Early Music

Early Music
Francesco Francia · Public domain · source
Name	Early Music
Cultural origins	Medieval music, Renaissance music, Baroque music
Derivatives	Classical music
Other topics	Historical performance practice

Early Music Early Music denotes a corpus of Western Medieval music, Renaissance music, and Baroque music repertoire performed with attention to historical sources, period instruments, and stylistic conventions. Scholars and performers associated with institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and the Harvard University Department of Music investigate treatises, manuscripts, and iconography to reconstruct practices for ensembles, soloists, and liturgical contexts linked to courts, cathedrals, and city-states.

Definition and Scope

The term covers music from roughly the Gregorian chant era through the early decades of the Classical period, incorporating genres like the mass, motet, madrigal, fugue, and concerto grosso. Research draws on sources including manuscripts from Notre-Dame de Paris, the Sarum Use, and archives of the Medici and Habsburg courts, as well as treatises by Guido of Arezzo, Ars Nova, Gioseffo Zarlino, and Johann Mattheson. Performance practice engages with notation systems such as neumes, mensural notation, and tablature associated with instruments like the lute, harpsichord, and viol.

Historical Periods and Styles

Medieval practice features developments around institutions like Cluny, Santiago de Compostela, and the Byzantine Empire, with composers linked to the Notre-Dame school and figures such as Hildegard of Bingen and the Léonin/Pérotin tradition. The Renaissance saw polyphony flourish in contexts including the Papacy, the Burgundian Netherlands, and the Spanish Empire, with composers associated with the Chapel Royal (England), the Capilla Flamenca, and patrons like the Este family and Isabella I of Castile. The Baroque era spans developments at courts such as Versailles, St Petersburg, and Dresden, and centers of opera in Venice, Naples, and London, featuring institutions like the Accademia degli Arcadi and theaters such as the Teatro San Cassiano.

Instruments and Performance Practice

Instrumental study examines survivals and reconstructions of the recorder, violone, baroque violin, baroque flute, theorbo, and historical keyboards including the clavichord and fortepiano. Ensemble practice references groups like the Academy of Ancient Music, the English Concert, and the Consort of Musicke, and performers tied to schools such as the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and the Royal College of Music. Treatises by figures such as Marin Mersenne, Sébastien de Brossard, and Johann Joachim Quantz guide decisions on ornamentation, tuning systems like meantone temperament and well temperament, and continuo realization. Notation issues draw on sources from the Codex Las Huelgas to the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book and require expertise in mensural proportions, musica ficta, and improvisatory conventions practiced at venues including the St Mark's Basilica.

Repertoire and Notable Composers

Representative Early Music repertoire spans liturgical cycles, secular song, instrumental dances, and dramatic works associated with composers and librettists such as Guillaume Dufay, Josquin des Prez, Orlando di Lasso, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Claudio Monteverdi, Heinrich Schütz, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Arcangelo Corelli, and Johann Sebastian Bach. Sacred masterpieces performed in contexts like the Council of Trent responses and royal ceremonies include masses, psalm settings, and passions tied to institutions such as the Cappella Sistina and the Thomaskirche, Leipzig. Secular and theatrical repertory connects to creators and venues like Jacopo Peri, Francesco Cavalli, Henry Purcell, Georg Friedrich Handel, and librettists active at the Comédie-Italienne and the Royal Opera House.

Revival and Historically Informed Performance

Revival movements emerged through collectors and scholars at the Oxford University Press, the Biblioteca Marciana, and private antiquarian networks, with 19th- and 20th-century landmarks including editions by Friedrich Chrysander and performances organized by the Berlin Singakademie. The 20th century saw pioneers such as Arnold Dolmetsch, David Munrow, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Gustav Leonhardt, and institutions like the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Concentus Musicus Wien promote historically informed performance. Modern practice is institutionalized in conservatories, festivals such as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Salzburger Festspiele, and recording initiatives on labels including Archiv Produktion and Harmonia Mundi, intersecting with scholarship from the Répertoire International des Sources Musicales and ongoing research into authenticity, reconstruction, and performance ethics.

Category:Music genres