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Company type | Privately-owned company |
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Industry | Music |
Founded | 1968United Kingdom | in the
Founder | Richard Wood |
Headquarters | , United Kingdom |
Owners |
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The Early Music Shop is an early music store specialising in the sale and distribution of reproduction medieval musical instruments, with two showrooms situated in Saltaire and Snape Maltings, United Kingdom. It was founded by Richard Wood in 1968 [1] and has become the largest supplier of early musical instruments worldwide. [2]
The Early Music Shop is the trading name of J Wood & Sons Ltd., a family firm that was incorporated in 1850 by Joseph Wood, with its original business name 'J Wood Music'. In 1877, the business expanded and moved to Bradford, where it became J Wood & Sons Ltd. Almost 100 years later during the revival of early music, J Wood & Sons Ltd. received some unusual historical instruments as part of an education order. Intrigued, Richard Wood, the founder's great-great-grandson, researched these instruments by attending a music fair in Frankfurt – the Musikmesse Frankfurt – during which he met Otto Steinkopf, a pioneer in the reconstruction of early instruments, at a Moeck stand, and speculatively bought a collection of recorders, crumhorns and string instruments. Local enthusiasts immediately took to the new stock, which quickly sold out, and subsequently J Wood & Sons Ltd. formed a separate department within their business specialising in early music. This was henceforth known as 'The Early Music Shop', and is now considered to be the "centre of the early music universe". [3]
Interest in early music and historical instruments increased following David Munrow's success, [4] particularly in the music he produced for the TV series The Six Wives of Henry VIII in 1971. [5] Munrow's score for this series featured authentic music using only historical instruments, thus generating much enthusiasm for early musical instruments and music from the renaissance period across audiences worldwide. [6] Munrow himself was a loyal and enthusiastic customer of J Wood & Sons Ltd., having fiercely encouraged Richard Wood to start up a business specialising in these historical instruments, [7] and even helped devise the name of "The Early Music Shop". [3]
Consequentially, demand for renaissance instruments increased, and so The Early Music Shop began trading with other businesses in the same field, such as Moeck and Mollenhauer, and began holding an exhibition in London for all makers and publishers involved in early music in order to generate publicity. As a result, the business continued to grow, and moved to Manningham Lane in Bradford in 1987 as part of Woods Music Shop, where it continued to produce historical instruments and kits in its workshops until 1999. [3]
In 2007, following its acquisition by Music Sales, the headquarters for The Early Music Shop moved premises from Woods Music Shop in Bradford, and the main showroom is now situated in the renowned Salts Mill, in the centre of Saltaire, a village in West Yorkshire. Saltaire has World Heritage Site status, [8] thus the new location for The Early Music Shop has benefited from the many visitors drawn to the Victorian model village. [9]
Salts Mill has been used to host many Early Music Concerts since the business' move to Saltaire, such as a concert and workshop led by renowned early musicians Rachel Podger and Pamela Thorby, [8] performances by Leeds Baroque Choir & Orchestra, [10] and on regular occasions concerts led by Red Priest, [8] [11] a British Baroque instrumental band.
After the move, the firm began offering regular tuition in its main showroom, and hosts regular recorder, viol, harp and lute lessons for students of all standards. It also includes an agency for second-hand instruments, and a repair workshop. The new showroom for The Early Music Shop has been described as "an Aladdin's Cave of affordable early music instruments", [12] and the business serves as the exclusive UK distributor for Moeck recorders, and a UK agent for: Küng recorders, Mollenhauer recorders, Bizzi harpsichords, Lu Mi viols, Camac harps and many others. [2] Demand for historical instruments has kept increasing since the move to the new premises [9] and the business in general has been referred to as 'a treasured national institution'. [13]
A second showroom was located in Denmark Street, long-established as London's "Tin Pan Alley". [14] [15]
Both branches of The Early Music Shop frequently attend a variety of Early Music courses and Festivals, involving pop-up stands and workshops, across the United Kingdom. [9] In recent years, the business has also supplied musical instruments and props for a variety of TV and film projects, including Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , Alexander , Kingdom of Heaven and many others. [16]
After 10 years of ownership by Music Sales, The Early Music Shop was acquired in August 2018 by Chris Butler, a career music industry executive and long-term supporter of the business. The acquisition coincided with the launch of a new website and a commitment from the new owner to consolidate The Early Music Shop's position as the largest source of historical instruments worldwide. [1]
Since 1973, The Early Music Shop has hosted an international festival of early music in London, which includes various concerts, instrumental performance competitions and an exhibition. It is attended by approximately 100 exhibitors from the UK and overseas. [3]
The exhibition features a vast display of early musical instruments, music publishers and societies, [17] and is said to reflect "the constantly growing interest in performing early music". [7]
First hosted at the Royal College of Music, the event moved to the Royal Horticultural Halls, before moving back to the Royal College of Music, where it became an annual event. In 2002 the festival moved to Greenwich, but now takes place at Blackheath Halls, London's oldest surviving purpose-built cultural venue. [17]
The recorder is a family of woodwind musical instruments in the group known as internal duct flutes: flutes with a whistle mouthpiece, also known as fipple flutes, although this is an archaic term. A recorder can be distinguished from other duct flutes by the presence of a thumb-hole for the upper hand and seven finger-holes: three for the upper hand and four for the lower. It is the most prominent duct flute in the western classical tradition.
Saltaire is a Victorian model village near Shipley, West Yorkshire, England, situated between the River Aire, the railway, and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Salt's Mill and the houses were built by Titus Salt between 1851 and 1871 to allow his workers to live in better conditions than the slums of Bradford. The mill ceased production in 1986, and was converted into a multifunctional location with an art gallery, restaurants, and the headquarters of a technology company. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and on the European Route of Industrial Heritage.
Shipley is a historic market town and civil parish in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.
Historically informed performance is an approach to the performance of classical music which aims to be faithful to the approach, manner and style of the musical era in which a work was originally conceived.
David John Munrow was a British musician and early music historian.
The City Waites is a British early music ensemble. Formed in the early 1970s, they specialise in English music of the 16th and 17th centuries from the street, tavern, theatre and countryside — the music of ordinary people. They endeavour to appeal to a wide general audience as well as to scholars. They have toured the UK, much of Europe, the Middle East, the Far East and the USA, performing everywhere from major concert halls and universities to village squares. Collaborations include the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare's Globe. They can be heard on several movie and TV soundtracks; they broadcast frequently and have made more than 30 CDs.
The Royal Academy of Music Museum is a museum of musical instruments and artefacts and a research centre of the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Anthems in Eden is a 1969 album by Shirley and Dolly Collins, with the Early Music Consort of London, directed by David Munrow. The album originally consisted of a 28-minute set of folk songs plus seven other individual pieces performed by the same group. The musical arrangements for these eight pieces included early music instruments, such as viols, recorders, sackbuts and crumhorns. In 1976, six new songs were recorded with a different assortment of accompanists, to replace the original seven individual songs. This 1976 album consisting of the 28-minute set plus the six new songs was released by Harvest Records under the title Amaranth. Subsequent releases have combined all fourteen pieces under the original title, Anthems in Eden.
An early music revival is a renewed interest in music from ancient history or prehistory. The general discussion of how to perform music from ancient or earlier times did not become an important subject of interest until the 19th century, when Europeans began looking to ancient culture generally, and musicians began to discover the musical riches from earlier centuries. The idea of performing early music more "authentically", with a sense of incorporating historically informed performance, was more completely established in the 20th century, creating a modern early music revival that continues today.
Nigel North is an English lutenist, musicologist, and pedagogue.
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 David Munrow and produced many highly influential recordings. The group disbanded in 1976 following Munrow's suicide.
Moeck Musikinstrumente + Verlag is a leading German manufacturer of recorders and a music publisher.
Roberts Park is a 14 acres (5.7 ha) public urban park in Saltaire, West Yorkshire, England. Higher Coach Road, Baildon, is to the north and the park is bounded to the south by the River Aire. A pedestrian footbridge crosses the Aire and links the park to the village of Saltaire. The park is an integral part of the Saltaire World Heritage site.
The garklein recorder in C, also known as the sopranissimo recorder or piccolo recorder, is the smallest size of the recorder family. Its range is C6–A7 (C8). The name garklein is German for "quite small", and is also sometimes used to describe the sopranino in G. Although some modern German makers use the single-word form Garkleinflötlein, this is without historical precedent. Double holes for the two lowest notes (used on the larger recorders to achieve a fully chromatic scale) are uncommon. The instrument is usually notated in the treble clef two octaves lower than its actual sound. The garklein recorder is only about 16 to 18 cm long and is different from larger recorders in that it is usually made in one piece due to its size.
The tenor recorder is a member of the recorder family. It has the same form as a soprano recorder and an alto recorder, but it produces a lower sound than either; a still lower sound is produced by the bass recorder and great bass recorder.
The voice flute (also the Italian flauto di voce and the French flûte de voix are found in English-language sources) is a recorder with the lowest note of D4, and is therefore intermediate in size between the alto and tenor recorders.
Friedrich Freiherr von Hoyningen, genannt Huene, known professionally as Friedrich Alexander von Huene, was an American recorder maker.
Peter Harlan was a German multi-instrumentalist and musical instrument maker. In the 1920s he was an employee of the Munich magazine Der Gitarrenfreund.
The London International Festival of Early Music (LIFEM) is an English music festival which is devoted mainly to Baroque and Renaissance music. It takes place each November in Blackheath, London, at Blackheath Halls.
The Rottenburgh family was a Belgian family of instrument makers and musicians who created a highly regarded collection of instruments in Brussels in the 18th century. The Rottenburgh family was the leading provider of wind instruments to the Belgian market in the 1700s, supplying the Royal Palace of Brussels and all of the city's cathedrals. They also made string instruments for these institutions.