Strings

All baroque members of the violin family use gut strings (or covered gut for the lower strings). The neck is shorter and square to the instrument (rather than leaning back as in the modern instrument). Inside it has a lighter soundpost and bass bar, and on the front, the bridge is slightly flatter. Cellos have no endpin, being held between the legs. The bow is straighter, giving a clearer articulation than the modern in-curved bow established by Tourte. The violin may be held lower on the shoulder, with less grip between chin and shoulder. The left hand uses vibrato sparingly, generally as an ornament, and bow strokes, articulation and the musical shaping of the shorter motifs characteristic of baroque music are the important musical elements that make the baroque sound so special.

Woodwind

The instruments are wooden, with many fewer keys, which makes the chromatic notes more difficult to tune, as well as giving these notes a special quality, different from the more open notes, where cross-fingering is not used. This is particularly noticeable on the flute. The bore of the double reed oboe and bassoon is wider, giving a timbre that is designed to blend with the baroque strings, rather than to contrast with them, as in the modern orchestra. This is why baroque composers often double oboes with violins, bassoons with cellos.

Brass

All early brass instruments are natural; that is, having no valves to artificially alter the pitch of the harmonic series. Thus horns have a selection of "plug-in" crooks in various keys to enable them to play their more limited range of notes in the required key. Natural trumpets, usually only in D, are able to obtain a greater range of notes only in their highest register.

Pitch and Tuning

The Consort uses the pitch which was generally current in later baroque music, which is a semitone below our modern pitch, at A=415 Hz., rather than 440 Hz. This gives a warmer overall sound, with less tension on the strings. This pitch is a compromise, as French pitch was even lower, as was English pitch in the 17th century. Pitch in early 17th century Italy, however, is thought to be about a semitone higher than modern pitch!

We play to a harpsichord tuned in a baroque circular temperament (where the distance between each semitone is different), rather than the equal temperament of the modern piano and wind instruments (where each semitone is identical). Baroque composers found equal temperament to be out of tune, so they used a tuning that was purer in the standard keys, though it could produce interesting colours in the remoter keys.