Music Commons^™

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

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 …

Singing Without Text, Timothy J. Mcgee

Performance Practice Review

A close look at texting practices in several 15th-c. MSS supports recent scholarship concerning the performance practice of textless lines in polyphonic music. I-Fn, MSS Banco Rari 230 and 337 supply partial text for lower voices in a manner that suggests that textless vocalization of much or all of the lower parts was a common practice in Northern Italy. Similar texting practices in E-E, MS V.III.24 and GB-Ob, MS Canonici misc.213 indicate a similar practice in Venice and Burgundy.

Howard Mayer Brown: A Personal Rememberance, Mark Lindley

Performance Practice Review

Lindley discusses Brown's work and life.

The Performance Of Fifteenth Century Italian Balli: Evidence From The Pythagorean Ratios, Jennifer Nevile

Performance Practice Review

The 15th-c. dance treatises of Domenico da Piacenza, Antonio Cornazano, and Guglielmo Ebreo da Pesaro contain a theoretical section in which the ratios of the tempi between the four misure of the balli are discussed. This information allows us to work out metronome markings for the four misure. When proportion signs (or mensuration signs used as proportion signs) appear in the ballo melodies, the ratio represented by these signs relates to the preceding misura.

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.

Enrique Granados And Modern Piano Technique, Carol A. Hess

Performance Practice Review

Discusses parallels between Granados's approach to piano technique and that of Ludwig Deppe and Tobias Matthay, two pioneers in the reshaping of pianistic principles that took place at the turn of the century. Despite his relative isolation in Barcelona, Granados pursued strikingly modern ideas in piano playing, including principles of weight and relaxation, avoidance of finger-lifting, and preoccupation with fine gradations of tone. Primary sources include the composer's diary, treatise on pedaling, and the detailed memoirs of one of his students.

Pedaling The Piano: A Brief Survey From The Eighteenth Century To The Present, Sandra P. Rosenblum

Performance Practice Review

Before World War II, most composers notated relatively few pedal indications, usually to create unsuspected effects. Mutations (Veranderungen) on the early pianos and the uses of hand stops, knee levers, and pedals are discussed based on information from extant instruments, composers' autographs, and comments in tutors by such teachers as Johann Milchmeyer and Louis Adam. Pedaling techniques and uses of the damper, una corda, and sostenuto pedals on the changing instruments of the 19th and 20th c. are described, with particular attention to compositions of Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy, Villa-Lobos, Boulez, Cage, and Stockhausen.

Vocal Ornaments In Durante's "Arie Devote" (1608), Donald Clyde Sanders

Performance Practice Review

Ottavio Durante's Arie devote (Rome, 1608) is a collection of sacred monody in the style of Caccini's Le nuove musiche. The preface strongly affirms the use of the stile nuovo in church music in terms that reflect the spirit of the Counter-Reformation. Durante's preface also contains significant information on performance practice in early monody. Although most of his ideas are borrowed directly from Caccini, some points relate specifically to the application of the new style to liturgical music. Besides the ornaments found in Le nuove musiche, Durante describes the combination of a crescendo and a portamento on certain ascending semitones …

"Continuo Realization In Handel's Vocal Music." By Patrick J. Rogers, David Ledbetter

Performance Practice Review

Ledbetter discusses and reviews Rogeres' 1989 book.

Contributors/End Matter

Performance Practice Review

List of contributors to the Spring 1993 (6/1) issue of Performance Practice Review.

End matter and advertisements from the Spring 1993 (6/1) issue of Performance Practice Review.

Front Matter/Table Of Contents

Performance Practice Review

Front matter and Table of Contents to the Fall 1993 issue (Volume 6, Number 2)of Performance Practice Review.

"Aural Images Of Lost Traditions: Sharps And Flats In The Sixteenth Century." By Robert Toft, Stanley Boorman

Performance Practice Review

Boorman discusses and reviews Toft's 1992 book.

"Adam De La Halle (Fl.1280): Le Jeu De Robin Et Marion." Thomas Binkley, Musical Dir., Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Marianne Richert Pfau

Performance Practice Review

Pfau discusses the Schola Cantorum's recording of de la Halle's music.

"The Lauds Of Saint Ursula: Hildegard Of Bingen (1098-1179)." Thomas Binkley, Dir., Early Music Institute, Indiana University School Of Music., Marianne Richert Pfau

Performance Practice Review

Pfau reviews the Early Music Institute's recording of Bingen's music.

Contributors/End Matter

Performance Practice Review

List of Contributors to the Fall 1993 issue of Performance Practice Review.

End matter and advertisements from the Fall 1993 issue or Performance Practice Review.

Performance Practice Bibliography (1992)

Performance Practice Review

A bibliography of performance practice study from the year 1992.

Front Matter/Table Of Contents

Performance Practice Review

Cover and Front Matter for the Spring 1992 (5/1) issue of Performance Practice Review.

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.