A SHORT DIP INTO MEDIEVALISM

In the 1960s and 70s we had the advent of a flood of interest in Medieval and Renaissance music, summed up by the term “early” music. David Munrow was a star in that firmament. All manner of groups were purchasing their sackbutts, shawms, rebecs, rackets, gemshorns, serpents, theorbos, harps, lutes and viols of all sorts. Music colleges were running courses, and there were early music festivals galore. The backbone of this was the musicologists’ ardent work digging out ancient manuscripts. Singers were adopting an “early music style” of vocal production, radically reducing vibrato. String players also learned to cut out vibrato, pop their viols between their legs and turn their bows upside down.

The pop music scene started to join in. Gryphon began as an acoustic group playing medieval tunes before mixing it up as a “medieval rock” band, incorporating instruments like the krumhorn into their rock format. Fashion for early music fans consisted of tunics in William Morris fabrics, long floating sleeves that were impractical for instrumentalists, tights for men, and long pointy shoes, also impractical as a tripping hazard. Overall, there was a look of having just stepped out of a tapestry.

There were lovely discoveries, such as the music of Hildegard von Bingen. Strange and wonderful composers’ names emerged, such as Hayne van Ghizeghem. Gregorian chant became the go-to meditation aid. Groups like The Medieval Ensemble of London and The Landini Consort, and musicians like Christopher Hogwood (later to become a master of the harpsichord, musicologist and conductor) and greatly lauded singers like James Bowman and, especially, Dame Emma Kirkby, were all pioneers of this revival of early music.

Performers began rejecting modern equal temperament, recognising that it did not exist in the Middle Ages. They resorted to Pythagorean tuning (based on pure fifths) for early medieval music, or various forms of meantone temperament for later, Renaissance-influenced repertoire.

It’s not that music makers hadn’t delved into the past for inspiration before the 1960s and 70s. The developing field of musicology in the 19th century was already studying authenticity. Medieval and Renaissance sonic textures and modal scales functioned as primary tools for creating the ethereal tones of Impressionist composers like Debussy, Ravel, Fauré and Satie. In a movement that both preceded and overlapped with La Belle Époque, the design motifs, colour palettes and emotional atmospherics of the Pre-Raphaelite artists were focused on those earlier times.

What was different in the 1960s and 70s revival was the earnest journey into authenticity. Musical instruments were perfect copies of the older ones. The Historical Anthology of Music became one of the key publications for access to early music manuscripts. Expensive though it was to purchase, it seemed important to have HAM on your bookshelf.

The Goliard Consort, an amateur group of which I was a member, was under the direction of Stephen Firth and was based in Bridgwater in the mid to late 1970s. We performed at Bridgwater College, at banquets and churches, and at the Brewhouse Theatre in Taunton. Our extensive “early music” repertoire featured anonymous works such as the 12th-century Orientis Partibus and the 13th-century Worldes Blis, moving on to Dowland’s Flow My Tears and Henry VIII’s Pastyme with Good Company.(Many, many apologies over authenticity, but here is Jethro Tull giving it an airing!!)

Dust initially dabbled with contemporary arrangements of early music. The quality of the sound created by piano accordion drone with bass clarinet and voice was very special, and the autoharp with voice also. However, the Roland FP4’s harpsichord really didn’t cut the mustard, although we very much enjoyed the Earl of Salisbury’s Pavane and other William Byrd “harpsichord” pieces. In recognising our full and very diverse potential as a trio, we have moved on from those interests. I was always a little scared of being thoroughly derided by purists!

Composers in the 1960s and 70s were inspired by some of this early music to create contemporary pieces. For instance, in the avant-garde, Peter Maxwell Davies borrowed the aforementioned Worldes Blis for his Motet for orchestra on a 13th-century English monody,(Although, it can be very hard to actually identify its presence! ). Harrison Birtwistle incorporated frequent references to medieval and Renaissance music. Moving forwards, Arvo Pärt and Steve Reich also refer in their minimalism to early music forms.

For some time now, it has become a special treat to attend candlelit early music concerts in churches and cathedrals, and many ensembles are carrying the torch for this range of music that is beloved by many.

L.H. January 2026