For Cologne, a smallish city, after all, does not sustain a lively early-music "scene."

So the early-music scene in Germany vanished.

Mr. Christie, an American expatriate, has galvanized - not to say, created - the early-music scene in Paris over the last quarter century.

As a harpsichordist, he was active in the beginnings of the early-music scene in Boston in the 1950s and '60s.

Eventually she attended the Boston Conservatory, and she was able to absorb the riches of that city's thriving early-music scene.

AS the once thriving early-music scene in New York becomes an ever smaller pond, what is needed, some think, is a big fish.

For 18 years, Anonymous 4 has shone as one of the few bright lights, perhaps the brightest, on the early-music scene in New York.

Anonymous 4, which carved out a niche for women in medieval repertory, has been a mainstay of the early-music scene for 18 years.

An American, William Christie, has turned the early-music scene in Paris on its ear.

Most of the prominent names on the American early-music scene were involved, so beyond some tinkering within sections, the group represented the best the movement could produce.