Jacqui Robertson-Wade (right) and Alison Kinder

 

Jacqui Robertson-Wade, a teacher of cello and viols for Warwickshire County Music Service, started her own publishing company two years ago. 

It all really began ten years ago, when I wrote a tutor for viols for use in schools. Warwickshire County Music Service launched an early music group: viols, together with many other Renaissance instruments, were offered for students to learn to play. I began by teaching two pupils, and this number has grown to around 40 as more instruments have become available. The county now has a stock of 21 treble, eight tenor and eight bass viols. We also have another teacher of viols, Alison Kinder.

Viol Player

During that time, I developed teaching material for individual and group lessons and researched music that was suitable to be played together in a consort.  I also created a syllabus for viols (grades 1-5), within the framework of the National Curriculum of England & Wales, that enabled the viol to be equated with other instruments.  Although I had found a publisher for my tutor book Viol Player Book 1, which took about five years to compile, I just could not let it go, so I decided to publish it myself. What followed were vertical learning curves in abundance! I recorded CDs to accompany the books (one for each viol), which I marketed as ‘The world`s first viol tutor with play-along CDs, for the young and young at heart’ – which of course it is! Soon after the publication of Viol Player in 2005, excellent reviews were received worldwide, and an American edition was created; it has now also been translated into French (see Music Teacher, July 2006).  Subsequent books up to Book 5 will follow in due course.

Music for the Violin Family

Having had almost ten years of teaching chamber music skills with viol consorts, I wanted to develop this and provide a resource of easy music for modern string players. I am passionate about chamber music skills being taught right from the start, and commissioned Paul Sudlow, who had previously written music for Viol Player, to write for modern strings. Little Suite for violin trio (grade 1: available for two violins & cello; violin, viola & cello; and cello trio) has been used by teachers in the Warwickshire County Music Service for group teaching, and also for the annual county-wide Chamber Music Festival, with great success.

At the same time, I arranged some of the wonderfully imaginative music that Paul Sudlow wrote for Viol Player into quartets for various combinations of strings.  I gave this series of books (including Little Suite) the title Music to Play with Your Friends, with the thought that children might get together after school and play. Quartets Book 1 (grades 2-4) are published for string quartet, 3 violins & cello, viola quartet and cello quartet and are part of the Chamber Music for Children series. Books in this series are published in score and come with stickers to help identify parts (ref code CMC).

My First Tudor Consort Book was developed for a tour in France for Warwickshire’s Renaissance Band.  We had a wide range of ages and abilities, and needed to provide suitable music. Alison Kinder and I used two versions of the same music in one book: part one has seven Renaissance pieces with divisions (Renaissance ornaments), while part two has the same repertoire in an easier version. We also added examples of divisions by Ortiz, with space in two of the pieces for pupils to compose their own (syllabus requirement for viols, grade 4). This also became part of the Chamber Music for Children series, and we found the stickers a big hit! My First Tudor Consort Book is also available for three violins and cello (with a separate easy violin part – open strings and first finger only), recorders and viols.  Book 2 will be published later this year.

Cello Ensemble Music

I have maintained my cello teaching alongside my viol teaching, and have always found a dearth of music suitable for cello ensemble.  I therefore decided to arrange Bass Delights – a collection of Renaissance music originally created for bass viol players at the Norvis Summer School where I am a tutor – for five cellos or violas. In the cello and viola edition I have edited the bowing, which provides a useful introduction to an historical approach, as well as some guidelines to help performers make the most of music from the period. Bass Delights starts with music in an easy rhythmic format and moves on to music in a polyphonic style towards the end of the book.

New Music for Violin & Piano

In 2003, I returned to Trinity College of Music with a scholarship as a mature student, having studied cello there 21 years earlier!

I went back to a learning situation to develop my playing of late French viol repertoire for the seven-string bass viol and five-string Pardessus de Viole.  During this time I was introduced by Rosemary Firman, the Jerwood Librarian, to the Chantry Suite by Christopher Wood, who had been a TCM professor during the 20th century.  This was written for Pardessus de Viole and harpsichord, or violin & piano, and dedicated to Cecile Dolmetsch, whose family were responsible for much of the revival of interest in early instruments and music in the 20th century. This work is now published by Rondo Publishing, and I hope some movements will be included in an examination syllabus in the future.   

The Notehouse People

Over the past 20 years or so, I have always been interested in the psychology of learning.  During this time, I have taught many children with dyslexia. This in turn led me to being tested for dyslexia myself, since after researching the subject, I found some of the difficulties I had experienced as a student were identified as being mildly dyslexic.  Although this discovery was actually quite a relief, it has provided me as a teacher with a lifetime of developed strategies to help children who have learning difficulties. 

The Notehouse People was born out of this. It is a visual reminder of notes on the stave.  Every note is a character who lives in the Notehouse:  Albert A, Mr C and Dentist Dan, to name but a few. The characters aid memory and help to differentiate between lines and spaces.  Book 2 enables young children to start composition at the same time as learning about music theory. The Notehouse People was devised about eight years ago, but developed and written with Alison Kinder.

Rondo Publishing Website

So this is the story so far – Rondo Publishing now boasts 46 titles, and has recently appointed four new consultant editors (Micaela Schmitz, Alison Crum, Ibi Aziz and Stewart McCoy) and a researcher (Tamsin Lewis). Distribution of Rondo Publishing titles relies on advertising and marketing, as well as word of mouth. The website www.rondopublishing.co.uk has proved an excellent way of advertising and receiving orders on-line. It is a great feeling to receive an email with an order for a viol book from different places far across the world – I have even had one from Hawaii!

Jacqui Robertson-Wade LTCL belongs to the ISM’s Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Centre. She can be contacted at Rondo Publishing,

2 Delamere Way, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire CV32 7BG, tel: 01926 339433, email: jacqui@rondopublishing.co.uk, web: www.rondopublishing.co.uk.

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