowed and prepared) have a creative take on early music, with roots in renaissance, medieval and baroque music linked to contemporary folk traditions. Part early - part folk - part trained precision - part wild abandon! See their website


This workshop is run in association with Hexham Abbey Festival. Downloadable application forms to come. Contact person: Graham Coatman. Email chair@neemf.org.uk, tel 07979 866303.





POSSIBLE FUTURE EVENTS




January 2009 - small scale choral day near Durham with Sally Dunkely