It might have been The Brady Bunch with their gleaming smiles who first appeared in gallery view on the TV screen, craning their necks to smile benevolently at each other. Then came The Muppets resplendent in their gallery, to “play the music, light the lights, put on makeup, dress up right” for their “most sensational, inspirational, celebrational” show – “a kind of torture” for which they never knew why they turned up so faithfully. But it was Aretha Franklin who posed the question in her song “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?” oblivious to a future where a phenomenon called ‘Zoom’ would become an essential part of lockdown life and remain one of the 10 most downloaded apps of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Zoom Cloud Meetings aka Zoom is the video teleconferencing software program established in 2011. Its free version allows up to 100 participants concurrently. Upgrade and up to 1,000 can join in. In the world of music, Zoom technology has enabled some continuity of musical life be it teaching, conferencing, performing or rehearsing in small and large configurations.

It seems that animals have been the biggest winners in the COVID revolution. Not...