#MfEMonday – Happy New Year!

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

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQAO4RYdubNrJrXVvwUmOFQw8mtASoNVE

#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 – Lockdown Concerts

9th November 20209th November 2020 Music for Everyone

KEEPING IN TOUCH

Well the country might be in Lockdown – but MfE continues with new initiatives!

OPEN VOICES

Last week saw the launch of our on-line Open Voices meeting. Some of you logged on to see what was happening and I hope you enjoyed it. The invite link is pasted in below for anyone else who would like to come along.

HEADWAY

Led by Sally Watson and Rachel Parkes, today saw the first ‘virtual’ music session at Headway, the charity which provides support for adults with brain injuries. I’ve spoken to Rachel and it sounds as though it went really well.

RE-OPENING OF THE MFE OFFICE

And finally – because of the present Lockdown, our office has to remain closed – BUT, we have enabled the phone system to be answered remotely and so there will be someone to answer the phone on both Monday and Tuesday mornings and the answer phone will be regularly checked – a small step back to normality.

End of my news – bye for now!

Angela

Topic: Open Voices
Time: Nov 10, 2020 11:00 AM London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/95359624671?pwd=YkNXcWNUV0hlbmloSEFBOUQzcjBQdz09
Meeting ID: 953 5962 4671
Passcode: 441474

As we enter the second lockdown in England, many music concerts and venues continue to be cancelled, postponed or closed to live audiences around the world. So we thought we would update you on upcoming performances that will be available right from your sofa!

The good news is, while it is not quite the same as the treat of going to a live performance, many groups have had the time to prepare for such a situation and have now mastered the art of streaming concerts and events online for everyone to enjoy from the comfort of their own homes. So there are a lot more options now than there might have been earlier in the year.

As a taster, here is Classic FM’s Artist in Residence performing an ‘Exclusive At-Home Concert’ back in March: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEc4j-jvrZU&feature=emb_title

So if you find the coming weeks a bit quiet with colder weather, why not stay in and watch an opera? Or a lunchtime recital at Wigmore Hall? Or join a workshop?

Many of these are also free to watch, Classic FM have a fantastic page of all the available performances and details of how you can watch, if you need to book, etc. See their website here for all the details: https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/live-streamed-classical-music-concerts-coronavirus/

Making music with your cleaning routine! A very clever pianist, Jeff DePaoli, has composed the ‘Coronavirus Etude’ for piano and disinfecting wipe – a short piece of music which involves cleaning all the keys on a piano, watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXWiLBJdT-M

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

09/11/2020

#MfEMondays 20.04.20 – Musicals!

22nd April 202022nd April 2020 Helena Durham

Our ‘Folk Song Challenge’ – has been a great success with 32 videos published so far, everything from unaccompanied traditional songs to contemporary folk music, tunes played on instruments, grandchildren and grandparents performing – so much talent out there.

Now to our next challenge! Many of you will know that this coming weekend should have been our West End to Broadway course and concert. We know how much many of you were looking forward to it, so what better challenge to follow Rachel’s Folk Song Challenge than Rachel’s Musicals Challenge!

Backing tracks for many well known songs can be found on Youtube – for example, type in Backing track for Memory from Cats and you’ll see lots of versions come up. And, of course, you can always simple sing or play a melody without accompaniment. Instrumental renditions are just as welcome as vocal performances.

In this video Rachel introduces the challenge and there’s a ‘taster’ of a musicals video created by some familiar faces (from the comfort of their own homes, of course) to set the ball rolling.

Be brave and be creative, just record yourself on your mobile phone, computer or tablet and contact angela@music-for-everyone.org to find out how to upload your videos. GOOD LUCK!

We’re sure you’ll enjoy this wonderful video too. Ellie Martin is a great friend of MfE and the conductor of our Sherwood Daytime Voices. Here she is performing her own composition – Corona Loner – the perfect ‘lockdown’ song!

#MfE Monday 06.04.20 – Keeping in Touch

7th April 20207th April 2020 Helena Durham

A very Happy Easter from the MfE team! We hope you have a lovely Easter weekend, whether it be holding ‘virtual Easter egg hunts’ or finding ways to celebrate at home.

KEEPING IN TOUCH
All of us at MfE are trying to keep up with imaginative ways to keep in contact with you all whilst we are unable to meet.

Our YouTube channel is constantly being updated with videos:

Sing along with Pip and Sally

Improve your singing technique with Rachel

If you are a member of our Daytime Orchestra then Gill has posted videos to guide you through items in your repertoire.

Now it’s your turn: Take part in Rachel’s ‘Folk Song Challenge’ Record yourself on your mobile phone, computer or tablet and send clips to angela@music-for-everyone.org and we’ll post them on our YouTube channel. We’ve had quite a few already!

Watch Angela Kay’s appearance on East Midlands Today (2 April 2020) talking about the impact COVID19 is having on MfE

Listen to John Hess, chair of Music for Everyone explaining what MfE is doing to keep you all singing and playing

Just click here to see what is on offer https://www.youtube.com/user/MusicforEveryoneUK then click subscribe to follow the channel and be notified of new videos.

Before you go

If you are looking for some entertainment, here are some suggestions of animal live streams that you can watch online for free, from penguins to elephants!

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

Like us on facebook

#MfEMonday – Virtual singing and playing

30th March 202030th March 2020 Music for Everyone

Here at MFE we are hoping that you are coping with the extremely strange times we are all experiencing at the moment. It is very odd to have no weekly groups running and we are sure, for those of you who participate in them, very sad not to be able to not have your usual musical rehearsal. That is why we are looking at ways of continuing to make music virtually with you all. We hope most of you have seen Angela’s video on You Tube, if not, here’s the link to watch it –

We will continue to update you as we produce other videos for you to watch and hopefully sing or play along to. However, we are sure some of you will be making music at home either with your families or on your own. If you’d like to send a photo of what you’ve been doing via email and are happy to share with others in MFE, we can then post them online. We feel it is really important that we try and maintain a sense of community in these days of isolation.

Monday March 30th is a date with a number of national days associated with it. Not only is it Doctor’s Day, whom we are sure everyone would want to celebrate and take a moment to thank the fantastic job doctors (and all other health workers) are doing at the moment, it is also Pencil Day!

For those of you who have been associated with MFE (or NCT, as it was originally) for any length of time you will know that the humble pencil is an essential part of any musician’s toolkit. We know that many of you prize your MFE pencils, denoting which courses or concerts you have participated in and some of you have quite a sizeable collection. We wondered who has the most number of MFE pencils and if anyone has one from the first NCT course, the Verdi Requiem in 1983? Do let us know.

Knowing how important music is to all of us and how much we are missing experiencing live music making Classic FM has curated a daily calendar of music being streamed daily around the world. – https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/live-streamed-classical-music-concerts-coronavirus/
Hopefully you can find something here to uplift you as you are confined to barracks!

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

30/03/2020

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

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p084lq01

#MfEMondays are Music for Everyone’s new 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 – We Will Not Be Silenced!

23rd March 202019th March 2020 Music for Everyone

Did anyone catch Angela on BBC Radio Nottingham last Wednesday? If not, you can catch up here – start listening at 2hr27.

As you can hear we are working on a whole host of plans to keep your spirits up and keep our MfE family connected and involved during the coming weeks. Watch this space for more announcements. We will not be silenced!!

Many professional musicians are taking to social media to entertain the masses while the concert halls are closed. Yo-Yo Ma will be treating us to a series of performances which he hopes will “give musical peace amid the disruption and uncertainty surrounding coronavirus.” Use the hashtag #SongsOfComfort to find these performances.

The streets, concert halls and opera houses of Italy may be deserted, but you can still hear the music. We have all seen how the Italians have taken to their balconies to use singing and playing to connect to the outside world and show solidarity for those at the front line of medical services. Click here to see Tenor Maurizio Marchini take this to the next level by serenading the rooftops of Florence with Puccini’s famous aria “Nessun Dorma”!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-X43RQM3Lc

And click here for some serious misuse of toilet roll!! Apparently no toilet rolls were harmed or wasted in the making of this video.
https://www.facebook.com/rylie.harrod/videos/10216137846346810/UzpfSTE0NzAzNDg4Mzc6MzA2MDYxMTI5NDk5NDE0OjEwOjA6MTU4NTcyNDM5OTozMzM0Mzk2NzA5NDIyNTk5MDE1/

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

23/03/2020

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

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday – Robert’s Ride 18,000

16th March 202016th March 2020 Music for Everyone

We know that many of you have been following the amazing journey of Robert Cleave, husband of MfE soprano Christine Cleave. He has recently completed a solo round the world cycle ride, raising money for Cancer Research UK, Traidcraft Exchange and BREAD (small charity helping a village in Tanzania)…

Follow this link to hear a selection of music recorded along the way in China, Australia, Japan and the USA : https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjHPi84UoETlh4YVbyXThnWLhAd5vQ?e=2tKLTl

Since his return to Nottingham in October 2019, a film has been produced telling the inside story of his journey. It’s to be shown at the Savoy Cinema in Nottingham… Robert’s Ride 18,000 – The Movie

World Premiere – Monday 30th March 6pm / Thursday 2nd April 1pm

For more information about this incredible adventure visit: https://robertsride18000.com/

A date for your diaries, Folk Duo: Gilmore and Roberts at Beeston Folk Club on Friday 10^th April, 7.40pm – for details visit https://folkbeeston.club/gilmore-and-roberts

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

16/03/2020

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

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF