“Performance” from Grove Music Online states: “Music-making is a virtually universal human activity. At its most fundamental, it is a form of private biological necessity […]. At its most elevated, musical performance is public property.” Within the last 5 decades, the practice of historically informed performance (hereafter HIP) has instituted itself as one of the most important concepts for performance of early music. Problems faced by today’s performers are: what makes a “good performance? Also, what roles do performers play in order to produce a good performance of early music? Concepts such as authority, authenticity, notation, realization, interpretation, and improvisation are explored by performers and scholars of early music in present
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The authority of scholars in the Western world is based upon experience and knowledge in their field, and scholars are expected to know a great deal about composers, performers, and performance practice of the time they study. Butt discusses how scholars’ authority over music has changed with the requirement of HIP, as performers are now expected to make their own interpretations upon pieces. As scholars became more aware of HIP, they realized that the music can tell more about a composer than a composer can educate a scholar about how to perform their piece. According to Butt, the relationship between HIP and modernism/postmodernism is centered around the idea of “Heritage.” Similar to the practice of antiquing, Butt explains that “’Heritage’ and preservationism […] must surely provide much of the context in which it has become fashionable to invest considerable financial resources in performances on ‘original instruments’ just as one does in ‘period’ furnishings, houses, and drama.” While modernism called for a break in Classical traditions, HIP seemed to be the antithesis of modernism by requiring a return of period instruments and performance from early …show more content…
L’arpeggiata Ensemble’s rendition of the piece uses many period instruments, but does not follow the written score by using that many instruments and is transposed up for a female alto vocal range to accommodate for the alto and countertenor singing the vocal lines. Also, the musicians within the recording utilize vibrato; while tastefully done on period instruments, Baroque era style of playing does not include vibrato as it was seen as unnatural, so vibrato (especially seen in the violin player) is inaccurate to a HIP. However, the use of harpsichord and viola da gamba would have been appropriate for the time period, as cellos and pianos had not developed
The authority of scholars in the Western world is based upon experience and knowledge in their field, and scholars are expected to know a great deal about composers, performers, and performance practice of the time they study. Butt discusses how scholars’ authority over music has changed with the requirement of HIP, as performers are now expected to make their own interpretations upon pieces. As scholars became more aware of HIP, they realized that the music can tell more about a composer than a composer can educate a scholar about how to perform their piece. According to Butt, the relationship between HIP and modernism/postmodernism is centered around the idea of “Heritage.” Similar to the practice of antiquing, Butt explains that “’Heritage’ and preservationism […] must surely provide much of the context in which it has become fashionable to invest considerable financial resources in performances on ‘original instruments’ just as one does in ‘period’ furnishings, houses, and drama.” While modernism called for a break in Classical traditions, HIP seemed to be the antithesis of modernism by requiring a return of period instruments and performance from early …show more content…
L’arpeggiata Ensemble’s rendition of the piece uses many period instruments, but does not follow the written score by using that many instruments and is transposed up for a female alto vocal range to accommodate for the alto and countertenor singing the vocal lines. Also, the musicians within the recording utilize vibrato; while tastefully done on period instruments, Baroque era style of playing does not include vibrato as it was seen as unnatural, so vibrato (especially seen in the violin player) is inaccurate to a HIP. However, the use of harpsichord and viola da gamba would have been appropriate for the time period, as cellos and pianos had not developed