Editing Early music (section)

==Performance practice==
{{Main|Historically informed performance}}
The revival of interest in Early music has given rise to a scholarly approach to the performance of music. Through academic [[Musicology|musicological research]] of music [[treatise]]s, [[urtext edition]]s of musical scores and other historical evidence, performers attempt to be faithful to the performance style of the musical era in which a work was originally conceived. Additionally, there has been a rise in the use of original or reproduction [[period instruments]] as part of the performance of Early music, such as the revival of the [[harpsichord]], [[lute]], or [[viol]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lawson|first1=Colin|last2=Stowell|first2=Robin|title=The Historical Performance of Music : An Introduction|url=https://archive.org/details/historicalperfor00laws_0|url-access=registration|date=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780521627382|page=[https://archive.org/details/historicalperfor00laws_0/page/17 17–18]|edition=5th printing.}}</ref>

The practice of "[[historically informed performance]]" is nevertheless dependent on stylistic inference. Renaissance [[music notation|notation]] is not as prescriptive as modern scoring, and there is much that was left to the performer's interpretation. [[Margaret Bent]] says: "Renaissance notation is under-prescriptive by our standards; when translated into modern form it acquires a prescriptive weight that overspecifies and distorts its original openness. [[Accidental (music)|Accidentals]] … may or may not have been notated, but what modern notation requires would then have been perfectly apparent without notation to a singer versed in [[counterpoint]]".<ref>Margaret Bent, "The Grammar of Early Music: Preconditions for Analysis", p. 25. In ''Tonal Structures in Early Music'', edited by Cristle Collins Judd, 15–59 (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 1998; Criticism and Analysis of Early Music 1), New York: Garland Publishing, 1998. {{ISBN|0-8153-2388-3}}.</ref>