Historically Informed Performance (HIP)

The Viennese fondness for the chalumeau is confirmed by the prominent role it played in the repertory throughout the 18th century. These composers were amongst the most innovative in writing for the instrument in all its four sizes. In music for the stage, the chalumeau was most often used to accompany pastoral and romantic scenes. Its treatment at the hands of Fux, the Bononcini brothers and Joseph I is particularly exquisite in their anticipation of Mozart’s use of the clarinet in Così fan tutte. Gluck chose the chalumeau for the Vienna versions of Orfeo and Alceste. Florian Gassmann, who settled in Vienna after studies in Italy, was amongst several composers still writing for the chalumeau at a time when clarinets were readily available. In chamber and orchestral music too, the chalumeau made its mark. Wenzel Pichl wrote for the instrument in the 1770s and only later did he develop an enthusiasm for the clarinet. Further proof of the instrument’s survival into the pre-Classical era is found in the divertimenti by Florian Gassmann and Carl Dittersdorf. An important concertante work is the concerto for soprano chalumeau by Franz Hoffmeister. Mozart was aware of the chalumeau, as his father’s copying of Joseph Starzer’s Musica da camera testifies. This work was later attributed to Mozart as K.187/159c and exerted a clear influence on Mozart’s own divertimento K188/240b for a similar combination. This article traces the development of the chalumeau repertoire in 18th-century Viennese opera, chamber, orchestral, and solo literature. Issues unique to the performance of chalumeau repertoire, such as reed-position and instrument size, are also discussed.

Ponencia en el Simposio "La gestión del patrimonio musical" (Madrid, INAEM, 2014), que propone una reflexión sobre algunos de los aspectos que condicionan nuestra
visión del patrimonio musical histórico y la problemática que surge a la hora de llevar a la práctica su
recuperación, con algunas referencias a la historia de la interpretación históricamente informada

This paper sheds new light on the nineteenth-century saxophone in Belgium.1 It will focus on the institutional context of the saxophone in Brussels, from the emergence of the saxophone in 1841 to the end of the saxophone class in the Brussels Royal Conservatory in 1904. Until now, historical and artistic research has mainly dealt with the Parisian scene. As Albert Rice suggests, the start of the development of the saxophone mainly took place in Paris, where the Belgian-born Adolphe Sax (1814–1894) moved in 1842. After 1866, when Sax’s French patent on the saxophone expired, other makers developed their own model, and the result was the rapid adoption of the saxophone internationally by composers and players so that the instrument became widely popular by the late 1880s. Thanks to its usefulness as a wind band instrument, the emergence in Belgium of the saxophone is, like in France, linked with military bands. The most prestigious military band, the Royal Symphonic Band of the Belgian Guides, adopted the saxophone in 1849. In order to organize an adequate education in Brussels, the Royal Conservatory started with its first class in 1867. Jean-Valentin Bender (1801–1873), the first Kapellmeister of the Royal Symphonic Band of the Belgian Guides, and François-Joseph Fétis (1784–1871), the first director of the Brussels Royal Conservatory, played an important role in the founding of the Brussels saxophone class. In what context was this saxophone course set up? Who were its teachers and students? And what do unexplored archival sources reveal about the saxophone repertoire during this time?

Studies of pre-existing music in narrative cinema often focus on a
single film, composer or director. The approach here adopts a wider
perspective, placing a specific musical repertoire – baroque music – in
the context of its reception to explore its mobilisation in post-war
cinema. It shows how various revivals have shaped musical fashion, and
how cinema has drawn on resultant popularity and in turn contributed
to it. Close analyses of various films raise issues of baroque musical style
and form to question why eighteenth-century music remains an
exception to dominant film-music discourses. Account is taken of
changing modern performance practice and its manifestation in
cinema, particularly in the biopic. This question of the re-imagining of
baroque repertoire leads to consideration of pastiches and parodies to
which cinema has been particularly drawn, and subsequently to the role
that neo-baroque music has played in more recent films.

The present book is devoted to a cultural phenomenon in the form of a collection of musical manuscripts written with a specific instrument in mind in a monastic milieu, but one which contains no liturgical compositions. The collection in question comprises handwritten lute tablatures from the Cistercian Abbey of Krzeszów (German: Grüssau). The author presents the Baroque lute in a humanistic perspective, a perspective of selected social phenomena in European culture of the
second half of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century, as well as selected questions relating to performance practice. This concerns the functioning of the lute particularly in the musical culture of Silesia, the context of musical life in the Cistercian Abbey of Krzeszów and questions relating to musical source studies, questions like concordance based on European sources.
The book draws on a doctoral dissertation, written under the guidance of Professor Remigiusz Pośpiech at the Institute of Musicology, University of Wrocław, which in 2017 brought Dr G. Joachimiak the first prize in the Professor H. Feicht Competition, awarded by the Musicological Section of the Polish Composers’ Union.
The manuscripts of lute tablatures from the Krzeszów Abbey have never before been the subject of holistic research, which has required a number of detailed studies over many years. The author has used both the method of a music historian and a perspective based on experiences in music performance. Readers will find here the results of the author’s research, with details of the research process to be found in the doctoral dissertation. Given the limited publication possibilities, the material presented in the book has had to be reduced, which has affected largely ensemble music.
The analysed collection comprises fifteen manuscripts, which are currently dispersed. It contains over 2000 individual works, which makes the collection one of the largest of this kind in the world. The surviving sources contain only pieces for the lute in a popular eighteenth-century tuning. These are solo and ensemble pieces in which missing instrument parts are sometimes filled by concordances. The results of the research into the reconstruction of selected compositions make it possible to prepare the material for performance and to explore selected elements of monastic life in the eighteenth century, especially the music performed by the monks. This concerns, for example, the Tafelmusik
practice as well as limitations relating to the performance of this kind of music at the monastery or the way in which the Cistercians used the lute and secular compositions to develop monastic piety.
The book also contains information originating in the correspondence of monks from the Krzeszów abbey, including lute-playing monks like Father Hermann Kniebandl. In the last stage of his life he was associated with the Cistercian provostship in Cieplice Śląskie (German: Bad Warmbrunn), where his duties included, in addition to pastoral work, the running of the thermal springs which the monastery had received from the Schaffgotsch family. However, the relations between the family and the Krzeszów Cistercians are limited here to the context of musical patronage and support of musical activities associated with the analysed lute collection.
The lute tablature manuscripts also contain information which is significant from the perspective of the history of music theory — information in the form lute playing instructions, strictly practical
elements like marking of fingering for both hands in the various pieces, examples of playing exercises or explanation of the notation and embellishments in lute playing. This makes the whole material
twice as valuable, because every such “didactic source” is the best source in modern historically informed performance, providing scholars with an insight into reception of the repertoire and styles of playing. On the other hand it sheds light on the Krzeszów Cistercians’ actual participation in the cultivation and development of secular Baroque lute repertoire, popular at royal courts and among townsmen, irrespective of their confessional affiliation.
Compositions from the analysed collection include pieces which show that the Krzeszów Cistercians were stylistically well-versed in the solo or ensemble repertoire as well as pieces which are unique in Europe. This is undoubtedly linked to the great popularity of the lute in the first half of
the eighteenth century in Central Europe, where Silesia served as one of the most important European centres of lute music. This was the place from which came and where were educated the most sought-after lutenists in royal and courtly ensembles, lutenists like Esaias Reusner the Younger, Silvius Leopold Weiss, Ernst Gottlieb Baron and many others. This situation undoubtedly had a huge impact on the interest in the lute among the Krzeszów Cistercians. That is why the author of the book takes into account compositions not only by well-known composers and patrons of their music, but also pieces by local composers, including those from among the Krzeszów Cistercians. In the last chapter the author devotes some attention to the use of the lute in work associated with Cistercian spirituality, taking into account the specificity of the Krzeszów Cistercians — to be more precise, in spiritual exercises. The Krzeszów Cistercians took over the Exercitia spiritualis from the Silesian Jesuits and carried them out in accordance with St. Ignatius Loyola’s method.
All these elements provoke questions of why the Cistercian Abbey of Krzeszów became a friendly place for the making of lute tablature manuscripts and interest in the lute, an instrument used mostly
in court circles. How to describe the phenomenon of the Baroque lute in the monastery in the context of the musical culture of Silesia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? Is the Cistercian Abbey in Krzeszów the only such example of musical activity in the history of music? Answers to these and other questions can be found in the four chapters of the present book supported by an extensive introduction and three appendices.

Książka poświęcona jest kolekcji 15 rękopisów muzycznych z pierwszej połowy XVIII w., zapisanych specyficzną notacją muzyczną tabulatury lutniowej w odmianie francuskiej (literowej). Jest to jeden z największych zbiorów tego typu. Dlaczego zatem powstał na Śląsku i w środowisku opactwa cystersów w Krzeszowie? To pytanie towarzyszyło autorowi tej książki przez cały okres jej przygotowania. Odpowiedź jest złożona, dlatego w książce pojawiają się informacje wskazujące na specyfikę kultury muzycznej Śląska XVII i XVIII wieku, potwierdzające wyjątkowość tego regionu dla kultywowania muzyki lutniowej. W omawianych źródłach nie ma przykładów muzyki liturgicznej. Większość tego repertuaru wykonywano na dworach królewskich niemalże całej ówczesnej Europy, ale są też przykłady utworów kompozytorów działających wyłącznie lokalnie, w tym również z grona cystersów. W książce znaleźć można informacje o muzyce lutniowej przedstawione w perspektywie humanistycznej, z uwzględnieniem metodyki gry, wybranego repertuaru i zagadnień źródłoznawczych. Jak zatem scharakteryzować określenie zjawiska „fenomenu lutni barokowej w klasztorze”? Odpowiedzi na te i inne pytania znajdują się w czterech rozdziałach niniejszej książki, wspartych rozbudowanym wstępem i trzema aneksami.

<< The French Baroque Organ Art: Musique, Organ building, Performance >> /
<< L’Art d’orgue Baroque français : Musique, Facture, Interprétation >>

[ Аннотация: ] Настоящая монография представляет собой первое в российском музыковедении исследование, в центре которого — французское органное искусство Барокко как комплексное явление, объединяющее музыку, органостроение и исполнительство.
Опираясь на свой разносторонний опыт, автор выступает одновременно в роли учёного, исполнителя и органного эксперта. В книге впервые предлагаются в переводе на русский язык и анализируются основополагающие документы французского органного Барокко, принадлежащие перу композиторов, органных мастеров, музыкальных мыслителей и учёных.
В результате анализа трёх составляющих французского органного искусства Барокко, рассматриваемого в контексте той эпохи — эстетическом, стилистическом и музыкально-теоретическом (гармония и музыкальная форма), — в книге выявляются сущностные критерии французского органного искусства Барокко и определяются его хронологические рамки.
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[ Abstract: ] The present monograph is the first research in the Russian musical science which focuses on the French Baroque Organ Art as a complex phenomenon involving Music, Organ building and Performance.
Drawing on her rich professional experiences, the author acts in triple role: as a musicologist, concert organist and organ expert. In this book, she presents and analyses the fundamental French Baroque organ documents, which belong to composers, organ builders, philosophers and scientists.
As a result of her analysis of three components of French Baroque Organ Art, placed in the context of that time — aesthetic, stylistic, theoretical and musical (harmony and musical form) —, Marina Tchebourkina reveals an essential and unique character of the French Baroque Organ Art, demonstrates its evolution and determines its chronological limits.
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[ Résumé : ] La présente monographie est le premier ouvrage dans la science musicale russe qui concentre son attention sur l’art d’orgue Baroque français en tant que phénomène complexe réunissant musique, facture et interprétation.
Fort de ses expériences professionnelles, l’auteur agit à la fois en tant que musicologue, organiste et expert d’orgue. Dans le livre sont présentés et analysés les documents fondamentaux dans le domaine de l’orgue Baroque français qui appartiennent aux compositeurs, facteurs d’orgue, philosophes et scientifiques.
À l’issue de l’analyse des trois composantes de l’art d’orgue Baroque français, placées dans le contexte de l’époque — esthétique, stylistique, théorique et musical (harmonie et forme) —, Marina Tchebourkina révèle le caractère essentiel et unique de l’art d’orgue Baroque français, démontre son évolution et détermine ses limites chronologiques.

Entertaining Possession: Re-enacting Cook's Arrival for the Queen
This paper is concerned with a re-enactment of the landing of Captain Cook in Australia in 1970, the bicentennial of the event. Amid many nationally organised events to remember Cook's passage up the east coast of Australia and a wide variety of Indigenous and non-Indigenous protests, this re-enactment of his landing at Botany Bay, Sydney was performed for the visiting Queen Elizabeth and her entourage, a huge live audience and an even bigger television one. As a performance of ‘lawful’ possession, of practicing the forgetting of Indigenous sovereignty and original opposition, this piece of public relations was meant to unite both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Instead, this conciliation to British rule and non-Indigenous control became a complex set of acts and material accessories that connected the spectacle on the beach with local acts of protest, performers own histories of intrusion and accounts of the re-enactment that unwittingly revealed the paucity of its own claim to a single historical truth. These tensions between a managed historical act and the labile possibilities of live performances revealed the powerful ways in which performances of national histories are also plays within power.

In 1843, a group of Munich court musicians formed the "New Quartet for Old Instruments" to perform at musical evening events. In addition to the philomele, viola d'amore and mandolin, a mandora was played. It is considered the last type of lute to be played until the beginning of the 19th century before the lute was revived at the end of the 19th century. The Munich court musicians performed in changing line-ups until at least 1857, which can be traced through numerous articles in local newspapers and programme notes.
Some of the instruments can be found in Karl Emil von Schafhäutl's report on the Munich Industrial Exhibition of 1854. The history of the term "mandora" in the musical discourse at this time in Munich and the correct further use of the term by Karl August Bierdimpfl in the description of the collection of the Bavarian National Museum is related to the activities of the quartet and the instrument maker Georg Tiefenbrunner, who excelled as a maker of "mandoras". The material presented contributes to the study of historicising performance practice in Munich, in which seemingly ancient instruments were used to reproduce musical potpourri from opera adaptations or the ensemble members' own compositions.

This article celebrates the 400th anniversary of Isabella Leonarda – 17th-century nun, singer & composer – in connection with the Earthly Angels performance and recording project. You can hear some of her music here: https://vaasabaroque.com/play/

In 1601, song-composer Caccini proclaimed the Baroque priorities of his ‘New Music’ as ‘Speech and Rhythm’. In Baroque speech and music, Rhetoric aims to ‘move the passions’. Leonarda’s precise notations contradict 20th-century assumptions that performers choose their own tempo, or that expressiveness requires rubato.

Poetic detail, moving passions, vocal effects, contrasts of tempo, expressive gestures: Leonarda does ‘act with the hand, act with the heart’. The composer’s hand notates subtle tempo changes, in which the serene movement of the Divine Hand is reflected in the diverse pulse-rates of a lover’s human heart. Violinists’ and continuo-players’ hands give life to instrumental music, a microcosm of heavenly perfection, yet swayed by the human passions of the Four Humours. All this is guided by Tactus and expressed by gestures.

Invisible to her 17th-century listeners, almost unnoticed by musicologists until recently, women’s hands are the heart and soul of Leonarda’s music.

An extended version of this article is published online at  http://andrewlawrenceking.com/2020/08/20/leonarda/

(English version below)
Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit der Rolle des Violoncellos als Continuo-Instrument im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert. Im Zentrum steht dabei die ausführlich dokumentierte und im 19. Jahrhundert weit verbreitete Praxis der akkordischen Rezitativbegleitung am Violoncello. Diese verlangt vom Cellisten eine Aussetzung der Basso-Continuo-Stimme durch Doppelgriffe oder arpeggierte Akkorde. Zudem befasst sie sich mit der Frage, ob derartige Generalbass-Harmonisierungen auch außerhalb der Begleitung von Rezitativen genutzt wurden, beispielsweise im Accompagnement der Continuo-Kammermusik des späten 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts. Anhaltspunkte und Hintergründe zu dieser Hypothese werden im ersten Abschnitt dieser Arbeit behandelt: Berichte von Cellisten, die Violinisten auf Konzerten und Tourneen begleitet haben. Auskomponierte mehrstimmige Violoncello-Accompagnements, sowie Titelbezeichnungen und Instrumentationsangaben, die auf eine derartige Begleitung schließen lassen. Der zweite Abschnitt der Arbeit widmet sich der Quellen zur Rezitativbegleitung und behandelt entsprechende Lehrwerke und Berichte.
This thesis reviews the common role of the cello as a continuo-instrument in the 18th and 19th century. The well documented practice of chordal recitative-accompaniments on the cello in the 19th century is treated in the first part: cellists were expected to realize the Basso-Continuo figures in double-stops or arpeggiated chords to provide a full accompaniment. The second part of the thesis focuses on the hypothesis of general chordal Continuo-accompaniments on the cello, for example in the realization of Continuo-Sonatas in the late 17th and 18th century. Possible sources for this hypothesis, such as written accounts of accompanying cellists, treatises and musical prints are critically evaluated.

A pequena publicação é uma parte da minha tese de mestrado, realizado na Unicamp (Campinas-SP). Nessa publicação consta somente a tradução para língua portuguesa com comentários da obra "La Defense da la Basse de Viole contre les entreprises du Violon et les pretensions du Violoncel" (Hubert Le Blanc, 1740) onde o autor abordou várias questões musicais.
Publicado por Kristina Augustin, Niterói-RJ-Brasil, 2016

In the 18th century, the violoncello usurped the viol as the preferred solo bass instrument throughout Europe, but the lack of skilled cellists in the British Isles along with a preference for the Italian style resulted in high demand for Italian cellists and composers. Mainland musicians flocked to London, influencing the resident musical style and solidifying the violoncello’s place in the developing musical ensembles.

To further understand this crucial period in the history of the violoncello, this paper investigates the rationale for the violoncello’s triumph over the viol, the factors driving Italians to the Isles, the influence of Frederick, Prince of Wales as an important patron and cellist himself, and the interaction between the British and Italian compositional styles. As quantitative evidence, tables detailing the specific Italian composers found in the Isles, the pieces commissioned by Frederick, and the treatises published at the time have been compiled. This research aims to illuminate the impact of the Italian influence on the violoncello and its repertoire in the special circumstances that the Isles presented.

No, these first steps will not make you a master of Baroque Gesture. But they will create the conditions in which you can study and practise further.

So, whilst you are putting in the time to internalise the collected wisdom of Quintilian, Bulwer & Bonifacio, to memorise the complete works of Shakespeare and/or to translate all the ‘opera’ libretti from Anima e Corpo (1600) to Poppea (1643), to learn all of Negri’s courtly dances, and to become a rapier-master according to Capo Ferro, here are some quick and easy short-cuts, literally from the ground up.

The primary purpose of this project is to record five pieces from living composers, and discover the
differences and use of Baroque flute through the collaboration with these five composers. This
project also comes with a short thesis introducing contemporary works for Baroque flute and
explores the existing repertoire for its application of contemporary extended techniques.
The following pieces are the recorded works in this project: Ami for solo Baroque flutes by Marc
Vallon (b. 1955); Tombeau(1982) by Robert Strizich(b.1945); Stanza, Book XVIII for Baroque flute
solo by Les Thimmig (b. 1943); Mili for Baroque flute and tape by Filippo Santoro (b.1971) and
Gists and Piths for modern flute and Baroque flute duet by Stephen Dembski (b.1949). All of them
were newly composed in 2014 except for Tombeau, which was composed in 1982. The liner notes
and a short biography of composers of the recording will be provided in Appendix 2.

In the written part, I will focus on several subjects which are important for the playing and writing
of contemporary music for Baroque flute: 1) About the Baroque flute 2) Contemporary music
written for Baroque flute—compositional styles and the application of extended techniques.
Furthermore, I will list the music for Baroque flute having been composed up till 2015. Some of the
repertoire before 2001 was discussed in the previous investigation by Linda Pereksta’s dissertation
written in 2001, at Florida State University. My research will tackle the technical issues one will
encounter when one plays contemporary music on the Baroque flute. The technical issues include
the choices of the pitch, the intonation and tuning, the challenges of uneven response between
different notes, and the balance of volume, etc.; in addition, the contemporary works require
techniques that go far beyond Baroque music performance practice, for example, imitating Japanese
shakuhachi, etc.. Thus, I will describe music the compositional style and the application of extended
techniques from some of the contemporary music written for Baroque flute. This project aims to
give information about how composers apply contemporary concepts in writing pieces for Baroque
flute in the hope that it could encourage more performance as well as composition in this medium.

Wanda Landowska (1877-1959) była nie tylko wybitną, koncertującą klawesynistką i pedagogiem, ale także prekursorką w dziedzinie wykonawstwa historycznego i popularyzacji muzyki dawnej. Artykuł przedstawia podstawowe fakty biograficzne oraz główne poglądy estetyczne artystki dowodząc, że zmiana sposobu myślenia o muzyce epok minionych, która nastąpiła po 1960 roku, miała swoje korzenie zarówno w pracach Landowskiej, jak i w jej praktyce artystycznej.

En 2018 se celebró el bicentenario del nacimiento del gran coreógrafo Marius Petipa (1818-1910), creador de ballets tan emblemáticos como Don Quijote (1869), La Bayadère (1877), La bella durmiente (1890) o El lago de los cisnes (1895), y que además trabajó como bailarín en España entre 1844 y 1847.
El presente volumen recoge un buen número de las ponencias presentadas en el Congreso Internacional Marius Petipa. Del ballet romántico al clásico, que se desarrolló en Madrid en octubre de ese año dirigido por Laura Hormigón y Víctor Sánchez. Los trabajos aquí reunidos abordan temáticas amplias, ricas y diversas desde el punto de vista histórico, musicológico, escenográfico, de la notación coreográfica, y también en torno a la recepción, transmisión, conservación y pervivencia, o no, del legado de Petipa durante el siglo XX y en la actualidad.
Un libro que supone un enriquecimiento fundamental para los estudios académicos del ballet en España y que pone al alcance del público hispanohablante los avances y líneas de trabajo en este ámbito de destacados investigadores tanto españoles como de Rusia, Francia, Inglaterra, EE.UU e Italia.

Austrian composer Gottfried von Einem (1918 - 1996) was asked by a biographer what sort of music the Nazis wanted German composers to create. “The opposite of Schoenberg,” he answered. “Music in C major.” The question before us: when composer and music educator Carl Orff (1895 - 1982) presented his scenic cantata “Carmina Burana”  in 1937, did he give the Nazis the work they wanted, or did he give them the work he wanted?

The music-related gestures of la danse grotesque in Rameau’s Les Sauvages
Nowadays many of us agree that a historically informed performance, HIP, is not an objecti ed, historical truth about the music of previous centuries. Even so, we still need to reflect upon the many possibilities of how we actually embody historically informed performing knowledge in practice.

In this article I will explore the music-related movements of la danse grotesque in Jean- Philippe Rameau’s composition, Les Sauvages, as a musician-researcher, harpsichordist, and a basso continuo player. The article deals with the solo harpsichord composition as well as with the version for soloists, vocal ensemble and orchestra as part of the opéraballet Les Indes galantes.

One of the key concepts in my research is the rhetorical actio. However, rhetorical actio is not only about speech or oratory. When applied to music, the tradition encompasses a range of other bodily actions not necessarily related to the act of speaking.

By positioning ourselves in the dialectical space between history and the musical material, we process and modify it. As a result we gain a whole gamut of artistic possibilities. These alternatives are much more historically informed than we might think at  first, because our own, temporal position in the historical continuum is comprehended as a part of it.

Keywords: baroque, la danse grotesque, embodiment, historically informed performance, musical gestures, music-related movements, performance practice, practice-based research, rhetorical actio.

About the Author: Assi Karttunen DMus is a harpsichordist specialized in performing and researching Baroque music. She also performs in interdisciplinary groups with experimental and contemporary repertory. Karttunen works as a musician-researcher at DocMus, Doctoral school of the Sibelius Academy, and teaches harpsichord playing and basso continuo at the Early music faculty, Sibelius Academy. She has recorded solo albums (Alba, Divine Arts), has played in several orchestras and ensembles, and is currently working in her Elysian Fields Workshop.

The success of the early music movement raises questions about performing historical works: Should musicians perform on period instruments and try to reconstruct the original style? If a historically "authentic" performance is impossible or undesirable , what should be the goal of the early music movement? I turn to Gadamer to answer these questions by constructing the outlines of a hermeneutics of early music performance. In the first half of the paper, I examine Gadamer's critique of historical reconstruction and argue that this critique sheds light on mistaken tendencies and misunderstandings within the early music movement, but it does not discredit the movement as such. In the second half of the paper, I attempt to show how Gadamer's dialogical account of historical consciousness provides a framework for understanding what historically informed performance is seeking to accomplish, as well as its advantage over a Nietzschean approach.

http://www.theses.fr/2015REN20024

French singing in the time of Gilbert Duprez : history, aesthetics and skills

Aus französische Gesangskunst in der Zeit Gilbert Duprez : .Geschichte, Ästhetik und Methode

Looking at opera, opéra-comique and salon music through the eyes of the first performers stresses the histrionic and vocal dimension of their art. Thus, this dissertation drives from the mutual appraisals of artists, which can be found in treaties, memoirs, archives of the Paris Conservatoire, letters, etc. The vocabulary used to describe singing in the 19th-century has been linked to 78rpm records and cylinder recordings. The relative focus on high-pitched male voices is only relevant because changes in the general taste for opera voices were mainly triggered by leading tenors during the romantic era. The impact of various locations and repertory on the audience's expectations was studied in order to define the aesthetic and social frame of vocal performance. Reinventing the practical know-how from the sources actually meets the growing expectations of both schedulers and singers who want to renew the approach of the so-called "romantic" French repertory - which currently goes widely unknown and unsung. A better understanding of tradition allows for more consistent historically informed performances.

Beatles tribute bands offer a make-believe substitute for the "emotional vacuum" left by the band's breakup in 1970. Among the best-known acts are the Bootleg Beatles, who since 1980 have toured the world with elaborate shows consisting of appropriate costumes, hairdos, and Scouse-accented banter. By contrast, the Analogues approach such reenactment quite differently. Downplaying visual mimesis, they strive for complete aural accuracy. This essay compares both tribute bands' approaches to reconstructing The White Album, discussing how they aim to reanimate a fictionalized past in an authentic manner: the Bootleg Beatles to witness an imaginary Beatles performance, the Analogues to hear music that was never meant to be heard live.

The keyboard toccatas of J. S. Bach, BWV 910-916, present a formidable challenge of interpretation to the modern-day performer. These works contain some of the most unusual compositional techniques to be found in Bach’s output due to their use of an improvisatory, virtuosic style inherited from the seventeenth century. While pianists of today are trained to perform with perfect fidelity to the score, the treatises from the time of Bach point to a rhythmically free approach to the improvisatory features of these toccatas. The goal of this treatise is to explore how the historical tradition from which Bach’s toccatas emerged influenced their stylistic characteristics with the purpose of applying this information to create an informed performance by today’s interpreters. In this effort, this treatise focuses on several broad categories in the process of understanding the inspiration and, therefore, the interpretation of these works. These categories include the genesis of the toccata as a genre, the compositional techniques associated with the toccata, Bach's personal contribution to the genre, and the interpretation of Bach's toccatas specifically.

Anhand von Schumanns Lied "Ich grolle nicht" wird hier der Frage nachgegangen, inwiefern Musikforschung und musikalische Praxis in einem Wechselverhältnis stehen. Insbesondere geht es anhand von Interpretationsanalysen um die Frage, inwiefern die musikalische Praxis die Musikforschung beeinflusst.

Organ tuning and temperament are essential elements of the soundscape of an organ.
It is commonly assumed today that organ temperament practice shifted away from the well-documented standard of meantone temperament toward circulating temperaments (well-tempered or equal) around 1700. Written records and evidence from extant instruments, however, strongly suggest that unmodified meantone temperament remained common practice in North German organs until the 1740s. Even advocates of the new temperament designs such as Andreas Werckmeister had to admit that organ builders did not follow their suggestions. There is no evidence that retunings resulted in well-tempered systems; only meantone and equal temperaments are mentioned in the sources for retunings.
The reason for suggesting new temperament systems was the requirements of ensemble accompaniment. The simultaneous use of instruments tuned at different pitches (Chorton, Kammerton) required extensive transposition, a practice that, due to the development of major-minor tonality, became increasingly difficult if not impossible with organs tuned in meantone temperament. Modifications of this temperament were suggested and sometimes carried out, but were generally not successful.
Re-tempering an existing organ was a time-consuming task: in a large organ it could take months of work even for an experienced builder. The circumstances under which the organs had to be tuned constituted an important impediment to the introduction of new temperaments. An analysis of payments to bellows-treaders as recorded in church account books shows that the organs of St. Marien, Lübeck, were not retuned during the tenures of Franz Tunder and Dieterich Buxtehude. Thus, some of their organ works could not have been played on the organs available to them during their lifetimes. At this time, however, playing from a score was not acceptable for a professional organist, who was expected to extemporize even complex contrapuntal music. Organ music seems to have been written down mainly for study purposes.

El 20 de noviembre de 2012 dentro del marco del Festival de Otoño de París, en la Cité de la musique, el Ensemble intercontemporain, presentó Ionisation de Edgar Varèse, dirigida por Sussana Mälkki.
Siendo esta una de las más prestigiosas agrupaciones dedicadas a la interpretación de música contemporánea, la pregunta de si su interpretación se puede considerar o no como históricamente informada, podría ser considerada irrelevante. A fin de cuentas, la calidad y precisión de la interpretación son de primer orden. Entonces ¿sería pertinente hablar de una interpretación histórica considerando que Varése era un hombre que siempre miraba hacia el futuro? Si Varése hubiera tenido a su alcance todas las innovaciones que ocurrieron durante el siglo XX al momento de concebir Ionisation, ¿hubiera optado por la sección más “primitiva” de la orquesta para describir lo que algunos consideran como un reflejo de la fascinación del compositor por la vida urbana y la mecanización? ¿O hubiera recurrido a los timbres más vanguardistas hechos posibles por los avances tecnológicos? Quizás el mismo Varése, hubiera desdeñado la mera idea de una interpretación histórica de su obra en el siglo XXI y por el contrario hubiera aplaudido una versión actualizada, siendo que los instrumentos de percusión, su repertorio y sus técnicas interpretativas, tuvieron los mayores avances de su historia durante el siglo XX. Esta última hipótesis, no es el objeto de análisis de este texto, pero si el motivo mismo por el cual es de suma importancia hablar de una interpretación históricamente documentada en Ionisation, porque Varèse la concibió con lo recursos tímbricos, estéticos e interpretativos de los cuales disponía en el momento.

Pryer, Anthony J.. November 2012. Claudio Monteverdi: Sacrae Cantiunculae; Madrigali Spirituali; Canzonette a 3 Voci. Cremona (Italy): Fondazione Claudio Monteverdi. ISBN 9788886288361.

This edition brings together the three earliest printed collections of music in Claudio Monteverdi’s output – the Sacrae Cantiunculae (1582), the Madrigali Spirituali (1583) and the Canzonette a tre voci (1584). The Sacrae Cantiunculae have never been presented before with a full liturgical commentary, the Madrigali Spirituali have hitherto only appeared in facsimile and without a commentary, and the Canzonette have never been edited so as to display all of the stanzas of the texts underlayed to the music, and with a flexible system of barring that takes proper account of the accentuation of the Italian words. Additionally, these new transcriptions correct numerous notational and textual errors in two earlier editions (1909, 1939), and a substantial ‘Introduction’ provides important new information on the creative context and performance of these items. These collections were clearly designed to demonstrate the precocious ability of the young Monteverdi (he was just fifteen years old in 1582), covering as they do three important, contrasting musical genres – the motet, the spiritual madrigal, and the canzonetta. Moreover, they all date from Monteverdi’s years in Cremona, and the printers, publishers and patrons involved reveal interesting details about exactly how he gained entry to the professional world of music.

Despite most pianists' claims of historical deference and creative agency, their performances of Brahms's piano works are nothing like the early-recorded performances of the composer and his students: gaps that are mediated by understandings of Brahms's Classical canonic identity, the performance norms that protect that identity, and those norms' underlying aesthetic ideology of control. This predication of Brahmsian identity on restraint leaves the composer and his students in a precarious situation, as their recordings evidence an approach that is governed by the inhibitions typically associated with Romanticism. This volume seeks to problematize understandings of Brahms's identity: by investigating the origins and vestiges of the aesthetic ideology of control; by analysing and copying the recordings of pianists in the composer's inner circle; and by applying these pianists' styles in ways that are just as disruptive to modern notions of Brahmsian identity as their early-recorded models. In so doing, a thoroughly Romantic performance style emerges that catalyses a fundamental shift in understanding as related to Brahms's identity; thereby opening up a new palette of expressive and technical resources, and both elucidating and narrowing persistent gaps between modern and early-recorded Brahms style, as well as between what performers believe, know, and ultimately do.

The vocal techniques of the past, inferred to have a higher larynx, are often dismissed as inferior in quality and volume. According to some scholarship on historical vocal techniques, there is an historical, wrong way to sing and a newer, correct way that is partly determined by the height of the larynx while singing. This thesis examines modern vocal pedagogy's understanding of laryngeal height and compares it to earlier treatises on vocal production: Maffei's discorso, Bérard's L'Art du chant, and two works by Manuel García Jr. There is remarkable similarity in the old and new pedagogy highlighting a faulty premise that the only way to sing today is with a "low" larynx, and that singers of the past sang "incorrectly" with a high larynx. The goal of this thesis is to inspire students of Historically Informed Performance Practice to study modern voice science and to discover how understanding the mechanics of vocal production clarifies the directives found in historical documents on singing.

Over the past hundred years, the operas of Claudio Monteverdi have become iconic symbols of the early music movement and have entered the canon of so-called great operas. The conventional explanation for their iconicity is that they are historically important works, the first to fully realise the potential of the operatic genre, and that they speak to us and relate to contemporary concerns. These definitions, though, are contingent on surrounding socio-cultural factors. Rather than trying to explain their immanent and autonomous greatness, this thesis examines how Monteverdi’s operas have actually been received and performed on stage, going beyond mere description and providing a deeper analysis of the political, cultural, and social contexts of their performative instances. There is no single explanation for why performers and scholars have so frequently engaged with Monteverdi’s operas, but it is clear that Monteverdi opera is now, as it was in the seventeenth century, a fluid entity. In the current stage of what Zygmunt Bauman calls ‘liquid modernity’ this fluidity and lack of single answers is particularly apparent in operatic performance. But where Bauman sees liquid life as a negative and troubling state, this thesis will show that, at least regarding early opera, not having one answer leads to great invention and thoughtful engagement with the contexts of the past and present.
The thesis consists of five case studies, each examining in detail one particular issue brought up by the early opera revival. First, an examination of Monteverdi’s place in the earliest stages of the revival in the first half of the twentieth century challenges the view of the early music movement as primarily antiquarian. The thesis demonstrates the revival’s highly politicised underpinnings in France, Germany, and Italy and the varied effect politics had on how and why Monteverdi’s operas were performed in those countries. Next, audio and video evidence is used to investigate three aspects of modern Monteverdi performance in more depth, examining how stage directors have placed notions of community on stage in their interpretations of L’Orfeo, how stage and music directors have reshaped Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria for widely varying dramaturgical and musical ends, and how singers have interpreted the role of Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea vocally and dramatically. Finally, I examine three recent productions of L’incoronazione di Poppea from the perspective of a participant observer, focusing on how the opera functions in the real space of an opera house, and how the presence of performance is conveyed in early opera today through the use of directorial attitudes, space, and the staging of gender relations.
This wide-ranging thesis demonstrates that the concept of a ‘Monteverdi opera’ is fundamentally fluid. This fluidity involves not only the texts themselves (cuts, rearrangements, transpositions, orchestrations, etc.) but also their medium (the stage, film, recording), their ideologies (nationalistic, fascist, communitarian), and their performances (in various singing and playing styles). While a large amount of valuable and rigorous work has been done in studying the early music movement, few of these studies find a significant place for early opera, and few recognise the basic fluidity and cultural contingency of performance and reception. This thesis hopes to correct those omissions, and to show how this fluidity manifests itself in the modern production of Monteverdi’s operas.

The anonymous treatise Regole per accompagnare sopra la parte (still preserved at the Corsiniana Library in Rome, in the Girolamo Chiti collection, and in Bologna with a di erent title) is a source of crucial importance for reconstructing the style of realization of the basso continuo in late Baroque Italy. An investigation on the place and time of origins of this treatise is an obvious preliminary step to de ne the stylistic relevance of the practices described in it.  e comparison between the copy at the Corsiniana and the one that belonged to Padre Martini’s library, and the reconstruction of the exchange of volumes between the two musicians – realized through the information included in the Chiti- Martini correspondence – demonstrates that this treatise went from Chiti’s library to that of Padre Martini.  e close relationship of this work with another, the Contrapuncti demonstratio varia, whose compilation Chiti explicitly attributes to himself, suggests that he probably did not simply copy the treatise by someone else, but that he may have collected it from various sources and documents related to common practices in the milieu in which he himself was active.  e hypothesis that the practices described in the Regole originated in Rome at Chiti’s time corroborate the fact that they can be applied to the performance practice of Corelli’s music.  is association is not only con rmed by external evidence, but also by the contents of the work; indeed, the treatise presents a great number of instances of harmonic procedures o en found in Corelli’s music.  e Regole are useful in these cases to suggest speci c solutions of realization, normally not implied in the mere examination of the  gures.

DPhil dissertation, University of Oxford. The career of Giovanni Puzzi; horn performance practice, instruments and repertoire; London concert life (Philharmonic Society, the King's/Her Majesty's Theatre, Concert of Antient  Music, benefit and private concert); patronage; impresario work; the music business in London.

The fame of Viadana's four choruses Psalms op. XXVII (1612) is
due to the particular nature of the work and his detailed foreword
which, like that of the most famous ecclesiastical hundred concerts op. XII (1602),
It is of considerable importance for the performance practice of music
sacred for both the knowledge itself of the structure and the equipment designed by the composer. The indications are contained,
in fact, well beyond a simple enumeration of the possibilities of
execution, related to the events and quota availability, and take
the precise contours of an exhibition of compositional technique and
instrumentation. In the study the practice of these Viadana's Psalms is also highlighted as a model at the German music scene and its development.

This paper investigates the influence of alla turca style in music by W.A. Mozart and F. J. Haydn in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It begins by tracing the origin of the style back to the Ottoman janissaries and their formation in 1329, discussing the first encounters between Europeans and janissaries, and following that influence into European classical music hundreds of years later. The paper will look at various musical examples, specifically examining orchestration, instrumentation and texture.The result is educational, striking impacts and surprising moments in some of the best-loved works in western classical music.

Der Beitrag versucht am Beispiel des Fagotts eine Bestandsaufnahme, inwieweit es heute überhaupt möglich ist, sich an die historische Klanglichkeit anzunähern. Hierbei werden neben der Vielfalt historischer Fagotte auch Aspekte des Rohrbaus und der Klangvorstellung des Musikers berücksichtigt und das Selbstverständnis der Historisch informierten Aufführungspraxis beleuchtet.
Erschienen in: Tradition und Innovation im Holzblasinstrumentenbau des 19. Jahrhunderts, hg. von Sebastian Werr, Augsburg 2012

(Une traduction française suit)

This dissertation is the first in-depth exploration of the connections between the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge (“King’s”) and the early music revival since the mid-twentieth century. It is also one of the first detailed considerations of the role of choirs in the revival. The central question I aim to answer is: How has the vocal style of King’s influenced the development of the vocal style of the early music revival in Britain? I show how the choir’s 109 albums featuring music written before 1750 have helped spread and popularize what I call the “King’s sound.” This sound is characterized by a high level of blend within choral sections, an even balancing of sections with one another, little vibrato, few changes in tempo and dynamics, and a light, bright, and breathy timbre. It is similar to a broader “English sound” found among other Oxbridge college choirs as well as British vocal ensembles specializing in early music. I argue that King’s was an important precursor to these specialist early music ensembles, as the choir began issuing many albums in the 1950s, before a large number of specialist groups formed in the 1970s and 1980s.

King’s was also compatible with and helped bolster the valuing of historical authenticity in the early music revival. Because the choir has sung frequently in church services since its foundation in the fifteenth century, listeners can see King’s as exemplifying longstanding English sacred traditions. In addition, the King’s sound itself seems more historically sensitive for early music than a singing style with hallmarks of nineteenth-century performance practice, such as heavy vibrato and frequent or large changes in tempo and dynamics.

I also argue that the close links between King’s and powerful and wealthy British institutions—particularly the University of Cambridge and the Church of England—aided in spreading the King’s sound. In addition, the all-male and mostly Caucasian composition of the choir allows listeners to see it as a remnant of Britain before twentieth-century feminist movements and modern waves of immigration. This reinforces the choir’s sense of historical authenticity as well as its appeal given the hegemonic status of whiteness and masculinity. I also suggest that the King’s sound itself reflects the relatively homogeneous identity of choir members by way of its exclusion of “other” sounds (and bodies) in favor of choral blend. To conclude, I examine how King’s has influenced the early music revival by training performers, by making premiere recordings of Renaissance and Baroque compositions, and by collaborating with instrumental ensembles. I also consider how other ensembles and trends in the revival have influenced King’s, particularly the rise of historically informed performance.



« La musique ancienne et le Chœur du King’s College, Cambridge, 1958 à 2015 »

Cette thèse est la première exploration en profondeur des liens existant entre le Chœur du King’s College, Cambridge (« King’s ») et le mouvement pour le renouveau de la musique ancienne depuis le milieu du XXe siècle. C’est également l’une des premières considérations du rôle des chœurs au sein de ce renouveau. La question centrale à laquelle je tenterai de répondre est la suivante : comment le style vocal du King’s a-t-il influencé le développement du style vocal du renouveau de la musique ancienne en Grande-Bretagne ? Je démontre comment les 109 albums du chœur sur lesquels l’on retrouve de la musique composée avant 1750 ont aidé à disséminer et populariser ce que j’appelle le « King’s sound » (le « son King’s »). Ce son se caractérise par un haut degré de fondu choral (« blend »), un équilibre uniforme des sections chorales entre elles, peu de vibrato, peu de changements de tempo et de dynamiques, ainsi qu’un timbre sonore qui est léger, brillant et aéré. Il est semblable au « English sound » (« son anglais ») que l’on retrouve parmi d’autres chœurs des collèges d’Oxbridge ainsi que des chœurs britanniques se spécialisant dans la musique ancienne. Je démontre que King’s fut un précurseur important de ces ensembles spécialisés parce que le chœur ayant commencé à produire des albums dès les années 1950, avant la formation de nombreux groupes spécialisés de musique ancienne dans les années 1970 et 1980.

King’s était également compatible avec, et contribua à fortifier, la valorisation de l’authenticité historique au sein du renouveau de la musique ancienne. Puisque le chœur a fréquemment chanté dans des services religieux depuis sa fondation au XVe siècle, les auditeurs peuvent percevoir King’s comme illustrant des traditions sacrées anglaises très anciennes. En outre, le son King’s lui-même apparaissait plus historiquement sensible pour la musique ancienne qu’un style vocal qui a des caractéristiques rappelant les pratiques d’interprétation du XIXe siècle, telles qu’un fort vibrato et des changements fréquents ou prononcés de tempi et dynamiques.

Je propose également que les liens étroits entre King’s et des institutions britanniques puissantes et riches– particulièrement l’Université de Cambridge et l’Église d’Angleterre – ont contribué à la dissémination du son King’s. De plus, la composition entièrement masculine et principalement caucasienne du chœur permet aux auditeurs de le percevoir comme un vestige de la Grande-Bretagne avant les mouvements féministes du XXe siècle et les vagues d’immigrations contemporaines. Ceci renforce le sentiment d’authenticité historique du chœur ainsi que son attrait, étant donné le statut hégémonique de la race blanche et de la masculinité. Je suggère aussi que le son King’s lui-même reflète l’identité relativement homogène des membres du chœur par son exclusion des sons alternatifs (et de différent types de personnes) en faveur d’une homogénéité chorale.

En conclusion, j’examine de quelle manière King’s a influencé le renouveau de la musique ancienne grâce à la formation d’interprètes, par l’enregistrement d’œuvres de la Renaissance et de la période baroque qui n’a jamais été enregistré auparavant, et par la collaboration avec des ensembles instrumentaux. Je m’intéresse également à la manière dont d’autres ensembles et tendances au cours de ce renouveau ont influencé King’s, particulièrement l’essor d’interprétations historiques.

(Traduction par Claudine Jacques)