The Historical Performance of Music
An Introduction

A 1999 overview of historical performance, surveying issues and suggesting future developments.

Colin Lawson (Author), Robin Stowell (Author)

9780521621939, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 November 1999

236 pages, 5 b/w illus. 24 music examples
23.7 x 15.8 x 1.8 cm, 0.445 kg

'… offer many stimulating asides and tantalising titbits, particularly when dealing with such controversial areas as the links between rhetorical theory and music; tast; rhythmic freedom; ornamentation and improvisation. Throughout … their arguments are short, and sharp enough to whet the appetite, and he thirsty reader will surely want to go in search of more.' BBC Music Magazine

Offering students and performers a concise overview of historical performance, this 1999 book takes into account the many significant developments in the discipline. It addresses practical matters rather than philosophical issues and guides readers towards further investigation and interpretation of the evidence provided, not only in the various early instrumental and vocal treatises, but also in examples from the mainstream repertory. Designed as a parent volume for the series Cambridge Handbooks to the Historical Performance of Music, this book provides an historical basis for artistic decision-making which has as its goal the re-creation of performances as close as possible to the composer's original conception. It relates many of the issues discussed to major works by Bach, Mozart, Berlioz and Brahms, composed c.1700–c.1900, the core period which forms the principal (though not exclusive) focus for the whole series.

1. Music as history
2. The application of primary sources
3. Changes in musical style
4. Conditions and practices
5. Case studies in ensemble music
6. The continuing debate.

Subject Areas: Western "classical" music [AVGC]