Early music

This article is about early music in general. For the peer-reviewed journal, see Early Music (journal).

Periods and eras of Western classical music
AD Early period
Medieval era	c. 500–1400
Renaissance era	c. 1400–1600
Common practice period
Baroque era	c. 1600–1760
Classical era or period	c. 1730–1820
Romantic era	c. 1780–1910
Impressionist era	c. 1875–1925
Modern and contemporary period
Modern and high modern (style era)	c. 1890–1975
20th century (calendar era)	1900–2000
Contemporary or postmodern (style era)	c. 1975–present
21st century (calendar era)	2000–present

Early music is Western art music prior to the Classical era, comprising Ancient music (before 500 AD), Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600). 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) – and a historically informed approach to the performance of that music. However, today this term 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."

Revival

Main article: Early music revival

Performance practice

Music eras
Prehistoric
Ancient	before 500 AD
Early	c. 500–1760
Common practice	c. 1600–1900
Modern Contemporary	c. 1900–present

Main article: Historically informed performance

According to Margaret Bent, "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. 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".

See also

• Ancient music
• List of early music ensembles
• Early music festivals
• History of music
• Neo-Medieval music

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.
• Haskell, Harry. 1988. The Early Music Revival: A History. London and New York: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01449-3.
• 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.
• Judd, Cristle Collins. 1998. "Introduction: Analyzing Early Music". In Tonal Structures in Early Music, edited by Cristle Collins Judd, 3–13. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 1998; Criticism and Analysis of Early Music 1. New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 0-8153-2388-3.
• Kelly, Thomas Forrest. 2011. Early Music: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-973076-6.
• 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

• Early Music FAQ
• Renaissance Workshop Company the company which has saved many rare and some relatively unknown instruments from extinction.
• Early Music Radio – Celebrating Early Music and Early Music Performance
• Celebrating Early Music Master Orlando Gibbons
• Early MusiChicago – Early Music in Chicago and Beyond, with many links and resources of general interest
• Ancient Tunes, Young Ears: Teaching Early Music to Kids
• The Waits Website (designed to accumulate and disseminate historical information on Waits, and to advertise the growing number of revival bands, as well as their equivalents throughout Europe).