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The perfect pitch
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Chris Butler and Ann Barkway opened the Early Music Shop at Snape Maltings amidst the chaos of 2020. Now the doors are well and truly open, musicians, music lovers and enthusiasts of these ancient and traditional instruments are beginning to take note.
Early music is generally defined as being pre-1800, and includes the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, and signals the start of the classical music movement across Europe. The names of the instruments themselves have a wonderful lyricism - crumhorn, viol, serpent, shawm, hurdy-gurdy – and they trip off the tongue with a musicality befitting their purpose. The shop has an astonishing display of these rare instruments which are hand-crafted by some of the finest makers in the world. They are uniquely beautiful: the curve of the lute, the huge scale of the 6ft sub contrabass recorder, the exquisitely delicate inlaid work on the clavichord and the wonder of the snaking black leather serpent.
Early music had a massive revival in the late sixties led by David Munrow, a prominent musician who travelled
the world rediscovering these ancient instruments and commissioning reconstructions. His work made a huge impact on the music world, and such was the demand for these historical instruments that in 1968, J Wood & Sons Ltd opened the Early Music Shop in Bradford. In 2007 they moved the shop to Saltaire, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in West Yorkshire, and Chris bought the business in 2018. “The shop is located within Salts Mill, a former textile mill that has been redeveloped and is now home to a mix of art galleries, cafes, restaurants and a selection of independent shops, so when we decided to open a new Early Music Shop in Suffolk, Snape Maltings was an obvious choice.”
With a background in music publishing, Chris and Ann have been part of the early music community for many years. They also run the London International Festival of Early Music (LIFEM) – one of the largest of its kind in the world – which takes place in Blackheath every November, attracting performers and makers from all around the world and last year saw John Paul Jones, the legendary bass guitarist from Led Zeppelin, open with a newly commissioned work for viol consort. Chris and Ann are excited about future musical collaborations with Snape Maltings, and Piva – an exuberant Renaissance music group – is already booked to play the Dome stage on 29th August. “Our ambition is for early music to become more accessible and to open people’s minds and ears to these wonderful instruments and their rich history.” Well, I for one will pay good money to watch someone play the hurdy-gurdy!
