What Do We Mean by Early Music?

instruments

Recorders – the instruments that are our gateway to the musical world- flourished in the Renaissance and Baroque eras and it is music from these times that we most frequently play. We apply the generic label “early music” to this repertoire.  But that label is, at best, only a shorthand to distinguish music composed or performed in those times from music of the more recent Classical, Romantic and contemporary music eras.  So, it is a label of exclusion rather than a description of the music included.  And how could it be otherwise?  For, the label encompasses music from the 12th through 18th centuries and includes musical styles and performance practices that range from those of the Baroque masters such as J.S. Bach (1685-1750), G.P. Telemann (1681-1767) and G.F. Handel (1685-1759), to the Renaissance geniuses of polyphony such as Josquin des Prez (1450/55-1521), Guillaume Dufay (1397?-1474), William Byrd (1539-1623) and Tomas Luis Victoria (1548-1611) and even to the exciting mediaeval music of Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377), Adam de la Halle (1237?-1268) and their anonymous contemporaries.