Music Commons^™

Action And Singing In Late 18th And Early 19th Century England, Robert Toft

Performance Practice Review

RILM: "Examines the role that action played in the performance of vocal music in the late 18th and early 19th c., through descriptions in writings from the period. Gilbert Austin's Chironomia, or, A treatise on rhetorical delivery (London, 1806) provided instruction in elocution and described such topics as standing, using the hands and arms, and making gestures in relation to the text. Austin's notation of action is applied to Thomas Gray's poem An elegy written in a country church-yard--which was set to music by Stephen Storace--to illustrate how action might have been employed by singers in the late 18th …

Historical And Regional Pronunciations In Vocal Performance, Douglas Leedy

Performance Practice Review

RILM: "Particular pronunciations or dialects are important factors in the creation and execution of vocal music. Such sounds can have a dramatic effect on the coloration and rhythmic profile of a piece of music; the recreation of such sounds is thus of great importance."

With Intent To Stage: Editing Kurt Weill's Music For The Theater, Ed Harsh

Performance Practice Review

RILM: "A critical edition of Weill's opera and music theater works confronts special editorial problems. The complex and dynamic identity of a work for the theater conflicts with the paradigm of the stable, definitive text that critical editions usually aim to present. Further, the collaborative nature of such works allows significant influence to be exerted on the text by individuals other than the composer. A satisfactory solution to these problems is not possible by recourse to the conventional musical-editorial philosophy that has prevailed for most of the 20th c. Rather, a new philosophy that places a positive value on the …

Cover/Table Of Contents

Performance Practice Review

Table of Contents for the Fall 1996 issue of Performance Practice Review.

Contributors/End Matter

Performance Practice Review

List of contributors to the Spring 1995 (8/1) issue of Performance Practice Review.

End matter and advertisements from the Spring 1995 (8/1) issue of Performance Practice Review.

"A History Of Pianoforte Pedaling." By David Rowland, Sandra P. Rosenblum

Performance Practice Review

Rosenblum reviews and critiques Rowland's book on the history of pianoforte pedaling.

"Das Tempo In Der Musik Von Barock Und Vorklassik. Die Antwort Der Quellen Auf Ein Umstrittenes Thema." By Klaus Miehling, Wolfgang Aufhagen

Performance Practice Review

Auhagen reviews and critiques Miehling's book on tempo in the Baroque and Preclassic eras.

"Tudor Music." By David Wulstan, John Morehen

Performance Practice Review

Morehen reviews and critiques Wulstan's book on Tudor Music.

Musical Venues In Vienna, Seventeenth Century To The Present, Ingeborg Harer

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "Consideration of musical venues is often neglected in research on historical performance practice. Many musical works are directly linked to a particular location. The characteristic features (type, size, Acoustics) of the room or building for which the music was written influenced the composer in the creation of his work. A number of venues have had a special place in the musical life of Vienna over the past four centuries. A list of principal Viennese musical buildings (theaters, opera houses, music rooms, concert halls) is included, along with the circumstances surrounding their construction, and the more important musical works--especially …

Musical Performance At San Petronio In Bologna: A Brief History, Marc Vanscheeuwijck

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "The building of Bologna's most important church was decided by the Senate and begun in 1390. A regular musical chapel was created in 1436, and the first organ was installed in 1475. A second instrument was built in 1596 to perform double choir music with the chorus and the cornetto and sackbut band. During the 17th and 18th c. a considerable repertoire for large ensembles with vocal soloists, choirs, trumpets, and strings in concerted style developed in the basilica. Stylistic characteristics of the music result from the long reverberation time (12 seconds) and other acoustic qualities specific to …

Woodwind Vibrato From The Eighteenth Century To The Present, Dwight C. Manning

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "Surveys methods of vibrato production in woodwind performance. Beginning with Jacques Martin-Hotteterre, 18th-c. authors recommended finger vibrato. In the 19th c., Anton Bernhard Furstenau mentioned finger as well as jaw and breath vibrato. Late in the century, Maximillian Schwendler proclaimed that vibrato is initiated in the larynx (throat). The 20th c. has seen the debate continue over whether vibrato is produced by the breathing and blowing apparatus or by the throat, with recent scientific experiments supporting the latter claim."

Violin Playing In Late Seventeenth-Century England: Baltzar, Matteis, And Purcell, Mary Cyr

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "In the late 17th c., violin playing in England underwent a virtual revolution as a result of virtuoso techniques introduced by violinists from abroad such as Thomas Baltzar and Nicola Matteis. Iconographical evidence illustrates the popularity of the French bow grip and various ways of placing the instrument against the body. Technical features such as multiple stops and the messa di voce were employed extensively by Baltzar and Matteis. The likelihood that their playing influenced Henry Purcell suggests that violinists today might incorporate lively Articulation and the messa di voce in Purcell's trio sonatas of 1683."

Brossard And The Performance Of Jacquet De La Guerre's Céphale Et Procris, Wanda R. Griffiths

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "Sebastien de Brossard made an arrangement of the prologue of Jacquet's tragedie en musique, and had it performed by his Academie de Musique in Strasbourg in 1696, two years after the opera's run at the Paris Opera. His arrangement sheds light on performance issues including breathing, vocal ornamentation, notes inegales, and scoring.(author)"

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."

Performance Practice And Musical Expressivity, Roland Jackson

Performance Practice Review

"Musical expressivity is intimately associated with subtle dynamic changes--slight variations in volume between one note and the next--which help shape and make meaningful the phrases. Daniel Gottlob Turk was among the few theorists who recognized and described this subtlety."

"Baroque Music, The Library Of Essays On Music Performance Practice" Edited By Peter Walls And Mary Cyr, David Schulenberg

Performance Practice Review

David Schulenberg discusses and reviews Walls' 2011 work.

Walls, Peter, ed. Baroque Music, The Library of Essays on Music Performance Practice, series editor Mary Cyr. Farnham, Surry, UK, and Burlington, VT, USA: Ashgate, 2011.

ISBN 978-0-7546-2882-8.

"Classical And Romantic Music, The Library Of Essays On Music Performance Practice" Edited By David Milsom And Mary Cyr, Colin Lawson

Performance Practice Review

Colin Lawson discusses and reviews Milsom's 2011 work.

Milsom, David ed. Classical and Romantic Music, the Library of Essays on Music Performance Practice, series editor Mary Cyr. Farnham, Surry, UK, and Burlington, VT, USA: Ashgate, 2011.

ISBN 978-0-754-62859-0.

Polychoral Performance Practice And "Maestro Di Cappella" Conducting, Florian Bassani

Performance Practice Review

This article disputes some basic questions concerning the coordination of seventeenth century sacred music, approaching the phenomenon through a musical species of particular interest, though largely unstudied from a performance practice point of view. Roman polychorality with its specific performing conditions offers an illuminating perspective on principles of musical direction and interaction which differ significantly from our modern access path towards these topics. The inquiry ranges from basics of performance (such as sheet music, rehearsals, direction technics, models and stylistic conditioning of the performers) over the concrete role of the maestro di cappella as well as the tactus as cornerstones …

Investigating Young Children's Music-Making Behavior: A Developmental Theory, Paul G. Morehouse

CGU Theses & Dissertations

We have many developmental theories contributing to our understanding of children as they meander steadfastly toward maturation. Yet, none have reported on how young children interpret the qualitative meaning and importance of their own music-making experiences. Music created by average, not prodigious, young children is perceived by adults as “play” music rather than “real” music. But do young children take the same view as adults? When Piaget speaks of the young child’s qualitatively unique view and experience of the world (Ginsberg & Opper, 1988), can we assume that his statement encompasses young children’s predispositions related to music-making?

Music is understood …

Front Matter/Table Of Contents

Performance Practice Review

Includes the table of contents and journal information for this issue.

Contributors/End Matter

Performance Practice Review

Includes information about the authors features in this issue.

Performance Practice Bibliography (1987)

Performance Practice Review

A bibliography of important books and/or articles published up to 1987.

"Performing Haydn's The Creation: Reconstructing The Earliest Renditions." By A. Peter Brown, Frederick Hammond

Performance Practice Review

Reviews and critiques Brown's 1986 book.

"Jean-Henry D'Anglebert And The Seventeenth-Century Clavecin School." By Beverly Scheibert., Erich Schwandt

Performance Practice Review

Reviews and critiques Scheibert's 1986 book.

A Suggested Improvement For The Fisk Organ At Stanford, Mark Lindley

Performance Practice Review

The unequal temperaments of Stanford's Fisk organ should be modified to reflect more accurately the characteristics of Renaissance and Baroque keyboard tunings.

Interpretation Problems Of Ornament Symbols And Two Recent Case Histories: Hans Klotz On Bach, Faye Fergusonon Mozart, Frederick Neumann

Performance Practice Review

The reliance on 17th- and 18th-c. ornament tables in 'authentic' performance often leads to rigid interpretations. A monograph by Hans Klotz (RILM 1984-05515-bm) and a review by Faye Ferguson perpetuate a rigid view of how 18th-c. ornaments should be interpreted.

Stravinsky, Tempo, And Le Sacre, Erica Heisler Buxbaum

Performance Practice Review

In reviews of recorded performances by others of Le sacre du printemps, Stravinsky contradicted his metronome markings and his own recorded performance tempos. His preferred tempos in the reviews encompass a range wider than the markings imply, yet more narrow than his own performance tempos suggest.

The "Not-So-Precisely Measured" Music Of The Middle Ages, Hendrik Van Der Werf

Performance Practice Review

Evidence from medieval writers, musical notation, and variant readings in the sources all suggest that troubadour and trouvere songs were performed in more or less equal note values and in a manner that presented the poetry clearly.

'Back To The Land': Performance Practice And The Classic Period, Malcom S. Cole

Performance Practice Review

Although much valuable work has been done on performance practice in the Classic period, many issues await detailed study.

The Performance Of French Baroque Music: A Report On The State Of Current Research, Albert Cohen

Performance Practice Review

A survey, with a bibliography, of published research on French Baroque performance practice that appeared during the period 1978-88.