Historically informed performance Totally Explained

Everything about Performance Practice totally explained

See Early music and Early Music Revival for more information about this topic. The historically informed performance, period performance, or authentic performance movement is an approach by musicians and scholars to research and perform works of classical music in ways similar to how they may have been performed when they were originally written. The movement had its beginnings in the performance of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music, but subsequently came to incorporate the Classical and even Romantic eras as well. The two methods adopted by historically informed performance artists have been to use period instruments and to utilise treatises and other written evidence to gain insight into performance practice, for example stylistic and technical considerations based on how the works may have been played in the period in which they were written.

Historically informed performance compared to traditional musical practice

Most historically informed performance artists advocate the practice as a way of achieving more artistically effective performances of older music. They feel that the gradual changes in the construction of instruments and in the training of musicians have produced instruments and styles that are optimal for (roughly) mid- to late-19th-century music, but not for older work.
   In the community of classical musicians, students have over the centuries learned ways of playing and interpreting music from their teachers and also from performances they hear. This results, to some degree, in stylistic accretion, as modes of performing developed by outstanding musicians are echoed through time in the performances of the younger musicians that they influenced. Thus, the way that music is performed is in part a function of the musical culture as it has evolved up to that time.
   The historically informed performance movement emphasizes instead historical scholarship, covering both instruments and performance practice, in order to obtain a more direct view of original performance practices. Such scholarship is the work both of the performers themselves and of non-performing specialist scholars, usually working in universities.
   Adherence to principles of historically informed performance isn't an all-or-nothing matter. Many traditional musicians are deeply interested in what scholarship can tell us about how music was performed in the composer's time. Moreover, modern instruments can be played in ways that approximate what may have been achieved on instruments of the composer's era.

Early instruments

Many of the instruments of early music disappeared from widespread use around the beginning of the Classical era. Others continued in use, but greatly altered their sound quality and playing characteristics in the course of the 19th century. In either case, when older instruments, or reconstructed versions of them, are used, they're called original instruments, "historical instruments," or period instruments. The discussion below (see also Organology) covers instruments that had to be revived entirely, followed by instruments whose earlier form was rediscovered. See also List of period instruments.

Harpsichord

Among keyboard instruments, the most dramatic disappearance was that of the harpsichord, which gradually went out of style during the second half of the 18th century. The piano became more popular by such a degree that harpsichords were destroyed; indeed the Paris Conservatory is notorious for using harpsichords for firewood during Napoleonic times and the French Revolution. Composers such as François Couperin, Girolamo Frescobaldi, and Johann Sebastian Bach wrote for the harpsichord, clavichord, and organ, or sometimes for a generic "keyboard" (German Klavier), but not the piano, which was invented ca. 1700 and only widely adopted by about 1765. The music of these composers sounds very different, and requires a different interpretive approach, when played on the harpsichord instead of the piano. Notably, since every note on a harpsichord is equally loud, subtle variations of timing and articulation, as well a judicious use of ornamentation, are employed to achieve an expressive harpsichord performance.
The harpsichord was reintroduced to the concertgoing public in the first half of the 20th century by Wanda Landowska. Since most knowledge of harpsichord construction had been lost by that time, Landowska needed to use a harpsichord made for her by the Pleyel company of Paris, and based on the modern grand piano. From the 1950s on, harpsichord builders such as Frank Hubbard, William Dowd, and Martin Skowroneck began to follow the procedures of the early harpsichord builders. Today, harpsichords in the style of the old makers are produced in workshops around the world.

Viol

The viols (also known as viola da gamba) are a family of bowed (and sometimes plucked), fretted stringed instruments that evolved from the Spanish plucked Vihuela in the late 15th century. The bass viol roughly resembles a six-stringed, fretted cello, but it's actually a bowed vihuela (or, more specifically, a bowed, fretted, lute-tuned [44344], vihuela/viola, a vihuela de arco). All viols were strung with gut. Their voice is generally described as being more delicate, humming, and sweet, more noble and richly resonant in the lower registers, and often reedy like an oboe or an organ's the upper range (more akin to the voices of the modern cello and viola than that of the violin). Their tone can sometimes have in a certain nasal quality.
   A vast quantity of music for viols, for both ensemble and solo performance, was written by composers of the Renaissance and Baroque eras, including Diego Ortiz, Claudio Monteverdi, William Byrd, William Lawes, Henry Purcell, Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, J. S. Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann, Marin Marais, Antoine Forqueray, and Carl Frederick Abel.
   Many composers wrote complex polyphonic part music (early chamber music) for viol consort, an ensemble of differently sized viols (typically held vertically), arranged as trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, or more viols.
   From largest to smallest, the viol family consists of:

contrabass or Violone (about the size of a modern double bass)
bass viol (about the size of a cello)
tenor viol (about the size of a guitar)
alto viol (about the size of a viola)
treble or descant viol (about the size of a violin).

In England, slightly smaller specialized bass viols were developed, called division viols, and lyra-viols.
Viols were largely abandoned by the end of the 18th century, having been overtaken by the violin family.
Among the foremost modern players of the viols are Paolo Pandolfo, Wieland Kuijken, Jordi Savall, John Hsu, Vittorio Ghielmi, and Guido Balestracci. There are many modern viol consorts including Fretwork (music group).

Recorder

The recorder is an end-blown flute of the fipple flute or internal duct flute type, originally made of wood but today often manufactured from plastics and other materials. Its tone is similar to that of the modern concet flute, but generally has a mellower, rounder tone. Like viols, recorders are made in multiple sizes (contra-bass, bass, tenor, alto, soprano, the sopranino, and the even smaller kleine sopranino or garklein), and are often played in consorts of mixed size. Handel and Telemann, among others, wrote a large body of solo works for the recorder. For a number of important modern exponents of the recorder, see Recorder player.

Other instruments

Other instruments that declined in use around the same time as the harpsichord, viol, and recorder include the lute, the viola d'amore, and the baryton. Instruments that lost currency rather earlier include the cornett, the shawm, the rackett, the krummhorn, the theorbo, and the hurdy-gurdy.
Other instruments, such as the serpent, didn't lose favor until quite late in the 19th century.

Developed instruments

Even the instruments on which classical music is ordinarily performed today have undergone many changes since the 18th century, both in how they're constructed and how they're played.
   Stringed instruments (the violin, viola, cello, and double bass) were made with progressively longer necks and higher bridges, generally increasing string length and tension, although the latter can vary widely depending on the gauge (or thickness) of the strings used. The most prized stringed instruments of today, made by Antonio Stradivari and by the Guarneri family in 17th- and 18th-century Italy, began their careers as what we might call "early instruments," but were modified in the 19th century to achieve the more powerful romantic sound. (See baroque violin)
   From the heavy rigging of the early to mid 1800s, however, the tendency shifted to using lighter strings for an easier playing technique and more soloistic brilliance. From around 1900 until our times, the average string tension has been lighter than in most Baroque traditions except for 18th century France, but the longer strings and the more compact material (including, in our days, steel E strings) has led to a more brilliant and short-range penetrating tone with a greater acoustical emphasis on the even overtones.
   In modern string playing, a more or less constant vibrato is the norm, with lack of vibrato used as a special expressive effect. In the 18th century, it was just the opposite, with vibrato serving as an ornament.
   The oboe likewise became more powerful in its sound. The baroque oboe was more pastoral or reedy in tone while the Classical oboe, which came to the fore around 1780, was more clear or silvery. A similar difference is found between the early and modern bassoon.
   The flute of the 18th century was typically made of wood rather than metal, and likewise had a gentler, more woody tone.
   Early brass instruments were less powerful, but more colorful (containing more overtones) than their modern equivalents. The tonal difference is perhaps less than is found among the woodwinds and strings. However, the playing of early trumpets and French horns was very different and indeed much more difficult, since these instruments didn't incorporate keyed valves until the end of the 18th century. The players of the earlier instruments used lip control to a much greater degree to determine pitch; the pitch of early horns was also altered by the placement of the player's hand in the bell, a technique known as hand-stopping. Anthony Halstead is widely considered to be among the finest modern exponents of the "natural horn". The earlier trombone of course offered manual pitch control, as did its similar predecessor, the sackbut.
   The effect of these instruments in their original form is particularly noticeable when they're played together in orchestras, since not only do the musical lines sound different, but their relationships to one another is altered by the difference in relative volume (wind instruments generally being louder relative to the strings). A number of historically informed performance orchestras have achieved a broad following.
   For the piano, the difference between 18th-century and modern versions is probably greater than for any other instrument; for discussion of these differences and their consequences for performance, see Piano history and musical performance. The construction of replica 18th-century pianos came somewhat after the revival of the baroque harpsichord, but used many of the same skills, since early pianos resembled harpsichords in their construction. Leading modern-day performers on the early piano or fortepiano include Malcolm Bilson, Robert D. Levin, and Melvyn Tan.

Singing

The human voice is a biological given, but can be trained in different ways. Singers in historically informed performances typically aim at a less loud tone, usually with less vibrato. Singing more quietly is feasible because accompanying instruments are generally also softer. Early music listeners seldom complain that the singers are "shrieking" or "barking", though of course this doesn't exclude the possibility that quite different vocal problems might be present. A few of the singers who have contributed to the historically informed performance movement are Emma Kirkby, Julianne Baird, Nigel Rogers, and David Thomas.
   Historically informed performances sometimes use male singers, called countertenors, to sing alto parts. Although it's often a vexed question how often this was done in early performance, a number of countertenors have won acclaim for their purity of tone, vocal agility, and interpretive skill. Modern countertenor singing was pioneered by Alfred Deller, and leading contemporary performers include David Daniels, Derek Lee Ragin, Andreas Scholl, Michael Chance, Drew Minter, Daniel Taylor, and Brian Asawa.
   Compositions intended to be sung by castrati present a problem. Modern substitutions employ female sopranos or high countertenors (known as sopranistas), but neither of those seems to capture the true effect of the castrato sound. The 1994 movie Farinelli Il Castrato, about an 18th-century castrato, used digital effects to create the voice by mixing the sound of a countertenor with a soprano singer.
   The use of boy sopranos, or trebles, in certain music (for example the church music of Johann Sebastian Bach), while historically authentic, isn't often done because of the belief that boys can't put the emotional understanding into the music that adult female sopranos do. Voices tended to break at a later age in the 18th century, so boys as old as 16 or 17 could sometimes still sing soprano parts. Boy sopranos in choirs are not uncommon, even in traditional performances, but the use of boy sopranos as soloists is rare. Most notably, much of the music of Bach that Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt recorded made use of boy sopranos even for the solo parts.

Layout

Historic pictures, layout sketches and sources are giving information about the layout of singers and instruments. Three main layouts are documented:

Circle (Renaissance)

Choir in the front of the instruments (17th - 19th century)

Singers and instruments next to each other on the choir loft. Johann Mattheson: "The singers must stand alltime in front" .

Recovering early performance practices

Both pedagogical works and the correspondence of musicians from past centuries play an important role in recovering information about early performance practice. Representative of the works from which valuable information has been obtained are the following:

Syntagma musicum (1614-1620) by Michael Praetorius

Traité de l'Harmonie Universelle (1627) by Marin Mersenne

Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen ("A treatise of instruction in playing the transverse flute," 1752) by Johann Joachim Quantz

Versuch über das wahre Art das Klavier zu spielen ("An essay on the true art of playing keyboard instruments," 1753-1762) by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.

Versuch einer grundliche Violinschule ("An essay on the fundamental principles of violin playing," 1756) by Leopold Mozart Among the letters of musicians, those of Mozart are notable for their liveliness and insight, and from them considerable information about performances of his work is obtained. In the case of Haydn and Beethoven we've the advantage that they became very famous–in fact, venerated–in their own lifetimes, and many people with whom they conversed attempted to remember and write down their words.
Some documents suggest that contemporary performances of early orchestral music were of lower quality than might be expected. For example, a letter from Haydn (Oct. 17, 1789) says:
� Now I'd humbly ask you to tell the princely Kapellmeister there that these three symphonies 90-92 ] because of their many particular effects, should be rehearsed at least once, carefully and with special concentration, before they're performed.

implying of course that symphonies were often performed with no rehearsal at all. Likewise, there's testimony that the task of keeping early instruments in tune was difficult and perhaps also neglected. One critic wrote in 1684:
� At the beginning of the concerts, we observe the accuracy of the chords ... some time after, the instruments make a din; the music is for our ears no longer anything but a confused noise.

Interpreting musical notation

One area in which scholarly interpretation is important is in interpreting the musical notation of the past, which becomes progressively less explicit as one goes back in time. Some familiar difficult items are as follows:

Early composers apparently often wrote dotted rhythms (where the first of two notes is three times the length of the second) to mean instead a time ratio of 2 + 1, in a context where triplets are present elsewhere in the musical line. The opening line of the last movement of J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #5 is a good example.

In a French overture, it's often held that dotted notation was meant to indicate double dotting; that is, a duration ratio of 7 to 1 instead of 3 to 1. A well-known example is the overture to Handel's Messiah, often played in the double-dotted manner by historically informed performance specialists.

Particularly in French Baroque music, but also in Classical and Romantic repertoire, music written in even rhythm is sometimes performed rather as if the notes were dotted or in triplets, in a practice known as notes inégales and similar to the swing feel of jazz.

What is written as an appoggiatura is often meant to be longer or shorter than the notated length. This convention is pervasive in Mozart's music.

In Renaissance music, musica ficta are employed; these are accidentals (sharps and flats) not written in the score, but rather inferred using the performer's judgment or via rules laid down by theorists.

Lastly, the notes of earlier music can't generally be interpreted as designating the same pitch that they do today, since concert pitch has frequently changed. For discussion, see History of pitch standards in Western music.

Mechanical music

Some information about how music sounded in the past can be obtained from contemporary mechanical instruments. For instance, the Dutch museum Van Speelklok tot Pierement owns an 18th century mechanical organ of which the music programme was composed and supervised by Joseph Haydn.

Linguistic issues

An additional relevant area of scholarship is the determination of how the languages of sung music were pronounced at the time of first performance. Such information can help in establishing rhymes and in aligning the syllables to the musical notes (underlay). The disciplines of historical linguistics and philology play the primary role here. Some early music performers prefer to sing using the old pronunciations, feeling that the notes sound better when sung to their original syllables.
Issues of pronunciation even carry over to church Latin, the language in which a huge amount of early music was written. The reason is that Latin was customarily pronounced using the speech sounds and patterns of the local vernacular language; see Latin regional pronunciation.

Tuning

Twelve tone equal temperament is the predominant tuning today, but wasn't so in the past. For many periods tuning may have depended upon region, varied by composer, with some composers even preferring different tunings at different times in their lives. However, it's often hard to determine exactly what these tunings were.
Historically informed performances of Baroque music are usually in unequal temperament and "chamber pitch" (tuned about a semitone down compared to modern concert pitch; see historical pitch standards).

Issues in historically informed performance

The perceived esthetic benefits of historically informed performance vary with what kind of music is being played. In rough terms, they can be characterized as follows.

Historically informed performance is argued to achieve greater transparency of musical texture. The instruments have a less powerful tone, so that the playing of one note interferes less with the hearing of simultaneous or neighboring notes.

In orchestral performances, contrast in volume levels is typically increased: the contributions of the brass instruments and timpani stand out more, since the difference in volume level between brass and strings is somewhat greater than with modern instruments.

Greater transparency and greater contrast in volume levels lend themselves, in turn, to greater rhythmic energy.

Many listeners appreciate the timbre of authentic instruments, finding it more beautiful and filled with character than what is heard from modern instruments. The same could be said of the human voice, when it isn't required to compete with modern instruments in power.

Variety of opinion

Opinions on the historically informed performance movement vary widely, from very strong support to very strong opposition.
   A generally skeptical but moderated position has been taken by Charles Rosen, a distinguished traditional classical musician and author on music. One criticism Rosen has made is that the spread of the historically informed performance movement has depended very heavily on the recording industry. This results from two factors. First, the lower volume of authentic performance instruments means they tend to be ineffective in large modern concert halls, so that live performance is difficult to sustain financially. Second, the unstable intonation and lesser reliability of early instruments means that a high-quality performance is most easily obtained in the recording studio, where multiple takes can be spliced together to iron out mistakes, and it's possible to interrupt the music frequently to retune the instruments. A musical culture based predominantly on recordings is arguably an impoverished one, given that most listeners respond more intensely to a live performance than to a recording.
   According to Daniel Barenboim, "the study of old instruments and historic performance practice has taught us a great deal, but the main point, the impact of harmony, has been ignored."
   American philosopher Peter Kivy's 1995 book, Authenticities, argues that the debate has failed to distinguish between four distinct concepts of authenticity. American musicologist and Renaissance choral music conductor Richard Taruskin also discusses flaws in the case for historically informed performance in his 1995 collection of articles, Text and Act.
   Overdependence on scholarship can result in dry and uncompelling performances, as the role of interpretation is diminished.
   Also, some listeners who have absolute pitch are disturbed by the fact that historically informed performances often use a lower pitch than traditional performances (415 Hz vs 440 Hz). And some players and ensembles adopt yet another pitch, for example 390 Hz for early baroque music or 430 Hz to play Mozart's or Beethoven's music, which makes the whole situation even more confusing for those people.
   There are many listeners who enjoy both historically informed performances and traditional performances. Such listeners might, for instance, enjoy Malcolm Bilson's vivid and stylish authentic performances of Haydn's piano sonatas on a replica 18th century piano, but also enjoy Vladimir Horowitz's interestingly idiosyncratic (and quite heavily pedaled) performances of the same works on a modern concert grand. Nikolaus Harnoncourt has conducted the Concentus Musicus of Vienna for over 50 years, and he combines historical awareness with a highly individual approach.

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