An Introduction to Early Music

1992 • Naxos

I'm becoming more and more fascinated by classical music every day, and compilations like this one are great listens for anyone wanting to know more about some of the earliest music ever written. Ancient and medieval music is one of those styles that seems to be overlooked sadly too often; as this album shows, there is quite a bit of really interesting stuff from that period.

An Introduction to Early Music showcases several different styles, from Gregorian chants to instrumental ensemble pieces with surprisingly diverse arrangements (remember, this is coming from someone not very familiar with medieval music)—there's some lute, some organ, some drums and flutes and guitar... the list goes on. To me, it's really neat to see where a lot of later classical music comes from (even styles like modern minimalism). For instance, the Gregorian chants, while definitely ancient-sounding, still aren't too far off from a lot of recent choral music; it's also easy to see how baroque music developed from the medieval period.

But compared to later classical, the music is a bit less interesting (at least to me); a lot of it reminds me a bit too much of cheesy Renaissance festivals and the bad clichés of medieval times... I guess we have those clichés for a reason, though. Regardless, the players are all quite talented and perform well, and many of the pieces are quite interesting to listen to in their own right.

If nothing else, albums like this are certainly a good lesson for anyone remotely interested in music history. Unfortunately it's very difficult to say anything critical about this kind of music and give a rating simply because it's so old and being presented for historical reasons (especially since I'm very much an amateur when it comes to both this style of music and reviewing in general). But while this may not be the best album for casual listening, it still has many high points and is worth looking into.

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