Music Commons^™

Invoking A Past Or Imposing A Present? Two Views Of Performance Practice, Roland Jackson

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "Richard Taruskin has characterized performance practice or historical performance as not truly historical, but rather as a reflection of a mid-20th-c. Zeitgeist dominated by Stravinsky. In contrast with this presentist view, wherein spontaneous performance, the act, is deemed the highest value, the historicist view affirms that music (along with art works generally) is endowed with a quality of permanent value independent of how it was regarded in its own time or how people react to it now. Historicist performance practice holds that a composer's intention (the autonomous work) is rediscoverable, at least in part, and that the manner …

"Ornamental" Neumes And Early Notation, Timothy J. Mcgee

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "A comparison of the "ornamental" neumes in the earliest notation with theoretical statements about their execution shows a close relationship between the shape of the neumes and the intended sound. This suggests that one of the primary purposes of the earliest notation was to transmit information about the performance of vocal gestures and nuances that were unfamiliar to the northern Europeans."

The Application Of (Ornamental) Strokes In English Virginalist Music: A Brief Chronological Survey, Desmond Hunter

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: The English virginalists from 1530 to 1650 used signs in the form of an oblique stroke through the note stem to indicate a grace. The single stroke does not appear to have been used as a grace sign until around 1570 and was used frequently only after the later 17th c. The double stroke appears often; 16th-c. English keyboard music sources imply that it was realized with a form of shake. The triple stroke was used only in a small number of sources including 16th- and 17th-c. MSS. The sometimes idiosyncratic usage of signs suggests that composers and …

Some Thoughts Concerning The Effects Of Tuning On Selected Musical Works (From Landini To Bach), Mark Lindley

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "The type of tuning system in use during any particular period in history sometimes had a profound influence on the musical works produced. The impure intervals of the Pythagorean, quasi-Pythagorean, and later meantone temperaments might well have been used and heard as dissonances in certain contexts. Composers such as Louis Couperin, Francois and Bach exploited the distinctive tonal colors of different keys arising from the French and German irregular temperaments. However, systematically varied intervallic nuances for different keys were not a characteristic feature of the music for Baroque fretted instruments; for these works, equal temperament was the norm."

Communications And Corrections

Performance Practice Review

End matter and Advertisements from the Spring 1996 (9/1) issue of Performance Practice Review.

Mla Reports: Pre-Conference On Conservation, And A Report On The Conference, Lisa Rae Philpott

Western Libraries Publications

Report of the Music Library Association's 65th Annual meeting, held at the Seattle Westin, February 5-1 1, 1996. The pre-conference Conservation Workshop, offered by Ted Honea of Sibley Library was invaluable and informative. Gerard Schwarz, Music Director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra since 1983, described his indebtedness to music libraries, and how he devises programmes for the SSO. Other topics included: Brahmsiana; Managing Difficult People; Managing Technology; Teaching the 'Net; the Selling of Seattle Through Song; and Handel's Relationship with his Publishers. And, the Eastman School/Sibley Library has recently received the Alexander Courage Collection (source materials, sketches, and movie scores, …

The Divine Madness: A Comedic Theater Piece For Six Players In Five Scenes, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

The Players (in order of appearance)

a middle-aged composer, dressed in 19th century costume
an impresario, speaks with W.C.Fields accent, dressed in a Dickensian style
the cast (chorus) of the Willy-Nilly Traveling Opera-Circus Troupe:
a flamboyant soprano, an aging diva, colorfully dressed
an alto, a timid musicologist, dressed as a college co-ed
a tenor, a jazzer, dressed in a pin-striped zoot suit, wearing sun-glasses
a bass, a bitter old man, speaks with a German accent, wearing shabby clothes
stage audience including a critic, and crew

Place

Five days in the present sets a garret and the backstage of a theater …

"Music Education And The Art Of Performance In The German Baroque" By John Butt, David Schulenberg

Performance Practice Review

Reviews and critiques John Butt's book on Music education and the art of performance in the German Baroque.

Cover/Table Of Contents

Performance Practice Review

Front matter and Table of Contents from the Spring 1995 (8/1) issue of Performance Practice Review.

Cover/Table Of Contents

Performance Practice Review

Front matter and Table of Contents from the Fall 1995 (8/2) issue of Performance Practice Review.

Performance Practice Bibliography, 1994-1995

Performance Practice Review

Bibliography of articles published in the field of Historical Performance Practice during 1994-1995.

Contributors/End Matter

Performance Practice Review

List of contributors to the Fall 1995 (8/2) issue of Performance Practice Review.

End matter and advertisements from the Fall 1995 (8/2) issue of Performance Practice Review.

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."

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 …

Tromlitz On Playing The Flute: A Résumé, Jane Bowers

Performance Practice Review

Identifies the highlights of Ardal Powell's translation of Johann Georg Tromlitz's treatise Ausfuhrlicher und grundlicher Unterricht die Flote zu spielen. Tromlitz's treatise contains information on both flute technique and performance practice in the late 18th c. The following topics in Tromlitz's treatise are analyzed in detail: practicing, tone quality, playing with expressivity, intonation, Articulation, rhythm and tempo, ornamentation, and the trill. Excerpts from Powell's translation are included.

Some Thoughts About "Last Words And Overdotting", Stephen E. Hefling

Performance Practice Review

A review and analysis of Fuller's preceeding article.

Stephen Hefling's Book: Another View, Erich Schwandt

Performance Practice Review

A brief review of Stephen Hefling's book "Rhythmic Alteration in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Music: Notes inegale and Overdotting."

Tempo Gradations In Purcell's Sonatas, Mary Cyr

Performance Practice Review

"Both the Italian tempo indications in Purcell's sonatas and the occasional English words in the fantasias imply differences of character as well as speed. The melodic and harmonic motion, and the presence of dissonance or chromaticism serve as superior guides to the finer nuances of speed and Articulation than does the examination of meter. Several of the apparent inconsistencies in Purcell's tempo marks may be resolved when they are considered in the context of three categories--fast, moderate, and slow."

The Expressive Pause: Punctuation, Rests, And Breathing In England 1770-1850, Robert Toft

Performance Practice Review

Examines the close relationship between the arts of singing and speaking in English treatises on singing published from the late-18th to the mid-19th c. Speech patterns are compared to the singer's practices of punctuation, rests, and breathing in order to explain the highly articulated singing style of the period."

Performance Practice In The Indeterminate Works Of John Cage, Judith Irene Lochhead

Performance Practice Review

The recordings of Cage's indeterminate works such as Variations I, Fontana mix, Cartridge music, Variations II, and Variations III reveal certain traditions in their performance, in both form and style.

"Wagner In Performance." Eds. Barry Millington And Stewart Spencer, José Antonio Bowen

Performance Practice Review

A brief review of Barry Millington and Stewart Spencer's book "Wagner in Performance."

"Early Recordings And Musical Style: Chaning Tastes In Instrumental Performance, 1900-1950." By Robert Philip, Douglas Leedy

Performance Practice Review

Leedy discusses and reviews Philip's 1992 book.

"Makers Of The Piano, 1700-1820." By Martha Novak Clinkscale, Malcolm S. Cole

Performance Practice Review

Cole reviews Clinkscales 1993 book.

Frederick Neumann's Final Book--An Appraisal, Albert Cohen

Performance Practice Review

A brief review of Neumann's last book, "Performance Practice of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.

Cover/Front Matter

Performance Practice Review

Cover, Table of Contents, and Copyright Information.

Front Matter/Table Of Contents

Performance Practice Review

Cover, Table of Contents, and Copyright Information.

Italian Split-Keyboard Instruments With Fewer Than Nineteen Divisions To The Octave, Denzil Wraight, Christopher Stembridge

Performance Practice Review

Checklists of (1) surviving Italian harpsichords and virginals with split black keys; (2) similar instruments not known to survive but whose existence can be documented; (3) 26 Italian organs built during the period 1468-1665 that are known to have had split keys. Gives the ranges of these instruments when known. Discusses Frescobaldi's probable involvement with such instruments.

Last Words On Inequality And Overdotting: A Review Of Stephen Hefling's Book, David Fuller

Performance Practice Review

Fuller attempts to make definitve decisions about "appropriate" articulation and rhythmic interpretation in 17th and 18th century music.

The Expressive Pause: Punctuation, Rests, And Breathing In England, 1770-1850, Robert Toft

Performance Practice Review

Examines the close relationship between the arts of singing and speaking in English treatises on singing published from the late-18th to the mid-19th c. Speech patterns are compared to the singer's practices of punctuation, rests, and breathing in order to explain the highly articulated singing style of the period.

The Uses Of Rubato In Music, Eighteenth To Twentieth Centuries, Sandra P. Rosenblum

Performance Practice Review

Tempo rubato is a disregard of certain notated properties of rhythm and tempo for the sake of expressive performance. There are two basic types of rubato practices. Contrametric rubato involves a solo melody moving in subtly or equally redistributed note values (sometimes with added notes) against a steady pulse in the accompaniment. Structural or agogic rubato involves the simultaneous retardation or acceleration of tempo of the entire performing body. Theories on rubato practice from Lodovico Zacconi (1592) to Marian Sobieski and Jadwiga Sobieska (1960) are considered, as is use of rubato by composers from Giovanni da Cascia in the 14th …