There weren’t nearly as many instruments as we have ... and most ground-breaking composers of the Renaissance period writing an enormous amount of music for the Italian church.

The Champlain Consort performs medieval, Renaissance and Elizabethan music on period instruments May 6 at noon at Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, 2 Cherry Street, Burlington.

The strings, however, are slightly different: they're usually made of nylon or gut, unlike the metal strings used on acoustic instruments. History Guitars have been played since the Renaissance era ..