5,000 programme notes now available in our Music Bank!

Many of our member groups perform concerts several times a year. Some of these groups have dedicated and enthusiastic writers who spend their time researching the music and penning interesting articles to go into a programme, to help the audience understand and appreciate the performance even more.

For several decades now, Making Music has invited these authors to share their notes for the benefit of other member music groups in our members' Music Bank, where other programme compilers can search for notes for help and inspiration with their own upcoming concerts.

Today the number of programme notes in the Music Bank reached an impressive 5,000, thanks to the valiant efforts of our volunteer Martin Jones, who has been looking after this system since about 2007. 

When Martin started, there were 2,046 notes altogether. Over the years he has grappled with an office move, changes of staff, a new website, software updates and various backlogs – but through his hard work and a new system installed recently he has managed to upload them all, with welcome help from volunteer Sylvia Allaway. 

By now most of the major works in the ‘standard’ repertoire are well represented, sometimes by several notes in different styles and of different lengths. But there is a wealth of less common works to explore – which are interesting to read even if you don’t have a concert coming up. We try our best to check the accuracy of information, but this can’t be absolutely guaranteed.

Members – have a browse of your favourite works or composers – you might learn something! And if you find something's not quite right, do let us know. If you are an author yourself, we would be delighted to receive programmes notes from you for the Music Bank.

Did you know?

As well as programme notes, members can also borrow sheet music from other member groups, also listed in the Music Bank.

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