Period instruments

	Why play with period instruments? Here, professional continuo player Nicholas Houghton explains the difference this makes to our experience of the music, both as performers and as audience.
	Period instruments: recreating authentic performance Baroque period instruments give a much lighter and purer sound than modern instruments. With the movement towards Romantic music over the centuries came the development of instruments which produced bigger and warmer sounds. The differences lie not only in the instruments themselves, but in the method of playing. The violin, for example, has not changed much over the centuries. The greatest violin maker of all time, Antonio Stradivarius, lived in Italy in the early Baroque: when string instruments were strung with gut rather than the more modern metal. Unlike modern playing where notes are often grouped in a single bow, period string players play with very little vibrato and each note is bowed separately.

	The visual difference between modern and period wind instruments (oboes and trumpets) is more marked. Baroque oboes were made of Boxwood (brown rather than the modern black ebony). Much of the metal work which allows modern instruments to achieve a wider range of notes with greater ease is absent. However, it is the trumpets that are most obviously different. The modern trumpet is a shiny, compact instrument with a complex series of valves and tubes. The valve was in fact a development of the 19th century; original trumpets were unvalved and incredibly simple. Stripped of their valves, period trumpet players have to create all their notes using different lip positions and wind pressures.

back to top	All in all, period instruments give a greater clarity of sound and allow the listener to hear much more of the detail in the music. Also the players can hear each other (especially with smaller forces) allowing more sensitivity and creativity during performance. If baroque music doesn't dance - it isn't being played correctly! Such performances should bring new life and freshness to the music you hear.

	Although the interest in period instruments is now well established and has been developing over the last twenty or more years, period bands are still not commonplace outside London. Happily, there are many period players living in and around Lewes who are delighted to work so close to home.
	Nicholas Houghton is a Sussex-based conductor, organist and continuo player. His website is at http://www.nickhoughton.org.uk.

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