Links

Let me tell you where to go...
    —Roger Miller, “England Swings”

Please keep in mind that we don’t know about everything that is out there. If we leave something or someone out, that doesn’t mean we don’t like it or him or her or them. Order of appearance depends on when we remember or find out about things (and get permission to link!), and not with any judgement on our part. (Please contact us and let us know about groups and resources we’ve missed. Thanks!)

Early Music

The following are some links to information on early music, period instruments, and sources of printed and recorded music.

• The Early Music FAQ is an excellent source of information on early music, recordings, performers, and instruments.
• Stainer & Bell publishes, among many other things, the monumental collection Musica Britannica. They have an extraordinary variety of music, and their site is well worth perusal.
• Head for your nearby bookstore and you may well be able to find Early Music America magazine. There’s a lot more to it than a magazine, though, excellent as it is. Early Music America is an organization that provides a variety of benefits to its members. Make a point of visiting their site, especially if you’re a performer or teacher. (Besides, anyone whose phone number is 1-888-SACKBUT has my admiration...)
• The Early Music Shop has been around since 1968, and has an enormous selection of all kinds of instruments suitable for early music. One of our dreams is to go to England to visit their recorder showrooms. (As Dave Barry would say, we are not making that up.) They also have an online database of CDs of music played on the recorder.
• Lazar’s Early Music sells recorders, gemshorns, and assorted used instruments. We’ve done business with them, and they’ve saved our bacon on a couple of occasions. The shop’s web site not only displays an inventory that would make you drool, but also has an extensive set of links to web sites with information on early music.
• The Boulder Early Music Shop has been around for quite some time. They offer a large variety of instruments, instrument kits, and music. Though we have not done business with them, a very good, trusted friend who is considerably more knowledgeable and experienced in early music than we are recommends it.
• Dolmetsch Online is a good source for instruments, music, and even online introductory recorder lessons. If the name Dolmetsch doesn’t ring a bell now, it will if you proceed much further into the history of the early music revival of the twentieth century, because Arnold Dolmetsch was a major figure in that revival. His descendants continue to contribute to the field.
• The Recorder Home Page has links to a vast amount of information on the recorder. Quite respectable inexpensive plastic soprano recorders and instructional material are nearly universally available, so that if you don’t already play an instrument, it is an ideal starting point.
• Magnatune is one of many recording labels that feature fine early music performers. Magnatune’s enlightened policies and business model distinguish it from others and make it worth your investigation and support.

Performers

There are a lot of groups that perform early music. The Early Music FAQ includes an extensive list of performing groups. At Renaissance fairs one can often find many local high school and college choruses and instrumental groups performing early music; check with your local educational institutions for groups near you.

The following are some groups and individuals we know of that perform early music at Renaissance fairs.

• Owain Phyfe and the New World Renaissance Band did what some Renaissance fair performers say can’t be done. They performed songs of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, often not in English, and yet had, and still have, an enthusiastic fan base, and played to audiences that filled the available seating. (We’d say “packed houses” but it’s not clear what that means outdoors.) They recorded on the Nightwatch label. The Owain Phyfe Appreciative Listeners Society also has a lot of information for fans, including tour dates. (UPDATE, 9-6-12: it is with great sorrow that we change the verb tenses here; Owain Phyfe lost his battle with pancreatic cancer yesterday. See the news page for more information.)
  
• Madrigalia Bar Nonne sing madrigals and other songs from the sixteenth century and earlier, and do a fine job of it. We’ve seen them several years at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival, and both performers and audience clearly have a good time.
• Musica Antiqua, based at Iowa State University, plays early music on replicas of instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and its programs of early music, song, and dance are enjoyed across Iowa and the Midwest.
• An istanpitta (or estampie, or even stantipes) is a medieval dance, or the musical form of the music that presumably accompanied the dance. Istanpitta is an instrumental ensemble that plays music from the tenth to fourteenth centuries. They've performed at a wide variety of venues, from Renaissance fairs to more formal venues, and play with great verve, enthusiasm, and musicianship.
• Orckes & Trolles performs some music from the Middle Ages and Renaissance and some later music. They describe themselves as an “alternative madrigal” group, and have been performing at Renaissance fairs in the Midwest for over a decade.

The following are some early music groups that don’t, as far as we know, perform at Renaissance fairs, but whom we’d be remiss not to mention. If you’ve not heard their work, you owe it to yourself to give them a listen. (We’re unlikely to ever be very thorough here, especially because of the growing numbers of ensembles that specialize in early music. We refer you once again to the Early Music FAQ and its far more complete list of performing groups, and to the many ensembles and individual performers reviewed, written about, and advertising in Early Music America.)

• The Waverly Consort is a world-famous early music consort, founded in 1964. Foolscap here—I’ve been lucky enough to have seen them live twice: around the time of the Columbus quincentennial, and for their millenium tour. If you have any chance whatsoever to hear the Waverly Consort perform, take it.
• The Boston Camerata is also an early music consort of long standing and wide renown. They not only perform music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, but also music from the early days of the Americas, and recorded a fascinating and beautiful collaboration with Todd Wachover, Angels. (Foolscap again—a personal favorite is the charming “Tura lura lura, lo gau canto” from their album A Renaissance Christmas. Also, Joel Cohen, the Camerata’s director, wrote a delightful overview of the history of the early music movement, Reprise: the Extraordinary Revival of Early Music. The book is, alas, out of print, but it is worth your while to track it down at your local library, via interlibrary loan, or via one of the many convenient online facilities for finding used books.)

RESCU Foundation

There’s more than one way to support Renaissance fair performers you like. Performing at Renaissance fairs is not a path to riches; it’s a labor of love, and those who do it aren’t necessarily able to afford insurance. The RESCU Foundation, to quote their mission statement, “is a non-profit organization established to promote and maintain the health and medical well-being of the participants of Renaissance Faires, historical performances and other artistic events through financial assistance, advocacy, education and preventative programs.” Please visit their web site, read about how you can help, and consider doing so.

Other Musical Information

• In passing we mentioned the matter of “temperament,” or how one chooses pitches for the notes of the scale. Alternate Temperaments: Theory and Philosophy is the clearest explanation of the subject we’ve found.
• If you are interested in shape note singing, fasola.org is an excellent place to start.
• Cantaria has lyrics and .mp3 and .wav files for well over two hundred songs. The songs include traditional English, Scottish, and Irish songs, and a small but growing number of songs from before 1600.

Online Music

As people have more and more available bandwidth, the net has become a source of music. In addition to simply downloading music files containing sound data, there are two popular ways of grabbing multimedia content online:

• streaming, in which your computer grabs the content and decodes it for your listening or viewing pleasure as pieces of it arrive, discarding the data after it’s been decoded and played. Often streaming audio is set up like traditional broadcasting pre-VCR or TiVo, so that either you’re there at the listed time and place to hear it or you don’t hear it.
• podcasting, in which your computer downloads the content and saves it for your later enjoyment on the computer or on a portable media player that in turn retrieves the content from your computer.

As others have pointed out, the net is an ideal medium for “narrowcasting”. (At least, it is now; see this discussion of “net neutrality”.) A net broadcaster doesn’t need a mass audience, and thus can cater to the interests of possibly small groups—and despite the increase in popularity of early music, compared with rock, hip-hop, country, et al. we’re still a small group. (See Chris Anderson’s book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More and the associated blog.)

There are now several audio streams and podcasts that feature early music and/or what we will call “Renaissance fair music” for purposes of categorization (but see our manifesto):

• The Renaissance Festival Podcast is a weekly podcast specializing in Renaissance fair music, cohosted by Kristen Roger and the irrepressible autoharpist, marketing maven, and Brobdingnagian Bard Marc Gunn.
• Magnatune has both streaming audio and podcasts for the various genres of music its artists perform, including a podcast specializing in lute music as well as music of the Renaissance and Middle Ages..
  

Renaissance Fair Information

The following are some sites that have gathered information about fairs and festivals that are inspired by the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

• atthefaire.com features information on Renaissance fairs in the Midwest and performers, and photos taken at such fairs.
• The Directorie of Renaissance Faires lists not only fairs (and gives an impressive amount of information on them), but also Renaissance fair performers. The site is also a pleasure to behold.

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