Historic Brass Society

This organization is responsible for the much-acclaimed Historic Brass Society Journal, in which cutting-edge scholarly research in the area of early brass music and instruments is published.

Their website is a nice resource as well, containing the blogs of HBS members.

Check it out here.

Early Music Chicago: Brass

This is another terrific online resource for early brass.  Visitors can find information about the instruments themselves, as well as links to ensembles, recordings, and more.

Visit the site here.

Maryland Early Brass

Located at http://www.earlybrass.org, this group is based in the Baltimore area but is active throughout the mid-Atlantic United States.  They seem dedicated to performance on authentic instruments, and their website has many links to useful early brass resources that would be relevant to our class discussions.

The Dodworth Saxhorn Band

On one of my first posts, a comment was left suggesting that I check out this ensemble... I'm glad I did!

Going one step further than providing historically-informed performance, The Dodworth Saxhorn Band is a full reenactment of one of the first all-brass American band.  As their performance includes costume and actual antique instruments (from c. 1860-80), we might say that this period brass ensemble has found a way to incorporate entertainment into an otherwise highly intellectual genre.

Their website can be found here.

His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts

This is an ensemble which I've posted about before, and I played some of their music during my listening presentation.

This is a video I found in which they perform part of a sonata by Dario Castello (c. 1590-1630) in the church where Thomas Tallis was buried.

Academy of Ancient Music

This ensemble, founded and conducted by the aforementioned Christopher Hogwood in 1973, has since become one of the most prestigious and well-regarded early music ensembles.  Their massive discography can be found on their website, although not all of the recordings are available in the United States.

As a group, their mission seems simple: to play early music at as high a level as possible, and while being as historically informed as possible.  It seems that they need not do much in the way of "show" in order to maintain their audience, since the clientele they play to know what they're after in a concert.

So it would seem that in the continuum of Artistry vs. Showmanship, they lean far toward Artistry, without any gimmicks or pranks onstage.  But with a target audience as informed and learned as the group undoubtedly draws, this seems less necessary than if they were trying to appeal to a wider range of listeners.

Their website can be found at http://www.aam.co.uk.

Christopher Hogwood

Christopher Hogwood is possibly the most famous early music conductor and keyboard player of our time.  His discography, while it branches out into the Classical era, covers an amazingly wide range of composers.  He founded the world-renowned early music ensemble The Academy of Ancient Music, and has played with numerous other ensembles of equal fame.

His website gives more detailed information, as well as a full discography, which is quite an impressive list.  Perhaps it is possible to make a career in Early Music!