Early Music

In this second sense, Early Music refers to the movement concerned with the authentic performance of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music. Initially identified with the pioneering work of David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London, which he directed, the term is now generally used as an umbrella description for all applied scholarship which aims to recreate the conditions and performing conventions of a composition's original performance(s). In 1973 a British quarterly magazine with the same name was founded by John Thompson with the aim of creating a forum for performers, musicologists, instrument makers, and organologists. It rapidly proved to be an outstanding success in focusing attention on fundamental issues in editing and performance practice and was influential in setting up regional Early Music Forums in Britain and a national body to coordinate the work of educational organizations and amateur, as well as professional, groups. Since c. 1970 Early Music festivals and exhibitions of reproduction early instruments have proliferated across Europe and North America. The British Broadcasting Corporation and other broadcasting bodies regularly promote recitals and educational programmes in this field as do the Arts Council and the London Early Music Centre. As a description of a repertory which now extends from pre-Christian chant to 19th- and even early 20th-century works, the term Early Music is so widely employed as to be meaningless or misleading. But as a synonym for authenticity it has proved a valuable concept, albeit often associated with preciosity in some quarters.