LPM – London Pro Musica

London Pro Musica Edition now has the largest list of Renaissance and Early Baroque music in practical editions that can be found anywhere in the world.

Most of the music in our catalogue is secular music from about 1450-1650. A substantial proportion is purely instrumental music, and works are gener- ally chosen that are suitable for several types of Renaissance instruments — practically all works are suitable for recorders, for instance. Our list is particularly strong in dance music: our Early Dance Music is getting quite close to one of its main aims, that of publishing all the worthwhile Renaissance polyphonic dance music.

One of our most innovative projects is the Ricercate e Passaggi series, which is bringing together most of the material from the late Renaissance books of diminutions (divisions). There is no better way of learning how to improvise divisions in a convincing style than by working through this series.

A recent development is the A due cori series, which focuses on polychoral music (not necessarily Italian) from the late Renaissance. The series will include all the worthwhile instrumental pieces of this type (excluding the Gabrielis, who now have their own series), together with selected vocal pieces. So far more than 60 titles have been printed.

If by some chance you are not familiar with our editions, you will find them generously supplied with necessary background information.

Although some scholarship goes into our editions, they are planned very much from the practical point of view. Particular attention is paid to the layout, so as to avoid the awkward turnovers that make so many editions of early music difficult to use.