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
Early
Medieval c. 500–1400
Renaissance c. 1400–1600
Common practice
Baroque c. 1600–1750
Classical c. 1730–1820
Romantic c. 1780–1910
Impressionist c. 1875–1925
Modern and contemporary
c. 1890–1975
20th century (1900–2000)
c. 1975–present
21st century (2000–present)

Early music is music, especially Western art music, composed prior to the Classical era.[1] The term generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1760), and, according to some authorities such as Kennedy (who excludes Baroque),[1] Ancient music (before 500 AD). 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.[2] 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."[3]

Revival

Main article: Early music revival

Performance practice

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".[4]

See also

Music eras
Prehistoric  
Ancient before 500 AD
Early c. 5001760
Common practice c. 16001900
c. 1900present

Sources

  1. 1 2 Michael Kennedy, "Early Music"", in The Oxford Dictionary of Music, second revised edition, Associate Editor Joyce Bourne. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-19-869162-9.
  2. "About Us". National Centre for Early Music. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
  3. Harry Haskell, "Early Music", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001.
  4. Bent, Margaret. 1998. "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. ISBN 0-8153-2388-3.

Further reading

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