MHMUS 454 — The Early Music Revival

3 credits
Fall
Martin Verdrager

Prerequisite: MHMUS 311. Only in the past 60 years have performers been able to recreate the sound of many historic styles of Western music. In this class, students will find keys to understanding how this detective work got started and was accomplished as they learn about important individuals who uncovered, edited, critiqued, published, performed, promoted, and recorded early music. Reviving music of the distant past was not easy, and the findings, editions, and performances of early workers in this field, when made public, were often met with hostile criticism, arguments about authenticity, and vitriolic journal and newspaper articles. Today, the early music revival has taken on a new and vital phase in the music industry; it has become a field with high potential for economic rewards. Class participants might be asked to compare editions, look at original sources, transcribe parts of a manuscript, play from an early edition, discuss the recreation of early instruments, understand the effect that the early music revival has had on living composers, write reviews of performances, or attend specific concerts.