Renaissance Workshop Company
The Renaissance Workshop Company (RWC) is an incorporated and registered company in UK, manufacturer of a wide range of instruments for historical performance of the early music, specializing in the faithful reproduction of medieval, renaissance and baroque musical instruments, all based on existing originals or relevant iconography, handmade in their own workshops. The RWC has saved many rare and some relatively unknown instruments from extinction.
The Renaissance Workshop Company is, from the beginning until now, one of the main figures in popularizing the use of faithful replicas of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque instruments for historical performance what is known as the Early music revival.
History[edit]
The Renaissance Workshop Company was founded in 1968 as part of J Wood & Sons Ltd., operating in Bradford (UK) with the trading names of 'Woods Music Shop' and later on 'The Early Music Shop'.
It was established as an independent company in 1999 under the management of Jonathan Askey.
The old history: XIX century[edit]
In 1850 Joe Wood gave his name to the firm 'J Wood Music'. In 1877, the business expanded and moved to Bradford, where after several vicissitudes, it became in 1903 the Limited Company ‘J Wood & Sons Ltd'. [1]
The 1960’s[edit]
The Revival of the Early Music Movement[edit]
Interest in early music and historical instruments increased following David Munrow's success,[2] particularly in the music he produced for the TV series The Six Wives of Henry VIII in 1971.[3] Munrow's score for this series featured authentic music using only historical instruments, thus generating much enthusiasm for early musical instruments and music from the renaissance period across audiences worldwide.[4]
The birth of The Early Music Shop[edit]
Almost 100 years later after the original set up, during the revival of early music, J Wood & Sons Ltd. received an order for some unusual historical instruments. Intrigued, Richard Henry Wood, the founder's great-great-grandson, searched these instruments by attending a music fair in Frankfurt – the Musikmesse – during which he met Otto Steinkopf, a pioneer in the reconstruction of early instruments, at a Moeck stand, and speculatively bought a collection of recorders, crumhorns and string instruments.
As the new stock quickly sold out, J Wood & Sons Ltd. formed a separate department within their business specialising in early music. Munrow himself was a loyal and enthusiastic customer of Woods Music Shop, having fiercely encouraged to start up a separate business specialising in these historical instruments,[5][1].
The demand for renaissance instruments increased, and consequentially J Wood & Sons Ltd. began trading with other businesses in the same field, such as Moeck and Mollenhauer. This was henceforth known as 'The Early Music Shop' in Bradford (EMS).
Three golden decades: 1972-1999[edit]
Jonathan Askey: Soul, heart and life[edit]
By the time when J Wood & Sons Ltd. was searching for historical instruments at Musikmesse, Jonathan Askey was teaching crafts in a local school in Bradford and had already made a number of lutes, viols and other early musical instruments, including one rackett that formed part of David Munrow's collection.
Jonathan Askey joined J Wood & Sons Ltd. in 1972 and quickly became its director. He turned the company the world first producing a vast range of early music instruments and offering third-part products. Under his direction the company grew up and turned it in a Mecca for early music enthusiasts.
A well-appointed workshop was set up manufacturing replicas of medieval and renaissance instruments marketed with the brands “Woods” and "EMS".
He made the instrument kits an identity sign of the catalogue. From the beginning, the company was offering the same high quality instruments both finished and in kit form. The first instruments developed by Jonathan for J Wood & Sons Ltd. were the Renaissance windcaps, hurdy gurdies and lutes. Thanks to the collaboration of John Barnes, he also developed several keyboard kits, particularly a bentside spinet that builds up into a first class instrument. The possibility to get a professional instrument for a part of the cost was a key factor that boosted the success of the Early Music Revival all over the world in the next decades.
Since 1973, J Wood & Sons Ltd. has hosted an international exhibition of early music in London for all makers and publishers involved in early music in order to generate publicity, which includes various concerts and instrumental performance competitions, and is attended by approximately 100 exhibitors from the UK and overseas.[1] The exhibition features a vast display of early musical instruments, music publishers and societies[6], and is said to reflect "the constantly growing interest in performing early music".[5] First hosted at the Royal College of Music, the event moved several times and now takes place at Blackheath Halls, London's oldest surviving purpose-built cultural venue.[6]
The manufacturing premises moved to Manningham Lane in Bradford in 1987 together and as part of Woods Music Shop (The Early Music Shop), where they continued to produce historical instruments and kits.[1]
New name for the Workshops[edit]
In 1999, Richard Wood sold the company split in two. The entire workshops with all the machinery, designs, copyrights, materials, documents, and manufacturing facilities, that is, the core and main part of the company was bought by their director Jonathan Askey, who continued operating them in the same premises and with the same staff, only changing the name to Renaissance Workshop Company. The showroom was sold to 'G. A. Williams of Darlington and Newcastle' that continued trading in third-part instruments as The Early Music Shop.
Move to Toledo (Spain)[edit]
In 2004, the Renaissance Workshop Company moved their production premises to Toledo (Spain) from its location in Bradford, but still keeping its headquarters in the UK and most of the original sales agents and dealers around the world.
50th Anniversary[edit]
The Renaissance Workshop Company has celebrated in 2018 its 50th anniversary since a dedicated business dealing with early music instruments was established in Bradford.
In 2022 will celebrate half a century manufacturing uninterruptedly the same range of instruments both finished and in kit form.
Production[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Smith, Adrian (2000). Music Making in the West Riding of Yorkshire. R. H. Wood Publishing. pp. 122–123. ISBN 9780953988501. Search this book on
- ↑ Hewett, Ivan (2012-05-23). "David Munrow: Tragic genius who brought early music to the masses". ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
- ↑ "David Munrow (1942–1976) – A discography". www.medieval.org. Retrieved 2018-10-14.
- ↑ "David Munrow – Henry VIII & his Six Wives". www.classicstoday.com. Retrieved 2018-10-14.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Crel, James (Autumn 2011). "In the meantime...". Early Music Today: 12–13.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Horsewood, Adrian (October 2018). "Exhibition of Early Music returns to Blackheath". Classical Music Magazine, Rhinegold Publishing Ltd.: 61.
External links[edit]
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