On historically informed practice
The revival of old Music in the seventies of the previous century was led by musicians like Gustav Leonhardt, Ton Koopman, Philippe Herreweghe, Hopkinson Smith, Jordi Savall and others.
Nowadays their precious pioneer work is continued in an established concert field of musicians who seek to perform music as closely as possible to the original intended creation. This generates a search for the original instrument (or replica), the original playing technique, the original tuning, the original number of instruments involved, the original acoustics,…
It is beyond any doubt that this meticulous study about historically informed practice has benefited al lot the appreciation and quality of the performance of ancient music.
However, I think there is still some risk involved in this eutopic idea of playing music ‘the way it has to be’.
First of all, we cannot define all the parameters involved in a certain piece of music: We cannot know for sure the exact tempo originally intended, nor can we know to what content we can allow ourselves to rubato playing. For many parameters we are subjected to our instinctive musical feeling.
Even when it comes to playing the right instrument, I have some reservations.
Of course Bach sounds well on a harpsichord and any open-minded keyboard player will recognize that this instrument is better adapted to this music, like a pianoforte renders more naturally the rhetoric invention of Mozart.
But Glenn Gould remains a genius in playing Bach on the piano – throwing a new light on the music of this German giant.
So, I believe we cannot be dogmatic and the historically informed practice may be no purpose in itself. After all, whatever instrumentation is used, being a harpsichord, a piano or even some synthesizer, the most moving and inspired performance will prevail.
As a guitarist, I believe it is most worthy trying to play on a romantic guitar of the 19th century, to feel better what sound was intended for – let us say – the music of Mauro Giuliani.
I am convinced that it will alter for the better and inspire our performance even on a modern instrument. When I was in Paris, I visited Carlo Barone, the great Italian musicologist and conductor, who is specialized in 19th century Bel Canto music. I consider the two hours I was in his company as extremely informative, because he taught me a lot about articulation and phrasing in this style.
So, I believe it is worthy – if not some kind of duty – to know as much as possible about the original context of a certain musical work, even for musicians playing on modern instruments.
In the end, we should make our musical decisions only based on our honest conviction and never merely because we are taught to do so.
The revival of old Music in the seventies of the previous century was led by musicians like Gustav Leonhardt, Ton Koopman, Philippe Herreweghe, Hopkinson Smith, Jordi Savall and others.
Nowadays their precious pioneer work is continued in an established concert field of musicians who seek to perform music as closely as possible to the original intended creation. This generates a search for the original instrument (or replica), the original playing technique, the original tuning, the original number of instruments involved, the original acoustics,…
It is beyond any doubt that this meticulous study about historically informed practice has benefited al lot the appreciation and quality of the performance of ancient music.
However, I think there is still some risk involved in this eutopic idea of playing music ‘the way it has to be’.
First of all, we cannot define all the parameters involved in a certain piece of music: We cannot know for sure the exact tempo originally intended, nor can we know to what content we can allow ourselves to rubato playing. For many parameters we are subjected to our instinctive musical feeling.
Even when it comes to playing the right instrument, I have some reservations.
Of course Bach sounds well on a harpsichord and any open-minded keyboard player will recognize that this instrument is better adapted to this music, like a pianoforte renders more naturally the rhetoric invention of Mozart.
But Glenn Gould remains a genius in playing Bach on the piano – throwing a new light on the music of this German giant.
So, I believe we cannot be dogmatic and the historically informed practice may be no purpose in itself. After all, whatever instrumentation is used, being a harpsichord, a piano or even some synthesizer, the most moving and inspired performance will prevail.
As a guitarist, I believe it is most worthy trying to play on a romantic guitar of the 19th century, to feel better what sound was intended for – let us say – the music of Mauro Giuliani.
I am convinced that it will alter for the better and inspire our performance even on a modern instrument. When I was in Paris, I visited Carlo Barone, the great Italian musicologist and conductor, who is specialized in 19th century Bel Canto music. I consider the two hours I was in his company as extremely informative, because he taught me a lot about articulation and phrasing in this style.
So, I believe it is worthy – if not some kind of duty – to know as much as possible about the original context of a certain musical work, even for musicians playing on modern instruments.
In the end, we should make our musical decisions only based on our honest conviction and never merely because we are taught to do so.