With a few notable exceptions like Edgar Hunt and Arnold Dolmetch, who revived interest in the recorder and its music during the first half of the 20th century, there were few teachers who knew anything about performing this music until well into the second half of the 20th century. When the Huggetts first became interested in early music, finding good instructors was challenging. 

 

In 1971 the members of the Huggett Family were fortunate enough to be accepted as students by Edgar Hunt, followed a few years later by Anthony Rooley and Trevor Pinnock. 

 

In 1977, they established a relationship with Francis and June Baines. Francis was a double bass player who, along with his wife, June, had reintroduced the six-stringed viol and its repertoire to modern audiences in the 1960s.

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The viol, or viola da gamba - viol of the leg, comes from the Kingdom of Aragon in the culturally diverse Spain of the late 15th century. Its playing position and technique are derived from the "rabab," a Moorish bowed instrument still played in North Africa today. The instrument comes in different sizes and has six strings and frets, and is played with a bow while held between the legs, much like the modern cello.

 

The viols repertoire is extensive. Like almost all renaissance music, it is written for the player's enjoyment. Music was a participatory event during that time, and the idea of pleasing an audience had not yet come into fashion. Unlike the music of later periods, that's often divided into "melody" on one instrument and "accompaniment" on the others, music of the renaissance period often distributes the melody, at whim, between all the instruments - fun for the players but often confusing for the listener. June and Francis Baines had worked on ways to address this challenge to make viol music more accessible to the modern listener. And the Huggetts worked closely with them, pursuing the same goal.

 

Every Sunday morning, the family drove to the Baine's house on the far side of London. Once there, interpreting the music wasn't the only challenge. Margaret remembers, "It was always so cold in their music room, although they had a heating unit which supposedly stored up the heat during the night when electricity was cheap and discharged it during the day. But the heater was depleted by 10:30, and our legs froze as we clasped our viols between our knees. Never mind, when we left at 12:30 for the long drive back to South London, Francis would ply us with his homemade mead, which we later discovered he had enriched with vodka."

 

Francis Baines never appeared to take himself, or anything else, for that matter, seriously. But behind the quick, dry throwaway humor was a history of solid work and a real contribution to the musical life of Britain.