Pick and mix


Pick and Mix is our third type of session: combined groups
of instruments or voices (or both) that you sign up for the night before.

If you want to come to HISS to play your treble viol or sing bass all week,
you can choose to do that. But if you’re someone who sings and also plays an instrument, or like many HISS participants have gathered several instruments over the years, you might want to use all of these during the course.

Pick and Mix classes let you do just this. They may be joint classes – for viols and voices, or brass and strings – or they may be open to anyone whatever they play or sing. Some sessions may have restricted numbers, with limited slots available.

Every day, sign-up sheets will be on the noticeboard for the next day’s Pick and Mixes, and you just add your name and instrument or voice to the list – and remember what you’ve signed up for! (The details will also be on the printed timetable we’ll give you when you arrive.) The lists are taken down in the evening so that the tutors can prepare, and check they have the right parts and the ensemble is balanced.

This flexibility is a unique feature of HISS, and one of the reasons so many people return year after year to enjoy the range of music making on offer.

Most sessions last around 1 hour and 20 minutes; some are in two parts; some popular ones might be repeated.

Pick and mix for 2026:

All in a Garden Green

For any instruments, including percussion – readers and non-readers

This English popular tune in a mixture of sixteenth-century and early seventeenth-century settings from home and abroad, along with arrangements taken from keyboard compilations such as the Fitzwilliam Virginals book. Choose a simple or more demanding lines or make chordal contributions,

With Tim Bayley

“A comon drunckard and notorious swearer & blasphemer….”

For recorders – readers

A chance to work on the amazing world of Thomas Weelkes (1576–1623), through his four-part, five-part, and six-part madrigals. He wrote some incredible music, despite his reputation!

With Rebecca Austen-Brown

Reading from facsimile

For all instruments (readers – and knowledge of clefs preferable)

Back by popular demand: an opportunity to dip your toe into the world of original notation. Emily and Richard will run a session focussing on Willaert’s Aspro Core et Selvaggio a6 reading facsimile alongside modern notation.

With Emily Saville and Richard Thomas

Opera Overtures

For woodwind and strings

More advanced repertoire combining wind and strings. Bring baroque instruments if you have them at A=440!

With Anne Marie Christensen and Catherine Strachan

Music for the Duke of Lerma

For wind, brass and strings – readers

A selection of canciones and motets from the part books of the ministriles (minstrels) employed at the Duke’s collegiate church, San Pedro, around 1600. Music in five to eight parts by Spanish composers Phelipe Rogier, Francisco Guerrero and Alonso Lobo.

With Tim Bayley, Emily Saville and Richard Thomas

Birds in traditional folk song

Voices – by ear

Birds feature in many traditional British folk songs, sometimes as symbols of love, or death and sometimes the talking kind that warn you of the consequences of your actions! Come and learn some of these songs and listen to some old recordings and modern interpretations of them.

With Hazel Askew

Consort coaching

For string consorts

Coaching from Anne Marie Christensen for pre-formed or in-course consorts.

Folk Band collaboration

For all instruments

Repertoire to be confirmed.

With John Dipper, Hazel Askew and Mary Tyers

Consort songs with continuo (possibly two sessions)

For singers, continuo instruments (lutes, keyboards, cellos, viols)

Consort songs, anthems, madrigals for singers with instruments; the function and use of continuo; including figured bass. Repertoire may be drawn from either or both English Tudor period (Tomkins, Weelkes) or Italian, including Monteverdi.

with Graham Coatman

Come and sing (or play) Spem in Alium?

A few years ago we had a session for (nearly) all singers and players putting Tallis’s extraordinary 40 part motet Spem in Alium together.

The Wednesday afternoon as a halfway point is good to try to get everyone involved in something together. This time If we don’t have the numbers to make Spem work comfortably, we’ll do the more manageable but equally amazing 40-part motet by Alessandro Striggio Ecce beatam lucem.

With Graham Coatman

Recorder Big Band

For all sizes of recorders – bring your biggest!

A magnificent three-choir ‘Magnificat’ by Zielenski (published in 1611). At 8’ or octave doubled if enough tenor, bass, great bass and contrabass players OR ‘Ruht wohl’ – the final chorus and chorale from Bach’s St John Passion, arranged by Spanhove for alto, tenor, bass, great bass and contrabass recorders.

With Rebecca Austen-Brown and Mary Tyers

Into battle!

For brass and recorders

A rousing session on Janequin’s famous motet La Guerre, followed by  Padovana’s eight-part setting of the the song ‘Aria della Battaglia’.

With Richard Thomas, Rebecca Austen-Brown and Emily Saville

Rewriting tunes

For all instruments – readers

While we have an abundance of folk tunes in thousands of manuscripts, a lot of them don’t necessarily leap off the page on a first play-through. In this workshop we’ll look at how to approach changing a tune to breath new life into it, and also to make it suit your instrument and your style.

With John Dipper

John Cooper alias Giovanni Coprario

For viols and voices

Combining viols and voices to explore the transcriptions of John Cooper (aka Giovanni Coprario!) – which he made of numerous Italian madrigals, including those by Ferrabosco, Monteverdi, de Macque, Lupo and John Ward.

With Graham Coatman and Alison Kinder

Renaissance Big Band

For all instruments – readers

Music in twelve to sixteen parts for Renaissance instruments – there will be sackbuts!

With Tim Bayley, Richard Thomas and Emily Saville

3/2 Hornpipes with John Dipper and Hazel Askew

For voices and instruments – by ear

3/2 hornpipes are an old and fascinating type of tune, and they can be found in places from the 17th century collections of John Playford to the manuscripts on 18th and 19th century village musicians. Come learn a couple of these beautiful tunes and how to make the most of their unusual rhythm.

With Hazel Askew and John Dipper

Samuel Scheidt – Canzon super ‘O Nachbar Roland’

For recorders – readers

A German work for SSATB with plenty of interest throughout the parts. 

With Rebecca Austen-Brown

Travel time 

For wind, brass, and strings – confident readers

Some of the great Renaissance compositions feature travel to or from beloved locations, a sense of belonging and a sense of loss. This workshop will take an eclectic tour of sixteenth century Europe, including Innsbruck, Andernach, Italian towns, a Pavane de Spaigne, and Polish dances.

With Tim Bayley, Emily Saville and Richard Thomas

Learning by ear

For all instruments – by ear

If you’ve found yourself terrified at the thought of learning by ear, or if it only gets you so far, then this is the workshop for you! John will look at how to link your knowledge and experience on your instrument to learning new music by ear, and how to use the structure of folk music to your advantage! 

With John Dipper