Music Commons^™

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."

Performance Practice Bibliography (1996-1997)

Performance Practice Review

A bibliography for the field of performance practice from the years 1996-1997.

Authenticity Or Authenticities?--Performance Practice And The Mainstream, Roland Jackson

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract:"A critique of Peter Kivy's book Authenticities: Philosophical reflections on musical performance (RILM 1995-1431). Kivy proposes that performance involves four authenticities: composer (the composer's original conception), sonic (the restoring of original sound materials), personal (the performer's interpretation), and sensible (the meaning attached by an audience). The first two are furthered by performance practice, the last two by the mainstream. A reconciliation is proposed in that performance practice can encompass personalized Expression and the mainstream can profit from greater awareness of the details of historical performance."

Richard Strauss: The Don Juan Recordings, Raymond Holden

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract:"Considers the composer-conductor's recordings of his tone poem Don Juan, and charts the genesis of the four commercially released recordings: 1917, 1922, 1929, and 1944. Techniques employed in the recordings are analyzed, and the practices and principles applied by Strauss are discussed in detail. George Szell's involvement in the 1917 recording is considered. Strauss's tempos in the 1922, 1929, and 1944 recordings are compared."

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."

Tu Ru Or Not Tu Ru: Paired Syllables And Unequal Tonguing Patterns On Woodwinds In The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries, Bruce Haynes

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract:" Original source material on historical tongue-strokes describes "paired syllables", or double-tonguing, as contrasted to single-tonguing. Patterns place the accent on the first, second, or both parts of the pair. Double-tonguing uses a rebound motion to enhance the velocity of Articulation; it reinforces appropriate metrical patterns, but is more often used to achieve speed in extended (and therefore fatiguing) runs of quick notes. Descriptions of double-tonguings began in the early 16th c. and continued to ca. 1827, and were used in Italy, Germany, Holland, France, and England."

Guitar Performance In The Nineteenth Centuries And Twentieth Centuries, Paul Sparks

Performance Practice Review

Sparks discusses the various problems and conventions in guitar Performance through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

"The Keyboard Sonatas Of Joseph Haydn: Instruments And Performance Practice, Genres, And Styles." By László Somfai, Malcolm S. Cole

Performance Practice Review

Cole discusses and reviews Somfai's 1995 book.

Contributors

Performance Practice Review

List of contributors to the Spring 1997 (10/1) issue of Performance Practice Review.

From Ppr To Ppo: New Directions, New Challenges, Roland Jackson

Performance Practice Review

Jackson speaks on the farewell issue of Performance Practice Review and the possible future of the periodical.

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 …

Realizing Partial Signatures Around 1400: Liebert's Credo As A Test Case, Kevin N. Moll

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "A system of realization is used to address the problem of partial signatures in vocal polyphony and the adjustments of accidentals they require. Its principles are applied to the first 18 measures of the Credo of the Mass by Reginaldus Libert. If some latitude in the governing criteria is allowed, it is feasible to realize partial signatures in a systematic manner."

The Performance Of Scriabin's Piano Music: Evidence From The Piano Rolls, Anatole Leikin

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "An investigation of Skrjabin's performing style based on the composer's piano-roll recordings, focusing on a transcription of his 1910 recording of Poeme, op. 32, no. 1. The transcription demonstrates that in performance Skrjabin significantly changed the tempos, dynamics, articulation, rhythms, and even the original notes. Such features of the composer's performing style as rubato, phrasing, pedaling, and digressions from the printed text are analyzed."

José Bowen's Essay: A Few Afterthoughts, Roland Jackson

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstarct: "Performance practice might benefit from CHARM (The Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music) particularly because of the access it affords to a wide range of recordings. Scholars can thereby more extensively compare, for example, composer's recordings of their own works. For practices of the early 20th c. the recordings of various composers (e.g., Grieg, Skrjabin, Elgar) may be taken as instructive models."

The Baroque Cello And Its Performance, Marc Vanscheeuwijck

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "Provides a short survey of the earliest sources on the bass violin and discusses both the first appearance of the term violoncello (in 1665) and terms used in Italy and elsewhere. Performance practice, playing technique, and tuning from the 16th c. are described. The possible identity of the problematic 17th-c. violone (an 8' or 12' instrument of either the violin or gamba family) is proposed in relation to the violone in contrabbasso. A discussion of playing technique is given on the basis of treatises and compositions by late-17th-c. Bolognese musicians and 18th-c. descriptions by Michel Corrette and Salvatore …

Contributors

Performance Practice Review

List of contributors to the Spring 1996 issue of Performance Practice Review.

Performance Practice Versus Performance Analysis: Why Should Performers Study Performance, José Antonio Bowen

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "The descriptive study of performance analysis and performance history differs from the usually prescriptive field of performance practice. The investigation of musical performance can be divided into three layers: general period and geographic styles, the traditions which become attached to specific works, and individual innovations. Features of the first two are transparent to performers and listeners from the same period, but they determine most of the features of a performance. Performance style is like a linguistic accent; we can no more let the music speak for itself than we can speak words without some accent. Since performance traditions …

Cover/Table Of Contents

Performance Practice Review

Front matter and Table of Contents from the Spring 1996 (9/1) issue of Performance Practice Review.

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.

"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 …