Music Education and the Art of Performance in the German Baroque

In considering the role of practical music in education, this book attempts to define the art of performance in Germany during the Baroque period.

John Butt (Author)

9780521433273, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 May 1994

260 pages, 3 b/w illus.
23.4 x 15.7 x 2.4 cm, 0.54 kg

'Butt's organisation of his material is exemplary. He interprets contemporary comment helpfully, clarifying what is rudimentary and what is, or conceals, more sophisticated information.' Musical Times

In considering the role of practical music in education, this book attempts to define the art of performance in Germany during the Baroque period. The author examines the large number of surviving treatises and instruction manuals used in the Lutheran 'Latin' schools during the period 1530–1800 and builds up a picture of the function and status of music in both school and church. The understanding, gained through these educational texts, of music as a functional art - musica practica - in turn gives us insight into the thoughts of the contemporary performer and how he might have performed the sacred work of Praetorius, Schütz, Buxtehude or Bach. For all those interested in historical performance this book provides valuable information on the growing science of performance practice and the development of a conscious awareness of style and idiom in this period.

List of plates
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
1. The establishment of Lutheran musical practice in the sixteenth century
2. The role of practical music in education c. 1600–1750
3. The contents, layout and style of instruction books
4. The development of performance practice and the tools of expression and interpretation in the German Baroque
5. Ornamentation and the relation between performer and composer
6. The decline of the Lutheran cantorates during the eighteenth century
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Baroque music [c 1600 to c 1750 AVGC3]