Site Seeing

Music Website News

with KEITH BRAMICH

Guildford Cathedral Choir

Mark Peterson has produced a lovely, extensive and up-to-date site ... please visit www.peterson.demon.nl/gcc00.html - an unofficial website for Guildford's Cathedral Choir. As well as copious information about the choir itself, you'll find a list of British Cathedral Choirs on the web and a list of reference sites. Organist Andrew Millington has recently been appointed Director of Music at Exeter Cathedral, and the site contains a special real audio tribute to Millington (who has been succeeded at Guildford by Stephen Farr).

The Conductor's Domain

Conductor Myer Fredman's website at www.netspace.net.au/~mfredman/ reprints part of an interview from the Arnold Bax website between Rob Barnett and Fredman (who is known to Baxians for his recordings of the 1st and 2nd symphonies). As well as the expected biography and discography, you'll also find extensive details here of Fredman's new book - The Conductor's Domain (including a foreword by Sir Charles Mackerras).

The Classical Free-reed

Henry Doktorski's Classical Free-Reed site is 'a nonprofit educational and cultural organization dedicated to the advancement of the free-reed instruments in classical music'. Here you can read about the history of the free-reed instruments, which include the accordion, the harmonica, the harmonium and the reed organ. There are also articles, essays and reviews - this is a large and interesting site. trfn.clpgh.org/free-reed 

Women in music

The internet antiquarian music shop of the Berlin publishing house Ernst-Kuhn-Verlag has set up a web page for items about women in music, women composers and gender studies. The list is updated regularly, and it is also possible to submit free announcements in this musicological area. www.vek.de/Frau-und-Musik-antiquariat.htm is in German and English. Another service provided is a continuously updated list of links to other internet antiquarian music shops in and outside of Europe at www.vek.de/links.htm.

Classical Composer Biographies

Michael Norrish manages to present biographies for nearly twenty mainstream classical composers on a single page at www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/mn200/music/composers.html. He prefaces his information, presented in a fairly personal style, with a disclaimer stating that his page isn't the final word on anything, but is reasonably informed opinion. Michael's miscellaneous music links page is also worth a look.

Player-Care

If, like me, you're annoyed by web pages which play music automatically, you'll have to turn down the volume before visiting www.player-care.com - a commercial site for player pianos and music rolls which is quite fun. Reference materials include a one-hour orchestrion video, and the site lists player piano technicians across the USA.

Mallard Music

Organist and head music teacher Colin Ashworth's site, which offers music for schools and churches, and also his tuition and accompanying services in the Kettering area of the UK, also plays music automatically - a MIDI rendition of his own Syncopated Sixes. In this case, a link on the main page allows the music to be switched off, but you probably won't want to. www.web-uk.com/mallardmusic 

Zurich Chamber Orchestra

The Zurich Chamber Orchestra is one of Switzerland's biggest concert organisations. Their new, stylish and deliciously silent homepage at www.zko.ch gives further information (in German) about the orchestras news, concerts, recordings, society of friends and staff (including Artistic Director Howard Griffiths). Reviews on the 'Pressespiegel' page have been translated into English.

The Enemy of Classical Spammers

The name Matthew B Tepper will probably be familiar to anyone who spends any time in the classical music newsgroups. As well as his helpful contributions to various of these groups, Matthew is the tireless, humorous, inventive and self-appointed enemy of those who waste the time of newsgroup members by sending 'spam' messages. By visiting (and maybe even contributing to) The Enemies of Classical Music, you can experience a larger dose of Matthew's unusual sense of musical humour: www.deltanet.com/~ducky/enemies.htm.

Copyright © Keith Bramich, September 14th 1999