#MfEMonday – Keeping in Touch

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10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMondays are Music for Everyone’s weekly emails designed to keep you up to date with MfE events & to circulate interesting finds, special features, and motivational moments for your Mondays! We are aiming to send out something new each week.

#MfEMonday – Keeping in Touch

15th February 2021 Music for Everyone

KEEPING IN TOUCH

Hello everyone

What a difference a week makes, last Monday it was freezing cold and snowing; this Monday it’s well over 75F in my greenhouse, the sky is blue and the birds are starting to sing. Is Spring just round the corner? Let’s hope so!

Many of our singers have already replied to our Singing Project Questionnaire. If you have received this questionnaire information then please do reply – even if it is to say you no longer want to receive information! And if you haven’t received it then please do click on this link. https://bit.ly/3jIKZRO

Our friends at Lakeside Arts have contacted us to ask if we could let you all know about their online concert series. They currently have 4 forthcoming concerts to suit a variety of tastes, all of which are available to stream from home.

Here are the details:

Rachel Podger, baroque violinist, will be performing live tonight (Monday 15 February), and the concert will be available to stream until Monday 22 February.
Manchester Collective with guest Soprano Ruby Hughes will be streaming Sunday 21 – Sunday 28 February.
Abel Selaocoe, South African cellist, will be streaming Thursday 11 – Sunday 21 March.
Sura Susso, Gambian Kora player and percussionist, will be streaming Friday 19 – Monday 29 March.

You can read more on each of the concerts at this link: https://www.lakesidearts.org.uk/whats-on-search.html?category=music&from=21012021&venue=46

Enjoy the sunshine!

With all best wishes

Angela

We love a good musical animal video, here’s a chicken playing Puccini… you’re welcome! Cleverly done using lights on the keyboard to attract the chicken to hit the right notes! https://www.classicfm.com/composers/puccini/guides/puccini-chicken/

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

15/02/2021

www.music-for-everyone.org | 0115 9589312

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday – Keeping in Touch

8th February 20218th February 2021 Music for Everyone

KEEPING IN TOUCH

Hello everyone

I hope you are keeping warm in this cold snap and enjoying the snow!

Good News! We have heard from the Nottinghamshire County Council COVID Community Fund that we have been awarded a grant of £1,550 towards our Open Voices project. This grant will ensure that we are able to keep our Open Voices sessions available online during the pandemic – hooray!

Our instrumental project Brush up your Playing went live last Friday and at the moment we have 107 instrumentalists accessing our playing videos from our YouTube channel. If you would like to have a look at what we are up to then click here https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQAO4RYdubNrU8VzEQv6C-JSInwBG5wwm

And if you would like to be added to the Brush up your Playing email list then just contact admin@music-for-everyone.org

Well the sun is shining here now – time for the daily exercise!

With all best wishes

Angela

If you’re running out of home schooling ideas, have a look at these fun ideas – musical Math’s lesson with the Muppets anyone? https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=IPdP7XJdvlM

This would be a great home schooling activity for anyone looking for a fun idea to help with rhythm and timing! We would recommend hiding anything breakable first though… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL2zuOx24GM

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

08/02/2021

www.music-for-everyone.org | 0115 9589312

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday – Keeping in Touch

1st February 20211st February 2021 Music for Everyone

KEEPING IN TOUCH

Hello everyone

I know that many of you are familiar with our Open Voices project – music sessions especially designed for adults who have some learning difficulties.

Due to the pandemic, our three regularly meeting groups have had to be temporarily suspended and so we have been running sessions via our Youtube channel. We have produced a very short video giving an idea as to the sort of thing we do, just click here to have a look

As you can see – the sessions are a lot of fun!

Now we are on-line we feel we are able to reach out to more people who might enjoy the sessions. We’re hoping that you might be able to help us ‘get the word’ out there that this free resource is available to all. Do you know of an individual or perhaps a residential care home or day centre who might be interested in having a sing? If yes, then please email Robin Reece-Crawford, our Senior MfE Co-ordinator with the details and he will contact them to see if they might be interested. robin@music-for-everyone.org

And now for another video.

As you all know, our 2019/20 season was a very unusual one and so we thought we would produce a video of some of the highlights!

The video is about 30mins long and presents MfE’s wonderfully rich array of normal activities in the autumn and through Christmas, followed by several equally extraordinary but very different months of socially-distanced creativity. It was shown at our recent ‘on-line’ AGM and was an instant hit!

It’s quite a spectacle and well worth a watch, you might spot yourself or a friend onscreen! Here is the video link, I hope you enjoy it.

And that’s enough from me for now.

With all best wishes

Angela

If you play in one of our regular instrumental groups, you should have received an exciting update last week about our NEW online project for players of all ages and abilities, if you haven’t done so yet, don’t forget to sign up! You can do so by filling in this form: https://bit.ly/39tA6j0 More details are coming to our website soon.
Great news that singing and its many benefits can help those suffering from long COVID, finally getting the recognition it deserves! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55819360

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

01/02/2021

www.music-for-everyone.org | 0115 9589312

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday

25th January 202125th January 2021 Music for Everyone

Highlighting the power of music… Ex-music teacher Paul Harvey became an internet sensation last year with his piano skills while suffering with dementia. Since then he has improvised a piece of music, using just 4 notes which the BBC Philharmonic orchestra felt inspired to turn into a full orchestral piece – you can listen to it here:

Beautiful! Watch all the way through to see just how it has been received (including by a famous composer!) – warning: it’s a tear jerker!

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

25/01/2021

www.music-for-everyone.org | 0115 9589312

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

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#MfEMonday – Happy New Year!

4th January 20214th January 2021 Music for Everyone

I think we can safely say that most of us are glad to see the back of 2020 and could do with a bit of good luck for the coming year. Here are some New Year good-luck traditions from around the world that you may wish to try…

In Denmark, people go around smashing plates on the doorsteps of their friends and family. The more shards there are the next day, the luckier and more well-liked you are. Also in Denmark, people stand on their chairs and “leap” into January at midnight to bring good luck and banish bad spirits. Climbing on chairs after a New Year tipple? What could possibly go wrong?!

In Colombia, people take empty suitcases and run around the block as fast as they can. It’s supposed to guarantee a year filled with travel, which will hopefully be possible in 2021.

In Latin America, it is believed that the colour of your underwear can bring good things to you in the next 12 months. Yellow is for luck, red is for love, and white is for peace. You may want to wear yellow undies if you’re ever in Puerto Rico on New Year’s Eve, where they believe that chucking a bucket of water out of the window drives away evil spirits.

This time last year, we were preparing for our January Blow the Dust course, the youth Bandwise weekends and the first NFC singing course of the year. Here’s a look back at some of MfE’s 2020 highlights in pictures, enjoy the throwback to a time when we could cram 200+ people into the Albert Hall and if you were involved, we hope it brings back memories and look forward to a time when we can safely do these activities again.

Filming the Christmas Concert – December 2020

Nottingham Youth Band – December 2020

NFC – January 2020 and Blow the Dust – January 2020

Following on from our discovery a while ago of John Cage’s 639 year long composition, this 1000-year-long song known as “Longplayer” might be giving it a run for its money! The song began on Jan 1, 2000 and will continue until Dec 31, 2999, where it will come back to the starting point of the song and begin again. https://longplayer.org/about/overview/

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

04/01/2021

www.music-for-everyone.org | 0115 9589312

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday – Beginning of Advent

30th November 202030th November 2020 Music for Everyone

Yesterday began the Christian season of Advent – a season of expectation and preparation for celebrating Christ’s coming (adventus) into this world and looking ahead to his final advent as judge at the end of time.

In the northern hemisphere the natural symbols of darkness and light are powerfully at work in the traditional Advent themes of Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell, captured in this setting of the Advent Prose: Drop Down ye Heavens from Above, by Judith Weir https://youtu.be/ymcjEPOwEGQ

And here’s an acoustic version of the Advent hymn Creator of the Stars of Night https://youtu.be/5ihAaM57rIE

A favourite for the East of England Singers at this time of year is James MacMillan’s O Radiant Dawn, sung here by Apollo 5, who you might remember from our first ever MfE Summer School https://youtu.be/5drCQq73ZBE (Oh to have their breath control!)

Check out this free musical advent calendar app from Naxos. A different piece of classical music is hidden behind each door which you can unlock every day, from well known classics like ‘Sleigh Ride’ to lesser known gems waiting to be discovered! https://www.naxos.com/feature/The_Musical_Advent_Calendar_App.asp

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

30/11/2020

www.music-for-everyone.org | 0115 9589312

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AGUGdLj3Vo

#MfEMonday – St Cecilia, Patron Saint of Music and Musicians

23rd November 202023rd November 2020 Music for Everyone

Yesterday was the feast day of St Cecilia, the patron saint of music and musicians.

Legend has it that the devout Cecilia was forced to marry a pagan against her will. On her wedding night she told her husband she had taken a vow of virginity and had an angel protecting her. Her husband asked to see the angel as proof, and Cecilia told him he would be able to see the angel if he was baptised. He did so, and was met by a vision of Cecilia talking to the angel, after which he converted to Christianity.

Cecilia angered the Roman authorities by distributing her possessions to the poor. She was ordered to be burned, but her purity protected her. When the flames did no harm, she was beheaded and thus martyred.

She became the patron of music and musicians because it is said that she ‘sang in her heart to the Lord’ as musicians played at her wedding. Her feast day is the occasion of many concerts and music festivals, and a number of musical compositions are dedicated to her, including:

Purcell Hail! Bright Cecilia

Set to a text by Irish poet Nicholas Brady in 1692, this ode to St Cecilia is full of references to musical instruments.

Handel A Song for St Cecilia’s Day

Handel’s cantata, composed in 1739, was set to a poem by England’s first Poet Laureate, John Dryden. The text is centered around the theme of harmonia mundi, the theory that music was a central force in the Earth’s creation. Here are Cecilia Bartoli and Sol Gabetta performing What passion cannot music raise and quell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJGYTlxkCGg

Haydn St Cecilia Mass

It is believed that the original manuscript of this piece was lost in 1768 in a fire in Haydn’s hometown of Eisenstad. The poor chap had to rewrite the piece from memory! Enjoy this clip of the Kyrie Eleison:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FkJnkd5cVQ

Britten Hymn to St Cecilia

It is no surprise that Britten wrote a piece for St Cecilia, having himself been born on her feast day (Happy Birthday, Britten!). Britten set the work to a poem by WH Auden while spending time in the US, but on his return to the UK officials confiscated his manuscripts, as they feared they may have been a type of code. He then had to re-write the manuscript, in a manner not dissimilar to Haydn – is there some sort of St Cecilia curse?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETqLiTm556Y

Could this be the world’s oldest viola joke?! This gag from 1714 is thought to be the earliest known viola joke – from Classic FM: https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/instruments/viola/earliest-joke-1714/

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

23/11/2020

www.music-for-everyone.org | 0115 9589312

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

https://youtu.be/IwdeqVmXlHk

#MfEMonday – Festival of Lights

16th November 202016th November 2020 Music for Everyone

This weekend saw the celebration of Diwali, the beautiful Hindu Festival of Lights that symbolises the spiritual “victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance”.

People across the world decorate their houses and public spaces with thousands of lights, glowing candles and colourful designs. Light has forever been an inspiration across many art forms and has certainly inspired many classical composers. Here are a dazzling selection of ‘Light’ inspired compositions:

Edward Elgar: Lux Aeterna (“Eternal Light”)

Philip Glass: The Light

https://youtu.be/XKNGLVv38sA

Josef Haydn: String Quartets Op. 20 the ’Sun quartets’

https://youtu.be/AgBdtazgGxo

String Quartet in B flat major Op. 76 No. 4 “Sunrise”

https://youtu.be/orRaxx4qerk

Morten Lauridsen: O Nata Lux

https://youtu.be/zAArA36cgWU

Max Richter: On the Nature of Daylight

https://youtu.be/rVN1B-tUpgs

Eric Whitacre: Lux Aurumque (“Light and Gold”)

https://youtu.be/0j2JRcC6wBs

How much do you know about Diwali? Take this quiz to find out: https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/quizzes/diwali-quiz
Spine-tingling moment ballerina with Alzheimer’s remembers routine to Swan Lake:https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/periods-genres/ballet/new-york-dancer-alzheimers-remembers-swan-lake/

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

16/11/2020

www.music-for-everyone.org | 0115 9589312

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF