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Full-Text Articles in Music Practice
Mersenne On Vocal Diminutions, Margaret Seares
Mersenne On Vocal Diminutions, Margaret Seares
Performance Practice Review
Marin Mersenne's Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636-37) provides a rare insight into French vocal practice of the early 17th c. Although he approaches singing as a teacher or composer, his comments also provide the performer with clues about ornamentation in early-17th-c. French vocal music. His examples of diminutions and explanations of individual ornaments reveal that the practice was significantly different from that of the later part of the century, with which most modern singers are more familiar.
Interpretive Left-Hand Fingerings For Lute In Nicholas Vallet's "Le Secret Des Muses" (1615), Susan G. Sandman
Interpretive Left-Hand Fingerings For Lute In Nicholas Vallet's "Le Secret Des Muses" (1615), Susan G. Sandman
Performance Practice Review
Lute fingerings for the left hand are a valuable source of information about the Articulation of Baroque music. Vallet's fingerings are given for 49 pieces in Le secret des muses. They affect linear Articulation, often indicating a preference for breaks before strong beats, before an anacrusis, and prior to ornaments, as well as articulating dance rhythms and sequential passages. His fingerings contribute to our understanding of some of the many performance details of early 17th-c. French music that may be mined for artistic guidance today.
The Role Of Diction And Gesture In Italian Baroque Opera, Olga Termini
The Role Of Diction And Gesture In Italian Baroque Opera, Olga Termini
Performance Practice Review
Early Italian Baroque opera (ca. 1600-ca. 1770) was drama-oriented; Monteverdi and the composers of the Camerata emphasized diction and gesture or acting in the portrayal of characters. Singers such as Anna Renzi were praised for their interpretive skills as much as for their singing. The anonymous treatise Il corago (ca. 1630) gives detailed instructions on acting in opera. Although later Italian opera moved toward the concert on stage, writers and critics remained enthusiastic in their emphasis on dramatic interpretation and became ever more critical in their assessment of current performance practices (Francesco Algarotti, Giovanni Antonio Bianchi, Pier Francesco Tosi, and …
Some Observations Concerning Baroque And Modern Vibrato, Frederick Kent Gable
Some Observations Concerning Baroque And Modern Vibrato, Frederick Kent Gable
Performance Practice Review
Supports a narrow and ornamentally used vibrato in Baroque music, and the basic conclusions of Greta Moens-Haenen in Das Vibrato in der Musik des Barock (RILM 88-8038), adding personal observations and comparisons of present performance styles. Emphasizes solo and ensemble vocal vibrato and violin vibrato. Disputes the pro-vibrato views of Robert Donington (RILM 82-1459) and Frederick Neumann (RILM 91-3698).
The Vibrato Controversy, Frederick Neumann
The Vibrato Controversy, Frederick Neumann
Performance Practice Review
Today's early music specialists either ban the use of vibrato or restrict it drastically. This position suffers from three principal weaknesses: the failure to understand the nature of a well-produced vibrato in which the so-called impurities of pitch become inaudible above a certain threshold of speed, through a mysterious brain function (comparable to that involved in stereophonic sound or stereoscopic vision); a misinterpretation of sources; and an unawareness of extensive historical evidence for vibrato use through four centuries, culminating in Mozart's eulogy of a fine vibrato for voice and instruments.
"Performance Practice: Music After 1600." By Howard M. Brown And Stanley Sadie, Albert R. Rice
"Performance Practice: Music After 1600." By Howard M. Brown And Stanley Sadie, Albert R. Rice
Performance Practice Review
Rice discusses and reviews Brown and Sadie's 1989 book.
"Performance Practice: Music After 1600." By Howard M. Brown And Stanley Sadie, George Houle
"Performance Practice: Music After 1600." By Howard M. Brown And Stanley Sadie, George Houle
Performance Practice Review
Houle discusses and reviews Brown and Sadie's 1989 book.
"Thorough-Bass Accompaniment According To Johann David Heinichen." Rev. Ed. By George Buelow, Philip Wade Russom
"Thorough-Bass Accompaniment According To Johann David Heinichen." Rev. Ed. By George Buelow, Philip Wade Russom
Performance Practice Review
Russom discusses and reviews Buelow's 1986 edition.
"New Essays On Performance Practice." By Frederick Neumann, Erich Schwandt
"New Essays On Performance Practice." By Frederick Neumann, Erich Schwandt
Performance Practice Review
Schwandt discusses and reviews Neumann's 1989 book.
Villanescas Of The Virtuosi: Lasso And The Commedia Dell'arte, Martha Farahat
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 …
Francesco Rognoni's "Selva De Varii Passaggi" (1602): Fresh Details Concerning Early Baroque Vocal Ornamentation, Stewart Carter
Francesco Rognoni's "Selva De Varii Passaggi" (1602): Fresh Details Concerning Early Baroque Vocal Ornamentation, Stewart Carter
Performance Practice Review
"One of Milan's most important musicians during the late 16th and early 17th centuries was Francesco Rognoni (died before 1626), a Knight and Count Palatine, son of Richardo Rogniono. The father had published an important treatise on ornamentation nearly thirty years prior to Francesco's. The title page of Francsco's Selva tells us that Francesco was head of instrumental music at the ducal court and maestro di cappella at Santo Ambrosio Maggiore in Milan. In an earlier publication he calls himself a "player of the violin, of the viola bastarda, and other instruments." He may in fact have written the first …