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In Reply to: Historic Instrument Performance posted by Bambi B on April 12, 2005 at 18:26:25:
because I was busy going at it with Severius about vibrato, and as it turns out, all of his replies were deleted!Having been an advocate of HIP since my undergraduate years in the late '60s, I have often found myself rigorously on the side of period instruments and the style of playing that goes with them.
But lately, I've been taking another course. What interested me then, and interests me even more today, is basic interpretation and musicianship.
If you look back on the '60s, the gods then were the Concentus Musicus for orchestral music, with an assist from the Collegium Aurium, and Leonhardt on harpsichord. I dare say that if you were a fan of old music and instruments, these were the records you collected.
Later, the English groups came into the picture. I can remember the excitement I felt when the first recordings of the English Concert and the Academy of Ancient Music came out in the late '70s. I always felt that if and when both the English and the Italians got into the early music field, the results would be spectacular.
Now, of course, there are many, many groups and soloists from around the world active in the early music game. Orchestras from the U.S., Canada, Russia, Eastern Europe, Asia and Australia have supplemented the established groups in England and the Continent. The trend was already in full swing in 1995 when I became the review editor of Continuo Magazine. I was amazed to be receiving 100s of CDs a year (all free!), most of them of newly-formed groups from areas of the world that heretofore had not seen any activity in the early music field. Now, of course, with the downturn of activity in the recording business, the flood of CDs has diminished greatly. Some "weeding-out" has taken place, and only those performers who really have something to offer are enduring.
I suppose as one gets older, one tends to be less "doctrinaire". It is no longer an absolute for me that the group in question should play only period instruments at a lower pitch. What matters to me now is the expression, the style. Case in point is (are) Les Violons du Roy out of Montreal, a marvelous string orchestra that uses modern instruments with steel strings, but old curved bows, and plays baroque music with the requisite style. Sounds like a weird compromise, but their CD of Vivaldi concertos on Dorian is possibly the most beautiful, exciting disc of Vivaldi ever recorded, beating out the Italians in this repertoire.
Nowadays I’m more apt to pick up my modern oboe and play a piece of Telemann or Handel with friends, simply because I can find more people at 440Hz to jam with than at 415Hz! My wife and I joined a community band last year (we’re the oboe section), and it’s a blast. I also play in a woodwind quintet formed from the band, and I’ve been arranging music for the band, too. I’ve already done several Scott Joplin piano rags for band, and my latest project is Gershwin’s Three Preludes for Piano, which, if I can pull it off, should an ideal piece for concert band.
I think it’s folly to limit yourself to one style or genre, and I know plenty of old-instrument nuts who do. I also think that the HIP movement has come up short in some areas—Beethoven symphonies, for example. Except possibly for Gardiner, there isn’t a HIP conductor out there who really understands how to do Beethoven, which is why I still listen to the heroes of my youth in this music—Szell, Toscanini, Walter. As I get older (I’m 56), I trying to expand my musical possibilities, not limit them. HIP is just aspect of music—there’s lots more music out there to explore.
BTW--would that friend in Paris happen to be Yolanta Skura? I remember corresponding with her about their upcoming recording projects. Very nice lady--I miss having contact with the recording "scene" and people like that.
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Follow Ups:
C.B.,Thanks for a thoughtful and insight post.
I think the whole HIP concept went through a long maturation process. There waw a strong purist strain through the 60's and this is apparent for example in the way harpsichords were more often true to classical models and the modern versions fell away. this is the era when lower pitch became popular and poeple were reconverting violins to the lower angle neck,and short fingerboard etc. People argued tempi and wrote many books on ormnamentation, ensemble size, and so on.
But, I think once the general musical environment was established, and the performance practice fell into common knowledge, a lot of scholars specialized and a new level of information became available. Also, with time, performers and conductors were more immersed in their special period and the results was more a concentration on musical results than the scholarship.
Finally, in the current phase, the concept of HIP keeps moving forward chronologically to be applied to quite recent music. I imagine someday someone will perform Bach on a carefully researched 1968 Moog a la Walter Carlos' "Switched on Bach".
I haven't heard any satisfying HIP performances of Beethoven Symphonies either- though Gardiner, as you mention, is close. I'm forced to agree with our dearl departed Severuis that Norrington is generlly painful- though not for the reasons he supposed- it's just clunky miscalculations all through- for me.
In my own muscial life, since university days, I've also expanded my taste considerably. I began with classicl guitar and concentrated on lute and vihuela music. As a teenager, nothing past 1750 was interesting, I studied harpsichord and all my published writing through the early 90's is on early keyboard instruments.
But now I listen to everything and went through a long Beethoven quartet, then a Prokofiev phase recently. I still have no interest in Brahms however. Today I have a clavichord, harpsichord, piano, and MIDI synthesizer and don't mind at all a good dose of Oscar Petersen- even if it makes my clavichord jealous.
You're absolutely right- play the last 10 centuries and pick the best- why not? It's either musically attractive or it's not. Life is too short to limit oneself to only two or three centuries of music!
I'm sorry too that you weren't here earlier- it was as fast and furious as I've ever seen here and this thread is now only 1/3 of the size it was early last evening- a lot of writing is gone to cyberheaven! I'm sorry really that Severius didn't survive this thread. As the HIP subject was inevitable, I thought that if I could begin and manange the thread- keep it calm, some things could be ironed out, but good ol' Sev just burst into flames and the moderator had him silently scram into the night. I had the shite flung on by Sev along with everyone else who dared disagree or even suggest alternatives, but this forum was never so active as when we were all wrestling- and that was something!
Cheers,
Bambi B
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