Early Music refers to European music from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods, typically ending around 1750 with the death of Bach. This genre was revived in the 19th century but gained more popularity in the mid-20th century. In Chile, early music groups began forming in the 1950s and have grown in number and quality since then. Some prominent modern Chilean early music ensembles are Syntagma Musicum, Estudio MusicAntigua, and Les Carillons. The author is a member of an early music group called The Broken Consort, which aims to increase awareness of this musical style.

1. Early Music: an Art from the
Past brought into the Present ©
By Moisés Antonio Bittner
Santiago de Chile, 2008

2. When someone is being asked about his/her favourite music, s/he is bound to
mention contemporary music and some singers/interpreters. However, something
unusual happens when talking about music from the past. People do not know any other
way to label it but as ‘Classical Music’, what is more, they can barely come up with two
or three performers. So the term ‘Early Music’, which I would like to highlight, is
something that not many people, especially in Chile, seem to be acquainted with.
When I talk about Early Music, I am referring to European music played during
the Mediaeval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods1
specifically. Although pin-pointing
an exact start date to this musical movement is a tricky task—where knowledge is too
vague to give a precise date—the most common end date used is 1750, with the death of
Johann Sebastian Bach. After that, we start speaking about the Classical and Romantic
periods—which people are more familiar with and—where most of the instruments,
composers or singing techniques from previous periods are forgotten.
Regarding the instruments used to perform Early Music, the most important ones
were: the recorder2
, the baroque flute3
, and the baroque oboe in the woodwind family;
the viola da gamba, the baroque violin and the lute or theorbo in the strings; and the
harpsichord4
or pipe organ in the keyboard family. All these instruments possessed a
1
The Middles Ages correspond to the period in European history, between about 500 AD and 1400 AD, when the power of kings,
people of high rank and the Christian Church was strong.
The Renaissance was the period of new growth of interest and activity in the areas of art, literature and ideas in Europe, especially
northern Italy, during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.
The Baroque related to the heavily decorated style in buildings, art and music that was popular in Europe in the 17th century and
the early part of the 18th century.
2
It is said that this instrument takes its name from the archaic meaning of the verb ‘to record’ i.e. ‘to twitter’/ ‘to chirp’. It has
occasionally been used in popular music, including that of groups such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix.
3
The radical change in the flute in the nineteenth century was much larger and more abrupt than that of the other woodwind
instruments. This was due to the flautist and flute maker Theobold Boehm, who aimed to make the flute louder, its timbre more
homogeneous from note to note, and its tuning more in accord with that of other instruments. Wolfe, Joe, John Smith, John Tann
and Neville H. Fletcher (2001).
4
In modern times, the harpsichord has been used in popular music. Examples include The Rolling Stones’ ‘Yesterday’s Papers’ and
R.E.M.’s ‘Half a World Away’. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, 2008. Harpsichord).

3. subtlety that modern instruments lack. One example is the baroque violin which used to
be smaller, gut-stringed and with a mellow sound, conversely, the modern violin is
bigger and its strings are made of metal, what makes it extremely noisy at times.
Among the musicians that composed for these instruments, there are four
influential music schools; the Italian one led by Claudio Monteverdi (composer of the
first ever opera L’Orfeo, favola in musica, written in 1607), Girolamo Frescobaldi
(organist), Alessandro Scarlatti with his son Domenico (harpsichordists), and Antonio
Vivaldi (baroque violinist; The Fours Seasons, La Tempesta di Mare and Il Gardellino
are some of his most renowned compositions). The German school was dominated by
Johann Sebastian Bach5
(regarded as the Father of Music), Georg-Philipp Telemann
(the most prolific composer of works for the recorder), Johann Joachim Quantz
(Frederick the Great’s flute teacher), and the half-Danish composer Dietrich Buxtehude6
(organist; Jubilate Domino is one of his virtuoso cantatas). The French school was
represented by Jacques-Martin Hotteterre (baroque flautist), Marin Marais7
(viola da
gamba player), F. Couperin & Jean-Philippe Rameau (harpsichordists), and Jean-
Baptiste Lully (creator of the modern orchestra arrangement). Finally, the English
school was one of the most appealing schools, for it bloomed during the reigns of King
Henry VIII and his second daughter Queen Elizabeth I—led by Thomas Tallis, William
Byrd, Thomas Morley (a sequence of mentors and disciples), Henry Purcell (the aria
‘When I am laid in earth’ of his only opera Dido & Aeneas is considered one the most
beautiful ones) and the German composer Georg-Friedrich Händel (composer of The
Messiah8
and Water Music, who later became a British citizen).
5
Bach’s Air on a G String was used as the background music of the song ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ by the British band Procol Harum
in 1967. Other singers have made covers of this song, e.g. Annie Lennox, Joe Cocker, Sara Brightman, Willie Nelson, etc.
6
Bach, at the age of 20, walked more than 320km to attend Buxtehude’s Abendmusiken (evening concerts that took place the days
before Christmas).
7
The film Tous les matins du monde (All the mornings of the world) by Alain Corneau (1991) portrayed his life.
8
An special event in Chile was the first performance of this oratorio in 1895 at the Anglican Institute in Valparaiso. The concert
was organised by J. W. Given.

4. Concerning singing techniques, I must refer to the role that men and women
played in music at that time. The vocal ranges for women were described from the
highest to the lowest as: soprano, mezzo-soprano, and contralto; and for men as: tenor,
baritone, and bass. In some countries, women were forbidden by the Roman Catholic
Church to participate in theatre or music events, so men had to substitute for them. This
is when the singing practices of ‘countertenors’and ‘castrati’ appeared on the music
scene. A countertenor9
is generally a tenor (defined as a sopranist) or baritone who
makes use of ‘falsetto’, a form of singing or speaking by men using an extremely high
voice. A castrato10
, on the other hand, is a man castrated in puberty to keep his high
vocal range undisturbed. This type of voice was in great demand during the renaisance
and baroque periods for its beauty, clarity and strength. Farinelli11
, whose real name
was Carlo Broschi, was one of the most famous Italian soprano castrato singers of the
18th
century. The former singing practice still exists at present, but the latter does not.
The last well-known castrato was Alessandro Moreschi who died in 1922.
The so-called ‘Early Music Revival’ began in the 19th
century with the
performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion (conducted by Felix Mendelssohn), but it
would strengthen in the early twentieth century mainly due to the huge effort made by
Arnold Dolmetsch and his family to recover the practice of playing ‘dated’ instruments.
However, it was in the second half of the 20th
century—from 1950 onwards—that the
Early Music Revival was fully underway. This phenomenon began in London, but soon
spread to other major cultural centres throughout the world.. Among the most
9
Klaus Nomi, was a German countertenor noted for remarkable vocal performances and an unusual, otherworldly, elfin stage
persona. His songs were equally unusual, ranging from synthesizer-laden interpretations of classic opera to covers of 1960s pop
songs. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, 2008. Klaus Nomi).
10
There is also a phenomenon called ‘natural or hormonal castrati’, which refers to men born with hormonal disorders that
reproduce the vocal effects of castration without the surgeon's knife. The Chilean mezzo-soprano and countertenor Patricio Soto is a
very good example.
11
‘It is said that his intonation was uncannily pure, his trill beautiful, his breath control extraordinary and his throat very agile, so
that he performed the widest intervals quickly and with the greatest ease and certainty.’ J.J. Quantz (1726).
In 1994, a film was made about him by Gérard Corbiau, Farinelli, Il castrato.

5. outstanding virtuosi that belonged to this avant-garde movement were: Frans Bruggen
(Dutch recorder-player), the Kuijken brothers (Belgium flautist, violinist, & gambist),
Jordi Savall (Catalan gambist), and Gustav Leonhardt (harpsichordist)12
.
In Chile, this movement started in 1954, when some European immigrants—
mainly English from the north of Chile and German from the south—and some Chilean
enthusiasts—Juana Subercaseaux13
among them—gathered in an instrumental group
(‘Conjunto de Música Antigua’) described by the local media as an ‘uncommon
initiative’ for their use of dated instruments and a forgotten music repertoire. Later on,
the dancer Mirka Stratigopoulou and the soprano Sylvia Soublette joined the group, the
latter assuming the role of chairperson. In 1960, the group became part of the Catholic
University. Since then, many other musicians14
have participated in this or similar
initiatives15
and have helped—as teachers—to create new generations of Early Music
players.
Nowadays, some of the most praised Early Music groups in Chile are: Syntagma
Musicum (USACH), Estudio MusicAntigua and Compañía de Céfiro (PUC), Les
Carillons (UCH), Calenda Maia and In Taberna (UMCE). Something interesting is the
new approach these groups have made to perform the Latin American repertoire16
composed during the Spanish Colonial Period. Some research has been carried out
lately into the historical archives of several churches in Chile where music brought from
Europe and composed here by Jesuit missionaries is kept.
12
‘The Early Music Revival changed the listening habits of classical music audiences by introducing them to a range of music of
which they were largely unaware. Most interest was centred on the mediaeval and renaissance periods, and to a certain extent, the
first part of the baroque period. The focus was not simply on repertoire, but on the ways in which the music is conceived, the
process by which it is learnt, and the manners in which it is performed.’ (Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, 2008. Early Music
Revival).
13
She had just arrived in Chile after studying violin in England.
14
Among the ones I have had the honour to meet are: Octavio Hasbún, Renate Mattich, Guido Minoletti, Oscar Ohlsen, and Víctor
Rondón (precursors of this movement); Gina Allende, Franco Bonino, Camilo Brandi, Sergio Candia, Gonzalo Cuadra, Rodrigo del
Pozo, Claudia Helmbold, Nora Miranda, Verónica Sierralta, Carlos Weil, and Elke Zeiner (the new generation).
15
Mazapán is a female group created in the 80’s that performs music for children making use of early music instruemnts.
16
The first ever opera of the New World La púrpura de la rosa, composed by Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco in 1701 with the text of
Calderón de la Barca is one example.

6. Finally, I should like to point out that the dissemination of this musical genre is
achieving more audiences and influencing more and more people from different parts of
Chile. Personally, I belong to a group called ‘The Broken Consort’17
. It was founded in
Purranque18
in the year 2003 with the idea of making people become aware of how
beautiful and dynamic this marvellous music is compared to Classical music, the
historical instruments used to perform it, and the history of the periods in which this
musical style was in fashion. I have to stress that as an English teacher of Austrian-
German heritage, I have felt specially attracted to this interesting musical genre for it
reflects part of my own family history19
as well as my development in the teaching
profession. To sum up, I just hope that this essay helps as another means of getting
people involved with Early Music.
References
1.- Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2003). Cambridge University Press.
2.- El Blog de la Música Antigua en Chile (2008). Available at:
http://musicantiguaenchile.blogspot.com/
17
A broken consort is a group of instruments from different families, the opposite is a (whole) consort, which refers to members of
the same family, e.g. soprano, alto, tenor and bass recorders. The group is formed by Octavio Tenorio (recorder), Renate Mattich
(viola da gamba), Ana González (virginal)—who joined us last year—and myself (baroque flute).
18
Town located in the 10th Region (Los Lagos), about 50km southwards from Osorno.
19
Some time ago, I discovered on the Internet that there was a baroque lutenist named Jakob (Jacques) Bittner.

7. 3.- McComb, Todd M. (July 1999). What is Early Music? Available at:
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/misc/whatis.htm
4.- Ohlsen Vásquez, Oscar (1993). La Música Barroca, un nuevo enfoque. Ediciones Universidad
Católica de Chile.
5.- Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (1989). Oxford University Press, 4th
Edition.
6.- Rondón, Víctor (Nov. 2004). Resonancias N° 15 (PDF Version). Instituto de Música de la Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Chile.
7.- Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (May 2008). Vocal Range. Availabe at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocal_range
8.- Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (May 2008). Early Music. Availabe at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_music
9.- Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (March 2008). Early Music Revival. Availabe at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_music_revival
10.- Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (June, 2008). Harpsichord. Availabe at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpsichord
10.- Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (June, 2008). Historically Informed Performance. Available at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historically_informed_performance
11.- Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (June 2008). Klaus Nomi. Availabe at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Nomi
12.- Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (June, 2008). Recorder. Availabe at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorder
13.- Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (June, 2008). Whiter Shade of Pale. Availabe at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiter_Shade_of_Pale
14.- Wolfe, Joe, John Smith, John Tann and Neville H. Fletcher (2001). Acoustic Impedance of Classical
and Modern Flutes. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 243, 127-144. p 3. Available at:
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/JSV.pdf