Andrew Justice came to Denton from upstate New York. It didn’t take long for the baroque violist to find out that there isn’t as much early music in Texas as there is in New England.

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The Denton Bach Players are, from left, Janelle West, Heidi Klein, Eric Smith, Andrew Justice, Lenora McCroskey and Jennifer Carpenter. The new ensemble plays early music using historical instruments.

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That’s one reason he gives for co-founding the Denton Bach Players, a new ensemble with the Denton Bach Society.

Justice, a librarian in the University of North Texas music library, needed his fix of early music — European music from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance and into the baroque period. As a fresh transplant, he got it by playing with groups in Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin.

“This is a kind of music I’m really passionate about,” Justice said. “There are a lot of opportunities to play this kind of music in the Northeast, because of the population density and cultural goals. There are performance opportunities for early musicians, and there’s the Dallas Bach Society, but there aren’t as many.”

Justice met like-minded musicians in Denton, most of them who worked with him at the university. They agreed to get a group together.

“We called ourselves the Fourth Floor Players because so many of the musicians work in the music library [on the fourth floor of Willis Library],” said Lenora McCroskey, a professor emeritus at UNT and the harpsichord player and organist of the Bach Players. “It was really a lot of fun. We had a great time.”

The group eventually played a concert at the College of Music, and McCroskey said she was surprised to see the concert packed.

Justice said he, too, craved a local outlet for performing.

“I had been performing with groups in the Northeast, and when I moved here, even though I took a library job, playing music was still very important to me,” Justice said. “Librarians can count performances as professional development if they play for pay, or if they play with a nonprofit, they can count it as service.”

Soon, the group was thinking about making things formal.

“When we started looking at incorporating, it was going to take something like two years,” McCroskey said. She suggested talking to Henry Gibbons, also a UNT professor emeritus and the conductor and artistic director of the Denton Bach Society.

“A few of us were already playing with the Bach Society as it was, so I thought we could go in under another nonprofit,” McCroskey said.

Gibbons said he saw an opportunity when he was approached about the ensemble joining the society as a chamber group.

“My expertise and interest is primarily in early vocal music, but since most of it is accompanied to some degree by instruments, we always had to go outside to get players to round out the ensemble,” he said. “Having a ‘resident’ ensemble complements what the Bach Society has always done, and provides another visible presence for early music in Denton. Having a greater representation for instrumental and solo vocal music of this period available for all our concerts enhances the variety and breadth of the Bach Society’s mission.”

Justice said the Denton Bach Players shared a bill with the Bach Society and the Denton Bach Choir for the first time last November.

The Denton Bach Players will probably play “war horses,” which are the standards of early music, as well as lesser-known chamber pieces.

They will perform on instruments crafted as early music instruments were — gut strings in place of metal strings on both bows and instruments, and wood in place of metal in the wind section. In place of the clarinet, the ensemble will use a wooden recorder. The ensemble’s flutist will use a wooden flute.

Justice said audiences who attend the group’s Thursday night concert will hear compositions played as they were in the 1600s.

“Or close to it,” Justice said. “The first thing people will notice is a marked difference in volume and timbre. The gut reaction will be: ‘That sounds muted.’”

Timbre refers to the sound quality — or the tone color — of an instrument. An early music violin sounds different than a contemporary violin used in orchestras today. Audiences are used to the shrill and piercing sound of contemporary strings. Baroque strings sound gentler and warmer.

Justice said early music was originally performed in chambers, not concert halls, at parties where polite society would eat, drink and discuss the music. Audiences should expect a more intimate sound, with plenty of subtlety from the musicians.

The concert will feature music by composers such as Giovanni Battista Buonamente, Giovanni Paolo Cima, Barbara Strozzi, Francesco Turini and Girolamo Frescobaldi.

Gibbons said the Bach Players will be a core ensemble for the Bach Choir concerts.

“The Players will be the nucleus of the instrumental forces needed for the choir performances, with additional instrumentalists brought in as needed, much as we did before, but with the consistency of a resident core of players and Andrew’s leadership,” he said. “We are experimenting this year with an additional concert of the Players alone, with the hope that this will draw additional audience that will allow us to sustain and build on this extra musical dimension of our season. And the Players will increasingly contribute instrumental pieces to enhance the fill out the choir concerts.

“Everyone wins, if we can sustain the effort financially.”

LUCINDA BREEDING can be reached at 940-566-6877. Her e-mail address is cbreeding@dentonrc.com .