Music Website News

with KEITH BRAMICH

I shall definitely be repeating myself if I claim (again) that there's never been a more interesting time for classical music on the web - but of course it still happens to be true.  New sites selling downloadable music, CDs and sheet music, and offering free space for MP3 files seem to be announced continuously, as do music databases and email lists, and a steady stream of artists, composers, publishers and even radio stations appear on-line.  I could easily miss something important, so if you're reading this and have seen something that we haven't featured here, please tell us!

Powdered wig optional

A new site www.classicstoday.com publishes daily classical music CD reviews. The database is searchable, and could grow to be a very large and useful resource. From what I've seen so far, the reviews are shortish, but several are added each day.

Faust Music Software

FMOL or Faust Music OnLine is a music program for collective music composition developed in Barcelona by Sergi Jordà and Toni Aguilar. You can read all about the project and download and use the software (MS Windows only) at Sergi Jordà's website.

Never dull

Founded in 1995, Somm Recordings is a very active British CD label, with several new CDs due for release, and they recommend a monthly visit to their attractive new website, featuring a full catalogue, contact details and on-line ordering. Current releases include To Music, Of Fire and Dew and Lutoslawski at the Guildhall Volume 1. 'SOMM is entertaining, stimulating, ever-challenging... but never dull.'

Clarinet pictures

You may never before have seen so many clarinets in one place! This is a site with minimal descriptions in French, but it has lots of good pictures of the clarinet family. Each of many small pictures on the entry page expands to a further separate page of larger photos. Don't miss the amazing square clarinet - sixth row down, far right!

Fuzeau and Oriana

The scholarly French publishing house Éditions Fuzeau has been on-line since 1 September 1999. The site has both French and English language versions. The company, from the Poitou region of France specialises in facsimiles and educational material.

Cardiff (UK)-based Oriana Publications is a little different. They specialise in inexpensive editions of contemporary music and have also launched their new website which contains a comprehensive catalogue, ordering info, prices and composer biographies.

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