View source for Early music

{{short description|Musical period}}
{{other uses}}
[[File:Francesco Francia - Madonna and Saints (detail) - WGA08174.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Renaissance-era [[lute]] and [[viol]], depicted in a detail from a [[:File:Francesco Francia - Madonna and Saints - WGA08173.jpg|painting]] by [[Francesco Francia]]]]
{{History of Western art music}}
'''Early music''' generally comprises [[Medieval music]] (500–1400) and [[Renaissance music]] (1400–1600), but can also include [[Baroque music]] (1600–1750) or [[Ancient music]] (before 500 AD). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad [[Dates of classical music eras|musical era]] for the beginning of [[Classical music|Western classical music]].

==Terminology==
Interpretations of historical scope of "early music" vary. The original [[Academy of Ancient Music]] formed in 1726 defined "Ancient" music as works written by composers who lived before the end of the 16th century. [[Johannes Brahms]] and his contemporaries would have understood Early music to range from the High Renaissance and Baroque, while some scholars consider that Early music should include the [[music of ancient Greece]] or [[Music of ancient Rome|Rome]] before 500 AD (a period that is generally covered by the term [[Ancient music]]).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Haskell|first1=Harry|title=The Early Music Revival: A History|date=1988|publisher=Courier Corporation|isbn=9780486291628|page=9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bGG22O24ObAC&q=Early%20music%20definition&pg=PA9|access-date=28 May 2018|language=en}}</ref> Music critic [[Michael Kennedy (music critic)|Michael Kennedy]] excludes Baroque, defining Early music as "musical compositions from [the] earliest times up to and including music of [the] Renaissance period".<ref name="Kennedy">{{cite book|author1=Michael Kennedy|author2=Tim Rutherford-Johnson|last3=Joyce Bourne Kennedy|author-link1=Michael Kennedy (music critic)|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Music|date=2013|location=Oxford and New York|publisher=Oxford University Press Oxford|isbn=9780199578542|page=255|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XX2sAQAAQBAJ&q=0198691629&pg=PA253|language=en|chapter=Early music}}</ref>

Musicologist [[Thomas Forrest Kelly]] considers that the essence of Early music is the revival of "forgotten" musical repertoire and that the term is intertwined with the rediscovery of old [[performance practice]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kelly|first1=Thomas Forrest|author-link=Thomas Forrest Kelly|title=Early Music: A Very Short Introduction|date=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199831890|pages=1–2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eAAC072TMBAC&q=what%20is%20early%20music&pg=PA1|access-date=28 May 2018|language=en|chapter=1. What does "early music" mean?}}</ref> According to the UK's [[National Centre for Early Music]], the term "early music" refers to both a repertory (European music written between 1250 and 1750 embracing Medieval, Renaissance and the Baroque) &ndash; and a historically informed approach to the performance of that music.<ref name="ncem">{{cite web | url=http://www.ncem.co.uk/?idno=1130 | title=About Us | publisher=National Centre for Early Music | access-date=14 November 2014}}</ref>

Today, the understanding of "Early music" has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises, instruments and other contemporary evidence."<ref>Harry Haskell, "Early Music", ''[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (musicologist)|John Tyrrell]]. London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001.</ref>

==Revival==
[[File:Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin 3608.JPG|thumb|260px|The [[Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin]], modern performers of Early music]]
{{Main|Early music revival}}

In the later 20th century there was a resurgence of interest in the performance of music from the Medieval and Renaissance eras, and a number of [[Consort (music)|instrumental consort]]s and [[choir|choral ensemble]]s specialising in Early music repertoire were formed. Groups such as the [[Tallis Scholars]], the [[Early Music Consort]] and the [[Taverner Consort and Players]] have been influential in bringing Early music to modern audiences through performances and popular recordings.<ref name="wilson">{{cite book|author1=Nick Wilson|title=The Art of Re-enchantment: Making Early Music in the Modern Age|date=2013|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press USA|isbn=9780199939930|page=76|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fWgBAQAAQBAJ&q=The%20Taverner%20Choir%2C%20Consort%20%26%20Players&pg=PA76|access-date=2 March 2018|language=en}}</ref>

==Performance practice==
{{Main|Historically informed performance}}
The revival of interest in Early music has given rise to a scholarly approach to the performance of music. Through academic [[Musicology|musicological research]] of music [[treatise]]s, [[urtext edition]]s of musical scores and other historical evidence, performers attempt to be faithful to the performance style of the musical era in which a work was originally conceived. Additionally, there has been a rise in the use of original or reproduction [[period instruments]] as part of the performance of Early music, such as the revival of the [[harpsichord]], [[lute]], or [[viol]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lawson|first1=Colin|last2=Stowell|first2=Robin|title=The Historical Performance of Music : An Introduction|url=https://archive.org/details/historicalperfor00laws_0|url-access=registration|date=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780521627382|page=[https://archive.org/details/historicalperfor00laws_0/page/17 17–18]|edition=5th printing.}}</ref>

The practice of "[[historically informed performance]]" is nevertheless dependent on stylistic inference. Renaissance [[music notation|notation]] is not as prescriptive as modern scoring, and there is much that was left to the performer's interpretation. [[Margaret Bent]] says: "Renaissance notation is under-prescriptive by our standards; when translated into modern form it acquires a prescriptive weight that overspecifies and distorts its original openness. [[Accidental (music)|Accidentals]] … may or may not have been notated, but what modern notation requires would then have been perfectly apparent without notation to a singer versed in [[counterpoint]]".<ref>Margaret Bent, "The Grammar of Early Music: Preconditions for Analysis", p. 25. In ''Tonal Structures in Early Music'', edited by Cristle Collins Judd, 15–59 (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 1998; Criticism and Analysis of Early Music 1), New York: Garland Publishing, 1998. {{ISBN|0-8153-2388-3}}.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Ancient music]]
*[[Renaissance music]]
*[[Early music festivals]]
*[[History of music]]
*[[List of Baroque composers]]
*[[List of early music ensembles]]
*[[List of Medieval composers]]
*[[List of Renaissance composers]]
*[[Neo-Medieval music]]

==Citations==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Davidson, Audrey Ekdahl. 2008. ''Aspects of Early Music and Performance''. New York: AMS Press. {{ISBN|978-0-404-64601-1}}.
* Donington, Robert. 1989. ''The Interpretation of Early Music'', new revised edition. London and Boston: Faber and Faber. {{ISBN|0-571-15040-3}}.
* Epp, Maureen, and Brian E. Power (eds.). 2009. ''The Sounds and Sights of Performance in Early Music: Essays in Honour of Timothy J. Mcgee''. Farnham, Surrey (UK); Burlington, VT: Ashgate. {{ISBN|978-0-7546-5483-4}}.
* Haynes, Bruce. 2007. ''The End of Early Music: A Period Performer's History of Music for the Twenty-First Century''. Oxford and New York: [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-19-518987-2}}.
* Remnant, M. "The Use of Frets on Rebecs and Medieval Fiddles" ''Galpin Society Journal'', 21, 1968, p.&nbsp;146.
* Remnant, M. and Marks, R. 1980. "A medieval 'gittern{{'"}}, British Museum Yearbook 4, Music and Civilisation, 83–134.
* Remnant, M. "Musical Instruments of the West". 240 pp. Batsford, London, 1978. Reprinted by Batsford in 1989 {{ISBN|9780713451696}}. Digitized by the University of Michigan 17 May 2010.
* {{cite book|title=English Bowed Instruments from Anglo-Saxon to Tudor Times|author= Remnant, Mary|publisher=Clarendon Press|date= 1986|isbn=978-0-1981-6134-9|ref=none}}
* {{cite book|title=Musical Instruments: An Illustrated History : from Antiquity to the Present| series= 54|author=Remnant, Mary|publisher=Amadeus Press|date= 1989|isbn= 978-0-9313-4023-9|ref=none}}
* Roche, Jerome, and Elizabeth Roche. 1981. ''A Dictionary of Early Music: From the Troubadours to Monteverdi''. London: Faber Music in association with Faber & Faber; New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-571-10035-X}} (UK, cloth); {{ISBN|0-571-10036-8}} (UK, pbk); {{ISBN|0-19-520255-4}} (US, cloth).
* Sherman, Bernard. 1997. ''Inside Early Music: Conversations with Performers''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-509708-4}}.
* Stevens, Denis. 1997. ''Early Music'', revised edition. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Kahn & Averill. {{ISBN|1-871082-62-5}}. First published as ''Musicology'' (London: Macdonald & Co. Ltd, 1980).

==External links==
{{commons category}}
*[http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/ Early Music FAQ]
*[http://www.renwks.com Renaissance Workshop Company] the company which has saved many rare and some relatively unknown instruments from extinction.
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20130121102138/http://orlandogibbons.com/ Celebrating Early Music Master Orlando Gibbons]}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20020525124412/http://earlymusichicago.org/ Early MusiChicago] – Early Music in Chicago and Beyond, with many links and resources of general interest

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[[Category:Early music| ]]
[[Category:Traditional music]]