Authenticity in Performance: Eighteenth-Century Case Studies

Authenticity in Performance focuses on nine representative works from the Baroque and Classical periods, defining some of the more important questions that the performer and listener should ask.

Peter Le Huray (Author)

9780521399265, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 22 November 1990

224 pages, 125 colour illus. 4 tables
25.5 x 18.1 x 1.7 cm, 0.571 kg

In the last ten years or so an interest in 'authenticity' has reached a wide public. Many of the best-selling records of Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart are those in which period techniques and period instruments are used. There is however a danger that new 'authentic' dogmas of style and interpretation will come to replace the anachronistic dogmas of the late romantic tradition. 'The search for an 'authentic' interpretation', writes Peter le Huray in his opening chapter, 'is not the search for a single hard and fast answer, but for a range of possibilities from which to make performing decisions.' This book introduces the performer to the problems that must be faced when preparing an 'authentic' interpretation. It does so by focusing on nine representative and well-known works from the Baroque and Classical periods, defining some of the more important questions that the performer and listener should ask, and suggesting fruitful lines of enquiry. It is essential reading and reference material for player, student and listener alike.

List of music examples
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. The spirit of authenticity
2. Bach's C major Prelude, BWV 870 and 870a
3. Corelli's Violin Sonata, Op. 5, No. 11
4. Couperin and the French style
5. Bach's Overture in D, BWV 1068
6. Handel's Messiah
7. Bach's C minor Passacaglia (BWV 582)
8. The classical style, a change of direction
9. Leopold Mozart and the K421 Quartet
10. Haydn's Drum Roll Symphony No. 103
11. Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and late eighteenth-century pianism
Notes.

Subject Areas: Classical music [c 1750 to c 1830 AVGC4], Baroque music [c 1600 to c 1750 AVGC3], Early music [up to c 1000 CE AVGC1]