David Kettlewell died, of heart disease, in April 2011. As he wished, this website is being maintained in memory of his ideas, and his influence on the people he met and taught. All contact details containing his name are null and void, of course, but further details on some of the pages can be obtained from his brother p.kettlewell@skynet.be.
Throughout, texts have been left in the present tense, as he wrote them.
Please note that references to the web-sites
"NewRenaissance/ibs/ee" and
"new-renaissance.net"
are obsolete. Thoses sites are no longer on the internet, and all the files have been re-constructed in the present site - "www.new-renaissance.com""

At the moment there is a PDF version of the book "Flexible Arranging & Composing", complete except for the last appendix: 11 Mb, downloadable here. Plans to create a web version have had to be abandoned, at least for the moment, and the headings in the left-hand column are not live.

CONTENTS

1. Purpose: how the approach can help

• teachers, leaders and arrangers
• students of harmony
• musicians who perform early music
• practical musicologists

2. The basic concept: harmony from separate parts, rather than chords

3. The method

• an example
• description/analysis of the example
• summary of principles to follow
• an example to try yourself
• how the principles work in practice
• perform what you have written
• chord instruments
• words

4. An example worked step-by-step

5. Further refinements - which may be used once the basic method is familiar

6. Later thinking

7. Improvising

8. Notes on performing flexible arrangements

Appendix 1: The renaissance view of early music: summary at a glance
Appendix 2: A historical summary: how music was composed 950-1750
Appendix 3: Examples to perform from a wide range of styles