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The principal purpose of topics in musicology has been to identify meaning-bearing units within a musical composition that would have been understood by contemporary audiences and therefore also by later receivers, albeit in a different context and with a need for historically aware listening. Since Leonard Ratner (1980) introduced the idea of topics, his relatively simple ideas have been expanded and developed by a number of distinguished authors. Topic theory has now become a well-established branch of musicology, often embracing semiotics, but its relationship to performance has received less attention. Musical Topics and Musical Performance thus focuses on the interface of theory and practice, and investigates how an appreciation of topical presence in a work may prompt interpretative thoughts for a potential performer as well as how performers have responded to such a presence in practice. The chapters focus on music from the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries with case studies drawn from composers as diverse as Beethoven, Scriabin and Péter Eötvös. Using both scores and recordings, the book presents a variety of original and innovative perspectives on the subject from a range of distinguished authors, and addresses a neglected area of musicology and musical performance.

The two-volume Oxford Handbook of Music Performance provides a resource that musicians, scholars and educators will use as the most important and authoritative overview of work within the areas of music psychology and performance science. The 80 experts from 13 countries who prepared the 53 chapters in this handbook are leaders in the fields of music psychology, performance science, musicology, psychology, education and music education. Chapters in the Handbook provide a broad coverage of the area with considerable expansion of the topics that are normally covered in a resource of this type. Designed around eight distinct sections - Development and Learning, Proficiencies, Performance Practices, Psychology, Enhancements, Health & Wellbeing, Science, and Innovations - the range and scope of The Oxford Handbook of Music Performance is much wider than other publications through the inclusion of chapters from related disciplines such as performance science (e.g., optimizing performance, mental techniques, talent development in non-music areas), and education (e.g., human development, motivation, learning and teaching styles) as well as the attention given to emerging critical issues in the field (e.g., wellbeing, technology, gender, diversity, inclusion, identity, resilience and buoyancy, diseases, and physical and mental disabilities). Within each chapter, authors have selected what they consider to be the most important scientific and artistic material relevant to their topic. They begin their chapters by surveying theoretical views on each topic and then, in the final part of the chapter, highlight practical implications of the literature that performers will be able to apply within their daily musical lives.

Als Dirigent kritisierte René Leibowitz (1913–1972) in vielfältiger Weise die aus seiner Sicht korrumpierte Interpretations- und Orchesterpraxis seiner Zeit. Eine Konstante stellte das Bemühen dar, Beethovens sinfonischen Werken zu zeitgenössischen Interpretationen eigenen ästhetischen Rechts zu verhelfen. Leibowitz zielte mittels einer'lecture radicale'auf ein Erschließen des Werkcharakters in historischer Perspektive und nicht auf eine Rekonstruktion früherer Aufführungsbedingungen. Auf Grundlage vorhandener Tonaufnahmen, eingerichteter Dirigierpartituren und nachgelassener Orchestermaterialien arbeitet Thomas Glaser Details der Beethoven-Deutungen von Leibowitz und dessen Versuche um'werkgerechte'Interpretationen heraus. Der Fokus auf Beethoven ist bei Leibowitz vor dem Hintergrund seines durch die musikalische Moderne des 20. Jahrhunderts geprägten Musikdenkens zu lesen. So machte die Kontextualisierung mit ästhetischen Positionen seiner Zeitgenossinnen und Zeitgenossen deutlich, dass Leibowitz'Interpretationsverständnis nachhaltig von der Aufführungslehre der Wiener Schule um Arnold Schönberg geprägt wurde.

Wie singt man eigentlich ein Lautenlied von John Dowland? Wo ist ein Portamento angebracht? Was bedeutet'cercar della nota'? Darf man Schubert-Lieder verzieren? Und wieviel Spielraum haben Interpreten/-innen in Vokalwerken der Neuen Musik? Das Handbuch gibt Antworten auf diese und viele andere Fragen. Gegliedert nach Jahrhunderten, stellt es die Vokalpraxis von ca. 1600 bis zur Gegenwart vor: In systematischer Weise erschließt es zunächst Aspekte wie Stimmtypen, Gesangsästhetik, historische Aussprache, Ornamentik und Deklamation - stets mit Bezug auf die zeitgenössischen Quellen. Darauf folgen kommentierte Beispiele aus den verschiedenen Gattungen der jeweiligen Zeit, die das Spektrum vokaler Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten verdeutlichen und so dem heutigen Interpreten die Grundlagen für die eigenen künstlerischen Entscheidungen an die Hand geben. Das Handbuch wendet sich ebenso an Sänger und Gesangspädagogen wie an alle, die sich für Historische Aufführungspraxis interessieren.

Diese Studie betrachtet die Produktion sowie Rezeption von Musik, die in mittelalterlicher Zeit eng miteinander verflochten waren. Der Minnesänger warb als «live-Medium» mit seinem «süezen sanc» im Klangraum um die Aufmerksamkeit seiner Zuhörer und bediente sich vielfältiger rhetorischer Strategien, um die Sinne seiner Rezipienten einzubinden. Der Fiktionalitätsvertrag musste mit dem Hörer noch während der Aufführung ausgehandelt werden. Da sich dieser intermediäre Möglichkeitsraum niemals eindeutig dem Fiktionalen oder Realen zuweisen lässt, stellt dieses Buch die Frage, inwiefern Virtualität den notwendigen Schlüssel für die Interpretation vormoderner Poesie darstellen könnte. Denn diese bewegt sich als performative Kunst offensichtlich nicht innerhalb der strikten Grenzziehung autonomer Fiktionen.

With their rich and complicated history, spirituals hold a special place in the American musical tradition. This soul-stirring musical form is irresistible to singers seeking to diversify their performance repertoire, but it is also riddled with controversy, especially for singers of non-African descent. Singer and historian Randye Jones welcomes singers of all backgrounds into the style while she explores its folk song roots and transformation into choral and solo vocal concert repertoire. Profiling key composers and pioneers of the genre, Jones also discusses the use of dialect and other controversial performance considerations. Contributed chapters address elements of collaborative piano, studio teaching, choral arrangement, voice science, and vocal health as they apply to the performance of spirituals.The So You Want to Sing series is produced in partnership with the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Like all books in the series, So You Want to Sing Spirituals features online supplemental material on the NATS website.

With some justification, a commentator has described today's typical early-music performance style as the most modern thing around, despite its claim for historical accuracy. Early accounts reveal this to be a valid assessment, for today's technology and high education standards give us a massive advantage. In contrast to music composition, which needs no technology, music execution requires skills that can be greatly enhanced through technology. For example, the metronome (invented in 1816) is an excellent training tool for rhythmic steadiness, but this usage did not become universal until some point in the twentieth century. Countless reports from preceding centuries document therhythmic instability that posed a major obstacle for even the best ensembles. Leaders had to resort to audible time beating, whether by stamping the foot, pounding with a stout rod, or playing the first violin part at deafening volume. For us, the metronome also enables rapid tempos: one simply begins slowly, and gradually increases the tempo in small increments. Another great advance was the invention of recording technology, which provided models for imitation, thereby improving intonation, tone quality, expression, and rhythmic stability. Today, it continues to provide automatic ear training and many other benefits. The articles in the present compilation not only provide insight into early performance standards, but also treat subjects that have proved controversial in modern thought, such as tempo, dotting, embellishment, and vibrato.

Basso continuo accompaniment calls upon a complex tapestry of harmonic, rhythmic, compositional, analytical and improvisational skills. The evolving knowledge that underpinned the performance of basso continuo was built up and transmitted from the late 1500s to the second half of the eighteenth century, when changes in instruments together with the assertion of control by composers over their works brought about its demise. By tracing the development of basso continuo over time and across the regions of Italy where differing practices emerged, Giulia Nuti accesses this body of musical usage. Sources include the music itself, introductions and specific instructions and requirements in song books and operas, contemporary accounts of performances and, in the later period of basso continuo, description and instruction offered in theoretical treatises. Changes in instruments and instrumental usage and the resulting sounds available to composers and performers are considered, as well as the altering relationship between the improvising continuo player and the composer. Extensive documentation from both manuscript and printed sources, some very rare and others better known, in the original language, followed by a precise English translation, is offered in support of the arguments. There are also many musical examples, transcribed and in facsimile. Giulia Nuti provides both a scholarly account of the history of basso continuo and a performance-driven interpretation of how this music might be played.

The thirty-two Piano Sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven form one of the most important segments of piano literature. In this accessible, compact, and comprehensive guidebook, renowned performer and pedagogue Stewart Gordon presents the pianist with historical insights and practical instructional tools for interpreting the pieces. In the opening chapters of Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas, Gordon illuminates the essential historical context behind common performance problems, discussing Beethoven's own pianos and how they relate to compositional style and demands in the pieces, and addressing textual issues, performance practices, and nuances of the composer's manuscript inscriptions. In outlining patterns of structure, sonority, keyboard technique, and emotional meaning evident across Beethoven's compositional development, Gordon provides important background and technical information key to understanding his works in context. Part II of the book presents each sonata in an outline-chart format, giving the student and teacher ready access to essential information, interpretive choices, and technical challenges in the individual works, measure by measure, all in one handy reference source. In consideration of the broad diversity of today's Beethoven interpreters, Gordon avoids one-size-fits-all solutions or giving undue weight to his own tastes and preferences. Instead, he puts the choices in the hands of the performers, enabling them to create their own personal relationship with the music and a more powerful performance.

This book examines the nature of musical performance. In it, Dorottya Fabian explores the contributions and limitations of some of these approaches to performance, be they theoretical, cultural, historical, perceptual, or analytical. Through a detailed investigation of recent recordings of J. S. Bach's Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, she demonstrates that music performance functions as a complex dynamical system. Only by crossing disciplinary boundaries, therefore, can we put the aural experience into words. A Musicology of Performance provides a model for such a method by adopting Deleuzian concepts and various empirical and interdisciplinary procedures. Fabian provides a case study in the repertoire, while presenting new insights into the state of baroque performance practice at the turn of the twenty-first century. Through its wealth of audio examples, tables, and graphs, the book offers both a sensory and a scholarly account of musical performance. These interactive elements map the connections between historically informed and mainstream performance styles, considering them in relation to broader cultural trends, violin schools, and individual artistic trajectories. A Musicology of Performance is a must read for academics and post-graduate students and an essential reference point for the study of music performance, the early music movement, and Bach's opus.

A revealing study of the physical presence of the musician in musical performance. Fingers slipping over guitar strings, the tap of a bow against the body of a cello, a pianist humming along to the music: contemporary composers often work with parasitic, non-conventional sounds such as these. Are they to be perceived as musical elements or do they shift attention to the physical effort of music-making, contact between a body and an instrument? Composer Paul Craenen explores ways in which the musician's body is revealed in musical performance. He leads us from Cage, Lachenmann, Kagel and their contemporaries to a discussion of how today's generation of young composers is writing a body paradigm into composition itself. Micro-temporal physical gestures and instrumental timbre provide the key to unveiling the physical presence of both a musician and a ‘composing body'. The author's concept of ‘intercorporeality', along with the idea of an alternating linear and non-linear relationship of the composing body to time, casts new light on the relationship between musicians, composers, and music consumers. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

This book examines 43 great concerti and discusses, in detail, the technical, aural, rehearsal, and intra-personal skills that are required for'effortless excellence.'Maestro Itkin wrote this book for conductors first encountering the concerto repertoire and for those wishing to improve their skills about this important, and often understudied, literature. Often misunderstood is the fact that both the physical technique and the score study process require a substantially different and more nuanced approach than with the major symphonic repertoire. In short, this is the book that Itkin wished had been available when he was a student and young professional.'This book is truly wonderful, lucid and intelligent. Would that many of Maestro Itkin's colleagues devoted such attention to mere concerti!'--Misha Dichter'This is a'must own'book for any conductor or conducting student.'--Samuel Adler, Professor of Composition, the Juilliard School'By concentrating on familiar pieces, David Itkin is offering a valuable textbook for the aspiring maestro. He gets right to the heart of this important facet of the conductor's art. Highly recomended.'--Leonard Slatkin

Research in the field of keyboard studies, especially when intimately connected with issues of performance, is often concerned with the immediate working environments and practices of musicians of the past. An important pedagogical tool, the keyboard has served as the'workbench'of countless musicians over the centuries. In the process it has shaped the ways in which many historical musicians achieved their aspirations and went about meeting creative challenges. In recent decades interest has turned towards a contextualized understanding of creative processes in music, and keyboard studies appears well placed to contribute to the exploration of this wider concern. The nineteen essays collected here encompass the range of research in the field, bringing together contributions from performers, organologists and music historians. Questions relevant to issues of creative practice in various historical contexts, and of interpretative issues faced today, form a guiding thread. Its scope is wide-ranging, with contributions covering the mid-sixteenth to early twentieth century. It is also inclusive, encompassing the diverse range of approaches to the field of contemporary keyboard studies. Collectively the essays form a survey of the ways in which the study of keyboard performance can enrich our understanding of musical life in a given period.

Written by a leading authority and artist of the historical transverse flute, The Notation Is Not the Music offers invaluable insight into the issues of historically informed performance and the parameters—and limitations—of notation-dependent performance. As Barthold Kuijken illustrates, performers of historical music should consider what is written on the page as a mere steppingstone for performance. Only by continual examination and reexamination of the sources to discover original intent can an early music practitioner come close to authentic performance.

Building on the insights of the first volume on Music and Gesture (Gritten and King, Ashgate 2006), the rationale for this sequel volume is twofold: first, to clarify the way in which the subject is continuing to take shape by highlighting both central and developing trends, as well as popular and less frequent areas of investigation; second, to provide alternative and complementary insights into the particular areas of the subject articulated in the first volume. The thirteen chapters are structured in a broad narrative trajectory moving from theory to practice, embracing Western and non-Western practices, real and virtual gestures, live and recorded performances, physical and acoustic gestures, visual and auditory perception, among other themes of topical interest. The main areas of enquiry include psychobiology; perception and cognition; philosophy and semiotics; conducting; ensemble work and solo piano playing. The volume is intended to promote and stimulate further research in Musical Gesture Studies.

From Gregorian chant to Bach's Brandenburg Concerti, the music of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods is both beautiful and intriguing, expanding our horizons as it nourishes our souls. In this Very Short Introduction, Thomas Forrest Kelly provides not only a compact overview of the music itself, but also a lively look at the many attempts over the last two centuries to revive it. Kelly shows that the early-music revival has long been grounded in the idea of spontaneity, of excitement, and of recapturing experiences otherwise lost to us--either the rediscovery of little-known repertories or the recovery of lost performing styles, with the conviction that, with the right performance, the music will come to life anew. Blending musical and social history, he shows how the Early Music movement in the 1960s took on political overtones, fueled by a rebellion against received wisdom and enforced conformity. Kelly also discusses ongoing debates about authenticity, the desirability of period instruments, and the relationship of mainstream opera companies and symphony orchestras to music that they often ignore, or play in modern fashion.

This volume is a collection of essays based on lectures given at the International Orpheus Academy for Music Theory on ‘Music and Theory: Thoroughbass in Practice, Theory, and Improvisation'. Hence the point of departure was not ‘Music Theory'as such, but the interaction between music theory, music history, performance practice, aesthetics, and related sciences. This multidisciplinary approach, with the accent on the interplay between music performance and music theory, is reflected in the contributions to this book.Thomas Christensen, in his contribution, shows how the development of tonal harmonic theory went hand in hand with the practice of thoroughbass. Both Robert Gjerdingen and Giorgio Sanguinetti focus on the Neapolitan tradition of partimento. Gjerdingen addresses the relation between the realization of partimenti and contrapuntal thinking, illustrated by examples of contrapuntal imitation and combination in partimenti, leading to the ‘partimentofugue'. Sanguinetti elaborates on the history of this partimentofugue from the early 18th until the late 19th century. Rudolf Lutz, finally, presents his use of partimenti in educational practice, giving examples of how reviving this old practice can give new insights to composers, conductors and musicians.