Baroque trumpet

It's been a while since I did a post about an early instrument, so here's an explanation (and comparison) of the baroque trumpet!

Bajón

Ever heard of a bajón? Meet the renaissance predecessor to the bassoon, also known as a dulcian or a curtal (depending on which country you were in). This instrument came in different sizes and was played in consorts, wind bands, and later as a continuo instrument!

Baroque lute construction

Need 5 minutes of beauty this morning? How about this video showing some of the artistry that goes into making a baroque lute (and some gorgeous playing of said lute)!

Natural Horn

Early horns - how exactly do they play all the notes with no valves? Check out this awesome explanation from my Handel + Haydn Society colleague Todd Williams!

Iconography - helpful or not?

How much can art inform us about musical practice in the past, and how much does it just get in the way? Early Music Sources finds out (with some really pretty paintings)!

Clavicytherium

Most people are familiar with harpsichords. And we've talked about the lautenwerck before. But how about the clavicytherium?

Read more about the clavicytherium here!

Turkish Crescent

About the Turkish Crescent (featured in Haydn’s Symphony 100 and other places): Much of the modern orchestra’s percussion comes from Turkish military bands. First European military bands imported Turkish musicians. Then they assigned Turkish instruments to black performers dressed in exotic Eastern garb.

Turkish music, in the sense described here, is not the music of Turkey, but rather a musical style that was occasionally used by the European composers of the Classical music era. This music was modelled—though often only distantly—on the music of Turkish military bands, specifically the Janissary bands.

An important impetus for Turkish music occurred in 1699, when Austria and Ottoman Empire negotiated the Treaty of Karlowitz. To celebrate the treaty, the Turkish diplomatic delegation brought a Janissary band along with other performers to Vienna for several days of performances.

Although the Janissary sound was familiar in Europe during the 18th century, the Classical composers were not the first to make use of it; rather, the first imitators were military bands. The cultural influence at first involved actual importation of Turkish musicians, as Henry George Farmer relates:

…read more on Wikipedia…

What is a lautenwerck?

Bach’s Suite in E minor, BWV 996 is usually played on harpsichord, lute, or even piano, but it was written for something called a “lautenwerck”. Ever wondered what that actually was?

The lautenwerck (also spelled lautenwerk), alternatively called lute-harpsichord (lute-clavier), is a European keyboard instrument of the Baroque period. It is similar to a harpsichord, but with gut rather than metal strings, producing a mellow tone.

The instrument was favored by J. S. Bach, who owned two of the instruments at the time of his death, but no specimens from the 18th century have survived to the present day.^[1] It has been revived since the 20th century by harpsichord makers Willard Martin, Keith Hill and Steven Sorli. Two of its most prominent performers are the early music specialists Gergely Sárközy and Robert Hill.

Performances by Gergely Sárközy are also freely available.^[2]

…read/hear more on Wikipedia…

Early Organs in Marburg

This week’s Early Music Monday post comes from Marburg, Germany! This organ from the early 1600s is on display in the Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte at the Landgrafenschloss (Museum for art and cultural history at the Landgrave’s Castle). Read more about this amazing instrument in the explanatory notes below!

What is a theorbo, really?

I’ve been talking about viols for a few weeks now, but one of the other cool instruments in the Early Music world is the theorbo.