The evolution of Early Music

Abstract

Early Music has evolved. It was launched by John Thomson as ‘A new quarterly devoted to medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music’. The invitation to contribute to a celebration of 50 years of Early Music prompted me to look back at the very first issue, January 1973, a single stapled gathering with a total of 64 pages, fully ten of which were devoted to a listing by location of early music performers (mostly teachers and amateurs, with addresses and phone numbers) who might want to get together. I counted 36 advertisements, mostly for instruments and sheet music, an important income stream in pre-internet days. There was a check-list of recordings and a concert diary. That issue contained five articles of three to seven pages each, all on some aspect of performance, three of them on instruments and instrument-makers. It was directed very specifically towards performers and those concerned with instruments and performance practice. The July 1974 issue, typically, included an article by Bernard Thomas: ‘Playing the crumhorn: first steps’. An early editorial by John Thomson was eager that the journal should not be intimidating to amateurs, seeing its primary mission as the dissemination of information about resources and particularly about instruments—makers, restoration, playing techniques, prices and so on—to the community of amateur performers internationally. His editorial in January 1975 promised a consumer’s guide to instruments. The early issues always included a pull-out octavo music supplement—in the first issue a Busnoys song edited by Howard Mayer Brown, a strong supporter of the venture, and a regular contributor.