Our categorization of early music involves not only an aesthetic dimension, as it happens in other categories of Cantar Mais (“Singing More”), but also the modes and conventions that characterise a particular era.
So, in this case “early music” is a category that is limited to a certain historical period; however, the songs were neither grouped, nor instrumentally arranged necessarily according to principles of historically informed performance, let alone downright ‘authenticity’.
Basically, these songs come from different Portuguese and Castilian songbooks (‘Cancioneiros’) of the medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, many of which have been revamped and rearranged creatively in brand spanking new, rich guises by contemporary composers and educators, for all students to enjoy them and have fun.