Thanks to everyone who has contributed this month. Could someone offer to review the Alistair Dixon day for the July issue please?

There will be no Tamesis in August, so if you have events you want publicised you will need to send me the information or get any leaflets to David in time for the July issue. Please note that if you have a simple A4 leaflet for inclusion, it is easier for David if he can print it for you rather than be sent a pile of leaflets to be put in the envelopes separately. The best way for you to send me contributions to the newsletter is by e-mail. A Word file is best, but I can cope with some other programmes and can also cut and paste directly from the e-mail.

Apologies to Audrey Turner, who was omitted from the membership list. I could blame my computer but it seems unfair as it can't argue its case - I was well aware that she had paid but for some reason it wasn't. Computers are a wonderful tool and one day we will find out how to make them work the way we do rather than our having to work in their way.

As I write this I am very much looking forward to the Morales mass with Alistair Dixon and also to the Oriana workshop with David Allinson - both assured of success.

There could scarcely be a more beautiful venue for a week of music making: St Martin’s College sits on the side of a hill just overlooking Ambleside above the road to Rydal Water (where one can have a swim before breakfast). The lane which runs upwards from the college leads directly to the fells, and despite foot and mouth restrictions, there was access to the high footpaths, subject to disinfecting footwear at the end of the lane.

Course participants were a friendly group of 57 enthusiasts, with ages ranging from young teenagers ( a group of girl singers from a music school near Wigan) to the active elderly (you do need to be able to walk up the steep path to the Drama and Dance studios). The sleeping accommodation is mostly down the hill on the other side of Rydal Road.

Each day starts with an optional ‘warm-up’. A fun session with Deborah Caterall - tutor for voice, a member of the York Waits and vocal tutor for the National Youth choir (she brings the teenage girls). The warm-up includes muscle stretching and voice exercises. One wet morning when Deborah was pursing her lips instructing "blow me a kiss" (facial exercise), a voice from the back said "Hang on a moment, Deborah, I need to take my trousers off for this!" (They were waterproof trousers over his shorts.)

For the first main session of the day, one chooses one of the following options for the week:

Choral singing with Roger Wilkes - small in stature, big in personality and an absolute wizard with a choir.

Or

Viol Consort Playing with the talented Elizabeth Dodd; soft of voice, light of foot and with a gently encouraging manner. She also takes a class in renaissance dance later in the day.

Or

Recorder Ensemble with Jonathan Morgan, versatile Wind Player. During the week he played transverse flute, sackbut and recorder (but does play other instruments). The recorder group was, this year, eight in number. Sometimes we played two choir music, but sometimes doubling 8 and 4 foot instruments; sometimes separating to play quartets.

The second session of the morning was mixed consorts which changed daily with different tutors throughout the week. These also included Peter Syrus - quick of speech and with encyclopaedic knowledge of early music; Clive Walkley, the Course Director - exceptionally well organised on the admin, as well as tutoring the vocal and mixed consorts; and finally Hugh Cherry, tutor for lute and lute songs.

One of the really nice features of this summer school is the way voices and instruments are put together, for example 1 voice, 1 instrument to a part, or sometimes en masse to exhilarating effect. One lady said to me, after a moving performance of Lugebat David Abasalon (attrib Nicolas Gombert) that she was almost in tears.

Early afternoon sessions are optional, and choices include classes for loud wind, viols, lute and vocal consorts. Late afternoon sessions include lectures and demonstrations complementing the morning programme.

After dinner (it’s really lovely grub!) everyone gets together for a different event each evening - performance of polychoral music with instruments and voices, choral singing for all; renaissance dancing (or one can play pavans, galliards, almains etc. for the dancers). There was a professional concert by ‘Red Campion’ who played and sang seated round an oak gate-leg table set with a candelabra and wine.

On the last evening was the musical banquet. The kitchen surpasses its normal excellent cuisine and there is waitress service for the feast. Between courses there are musical items by those who like to perform - vocal and choral pieces, a flute quartet, recorder duet, a loud wind canzona, and finally an amazing singing act from the teenage girls. A really good evening rounded off by informal singing in the lounge from the Oxford book of English madrigals until turned 1am! As we walked down the hill, through the belt of tall trees, the roosting jackdaws were disturbed from their slumber and created such a commotion amongst the rustling leaves. Make a note for next year. Ambleside 20^th-26^th July 2002. (Applications to Clive Walkley, Director, NWEMF Summer School, Greengarth, Oxenholme Lane, Natland, Kendal, Cumbria LA9 7QH)

Brian Meadows-Smith

-----Original Message-----

Please learn these before you arrive in case we should need them.

NEW MUSIC DICTIONARY (selected definitions)

Adagio formaggio: to play in a slow and cheesy manner
AnDante: a musical composition that is infernally slow
Angus Dei: a divine, beefy tone
Antiphonal: referring to the prohibition of cell phones in the concert hall
A patella: unaccompanied knee-slapping
Appologgiatura: an ornament you regret having played
Approximatura: a series of notes played by a performer and not intended by the

Bar line: what musicians form after a concert
Basso continuo: the act of game fishing after the legal season has ended
Basso Profundo: an opera about deep sea fishing
Concerto grosso: a really bad performance
Coral Symphony: (see "Beethoven, Caribbean period")
D.C. al capone: you betta go back to the beginning, capeesh?
Dill piccolo: a wind instrument that plays only sour notes
Eardrum: a teeny tiny tympanum
Fermantra: a note that is held over and over and over and
Fermoota: a rest of indefinite length and dubious value
Fiddler crabs: grumpy string players
Frugalhorn: a sensible, inexpensive brass instrument
Gaul blatter: a French horn player

Good conductor: a person who can give an electrifying performance
Gregorian champ: monk who can chant a note the longest
Mallade: a pretty awful romantic song
Opera buffa: musical stage production at a nudist camp
Pipe smoker: an extremely virtuosic organist
Pre-Classical Conservatism: school of thought which fostered the idea, "If it ain't

Baroque, don't fix it"
Tempo tantrum: what a young orchestra is having when it's not keeping time with the

conductor
Vesuvioso: a gradual buildup to a fiery conclusion

BAROQUE OBOE. Christopher Monk/Dick Earl Stanesby 415 oboe for sale, with crooklet, bag, and reeds, �850, please call 0207 4825168

Morley College has a long and honourable history of pioneering both new music and the revival of masterpieces from the past. Morley Chamber Choir continues this tradition with performances this July of Tallis's 'Spem in Alium' and of a new work for the same forces.

Tallis was probably inspired to write his masterpiece by the Italian composer Striggio, who had his forty-part Ecce Beatam Lucem performed in 1568. However we are not aware of any other forty-part motet having been written since Tallis’s - four hundred and thirty-one years ago - until now. The present Director of Music at Morley, Robert Hanson, has recently finished a new work entitled And there shall be no night there. It uses the same vocal forces as did Tallis, with the addition of a five-part brass group comprising trombones and a tuba.

Several factors inspired Hanson to take on this challenge. One was a desire to perform something spectacular and unusual to mark the 10^th anniversary season of Morley Chamber Choir, which Hanson founded on taking up his post at Morley in 1991. Another was to compose something for the beautiful round space of Temple Church, London, which has a wonderful acoustic.

The piece was written at the time of Hanson's father's final illness and death, and the texts, from the Nunc Dimittis and Revelation, deal with questions of life, death and spiritual nourishment. The work ends with a celebration of life, the plainsong 'Veni, Creator Spiritus' being woven into the texture.

Performances will be at Temple Church, Fleet St, London on Saturday, July 13^th at 8pm and Kingston Parish Church on Sunday, July 14^th at 3pm.

There is still time for enthusiastic singers to take part; ring 020 7450 9237 for details.

David Rhodes would like to hear from local players of original instruments of the Tudor period, with an interest in participating in Freeflow Productions' outdoor production of "Much Ado about Nothing" at South Hill Park, Bracknell, from 11-21 July (7.30pm, no performance Monday, Sundays at 2pm). They have an enthusiastic cast of around 80, including many young people. Although this is an amateur production (and therefore without a budget to pay musicians as such)it is professionally directed, and promises to be of a very high standard as well as a great deal of fun.

The purpose of the music is primarily to set the period as the audience enter as well as providing entertainment during the interval. Consequently there is no need for musicians to be present for the whole evening if they have commitments elsewhere. The
repertoire is flexible (although preferably within the Renaissance period), so it is quite possible for different musicians to play on different nights. They have a core group of singers etc. who rehearse on Sundays, and if any TVEMF members would like to be
more involved by playing with the singers, that would also be very helpful.