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Early music is commonly defined as European classical music from the Middle Ages
Medieval music

The term medieval music encompasses European music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends in approximately the middle of the fifteenth century....
 and the Renaissance
Renaissance music

Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 - 1600. Dates of classical music eras, given the lack of abrupt shifts in musical thinking during the 15th century....
.

The Early Music Movement as a trend in history is the study and performance of music from composers before our own era and began in 1829 when Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born, and generally known in English-speaking countries, as Felix Mendelssohn was a Germany composer, pianist, organist and conducting of the early Romantic music period....
 conducted Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and organ whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque music period and brought it to its ultimate maturity....
's St Matthew Passion.

early music movement of the 20th century has been closely associated with the concept of performance practice.






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Early music is commonly defined as European classical music from the Middle Ages
Medieval music

The term medieval music encompasses European music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends in approximately the middle of the fifteenth century....
 and the Renaissance
Renaissance music

Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 - 1600. Dates of classical music eras, given the lack of abrupt shifts in musical thinking during the 15th century....
.

The Early Music Movement as a trend in history is the study and performance of music from composers before our own era and began in 1829 when Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born, and generally known in English-speaking countries, as Felix Mendelssohn was a Germany composer, pianist, organist and conducting of the early Romantic music period....
 conducted Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and organ whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque music period and brought it to its ultimate maturity....
's St Matthew Passion.

Performance practice

The early music movement of the 20th century has been closely associated with the concept of performance practice. With the renewed interest in early music came an interest in using period instruments and historically aware playing techniques.

Notation and performance

According to Margaret Bent (1998,), Early music notation, "is under-prescriptive by our standards; when translated into modern form it acquires a prescriptive weight that overspecifies and distorts its original openness." Before about 1600, written music did not consistently state which instruments are used when. A century earlier, people who wrote down music did not always specify whether lines of polyphony
Polyphony

In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voice , as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord s ....
 were to be sung or played on an instrument. Similarly, the notation frequently does not indicate what key to play the music in, if any. Accidentals were not necessary. Notations for rhythm go back only to about 1200. There is thus a speculative element to all modern performances of Medieval and Renaissance music. However, Renaissance musicians would have been highly trained in dyadic counterpoint and thus possessed this and other information necessary to read a score, "what modern notation [now] requires [accidentals] would then have been perfectly apparent without notation to a singer versed in counterpoint" (ibid). See the article on Renaissance music
Renaissance music

Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 - 1600. Dates of classical music eras, given the lack of abrupt shifts in musical thinking during the 15th century....
 and its section on notation and performance.

In the early-music revival of the 20th century, the concept of historically informed performance
Historically informed performance

Historically informed performance is an approach, or movement, in the performance of classical music. Members of this movement usually play on #Early instrumentss, and utilise historical treatises, as well as additional historical evidence, to gain insight into performance practice ....
—that is, using available documentation and other contextual evidence to recreate as closely as possible the original ways of playing the instruments used in early music—became an important facet of the performance of early music.

See also

  • Early Music Network
    Early Music Network

    Early Music Network is an international early music society. Its stated mission is: "To support and promote early music and historical performance by providing information and services which would benefit and help early music organizations, ensembles and solo musicians ....
  • Early Music Revival
    Early Music Revival

    See Early music and Historically informed performance for a more detailed explanation of this topic.The general discussion of how to perform music from ancient or earlier times did not become a subject of interest until the 19th century, when Europeans began looking to ancient culture generally, and musicians began to discover the musical ric...
  • Historically informed performance
    Historically informed performance

    Historically informed performance is an approach, or movement, in the performance of classical music. Members of this movement usually play on #Early instrumentss, and utilise historical treatises, as well as additional historical evidence, to gain insight into performance practice ....
  • List of early music ensembles
    List of early music ensembles

    An early music ensemble is one that specializes in performing music of the European european classical music tradition from the Baroque music era and before, i.e....
  • Neo-medieval music
    Neo-Medieval music

    Neo-Medieval music is a term used to describe a variety of styles within modern popular music. A common characteristic of these styles is that they contain elements of Medieval music and early music in general....
  • History of music
    History of music

    Music is found in every known culture, past and present, varying wildly between times and places. Scientists now believe that modern humans emerged from Africa 160,000 years ago....


Sources

  • Bent, Margaret. "The Grammar of Early Music: Preconditions for Analysis" in Judd, Cristle Collins (ed.) (1998). Tonal Structures of Early Music. New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 0-8153-2388-3.
  • Judd, Cristle Collins. "Introduction: Analyzing Early Music" in Judd, Cristle Collins (ed.) (1998). Tonal Structures of Early Music. New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 0-8153-2388-3.


External links

  • - Early Music in Chicago and Beyond, with many links and resources of general interest