Early music - Wikipedia

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_music

Early music
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Early music is music, especially Western art

music, composed prior to the Classical era.[1]
The term generally comprises Medieval music
(5001400) and Renaissance music
(14001600), but can also include Baroque
music (16001760), 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]

Periods and eras of

Western classical music
Early
Medieval

c. 5001400

Renaissance

c. 14001600
Common practice

Baroque

c. 16001750

Classical

c. 17301820

Romantic

c. 17801910

Impressionist

c. 18751925

Modern and contemporary

Modern High modern
20th century
Contemporary Postmodern
21st century

c. 18901975
(19002000)

c. 1975present
(2000present)

Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6

Revival
Performance practice
See also
Sources
Further reading
External links

Revival
Performance practice
According to Margaret Bent, "Renaissance notation is under-prescriptive by our standards; when

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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
Ancient music
List of early music ensembles
Early music festivals
History of music
Neo-Medieval music
List of medieval composers
List of Renaissance composers
List of Baroque composers

Music eras
Prehistoric
Ancient

before 500 AD

Early

c. 5001760

Common practice

c. 16001900

Modern Contemporary

c. 1900present

Sources
1. 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, 1559. 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
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.

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Judd, Cristle Collins. 1998. "Introduction: Analyzing Early Music". In Tonal Structures in
Early Music, edited by Cristle Collins Judd, 313. 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
(https://books.google.com/books?id=eAAC072TMBAC&printsec=frontcover). 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 (http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/)
Celebrating Early Music Master Orlando Gibbons (http://www.orlandogibbons.com)
Early MusiChicago (http://earlymusichicago.org) Early Music in Chicago and Beyond, with
many links and resources of general interest
Ancient Tunes, Young Ears: Teaching Early Music to Kids (http://www.learningmusician.com
/features/0607/EarlyMusicForKids/)
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