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Portamento In Romantic Opera, Deborah Kauffman

Performance Practice Review

"Portamento, the practice of sliding between pitches, has traditionally been viewed as a tasteless Romantic excess in vocal performance. At the height of the Romantic era, however, singing treatises by Manuel Patricio Rodriguez Garcia, Alexis de Garaude, and Ferdinand Sieber openly discuss different types of portamento and when it is most appropriately used. Recordings by singers trained in the 19th c. such as Adelina Patti and Fernando de Lucia show it to be widely used and highly effective. Portamento was thus not a performer's unwelcome additon, but an integral part of performance practice." (Bellman, Jonathan)

Contributors/End Matter

Performance Practice Review

List of contributors to the Fall 1992 issue of Performance Practice Review.

End matter and advertisements from the Fall 1992 issue of PPR.

Corrections

Performance Practice Review

A correction to the Fall 1991 issue of PPR.

"Bach Interpretation: Articulation Marks In Primary Sources Of J. S. Bach." By John Butt, Kimberly Marshall

Performance Practice Review

Marshall discusses and reviews Butt's1990 book.

Performance Practice Bibliography (1991)

Performance Practice Review

A bibliography of performance practice study from the year 1991.

"Bach's Continuo Group: Players And Practices In His Vocal Works." By Laurence Dreyfus, Patrick Rogers

Performance Practice Review

Rogers discusses and reviews Dreyfus' 1987 book.

Contributors/End Matter

Performance Practice Review

List of contributors to the Spring 1992 (5/1) issue of Performance Practice Review.

End matter and advertisemets from the Spring 1992 (5/1) issue of Performance Practice Review.

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).

Music For The Cimbalo Cromatico And The Split-Keyed Instruments In Seventeenth-Century Italy, Christopher Stembridge

Performance Practice Review

Related to the arcicembalo, the cimbalo cromatico was a type of harpsichord in use during the late 16th and early 17th c. While most keyboards were tuned in 12-note meantone temperament, limiting the number of available sharps (three) and flats (two), the cimbalo cromatico's 19-note keyboard contained separate keys for all sharps and flats. Though useful, the instrument lacked influence; composers tended to confine themselves to the meantone system, using the more widespread instruments with split keys for the extra notes needed.

Front Matter/Table Of Contents

Performance Practice Review

Cover, Table of Contents, and Copyright Information.

The Implications Of Fingering Indications In Virginalist Sources: Some Thoughts For Further Study, Desmond Hunter

Performance Practice Review

Focuses on the fingering of linear figuration and of grace notes. Various methods of fingering were undoubtedly explored by performers once they had mastered the basic principles illustrated in teaching pieces, and skeletal markings in the main repertoire are informative in this respect. Indications on grace notes often serve as qualifying symbols. Given that the virginalists' vocabulary of grace signs was limited, and that other means of qualification and clarification were employed, the evidence that fingering served as a useful expedient is persuasive.

Was The "Well-Tempered Clavier" Performable On A Fretted Clavichord?, Richard Loucks

Performance Practice Review

Analysis of the Wohltemperirtes Clavier shows that some of the fretting schemes for clavichords used in Bach's time permit performance of the work with approximately 179 voice-leading conflicts, of which five are difficult to perform and two impossible.

"The Contemporary Contrabass." By Bertram Turetzky, Rodney Slatford

Performance Practice Review

Slatford discusses Turetzky's 1989 book.

Corrections

Performance Practice Review

List of corrections to the Fall 1991 issue of Performance Practice Review.

"Singing In Latin, Or, Pronunciation Explor'd." By Harold Copeman, Douglas Leedy

Performance Practice Review

Leedy discusses and reviews Copeman's 1990 book.

The Stanford Organ: A Synthesis Of Views, The Stanford Eclectic Tunings, Robert Bates, Mark Lindley, Kimberly Marshall

Performance Practice Review

Presents a compromise of previously published views regarding the tunings of the Fisk organ in Stanford's Memorial Church (Palo Alto, California). Proposes new meantone and well-tempered tunings, illustrated with examples from Renaissance and Baroque repertoire.

Was The "Well-Tempered Clavier" Performable On A Fretted Clivichord?, Richard Loucks

Performance Practice Review

Analysis of the Wohltemperirtes Clavier shows that some of the fretting schemes for clavichords used in Bach's time permit performance of the work with approximately 179 voice-leading conflicts, of which five are difficult to perform and two impossible.

More (And Less) On Bach's Orchestra, Joshua Rifkin

Performance Practice Review

Hans-Joachim Schulze has argued that Bach wanted his music to be performed by large forces, and therefore performances with sharply downsized, even so-called soloistic ensembles misrepresent the composer's intentions. A review of the matter, however, shows that Schulze has misread, and even misrepresented, the relevant evidence, and that Bach's preferences indicate a far more varied picture than Schulze would allow.

Vibrato In Eighteenth Century Orchestras, Neal Zaslaw

Performance Practice Review

A rebuttal of Neumann, The vibrato controversy (see RILM 8965). The published writings of Galeazzi (1791-96), Geminiani (1751), Robert Bremner (1777), Carl Friedrich Cramer (1783), L. Mozart (1756), and the correspondence of W.A. Mozart (1778) maintain that vibrato was usually not employed by ripienists in 18th-c. orchestras, but only by soloists, and then used sparingly compared to modern practice.

"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.

"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.

The Emergence Of The Modern Conductor, Luke Jensen

Performance Practice Review

During the first half of the 19th c., the duty of directing Italian opera was divided between the maestro al cembalo (sometimes known as the maestro concertatore) and the direttore d'orchestra, with greater responsibility falling on the former. The consolidation of these two roles into one led to the emergence of the modern conductor of Italian opera. The careers of Angelo Mariani and Emanuele Muzio illustrate this transition.

"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.

"The Tempo Indications Of Mozart." By Jean-Pierre Marty, Thomas Bauman

Performance Practice Review

Bauman discusses and reviews Marty's 1988 book.

Performance Practice Bibliography 1990

Performance Practice Review

A bibliography concerning works published in the field of historical performance practice in 1990.

Table Of Contents/Front Matter

Performance Practice Review

Front matter and Table of Contents from the Spring 1991 (4/1) issue of Performance Practice Review.

"Performance Practice And Technique In Marin Marais' 'Pièces De Viole'." By Deborah A. Teplow, Frank Traficante

Performance Practice Review

Traficante discusses and reviews Teplow's 1986 book.

Contributors/End Matter

Performance Practice Review

List of contributors from the Spring 1991 (4/1) issue of Performance Practice Review.

"New Essays On Performance Practice." By Frederick Neumann, Erich Schwandt

Performance Practice Review

Schwandt discusses and reviews Neumann's 1989 book.

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.