Brian and Glynis have lectured for NADFAS for more than 20 years. Their lectures are presented in period costume using a fascinating array of musical instruments appropriate to each period covered.

The programmes on medieval and Renaissance themes use instruments like rackett, shawms, crumhorns, viol, lute, harps, hurdy-gurdies, and are presented in either medieval or Tudor costumes as appropriate, while the baroque programmes utilise spinet, viol, recorders, baroque flute, original flutes and flogeolets, harp, and hurdy-gurdies, including some great rarities such as an original 18th century hurdy-gurdy and a solid ivory musette de cour (polite bellows-blown French bagpipe).

All our lectures draw on readings from contemporary sources, frequently putting the instruments and music in context in surprising ways.

Recitals can be given on different themes to suit the requirements of the audience. For example:

1. "1,000 years of popular music" - drawing on lively dance music and song enjoyed by our ancestors.
2. "A musical journey through the ages" - focusing on musical instruments through the centuries on a wide variety of instruments, including medieval and Roman bells, pre-Columbian clay flutes and whistles as well as the usual range of medieval and Renaissance instruments.
3. "Musique Champêtre" - concentrates on the 18th century movement in France, which cultivated rustic instruments like bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy, and incorporated them into a new elegant style of chamber music, using spinet, viol, recorders and flutes, hurdy-gurdies (including an 18th century original instrument) and musette de cour.
4. "Music for a Georgian House" - This programme concentrates on the music heard in Palladian Mansions and elegant drawing rooms in 18th century England, including music written by the popular composers of the time, such as G.F.Handel, the favourite of King George.

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