(herreid) manuscripts from before the 16th century do not indicate the instrumentation.ither didn't care what instruments it was played on, or it was so obvious to the people at the time that it would be appropriate for recorders, say, or for viols, or for a lute ensemble, that this information just doesn't come to us. one of the most important sources of information is iconographical sources, meaning paintings, illuminations, and manuscripts, sculptures from the time, which show actual musicians from the middle ages and renaissance playing music. and by looking at these, we can gain a lot of information about how instruments were being held, what the instruments actually looked like. many of these instruments, especially from earlier periods, don't survive as museum instruments. the intended audience of a given piece of music is crucial to understanding why it was performed and how it was performed. one of the great lute virtuosos of the renaissance was playing lullabies for a four year-old heir to a throne. and that obviously gives you an insight as to what maybe this

(herreid) one of our challenges in doing old music is that all the music that comes down to us survivesinted sources. these manuscripts tell us very little about how the music was actually performed. a piece might have four parts with no words, maybe meant for instruments, but it won't say. the composers either didn't care what instruments it was played on or it was so obvious to the people at the time that it would be appropriate for recorders say or for viols or for a lute ensemble. my father has a dance band. they have music for tenor sax and alto sax, piano, and bass. there's also a drummer in the band, of course, because you don't have a dance band without a drummer, but the drummer doesn't use music. [rowdy dixieland music] so if some musicologists came a hundred years from now without any clue as to what the dance band was about and reconstructed it, he would not put a drummer in it. and that would be ludicrous to us because you don't have a dance band especially the sound of the '30s dance band without a drummer. and so when we find manuscripts, maybe there's crucial parts that