About Early Music
The early music movement is a rediscovery of sounds and styles that have become unfamiliar. The instruments are older: the lute, the viola da gamba (or just 'viol' – it rhymes with trial), the recorder, the rebec (an early violin-like bowed instrument), the renaissance guitar (much smaller, and only 5 strings), and of course the bagpipes, which existed all over Europe in many guises, some loud and some very restrained. The long, loud symphony is replaced by smaller, quieter, more intimate forms: the pavan, the fantasia, the motet. And the distance between 'art music' and 'folk music' is much less.
At one time, say the 1970s-1980s, there was much pressure to perform early music on 'authentic' instruments and in 'authentic' style. Today the pressure is much less. Breve Encounters uses a mix of old and new: viols and renaissance guitar mix with modern flute and occasionally with even less traditional instruments, such as the 'wind-synthesiser' (like an electric clarinet or trombone) and the concertina.
Our repertoire comes mostly from around 1550 to 1650, a period when music printing and social conditions had created a musical middle class (like Samuel Pepys) sharing the repertoire of the professionals who worked for the court or for rich nobles. And again, Breve Encounters uses a mix of old and new: songs or courtly love from around 1450 at one end, pieces arranged for us in 2025 at the other end. Just enjoy it. Like us.
A page from the Odhecaton, showing the chanson 'Adieu mes amours' as set by Josquin des Pres, the greatest composer of the early sixteenth century.
A scholarly modern edition of the same piece, as edited by Albert Smijers (from the International Music Score Library Project)