# Where's the early music section?



## Contrapuntus (Jun 18, 2010)

Hi eveybody,

I know I have just freshly joined 'the club' and it might be that i have overlooked things...but: where is the forum for early music? The roots of all other music that followed? Where can I find the people enjoying Ockeghem? Obrecht? Palestrina, Richafort etc. etc. etc.?

surely I am not alone  or am I


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## Guest (Jun 18, 2010)

Contrapuntus said:


> Hi eveybody,
> 
> I know I have just freshly joined 'the club' and it might be that i have overlooked things...but: where is the forum for early music? The roots of all other music that followed? Where can I find the people enjoying Ockeghem? Obrecht? Palestrina, Richafort etc. etc. etc.?
> 
> surely I am not alone  or am I


There have been some threads on this topic. Do a search for renaissance, that should bring at least some of the threads up.

By the way, early music has been my latest obsession. Tallis' Spem in alium has recently become one of my favorite works, and I enjoy a great deal of Byrd, Palestrina, des Prez, Ockeghem, von Bingen, etc.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

There are more than a few early music buffs here. I quite like early music myself... although I don't specialize in any single era.


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## Il Seraglio (Sep 14, 2009)

There is a Renaissance Composers thread on the Composer Guestbooks forum, but it's quite small.

Early music is quite niche, even among the folks on here. I like Josquin, Perotin, Tallis and Gesualdo though.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

It seems that almost any era beyond Romanticism/Post-Romanticism/Early Modernism is a small niche of its own. How often does anyone discuss any of the Classical-era composers beyond Mozart, Haydn, and Early Beethoven? The Baroque beyond Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and a couple of others? I was bitten by the "Early Music" bug some years back. I love Byrd, Josquin, Dufay, Monteverdi, Hildegard of Bingen, Leonin, Perotin, Gesualdo, and many others... as well as the works of anonymous chant, song, etc... I'm especially fond of Spanish and Byzantine medieval music with its elements of Middle-Eastern chant, etc...


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Yes, I set up this thread a while back, when I was beginning to get into Early/Renaissance music. But it's still quite small.

http://www.talkclassical.com/6237-renaissance-composers-lounge.html

I am only still beginning to get into music of these eras. I really like the contrast between the composers of different countries during those times. There are many similarities and differences. Last night, I heard some Brumel on the radio, and quite enjoyed it. There's much richness in the music of earlier times, and many people often forget how big an influence these guys were and are, to the present day (especially in terms of the choral repertoire)...


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Well we don't have sections for different periods of classical music at all here, so no wonder there's no early music forum either. 

I wonder though, why in general Renaissance music for example receives so little attention compared to Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods.


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## Il Seraglio (Sep 14, 2009)

Dim7 said:


> Well we don't have sections for different periods of classical music at all here, so no wonder there's no early music forum either.
> 
> I wonder though, why in general Renaissance music for example receives so little attention compared to Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods.


Most "serious" music from the Renaissance period tended to be purely a capella vocal music and there was no use of an orchestra in the way we understand it from the Baroque onwards... so it's not very appealing to a lot of people who hate classical vocal music to begin with.

On the other hand, I'm not sure medieval and renaissance is any more niche than baroque and classical. If you take Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Mozart, Haydn and Gluck out of the equation, then you are left with a whole host of music which, although extremely popular in its day, was later consigned to the status of a historical artifact until later revived in the mid 20th century where historically informed performances began to take shape.

If you look at classical music recordings made before the 1970's, music by the likes of Telemann, Buxtehude, Purcell, Cimarosa, Clementi, C.P.E. Bach, Boccherini (notwithstanding his infamous _Menuetto_) and even some early romantics such as Meyerbeer are very hard to find.


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## hocket (Feb 21, 2010)

I'm a big fan of Renaissance and Medieval music (and early baroque too). It alarms me that there don't seem to be any forums devoted to 'early music' or any kind of organization for the focus of interest of the subject on the web. It's a really fascinating and important subject, and some kind of community really ought to be fostered amongst its' fans. It's great that sites like this can accomodate the subject but it's really surprising that it lacks a web community of its' own.

*Dim 7 wrote:*



> I wonder though, why in general Renaissance music for example receives so little attention compared to Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods.


I think it's because of the way the musical canon was created and the legacy that has left us. Music of the past wasn't really admired until the immediate aftermath of Beethoven. It was then that the preceding generation's taste was preserved in amber so a canon built around Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven was constructed. Bach was then added shortly afterwards. It's quite curious that the classical tradition's long time assumption to represent the best of history have proven to be just a very narrow selection of 200 years. As Seraglio implied even that was severely limited by very Romantic notions of dividing the musicians of the period into 'geniuses' and 'non-geniuses'. Although earlier periods have been studied for longer 'early music' didn't really make any headway until the 80's when the big guns of the 'English Early Music Mafia' transformed the way performance of Renaissance and Medieval music were understood. It's continued to develop and come a long way since then.

In the general consciousness there's still been no fundamental shift though. 'Classical' music is still really judged to be Bach onwards. As Seraglio pointed out, when people are into Romantic era music there's no guarantee they'll like Renaissance music as they have little in common. Even late baroque like Bach etc. has a very limited points of contact. Obviously the revival of Vivaldi has shown what is possible, and more recently Corelli has gained far wider appreciation. Biber too. Renaissance and medieval polyphony is perhaps just too alien to the 'classical' tradition to make that impact on a wide scale; who knows?. OTOH it's differences to the classical tradition and in particular it's tendency to have a strong rhythmic focus may give it the potential for broader appeal outside the confines of 'classical' circles.


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