Early Music doesn’t necessarily mean European. Juan García de Zéspedes was a gifted composer (and singer and viol player), and one of many Mexican Baroque composers!
Durum & Molle in the Renaissance
Ever wonder why composers chose certain keys for their pieces? Or what all those accidentals meant? Early Music Sources has all the answers, as always! BONUS: Quick explanation of hexachords and my personal favorite, Monteverdi’s “Zefiro torna”.
The Family of Orlando Gibbons
Music was a tradition in the Bach and Lassus families, but did you know Orlando Gibbons also had a musical family? Read more about The Life, Work, and Family of Orlando Gibbons
High Clefs and Transposition
Did the post on high clefs (June 11) just confuse you more? Early Music Sources put together this great ~10 minute video to explain what high clefs were and how they relate to performance practices!
Janequin: Le chant des oyseaulx
Last week’s battle sounds not your thing? Janequin was into many different musical sound effects, including bird calls! Definitely listen long enough to hear the cuckoo…
Janequin: La Guerre
Some of the most fantastic Early Music pieces are secular, written for occasions, like “La Guerre” by Clément Janequin, written to celebrate the Battle of Marignano. This piece is particularly famous for how Janequin used words and syllables to mimic the sounds of battle. Check out this amazing recording (and score) and follow along with the translation here.
Nationalism and Music
While not technically Early Music, here are some thoughts on “patriotic" music for this Early Music Monday.
”This use of folk music by the bourgeois was more to reassure themselves of the authenticity of their own patriotism as well as an appeal across the social barriers of the time. (For the nobility, it was not the national loyalties that counted, but dynastic ones.)”. Read more here
The Story of "A"
If A = 440hz is the standard for modern orchestras, why do baroque ensembles use A = 415hz?
The Story of “A” - More about Baroque Pitch
Why does A = 440hz?
Early Music Monday tackles the issue of pitch level. First up, how did A = 440hz become the standard for modern orchestras?
Chiavette
Hotly debated by theorists for centuries, Early Music Monday tackles the challenges of pitch level and clefs. What were “high clefs” and what did that really mean for performers?
Chiavette (plural of Italian: chiavetta, [kjaˈvetta] "little clefs") is a system of standard combinations of clefs used in polyphonic music of the 16th through 18th centuries, differing from the usual chiavi naturali (the combination of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass clefs.) Typically, these clefs place each staff line a third lower than usual. (A second possible set of clefs, in contrabasso, places each staff line a third higher; this is less common outside of Franco-Flemish compositions.)
The first author to mention a standard set of high clefs is Silvestro Ganassi dal Fontego, in his 1543 Regula Rubertina, chapter 22, which instructs the musician to transpose such music down a fifth.[1][2] Other theorists, such as Adriano Banchieri (1601) and Picerli (1631), indicate to transpose down a fifth if there is no key signature, and a fourth if there is a flat indicated. By mid-century, Italian commentators only mention a transposition down a fourth, and still later the practice seems to have been to transpose downward by a third to account for the high pitch of Italian organs.[2] The Austrian theorist Johann Baptist Samber (1707), meanwhile, gave as his rule to transpose downward by a fourth if the bass is notated in F3, but a fifth if it is notated in C4.[2]