Performance Practice

Concerto in G Major for oboe, strings and basso continuo by Antonín Reichenauer (c. 1694-1730), which is edited for the first time, is a significant and rare sights instrumental works by Czech composers of the late Baroque. The work was composed probably in the third decade of the 18th century for Count Wenceslas Morzin band for whom Reichenauer worked at that time. This ensemble was one of the best bands in the Czech Republic and as "Maestro di Musica in Italia" for him composed music also Antonio Vivaldi, who dedicated this Morzin a collection of the Concertos op. 8 with the famous "Le quattro stagioni". Also, the Reichenauer's handwriting on the Concerto in G major is obvious direct influence of Vivaldi's music. This critical edition prepared a music historian and musician Lukáš M. Vytlačil to satisfy the scholarly community and also meet the needs of musicians. The score is therefore complemented by Czech and English commentary, complete facsimile copy of the Dresden manuscript and instrumental parts. The concerto is possible without transposition also play on the flute.

The God King Project is PhD theatre performance project as well as a community arts development project. This English language production (with some Sinhalese stanzas) is also investigating how a disempowered culture can bring its cultural identity into the mainstream theatre in a different socio-cultural space.  The production also aims to develop artistic viability, and cross-cultural engagement for Sri Lankan diaspora/migrants who tray to re-enforcing their memories and pass on their cultural knowledge in a creative/educational environment to their second generation, and for who are from different cultural background. The God King Drama is directed by acclaimed theatre director Tharanga Dandeniya.

Based on Sri Lankan folklore and legends, The God King Drama depicts the timeless tale of ordinary people as they struggle with political injustice and social conflict during wartime. This production brings together music, dance, and drama and relies on the traditional elements of Sri Lankan folk drama that include masks, bright colours, a rapidly shifting percussive soundscape, codified gestures and movements, and a chorus. The production is aimed to stage on the Theatre at Performance Arts Centre at Monash university, Clayton campus on 21st ,22nd, and 23rd March 2014.

The God King Drama is presented by the Sir Lankan Theatre Association, a performance cluster by volunteers in Melbourne and having successful performance project records since 2007. The production is also supported by Monash University Center for Theatre and performance, and the Monash Academy of Performing Arts.

History of the Latin American Art Song in the context of Musical Nationalism.
Taking as a thread the concept of national identity, this book elucidates the sound transformations that have taken place in the world of the Latin American art song since its appearance in the late nineteenth century to the present day. 

In songs, spaces of representation and cathartic tools thought, language and music have been at the service of some interests, fulfilling specific functions in the construction of the nation. In them, we observe that the construction of identity is a continuous, constant and changing process in which different stories are superimposed. Seen this way, songs are historical texts where social interactions are reflected, and the past, the present and the future are constantly negotiated. 

The book focuses on the art songs of Brazil, Argentina, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Colombia.  It also addresses the subject of the performance practice of the Latin American song and ends with a proposal for its interpretation.  BUY HERE  https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498581622/The-Latin-American-Art-Song-Sounds-of-the-Imagined-Nations

Following the thread of the Feminist New Materialists, in “I Live in this Dress” the author, a visual art performer, examines the workings of materiality and identity within her own practice. The process of three recent works, Point Out, Touch On and Red We (all 2017) includes the design and construction of a sculptural wearable and techniques of traditional garment making—fabric draping, sewing and embroidery—to reveal a co-embodiment and shared authorship between artist and garment, woman and dress. This deep commitment to the material underpins a shift in selfness toward a collective identity, or alterself. Insomuch as the making makes the performance, the author suggests, the making makes the performer.

Paris-based music publisher Louise Dyer used the Melbourne Centenary Music Book of pipe music by Australian composers to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Melbourne’s foundation in 1934. Whilst reinforcing the objectives and principles of the pipe music education movement, which developed in England and France during the 1920s and 1930s,  the book also stands out as unusual amongst published scores of this time.  This paper explores the Australian-inspired cover design in the context of its educational rationale.

I n the eighteenth century, the "human sciences" were created within the philosophy of enlightenment, guided by significant thinkers such as Hume, Smith, Diderot, Rousseau, Kant, among others. Human sciences appropriate the model of physics to study subjects from an impartial and aseptic point of view. In this context, sociology, anthropology, philology, and musicology were born. Colombian philosopher Santiago Castro-Gómez has called this pretension the hubris of the zero point. 1 For the Greeks, the hubris was considered the worst of sins because it supposed the illusion of being able to go beyond the limits of the mortal condition in order to become like the gods. Hubris is therefore synonymous with arrogance. 2 From this pretended zero point of observation, the sciences of man built a discourse on history and human nature in which the peoples colonized by Europe appeared at the lowest level of development, while the new science, the market economy, and modern political institutions were presented as the ultimate goal (telos) of the social, cognitive, and moral evolution of humanity. 3 In this context, the human sciences serve to describe the individuals outside the zero point. These individuals seek to legitimize and reaffirm the preeminent place in the world of the illustrated thinkers. The "hubris of the zero point" also supposes a separation between the identified superior intellect and the inferior body. The scientists and enlightened philosophers were convinced that they could acquire an objective point of view. To achieve complete objectivity, the observer should detach himself from any prescientific and metaphysic observation. In doing so, the enlighted philosophers established a dialectic between the barbarism of the American, Asian, and African societies that represented tradition and the civilized European society that represented modernity. From that moment on, the history of Europe became the world's history, and all other cultural voices of humanity were seen as "traditional" or "primitive," and were regarded as outside world history.

The Dutch-born American and Oscar-winning composer Richard
Hageman encapsulated various musical cultures in his artistic output
as conductor, pianist, and composer of mainly art songs and
film. He is best known, particularly among the American Art Song
community, for his songs for voice and piano. Of his output of 69
published songs the 1917 setting of Rabindranath Tagore's Do Not
Go, My Love received the most attention by performers since its
composition to the present day. Having generally been neglected in
scholarly investigation until now, this presentation aims to briefly
introduce Hageman as a song composer, and then pinpoint the
emergence of a performance practice of his songs. The commercial
recordings from between 1924 and 1999 of Do Not Go, My Love,
plus some live performances by professional artists, form the basis of
this research project.

Instruction books published in Germany and Austria were first published for the two-key Baroque clarinet in 1732. During the 1760s, the four-key Classical clarinet was initially developed and the important five-key clarinet was first made in England and within a few years was adopted and used throughout Europe.  By the second decade of the 19th century, Romantic-period clarinets of 12, 13 and more keys were developed. By reviewing these sources we discover the type of clarinet available; often with an engraving of the instrument; fingerings recommended; how the clarinet was held; the placement of the lips on the mouthpiece and position of the reed; articulation; and breathing; the position of fingers on the finger holes; reed making instructions; study pieces; duets, and popular music. A table shows all the sources reviewed and indicates that the reed-above placement was used by most players until the 1840s.

Drawing on theories of mediation and a wealth of primary sources, Beethoven 1806 explores the specific contexts in which the music of this year was conceived, composed, and heard. As author Mark Ferraguto argues, understanding this music depends on appreciating the relationships that it both creates and reflects. Not only did Beethoven depend on patrons, performers, publishers, critics, and audiences to earn a living, but he also tailored his compositions to suit particular sensibilities, proclivities, and technologies. More: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/beethoven-1806-9780190947187?q=Beethoven&lang=en&cc=us#

Already at the publication in 1648 of his Geistliche Chor-Music Heinrich Schütz seems to have had a sense of foreboding concerning the alien Basso continuo part imposed on him for mercantile reasons. And rightly so. The mere existence of this very part has led editors to far-reaching and highly questionable decisions, not least the use of metrical barring.

This article shows how these editorial decisions change the musical content by crucially influencing and changing essential structural and performative parameters, hence e. g. inhibiting carefully composed intrinsic phrasing mechanisms.

With reference to the “Deklamationsrhythmik” the article proposes an alternative reading of horizontal structures in stile antico, thus opening an analytical view to possibly disregarded poetic-semantic aspects and complementing the traditional solely vertical comprehension of the genesis of dissonances which tends to lock the performance practice in a position contradicting Schütz’ explicit wish that “this kind of music shall increasingly reach the fulfillment of its desired ‘Effect’ ”.

Inhalt: Federico Celestini: Gustav Mahler und die jüdische Moderne – Manuel Gervink: Arnold Schönbergs Bewunderung gegenüber Gustav Mahler - Schüler, Kollege, Freund? – Ilija Dürhammer: Drei große Frauengestalten: Helene von Nostitz, Salome, Ruth St. Denis und deren Bedeutung für die Josephslegende – Endre Kiss: Friedrich Nietzsches Stellung in Gustav Mahlers geheimer Revolution der Musik – András Wilheim: Zum Problem des Sprechgesang bei Arnold Schönberg – Stefanie Rauch: «Richtiges» Aufführen? Zur Überwindung des Stildualismus bei Mahler und Schönberg – Karl Katschthaler: Mahlers Großer Hammer als Instrument bei Alban Berg und Wolfgang Rihm – Margarete Wagner: Abgrenzung und Vereinnahmung - Richard Dehmels Beziehungen zu Gustav Mahler und Arnold Schönberg – Gabriella Rácz: Die Macht der Musik - Schönbergs Streichquartette bei Arnold Zweig und Hartmut Lange – Tamás Lichtmann: «O Wort, du Wort, das mir fehlt!» Die sakral-profane Sprache in Schönbergs Moses und Aron.

Although most auctioneers do not self-identify as musicians, the practice of auctioneering in the United States reveals a sophisticated musical approach to metric improvisation based on the establishment of musical expectation and the strategic thwarting of that expectation through flexible treatment of meter. Auctioneers establish a “referential” meter wherein a consistent organization of the pulse returns repeatedly, alternating with expansions or contractions of that primary meter. Listeners are entrained to expect musical consistency, but through disruptions of familiar musical patterns, the auctioneer focuses bidder attention on the chant rather than the realities of the economic transaction in progress. Thus, meter is employed as an improvisational tool that unites the listening and bidding audience within a musical space and plays with expectations just enough to keep bidders alert and engaged.

Beethoven’s tempo indications have been the subject of much scholarly debate, but a coherent understanding of his intended tempos has not yet emerged. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, some of the discussion has been based on unreliable sources, or an unrepresentative sample of sources. Secondly, the substantial differences between tempo preferences in the early nineteenth century and now has made these tempo indications difficult to approach for musicians in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Thirdly, discussions of Beethoven’s tempo have typically focussed on works in one particular genre. This thesis overcomes these limitations by incorporating all of Beethoven’s works, and rooting the whole research in a wide variety of sources from the eighteenth and nineteenth century that have a plausible relationship with Beethoven’s practice. In particular the metronome marks by Beethoven, as well as those from his close contemporaries Carl Czerny, Ignaz Moscheles, and Karl Holz, provide great insight into the composer’s sense of tempo. By using as many sources on Beethoven’s tempo as possible, this approach makes reasonable estimations of the actual speeds that Beethoven had in mind for his works. Furthermore, it also allows an exploration of the musical intuitions that are the root cause of these speeds.

The "Bauhaus Dances" were a set of choreographic experiments that Oskar Schlemmer and his students performed intermittently during the late 1920s in the context the Bauhaus stage workshop. The opening sentence of Walter Gropius's "Bauhaus Manifesto" of 1919 read: "The ultimate aim of all visual arts is the complete building." 1 The building combined architecture with craft, but Schlemmer's insight was the aim of building: to house the body. Although primarily a painter and sculptor, we can tell from his teaching notes that Schlemmer placed the human body at the center of building. In the workshop he and his students created masks, costumes , props, and decor for the theatrical presentation of choreography on stage that would both decompose and recompose the basic elements of the body and space in order to show their mutually conditioning relationships. 2 Here, even chairs were important. This was, in a certain sense, an abstract theater in that it was an attempt to get at the most elemental compositional aspects possible: "form and color, space, movement, speech and sound, idea and composition." 3 But, it was motivated by the search for laws governing the place and proportionality of the human body in architectural space and the conflicts engendered by that encounter-in brief, the drama of the body and its dwelling. 4 Hence, it was fundamentally choreographic. Although at times architecture was represented on stage and the theater itself was acknowledged to be an architectural environment, the drama of the "Bauhaus Dances" was that of the human body in architectonic relation to space. As 2019 draws to a close, this section dedicates a number of its pages to the Bauhaus centennial. The Bauhaus legacy has stood the test of time, not least because of its principle of inclusion; its multidisciplinary and egalitarian values saw dance and performance integrated into its design practice. The performance scholar Mark Franko shares historical, theoretical, and personal perspectives on the "Bauhaus Dances" and his experience with the reconstructions of the '80s and '90s. George Kan and I write on Performa 19's nod to Bauhaus

The 1760s was a period of innovation when new instruments such as the square piano and the clarinet appeared on the musical stage. As players of the new clarinet arrived in England, primarily from Germany, composers incorporated its novel sounds and tone colours in several works. The purpose of this article is to highlight the clarinet's early appearances in England, its rise in popular appeal, the beginnings of British manufacture and its musical use.

Este artículo estudia críticamente la relación entre la práctica performativa y la intercorporeidad, intentando dar cuenta de un tipo de comunicación que se desarrolla entre los cuerpos y que no necesariamente pasa por la semantización.
Referencia: Contreras, M.J. 2008 “Práctica performativa e intercorporeidad. Sobre el contagio de los cuerpos en acción”. Revista Apuntes. N 130. Santiago: Editorial Escuela de Teatro Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. pp. 148 – 162.

Lessons from an 18th-Century master of the Viol: Some Markings in a Copy of Marais' Pieces de Violes, Book 2, 1701. These pencilled and inked handwritten notations from an original print in the Sibley Library, Rochester, NY, give an extraordinary glimpse of a huge range of expressive bow techniques in music for viola da gamba, and by extension in string/instrumental music generally, in this period.

Curating performance costume in exhibitions raises issues as to how to convey the ‘true’ feeling of the garment within a motionless environment, in the absence of the main elements which influenced the costume’s original creation. Can the actual, original, spirit of the costume be documented and/or presented in an exhibition, where movement is only implied? This chapter investigates dance costumes seen as performative works of art taken out of their original context and presented as a ‘fragment’ of the performance within a new context. The aim is to investigate the choices involved in the curatorial and design processes, where poses and gestures, as well as the positioning of the garments in a given space, contribute to the interrelation of dance costumes with the original sense of their motion-related presence in that very space. In a certain sense, one costume becomes another when shown at an exhibition, where new notional and spatial metaphors are created. Multiple curatorial questions are examined in order to explore documented movement, personal narrative and the given space as sources of inspiration when conceptualizing a dance costume presentation.

In recent years, Beethoven’s metronome marks for his Ninth Symphony have experienced a renewed relevance, with several ensembles incorporating the indicated speeds in their performances. Nevertheless, previous research has shown that some of the marks have been incorrectly transmitted, and there is the suspicion that further mistakes are still undiscovered. Focusing particularly on the second and fourth movements, this article discusses the historical sources and scholarly contexts for these markings, within a historical framework that draws on Beethoven’s general tempo principles, as well as observations from contemporaries. The article suggests that the trio of the second movement has three speeds that can be justified historically, although the most popular option, minim = 160, arguably has the least supporting evidence. The discussion also draws attention to another metronome mark for the final section of the symphony that has been often overlooked. Finally, it argues that one of the most often cited examples of an erroneously transmitted metronome mark, the dotted minim = 96 for the Schreckensfanfare found in the later sources, is consistent with Beethoven’s wider practice, and should provide an incentive for performers to experiment with historically informed tempi in this familiar repertory.

Recent Researches in Music of the Baroque Era B213
ISBN 978-1-9872-0615-9 (print)
ISBN 978-1-9872-0616-6 (online)
DOI https://doi.org/10.31022/B213
ISSN 0484-0828 (print)
ISSN 2577-4573 (online)

The three song anthologies of Giovanni Stefani survive as the most abundantly printed seventeenth-century songbooks with the chordal notation of the guitar known in Italy as alfabeto. Printed in multiple editions from 1618 to 1626, Stefani’s books anthologize nearly one hundred songs, many of which appear copied in numerous other manuscripts, attesting to their widespread appeal in early modern Italy. While beginners will be drawn to their simplicity, experienced performers will delight in the improvisational opportunities made available by songs built on the spagnoletta, folia, ciaconna, and romanesca. This edition brings together for the first time all three of Stefani’s anthologies in modern transcription, allowing performers to play either from the original alfabeto notation or from a modern realization, given both in modern guitar chord symbols and harmonies in staff notation, making it possible for all instruments to participate in the continuo band.

A fair amount of literature has been published on the use of musical topics in the works of eighteenth-century composers, with the writings of Leonard Ratner and Wendy Allanbrook among the most influential. Allanbrook, Ratner, and their disciples have shown how studying representations of topics in opera might allow for the recognition of those same musical characteristics when they appear in instrumental music. Although for these scholars the use of topics was an eighteenth-century practice, it is also useful to consider their use in nineteenth-century repertoire. Ratner's method can be used to create a guideline for the general musical topoi that Johannes Brahms uses in his late piano works through the examination of his other piano pieces, chamber music works, and songs. The comparison of Brahms' written tempo markings and the examination of textural elements such as rhythmic patterns, figurations, and key areas help support the identification of certain topical characteristics. Brahms' songs in particular offer instructive information on common textural topoi, where the text helps underline the given mood of a passage. The compilation of a list of musical topoi used by Brahms, one that reflects both the given period's and the composer's personal musical choices, furthers the understanding of Brahms' musical language and allows for more well-informed interpretations of his works.

The notion of 'resistibility', whereby a work is performed unsympathetically by those who are not in accord with its overall aesthetic, was propounded by Taruskin as a critique of certain performances of Beethoven's Symphony no. 9. In this dissertation it is examined in relation to Schoenberg's Piano Concerto, Op. 42, which is shown to share several features,
including an evocation of the sublime, a requirement for hermeneutic interpretation and liminality, which Taruskin suggests cause Beethoven's work to be resisted.

To examine whether Schoenberg's work is resisted in a similar way, the dissertation examines ten recordings of the work, using Hulme's distinction between the vitalist and geometrical as an overarching taxonomic background. Employing a series of empirical techniques including tempo graphs and correlation plots, the performances are assessed for their stylistic approaches against a number of signifiers of vitalist or geometrical stances, including tempo variations within and between sections, the use of tempo to mark structural divisions, and the pianists' use of tempo and dynamic to shape phrases: separate chapters discuss the conductors' and soloists' contributions respectively. The conclusion highlights any broad trends found and reaches a conclusion on whether Schoenberg's work is resisted.

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.

Notas musicológicas para el CD "Ministriles Novohispanos. Obras del manuscrito 19 de la Catedral de Puebla de los Ángeles", Ensemble La Danserye. Sociedad Española de Musicología, serie “El Patrimonio Musical Hispano”, nº 31, DISCAN CDC309, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2013, pp. 9-24 (español)

Altough the organ was involved in the continuo practice in a much larger measure than the harpsichord or other instruments, there is a noticeable scarcity of studies on this subject. This article intends to present a series of documents concerning organ continuo practice which date back mostly to seventeenth-century Italy. These sources consist mostly of avvertimenti to the reader published in the organ part-books of concertata sacred music of the early seventeenth century, mostly unknown up to now. After giving a cursory view of the different kinds of organ which were used in Italy at the time, this article deals with three fundamental aspects of the subject: 1. registration of the organ continuo; 2. number of the different parts harmonizing the basso continuo; 3. range of the accompaniment on the keyboard.

The cercar della nota consists in the intonation of a melodic phrase by means of portamenti or passing notes. Most musicologists consider it a vocal practice limited to the 17th century, and in particular to composers of the seconda
prattica (G. B. Bovicelli 1594 and G. Caccini 1602) but also to German composers that introduced elements of the Italian style in their country (among them, M. Praetorius 1619, C. Bernhard 1650 ca. and W. Mylius 1685). On the contrary, there are written document that confirm that this grace – born in Italy and then
spread out in Europe – was practiced well until the first decades of the 20th century, although with some different names and characteristics. Intervals, position within the musical phrase, use of ‘carrying’ of the tone, can change from period to period. In the majority of cases, the mentioned written sources are singing
primers. Among these, the most relevant ones are German, but we also find some Spanish (Remacha 1799), French (García 1847) and English (Corri 1779) ones. In the 17th century, the cercar della nota was not only permitted but even required. Since the mid18th century, some authors started to consider it a misused device: it was therefore banned by theorists because of its abuse. Although it was considered nauseating, it had nonetheless never been abandoned from practice the praxis the 20th century. The cercar della nota was sometimes justified more by technical more than aesthetical reasons. Rather than articulating syllables on high
notes, a singer can pronounce them on a lower passing note. This leads to the real one through a portamento. Relying on the evidence of numerous written sources, the author argues that historically informed performances of vocal music of the
past should not exclude the phenomenon of the cercar della nota, a technique that is totally neglected nowadays.

Several of Jelly Roll Morton's 1920s piano rolls are among the greatest musical creations to come from an American composer. They are important because in terms of musical infrastructure — the notes and rhythms — they largely represent what Morton actually sat down and played.  This conclusion can be drawn by comparing them to Morton’s phonograph recordings, particularly those from the same time period in which his rolls were made.  However, as was standard for pop piano rolls of the era, the subtle expressive details — dynamics and tempo variation — that characterize all human performance were extracted in the roll manufacturing process. The fact that Morton had made these extraordinary piano roll renditions from which his unique performance style had been extracted was troubling. How then, could we return to his piano roll renditions the characteristic expressivity of Morton’s live performance? Using his contemporaneous 78 rpm phonograph recordings and new computer technologies that became available in the 1990s, this paper details the method we developed to return Morton's uniquely expressive performance style to his piano rolls.

This dissertation introduces the ‘Edna Iles’s Medtner Collection’ (EIMC), held by the
British Library in London, and provides a detailed analysis of her ‘Notes on the
Interpretation of Medtner’s Works’. Nikolay Medtner (1880–1951) was one of Russia’s
leading, early-20th-century composers, who spent the latter part of his life in the UK.
He wrote mainly for the piano, composing 14 piano sonatas, three piano concertos, 108
songs, three violin sonatas, a piano quintet and more than 90 pieces for solo piano.
Although he performed and recorded, and was considered a prominent composer while
he was resident in the UK, his wider renown in the West was limited.
Edna Iles (1905–2003) was an English pianist and Medtner’s last pupil. She took
numerous notes during and immediately following her lessons and, in 1997, donated all
of her Medtner-related materials to the British Library. I am the fourth person to
consult it. The scope of the EIMC is impressive: Medtner manuscripts, newspaper
cuttings, photographs and letters, all of which she carefully organized before donating.
Importantly, her ‘Notes on the Interpretation of Medtner’s Works’ contain unique
information about how he taught and thought his music should be interpreted. She was,
in fact, the only Medtner student to leave systematic written evidence of his pedagogy;
the recordings she made of his music further demonstrate her mastery of his principles.
She became, in effect, his disciple. This dissertation assesses the new light her ‘Notes’
shed on our knowledge of his methods and pianism.
The Introduction provides details of Medtner reception history and introduces all
available sources on Medtner performance practice. Chapter 1 summarizes the lives of
Medtner and Iles, and elucidates the nature of their relationship. Chapters 2 through to
4 discuss the disciplines of Medtner’s approach to playing – basic piano technique,
articulation, practicing, pedaling and memorization – corroborated elsewhere. Chapters
5 and 6 unravel the more intellectual concepts of fil rouge, tempo, phrasing, voicing and
his distinction between energetic and rounded music that form the core of Iles’s ‘Notes’
and represent the EIMC’s most original contribution to Medtner performance practice.
Chapter 7 provides the opportunity to observe and apply Medtner’s interpretive
philosophy to a single work (Sonate-Idylle, Op. 56) by blending the advice conveyed in
his printed scores with the methodology and insights he communicated to Iles. The
Conclusions affirm the importance of the EIMC as a uniquely detailed primary source
on Medtnerian performance practice.
An inventory of the Edna Iles Medtner Collection and transcript of her ‘Notes on
Interpretation of Medtner’s Works’ can be found in Appendices One and Two.
Appendix Three offers a facsimile of exercises Medtner gave to Iles, preserved in her
own handwriting. Appendices Four and Five provide a discography of Medtner piano
works and pertinent contextual photographic evidence.

Partendo dagli studi sviluppatisi nell'ultimo decennio sulle edizioni italiane delle composizioni bachiane per tastiera (ed in particolar modo sul Clavicembalo ben temperato), si studiano sistematicamente dieci edizioni pratiche delle Invenzioni a due voci di J. S. Bach pubblicate in Italia tra il 1850 e il 1985 (lavori realizzati da Bix, Cesi, Busoni, Mugellini, Del Valle, Longo, Buonamici, Moroni, Casella, Pestalozza). L'obiettivo è quello di ricostruire le peculiarità delle singole edizioni e di individuare i tratti ricorrenti della prassi esecutiva e della didattica bachiana in Italia a cavallo tra Ottocento e Novecento in relazione con gli specifici contesti storico-culturali e le diverse scuole pianistiche.
Il lavoro è diviso in due parti: nella prima, dopo un quadro sul progetto didattico bachiano e sulle caratteristiche compositive ed esecutive della raccolta, si presentano le edizioni pratiche delle Invenzioni a due voci, i loro revisori, le Prefazioni: qui si inquadrano le questioni storiche e culturali che stanno alla base delle revisioni. Le seconda parte del lavoro, invece, è di carattere prettamente analitico: si propone un nuovo metodo teso a mettere in luce omogeneità e punti di ambiguità nelle scelte interpretative dei singoli revisori, considerando come parametri fondamentali agogica e metronomo, fraseggio, diteggiatura, dinamica e ornamentazione. Tale metodo viene applicato sistematicamente prima per le singole edizioni, quindi per tre casi di studio (le Invenzioni nn. 1, 8, 11). Infine, si propone una sintesi dei risultati analitici e si avanzano alcune proposte per lo studio della ricezione bachiana in Italia tratteggiando i termini del dibattito musicale e musicologico intorno all'anniversario del 1985.