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The influence of HIP

Nice post, Bambi. I fell off the HIP bandwagon long ago; to me it's a quite small portion of the task of making music. And I routinely play with groups that ignore the "original instrument" aspect of it, like Emmanuel Music, who put on Bach cantatas every week, just as Bach did--but with modern instruments and pitch.

The importance of HIP is, I think, how it has changed how we play *without* original instruments. Bowing techniques, less (not *no*) vibrato, clearer tone, refined balances, and generally faster tempos, among other things.

One result is that it's unthinkable today for big symphony orchestras to do Haydn or Mozart with their full string compliment. Such is always done with reduced sections now, and that's a good thing.

Another result--an unintended consequence--of the HIP movement, however, is that now symphony orchestras tend to avoid Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann, Handel, and a host of good composers, and that's a shame. There's still room in music for, say, the full-monty high-octane Stokowski transcriptions of Bach, for example. They're fun, despite their in-authenticity, but they're studiously avoided now.


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  • The influence of HIP - markrohr 04:24:23 04/13/05 (0)


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