Music Practice Commons^™

"The Performance Of 16th-Century Music: Learning From The Theorists" By Anne Smith, Kenneth Kreitner

Performance Practice Review

Kenneth Kreitner discusses and reviews Smith's 2011 work.

Smith, Anne. The Performance of 16th-Century Music: Learning from the Theo­rists. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

ISBN 978-0-19974261-5.

Improvisation In Sixteenth-Century Italy: Lessons From Rhetoric And Jazz, John Bass

Performance Practice Review

Saying that embellishment was a big deal for sixteenth-­century musicians is hardly a bold move; evidence abounds in treatises, music collections, and written accounts from the time. It has also been the subject of a fair amount of keen musicological scholarship over the years. But making sense out of what musicians of the time actually did in performance and trying to reproduce it today has proven to be more difficult, mainly because improvisers, by nature, do not tend to record what they do. The modern prevailing view seems to be that ornamentation was important, mainly because evidence suggests it was …

The Mandolin: Its Structure And Performance (Sixteenth To Twentieth Centuries), James Tyler, Paul Sparks

Performance Practice Review

RILM: "A history of the instrument, with information about the construction and repertoire, and particular reference to performance techniques. The derivation of the term "mandolin" is discussed, as are the differences between the mandolino and the Neapolitan mandolin."

Performing On The Trombone: A Chronological Survey, David M. Guion

Performance Practice Review

RILM: "A history of the trombone from the late 14th c. to the present, with special emphasis on performance practice."

Giovanni Luca Conforti And Vocal Embellishment: From Formula To Artful Improvisation, Murray C. Bradshaw

Performance Practice Review

"Considers Conforti's treatise Breve et facile maniera d'essercitarsi... (1593) and his Salmi passaggiati (1601-03), revealing the vast gulf between the etude-like exercises in the treatise and the actual embellished music--a difference similar to that between the exercises of Hanon and the piano etudes of Chopin. The embellishments of this period were far more than mere displays of virtuosity; they sprang from a desire to express the deepest meanings of the text."

Book Review: "Studies In The Printing, Publishing And Performance Of Music In The 16th Century." By Stanley Boorman, Maureen Buja

Performance Practice Review

Buja reviews Boorman's 2005 book.

Boorman, Stanley. Studies in the Printing, Publishing and Performance of Music in the 16th Century. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005. Variorium Collected Studies Series, C815. ISBN 0-86078-970-5.

Concerning Articulation On Keyboard Instruments: Aspects From The Renaissance To The Present, Sandra P. Rosenblum

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "The organ, harpsichord, clavichord, and piano have different articulative characteristics due to their actions. An apparent norm of nonlegato playing for secular music existed prior to 1600, with probable playing of notes in ligatures. Signs specific to Articulation began to appear in the 17th c. The articulatory quality of short slurs is discussed, and the persistence of nonlegato into the early 19th c. is illuminated. Changes in the piano and in styles of Articulation went hand in hand in the 19th c. In the 20th c., new signs were added by composers seeking greater specificity of articulative color."

The Guitar And Its Performance From The Fifteenth To Eighteenth Centuries, James Tyler

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract:"Discusses the four-course guitar from the 15th to the 17th c., the five-course guitar from the late 16th to the early 18th c., and the six-course guitar from the later 18th c."

The Timpani And Their Performance (Fifteenth To Twentieth Centuries): An Overview, Edmund Addison Bowles

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "From the 17th to the early 18th c., timpani performance practice was determined by stock formulas, some of which are seen in Bach's and Handel's orchestral writing. Characteristic written-out patterns only came into use in the late 18th c. In the 19th c., rapid changes of pitch became a challenge, and hand screws and mechanical linkages with tuning levers gave way to the modern pedal timpani. The modern era featured the exploitation of various and unusual tone colors and effects, such as glissando passages, stepwise ascending and descending passages, hitting the center of the drum, using different kinds …

The Role Of The Lute In Sixteenth-Century Consorts: Evidence From Terzi's Intabulations, Suzanne Court

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "In his Venetian lute books of 1593 and 1599, Giovanni Antonio Terzi did not define the frequently used terms contrappunto and concerto, which are assigned to ensemble-intabulation lute parts. An attempt to clarify their meanings helps determine intended functions within ensembles. It appears that Terzi's ensemble intabulations were conceived in a purely instrumental context, and that the two distinct styles for lute are written manifestations of foundation and ornamental functions in ensembles, such as described by Agostino Agazzari (1607). Both in terms of the possibilities for instrumentation and the explicit examples of elaborating and foundation lute arrangements, Terzi's …

The Performance Of Roman Sacred Polyphonic Music In The Late Sixteenth And Early Seventeenth Centuries: Evidence From Archival Sources, Noel O'Regan

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "Information about performance practice on large-scale feast-day celebrations is derived from the archival records of eight Roman churches, summarized in tabular form and discussed under the following headings: number of singers, instrumentalists, organs and organists, extra conductors, and the positioning of singers and their platforms. While practices varied considerably among institutions, some common ground is established."

Tuning Renaissance And Baroque Instruments: Some Guidelines, Mark Lindley

Performance Practice Review

Provides detailed guidelines for tuning keyboard instruments, including the harpsichord, piano, and organ. Musical examples for tuning unisons between overtones in consonant intervals and octaves are included. Other musical examples illustrate the procedures for setting a quasi-Pythagorean temperament, a meantone temperament, a temperament ordinaire, a Bach-style irregular temperament, and an equal temperament.

"Performance Practice Before 1600." Edited By Howard M. Brown And Stanley Sadie, Timothy J. Mcgee

Performance Practice Review

McGee discusses and reviews Brown and Sadie's 1989 book.

Ornamentation In Spanish Renaissance Vocal Music, Charles Jacobs

Performance Practice Review

Presents a survey of vocal ornamentation as descibed in Luis de Milan's El maestro (1535), Domenico Pietro Cerone's El melopeo y maestro (1613), and intervening 16th-c. Spanish publications. Discusses musical terms such as redoble, quiebro, glosa, trinar, and hacer garganta. Also includes a summary of the material provided in the eight book of El melopeo, with 54 pages of musical examples from Cerone's suggested diminutions.

Villanescas Of The Virtuosi: Lasso And The Commedia Dell'arte, Martha Farahat

Performance Practice Review

"Little is known about the music of the 16th- and 17th-c. Commedia dell'arte due to the improvisatory nature of the genre. The most detailed account of a commedia performance is in the composer Massimo Troiano's Discorsi... describing the festivities on the occasion of the wedding of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria and Renee of Lorraine (1568). This account only mentions a few musical pieces: the music between acts and one internal song by Roland de Lassus, the kapellmeister. It is possible that Troiano did not mention all the music; close scrutiny of Lassus's 1581 Libri di villanelle... reveals that some …