1st Edition

Classical and Romantic Music

Edited By David Milsom Copyright 2011

    This volume brings together twenty-two of the most diverse and stimulating journal articles on classical and romantic performing practice, representing a rich vein of enquiry into epochs of music still very much at the forefront of current concert repertoire. In so doing, it provides a wide range of subject-based scholarship. It also reveals a fascinating window upon the historical performance debate of the last few decades in music where such matters still stimulate controversy.

    Contents: Introduction; Part I Style and Purpose: Appraising 18th and 19th Century Aesthetics: Performing Classical repertoire: the unbridgeable gulf between contemporary practice and historical reality, Clive Brown; Mozart as early music: a Romantic antidote, Laurence Dreyfus; Listening and responding to the evidence of early 20th-century performance, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson. Part II Studies in Historical Sources: Mathis Lussy's Traite de l'expressione musicale as a window into performance practice, Michael D. Green; Quantz's unegal: implications for the performance of 18th-century music, Claire A. Fontijn; The recordings of Joachim, YsaÃe and Sarasate in light of their reception by 19th-century British critics, Dorottya Fabian. Part III Instruments, Ensembles and Conducting: Towards a Verdian ideal of singing: emancipation from modern orthodoxy, Roger Freitas; Brahms's pianos and the performance of his late piano works, Camilla Cai; The orchestra in Beethoven's Vienna, Clive Brown; Mozart's Viennese orchestras, Dexter Edge; Rejected traditions: ensemble placement in 19th-century Paris, Donna M. Di Grazia; Style and sonority in Wagner string performance, David Milsom; The origins of the ideology of authenticity in interpretation: Mendelssohn, Berlioz and Wagner as conductors, José Antonio Bowen. Part IV Tempo and Rhythm: Historical performance, metronome marks and tempo in Beethoven's symphonies, Clive Brown; The case of compensating rubato, Sarah Martin; Tempo as an expressive element in the late Romantic lied, Edward F. Kravitt; New light on late 18th-century tempo: William Crotch's pendulum markings, Emanuel Rubin. Part V Aspects of Notation: Dots and strokes in late 18th- and 19th-century music, Clive Brown; The expressive pause: punctuation, rests and breathing in England 1770-1850, Robert Toft; Beggar at the door: the rise and fall of portamento in singing, John Potter; Bowing styles, vibrato and portamento in 19th-century violin playing, Clive Brown; Port

    Biography

    David Milsom, who has written widely on nineteenth-century performing practice, is the author of Theory and Practice in Late Nineteenth-Century Violin Performance 1850-1900 (Ashgate, Aldershot, 2003). He is an active violinist and violist, specialising in late nineteenth-century violin performing practice and an experienced instrumental teacher. He is a lecturer in music at the University of Huddersfield.