What is early music?

Twenty years ago - even ten years ago - it was pretty easy to answer this one. Early meant mediaeval, renaissance, baroque. It meant Bach keyboard works played on the harpsichord (any old harpsichord) rather than the piano. Things these days are less simple, perhaps because we've progressively learnt some of the subtle, deeper, and indeed difficult issues involved.

First of all it should be said that "early" is no longer a very helpful clue. Performers influenced by the "early" approach have increasingly looked at works of the Classical period - Mozart, Haydn, early Beethoven, and then on to the Romantics - Schumann, Brahms, Wagner, Berlioz. There is no logical reason why the interest will stop there - perhaps all music written before the period of reliable sound recording is fair game for a closer study of composers' intentions. Indeed it's not necessarily absurd to imagine pains-taking reconstruction of the no-longer-available computers used by electro-acoustic composers at IRCAM in Paris in the 1960s for "early music" performances of their works. Various alternatives for the term "early" have been tried - some time back "authentic" was much favoured, but growing realisation of the impossibilities of replicating performance conditions, and above all of replicating the innocent hearing experience, shorn of all subsequent acoustic and cultural "noise", has led to a certain humility for which the arrogant presumption of "authentic" is just not appropriate. "Period performance" also had supporters, though it was never quite clear what claims the term made. A current favourite is "historically-informed", which is meaningful but cumbersome. I suspect we are stuck with the spectacularly loose term "early" - and the continuing need to explain what we mean.

So - without begging lots of questions, which indeed lurk there to be begged - historically-informed practice implies performing music on the instruments of the right time and place, employing as far as possible the appropriate playing techniques and stylistic conventions.

Why? The purpose is to get closer to the original sound and feel of a piece of music without the interference of later (predominantly nineteenth-century) performing traditions. This is not simply a historic exercise - it is, ideally, an act of artistic rediscovery, often compared to the restoration of an painting by the removal of thick layers of discolouring varnishes.

"Early Music" performance has brought about a serious and irreversible reconsideration of much familiar music, such as that of Bach and Mozart. This effect can even be detected in the performances of musicians using 'modern' instruments. It has brought to greater prominence many composers whose qualities were previously less obvious - Charpentier, Rameau, Telemann. Above all - it has provided some of the most exciting music-making of the last two decades.

FAQs by Glyn Russ (Network Director)