Viol news : Greenwich Early Music Festival 2011 11th -13th November We shall be back in the Skittle Alley with a set of viols and boxes of music. We look forward to welcoming our friends, old and new, to come and play or just to chat. - Alison Crum & Friends :: The Music of Vincenzo Ruffo and Costanza Festa. King William Undercroft Saturday 12th November 4.30 pm. Admission free to Festival ticket holders.
- November 2010 : Many of the viols I have made over the last five years have bodies made from a superb figured sycamore tree that grew near the Old Cement Works, near Dunbar in East Lothian, Scotland. I still have wood from this tree, enough for the next four or five viols on my order book.
This is Ulrich Loening, my wood supplier,who travels all over Scotland in search of fine wood for musical instruments, standing by the Cement Works tree with a bark stripper. You can see the ripple in the trunk which gives the wild figures on the backs, necks, fingerboards and ribs of my instruments. - July/August 2010 - the viols are popular at Edinburgh Castle where we play in the Great Hall for large numbers of tourists - amazing to consider that they were played here nearly 500 years ago.
Edinburgh Castle : tuning up in civvies - July/August 2010 - our six viols go to early music courses at Ambleside and Durham. At Ambleside we spend the afternoon playing with the very good singers who attend the course,after spending the morning coaching players new to renaissance viols. Sometimes these sessions seem too difficult, players trying a different instrument, sight-reading and making an ensemble can seem too much, but invariably, a sound comes and with it the smiles of pleasure that accompany accomplishment. The afternoon repertoire was four-part French chansons which sound very sweet and sad with viols and voices. This may be our last Ambleside because the course is moving to The Wirral which is too far to travel in a day.
- Norvis at Durham, much more intensively viol centred, was a day of introducing experienced players to the early viol in groups of 5 and 6 - players were willing to try playing an unfamiliar size of instrument, even the challenging A-bass which stands about 5-feet tall and calls for wide finger spans. We played all day from 11.00 am to 6.30 pm and thought often of Marlene Austin, who was one of the course organisers for many years, and who died this summer.
Di Sei Bassi - June 2010 : Netherurd House in the Scottish Borders - viol course with Alison Crum and Philip Thorby and Roy Marks. Ferrabosco I wrote a piece Di Sei Bassi, here played on three d-basses and three A-basses :
Vickie, Ursula, Els, Judith, Murray and Thomas playing 'Di Sei Bassi' on six of Richard's viols - amazing deep sound...... - February 2010 : several RJ viols are currently in Venice, where Francesco Linarol lived and made instruments. Some of them travelled in seats on the aeroplane alongside the players. Photographs to follow.......
- Richard Jones Renaissance Viols exhibit annually at the London International Exhibition of Early Music at the Old Naval College, Greenwich. A 'music room' is set up in the basement Skittle Alley where viol players of all ages and abilities drop in to play in ad hoc groups throughout the three days of the exhibition. The weekend features demonstration recitals, master classes and concerts of early music as well as the exhibition of instruments.
Greenwich 2009    consort of 6 in the Skittle Alley preparing for a master class with 'Very Perfect' - music for Henry VIII Alison Crum, St Alfege Church. Alison Crum & Friends play RJ viols |
