I’ve been the “Dorico member” of a team putting together a series of early music videos posted free on YouTube since March 2020. They appeared pretty much weekly to begin with, and the series is still very much alive and growing, if put up less frequently. At its heart it’s a contribution to musical well-being in the singing and early music communities when we have been isolated during various lockdowns and quarantines. But there’s nothing exclusive about it, so if you like slightly zany humour (think Monteverdi meets Monty Python) then do dip in.
The series is called SingTheScore, created and presented by Robert Hollingworth of the British vocal ensemble I Fagiolini. Monteverdi is well represented, along with Byrd and Tallis and others of that period. There are also three wonderful 20th Century pieces included among the 32 posts to date.
The videos are designed so that you can sing along with I Fagiolini (or play along on whatever instrument you like). Score and performance follow on from an introduction that gives you the historical context and points up the musical features of the piece.
I’m attaching the Dorico score and a PDF of the first part of No.14 in the series that has the title “Commedia dell’arte in music” with two short pieces by Orazio Vecchi and Giovanni Croce.
Vecchi.pdf (88.6 KB)
Vecchi.dorico (480.9 KB)
I spent many quarantine hours (weeks, months) engraving the scores for the whole series. There was much exploring to be done to find and get on top of the Dorico techniques I needed and to make the workflow efficient and effective, but I got there.
Here’s the website if you’d like a look:
http://www.ifagiolini.com/singthescore
Follow the link to YouTube under the top picture to find the full series.
I said that the SingTheScore project was teamwork. It was Robert’s vision to conceive, write, and present the series. The production team were also creative, not only putting the videos together to work on different platforms, but going out to film the cameos that appear, like the Ficta Police clip that you can see above. If I’ve played my part exploring and getting deep into Dorico then I would like to acknowledge the Dorico developers who are unseen members of the team with a quite extraordinary breadth of vision to encompass the huge variety of uses the program would be put to. Early music is but one part of the music scene and is waiting it’s turn for the developers’ attention, but meanwhile they have provided enough to get the job done. I love that I can think musically while using the software, which has been central to the enjoyment I’ve had while putting in the work.
There’s nothing like working on music knowing that people are out there waiting for Friday night and the next installment, when their usual choirs have not been meeting. Music has been a lifeline for some during times of isolation. For people to be able to sing (play) along in company as part of a virtual choir has provided much needed humour and joy, as well as the equally much needed chance to engage your voice - no inhibitions needed when it’s just you at home singing along!