Here’s A Health to All Good Lasses

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A Celebrated Glee!  WHEEEE-HEEEEE! WHAT’S A GLEE?? A glee is an English type of part song spanning the late baroque, classical and early romantic periods. It is usually scored for at least three voices, and generally intended to be sung unaccompanied. Glees often consist of a number of short, musically contrasted movements and their texts can be convivial, fraternal, … Read more

Alessandro Moreschi – The Last Castrato

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I obtained the Vatican recordings of Alessandro Moreschi through Trunk Records recently, and thought some of you might be interested to hear what a true castrato singer sounded like.  It’s quite extraordinary, and I confess I’ve never heard anything like it. Moreschi was the only castrato known to have made recordings, and these survive from … Read more

from the Handel opera, Acis and Galatea — The Flocks Shall Leave the Mountains

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For those of you pining for more opera, here you go. I think we’ll have a lot of fun with this. I’ve left the click in the audio parts to help you keep track of the beat, but have only given you one full bar of click before your part comes in.  BAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! All 3 … Read more

YAY! Another Purcell drinking catch to aid our…..um….singing.

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So, as promised, here is Purcell’s Drinking Catch #2 in all its lovely, sordid glory.  A bit trickier than the third one we began with (and know and love so well), but you all got a very good start on it the other evening, so here’s your chance to brush up those few notes that … Read more

Interval training – Mixing it Up!

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3rds, Perfect 4ths & Perfect 5ths––what began last evening in real life, continues in cyberspace. Dig in, everyone. The intervals are fine! (If you weren’t able work out what tunes A through E by sight reading them, download the answers here.) Perfect 4ths examples––chordal and melodic MUSICAL EXAMPLES Away in a Manger Here Comes the … Read more