Snow White and the 7th Virus

Websites recommended by our readers

One of the most pleasurable experiences of the M&V month is sending out the monthly newsletter, because it always triggers lots of responses -- offers of articles to publish, details of concerts, news, and yet more websites to visit. I've noticed that amongst these responses, though, comes a computer virus, attached to a message with the title 'Snowhite and the Seven Dwarfs -- The REAL story!' It arrives regularly, each month, always shortly after the publication of our newsletter, and, of course, anonymously (from someone called Hahaha). This month two identical such messages arrived! Maybe someone's trying to tell us something? One of the messages appears to have come from a music domain -- lforchestra.demon.co.uk, and the other from mia-tcr7-139.dyn.evcom.net. Any clues, anyone?

Today we're taking a quick look at some of the websites we've been told about recently ...

Mentioned previously here, but quite some time ago, is Harpa -- a magazine and website for harpists. We've just received an announcement from Odilia Publishing in Switzerland that Harpa is no more, and to be replaced by the printed HarpEvents newsletter. Copy deadline for the first issue is 9 March 2001. From May 2001 this will also contain the Harp Concert Index -- a ranking of harpists calculated from numbers and types of concerts and types of venue! Details online.

www.harpa.com

Vicenzo Pocci, an Italian classical guitarist, musicologist and physicist, maintains VP Music Media as a guitar resource site. Included is The Guitarist's 20th Century Repertoire Guide, published as a book and a CD-ROM in a new 2001 edition. Some chapters of the guide are freely downloadable in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. Also available is a new collection of original guitar works by Russian composers, and the Enciclopaedia de la Guitarra, compiled by Francesco Herrera (with a CD-ROM version available in June).

www.seicorde.it/pocci

David Patrick's FitzJohn Music Publications is now online with copyright-free editions of unusual but worthwhile music, available for organ, voice or pianos (2 hands, 6 hands or 8 hands). Edited and arranged by Patrick himself, the music includes an arrangement of the March of the Three Kings by Swedish composer Emil Sjögren.

www.impulse-music.co.uk/fitzjohnmusic.htm

John Kenward's Starshine Music site is a collection of music education resources for schools, choirs and youth theatre groups. Modern quality musicals for children have been written by experienced teachers, have full instrumental backing tracks, and can be purchased online. Latest releases are The Blue Crystal and Robin Hood.

www.starshine.co.uk

Mary and John Nicholson's new site was launched in February, and provides resources for professional singers and singing teachers, and in particular a library of classical songs and lieder (with an emphasis on Schubert). The difference between this site and others offering downloads and printing of scores is that the library of (currently) 300 scores is available instantly for online printing in any key! It's also possible to listen to the music in any key, following the score on the screen for free before making a printout.

www.schubertline.co.uk

Musiker-Portraits, part of VioWorld Klassik, is a musicians' site I hadn't seen before. Most of the individuals and ensembles are in Germany, but I did notice a link from the main page to the Martinu Quartet (Czech Republic) and to Aaron Rosand (Chicago, USA). This site is worth a visit if you read German.

www.musikerportrait.com

A welcome online to Robert Secret's Stowe Opera, providing information about its recent productions (photos and critics' reports) and offering online booking facilities.

www.stoweopera.sagenet.co.uk

Finally, Ben Palmer, returning from a fine Philedelphia Orchestra concert (which still, as he points out, costs only US$ 5), asks us to draw your attention to an online list of horn-related drinking establishments. Unfortunately, most of these are in the UK, where drinking hours are moderated by an oppressive government ...

www.btinternet.com/~l.a.jackson/funstuff/pubs.htm