The first Boston Early Music Festival, in 1981, opened with a concert by Ralph Kirkpatrick, which was destined to be his last public performance in Boston. Four years later, in Reprise: The Extraordinary Revival of Early Music, Joel Cohen and Herb Snitzer, in reference to this event, paid a thoughtful tribute—which still rings true today—to this great musician:

One could say more, indeed much more, about the ways in which Kirkpatrick, both as musician and personality, was a one-of-a-kind, larger-thanlife figure in his time. But Cohen and Snitzer's purpose in writing their book was primarily to speak of a later stage in the revival of early music, and their remarks concerning Kirkpatrick in their chapter on the earlier twentieth century pay him due homage within that context.

In the more than thirty years that have passed since those remarks were written, those who are moved and captivated by the same repertoire to which Ralph Kirkpatrick devoted his life are now likely to have had their musical tastes for this repertoire formed by performers who rose to prominence within the movement toward performance on early instruments, a movement that first caught international attention in the 1960s and 1970s and is now firmly established as part of the musical mainstream.