Musica Reservata was an

early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750) or Ancient music (before 500 AD). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad Dates of classical ...

group founded in London in the late 1950s by two Irish musicians and early music scholars Michael Morrow and John Beckett.

Beginnings

Michael Morrow and John Beckett left

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

for London in late 1953 and settled in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

. Morrow, who originally was interested in art, had become interested in

and had learned to play the

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...

. In his spare time, he began to transcribe old music from a variety of sources found in libraries and museums in London. Over the years he became a formidable musicologist and scholar. As he had become rather dissatisfied by the performances of early music on gramophone records and the

BBC Third Programme The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces ...

, he turned his attention to European and non-European folk and art music, in which he believed medieval traditions had been preserved. He was also aware that many of the instruments used in

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

music had been brought to Europe from the east, as a result of the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

, trade through

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

and the

Moorish The term Moor is an exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a single, distinct or self-defi ...

occupation of Spain. He also believed that voice production had been eastern and folksy; in European religious paintings, angels were frequently depicted singing with tightened throats and mouths barely open. He therefore felt that much of the music of the medieval and early Renaissance periods should be performed in a more brash manner than what we are used to in modern times, though he was aware that any attempt to perform this music in a definitive 'authentic' manner was next to impossible. Morrow decided to call his group Musica Reservata because he considered it to be unlikely that any performance of early music could be a true reproduction of the original sounds. According to Morrow, the name summed up the problems encountered when performing early music. The group evolved during the 1950s; at first Morrow, Beckett and the recorder player John Sothcott performed privately, sometimes with the counter-tenor Grayston Burgess. One of the first concerts was a performance for The Fellowship of the White Boar, later renamed The Richard III Society.

First public concert

The first proper public concert took place in

Fenton House Fenton House is a 17th-century merchant's house in Hampstead in North London which belongs to the National Trust, bequeathed to them in 1952 by Lady Binning, its last owner and resident. It is a detached house with a walled garden, which is ...

, Hampstead, on 30 January 1960. A programme of medieval music was performed by Grayston Burgess (counter-tenor), Eric Halfpenny (early cross flute),

John Sothcott John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Ep ...

(recorder), June Baines (tenor viol), John Beckett (tenor viol and regal), Francis Baines (hurdy-gurdy and bagpipes), Michael Morrow (lute) and Jeremy Montagu (percussion). The music consisted of pieces by

Dufay Guillaume Du Fay ( , ; also Dufay, Du Fayt; 5 August 1397 – 27 November 1474) was a composer and music theorist of early Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered the leading European composer of h ...

Binchois Gilles de Bins dit Binchois (also Binchoys; – 20 September 1460) was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of early Renaissance music. A central figure of the Burgundian School, Binchois is renowned a melodist and miniaturist; he generally av ...

Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north. Dunstable is the fou ...

, Ockeghem, Landini and de Lantins.

Other concerts

More small-scale concerts followed; the next important one was a programme of medieval, Renaissance (and contemporary) music given in the

Wigmore Hall The Wigmore Hall is a concert hall at 36 Wigmore Street, in west London. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and opened in 1901 as the Bechstein Hall; it is considered to have particularly good building acoustics, acoustics. It specialis ...

, London on 26 June 1963. This was the first concert in which the

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano (, ), or mezzo ( ), is a type of classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A bel ...

Jantina Noorman performed. Her unique voice added a very distinctive flavour to the overall sound of the group. Early music performer

David Munrow David John Munrow (12 August 194215 May 1976) was a British musician and early music historian. Early life and education Munrow was born in Birmingham where both his parents taught at the University of Birmingham. His mother, Hilda Ivy (né ...

may have played the

crumhorn The crumhorn is a double reed , double reed instrument of the woodwind family, most commonly used during the Renaissance music, Renaissance period. In modern times, particularly since the 1960s, there has been a revival of interest in early mu ...

for the first time with Musica Reservata at a concert held at

Balliol College Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and ar ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

on 28 November 1965. He later left the group and founded the

Early Music Consort of London The Early Music Consort of London was a British music ensemble in the late 1960s and 1970s which specialised in historically informed performance of Medieval and Renaissance music. It was founded in 1967 by music academics Christopher Hogwood and ...

. The group became known after a 'début' concert, given in the

Queen Elizabeth Hall The Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH) is a music venue on the South Bank in London, England, that hosts European classical music, classical, jazz, and avant-garde music, talks and dance performances. It was opened in 1967, with a concert conducted by ...

on the

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial area on the south bank of the River Thames, in the London Borough of Lambeth, central London, England. The South Bank is not formally defined, but is generally understood to be situated betwe ...

in London, on 2 July 1967. Six solo singers and twenty-four musicians, conducted by John Beckett, performed music of the Italian Renaissance in the first half, and music of the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century France and early sixteenth-century Spain in the second. From this point onwards, the group was regularly engaged for concerts, LPs were recorded and radio programmes were made for the

/ Radio 3. As well as performing in England, the group also played in Ireland, France, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, Germany,

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, and later, when John Beckett left the group and

Andrew Parrott Andrew Parrott (born 10 March 1947) is a British conductor, perhaps best known for his pioneering "historically informed performances" of pre-classical music. He conducts a wide range of repertoire, including contemporary music. He conducted th ...

took over, in the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Discography (arranged in approximate chronological order)

* 1966: ''Music of the Early Renaissance: John Dunstable and his Contemporaries'', Purcell Consort of Voices and Musica Reservata, conducted by Grayston Burgess; Vox Turnabout. * 1968: ''To Entertain a King: Music for Henry VIII and his Court'' (also ''Music to Entertain a King'' and ''Music to Entertain Henry VIII''), Purcell Consort of Voices and Musica Reservata, cond. Grayston Burgess; Argo. * 1968: ''French Court Music of the Thirteenth Century'', Musica Reservata, cond. John Beckett; Delysé, Everest, L’Oiseau-Lyre, Musical Heritage Society. * 1968: ''Music from the time of Christopher Columbus'', Musica Reservata, cond. John Beckett; Philips. * 1968: ''Metaphysical Tobacco: Songs and Dances by Dowland, East and Holborne'', Musica Reservata, cond. John Beckett; Argo. * 1968: ''Music from the 100 Years War'', Musica Reservata, cond. John Beckett; Philips. * 1970: ''Music from the time of Boccaccio’s Decameron'', Musica Reservata, cond. John Beckett; Philips. * 1970: ''Music from the Court of Burgundy'', Musica Reservata, cond. John Beckett; Philips. * 1971: ''A Florentine Festival'', Musica Reservata, cond. John Beckett; Argo; Decca Serenata (1985); reissued in double-CD collection ''Early Music Festival'', Decca (1998). * 1972: ''Sixteenth Century Italian Dance Music'', Musica Reservata, cond. John Beckett; Philips. * 1972: ''Sixteenth Century French Dance Music'', Musica Reservata, cond. John Beckett; Philips. * 1970, 1979 (?): ''Musik der Renaissance'', various artists including tracks from ''Music of the Early Renaissance: John Dunstable and his contemporaries'', Purcell Consort of Voices and Musica Reservata, conducted by Grayston Burgess (1966); Vox (double LP, Germany). * 1972: ''The Instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance'', Musica Reservata, cond. John Beckett; Vanguard; Vanguard Classics (Omega) (CD, United States). * 1973, 1987: ''Muziek voor kerk en kroeg... / Musik für Kirche und Keipe / Musique d’église et de taverne...'', Musica Reservata, cond. John Beckett. Compilation of tracks from various Philips discs: ''Music from the time of Christopher Columbus'', ''Music from the 100 Years War'', ''Music from the time of Boccaccio’s Decameron'' and ''Music from the Court of Burgundy''; Philips. * 1976: ''Josquin des Prés'', Musica Reservata, cond. Andrew Parrott; Argo. * 1978: ''A Concert of Early Music'', Musica Reservata, cond. John Beckett; Vanguard Classics; Vanguard (Omega) Classics (CD, 1998). * c. 1980: ''Lieder und Tänze aus dem 13.–16. Jahrhundert'', boxed set of five Philips LPs: ''Musik aus der Zeit Christoph Columbus, Musik aus dem Hundertjährigen Krieg, Musik aus der Zeit von Boccaccios Decamerone, Musik am Hofe von Burgund, Italienische Tanzmusik des 16. Jahrhunderts''; Philips (Germany). UK edition named ''The Sounde of Musicke: Songs and Dances from the 13th to the 16th Centuries''. * 1992: ''Music from the time of Christopher Columbus'', re-issue of 1968 recording; Philips CD. * 1994: ''Sixteenth Century Italian and French Dance Music'', Musica Reservata conducted by John Beckett. Compilation of tracks from ''Sixteenth Century Italian Dance Music'' (1971) and ''Sixteenth Century French Dance Music'' (1972); Boston Skyline CD (United States). * 1998: ''Early Music Festival / Ein Fest mit Alter Musik / Festival de Musique ancienne'', double CD compilation of 1. ''Ecco la primavera – Florentine Music of the 14th century'', The Early Music Consort of London, directed by David Munrow, Argo and 2. ''A Florentine Festival, Musica Reservata'', conducted by John Beckett; Argo; Decca London.''John S. Beckett'', Appendix B, ''Discography'', pp. 458-62; Medieval.org websit

/ref>

References

External links

* {{authority control Early music groups Historically informed performance British folk music groups Medieval musical groups