The history of music in performance : the art of musical interpretation from the renaissance to our day / by Frederick Dorian.
| Author/creator | Dorian, Frederick |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | [First edition]. |
| Publication Info | New York, NY : W. W. Norton & Company, ©1942. |
| Description | 387 pages : frontispiece, illustrations (including music), plates, facsimiles (including music) ; 22 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Foreword / by Eugene Ormandy -- Introductory note and acknowledgements -- Prologue. Interpretation: applied musicology ; Interpretation: objective or subjective? ; Notation cannot express intangibles ; Interpretation lives through style -- Part I: The birth of modern interpretation. From Renaissance to Baroque. Ecclesiastical spirit. Universality of expression ; Maestro di cappella Palestrina -- A cappella style. Free declamation ; Setup of chorus -- Le nuove musiche. Ancient ideals ; Old Italian methods of singing ; Subordination of song -- Madrigals. Italian and English styles ; Stilo rappresentativo ; After-supper singing -- Keyboard performance. Royal virginalists ; Frescobaldi's organ playing -- The baroque. The story of the score. Four stages of evolution ; Medieval manuscripts ; First printed scores ; Architecture creates performing style ; Sonata piano e forte -- The orchestra makes its debut. Monteverdi's instrumental palette ; Reformer Lully ; Alteration of rhythm ; Unity of bowing -- Bach and Handel. Tradition and its dangers ; Bach: from Weimar to Leipzig ; Handel: baroque proportions -- Rococo and enlightenment. Ornamentation. Functional and ornamental graces ; Philipp Emanuel Bach on "Manieren" ; Graces: German, French, Italian -- Dance types. The function of the dance ; The preclassical suite ; Dances from the galliard era ; Dances from the minuet era ; The waltz -- Affektenlehre. Emotions: the aim of performance ; Major and minor ; Time signatures ; The interpreter's emotions indispensable -- The Mannheim School. Conservative and progressive dynamics ; Crescendo in Italy and Germany ; Jommelli and Stamitz -- Part II: Classicism: the script becomes binding. Phrasing and dynamics. Improvisation disappears. Manuscripts of Haydn and Beethoven ; End of figured bass -- Background of phrasing. Articulation and part organization ; Breathing and bowing -- Dynamics. The echo ; Three classes of dissonances ; Acoustic conditions -- Performance and proportion. Double direction ; Haydn: Esterhaz and London ; Haydn's humor -- Tempo and metronome. Initial tempo. Was old music played more slowly than modern? ; Mozart's presto ; Tempo modification -- Mozart and tempo rubato. Where to play rubato ; The Mozart correspondence ; The vocal background ; License and limits ; Melodic charm -- The story of the metronome. Metrical measurement before 1800 ; Maelzel ; Beethoven's metronomizations -- Victory of form. Beethoven's piano playing. Legato, pedaling, and dynamics ; Restrained liberty ; Controlled rubato -- The poetic idea. Tragic and serene vantage grounds of interpretation ; Form triumphant ; Obligato accompaniment -- |
| Contents | Part III: Romanticism. Classical Romanticism. Romanticism: an eternal feature of interpretation. The classicists romanticized ; Work-fidelity -- Lied performance. Poetry sounds and music speaks ; Melodies interwoven -- Back to the manuscript. Script versus print ; Fantasy behind bars -- Return to the past. Bach Renaissance ; Fluent tempi ; The Parisian piano school ; Purism of interpretation -- Romance and balance. The well-defined phrase ; Chopin's rubato -- Power and virtuosity. Berlioz. Dream orchestra ; Lifelong campaign against arbitrariness ; Singers, orchestra players, conductor ; The interpretative duality -- Virtuosity. G string alone ; The riddle of perfection ; Genie oblige ; Freedom of meter ; The letter kills the spirit -- Corrections. Masterworks revised. Corrections from above ; Corrections from below ; The question of repeats ; Piano transcriptions, orchestrations ; Defense of the pure spirit -- Opera. Toward the music drama. Scores tailor-made for singers ; Gluck's reforms ; Gesamtkunstwerk before Wagner ; Theater orchestra -- Wagner's method. Naive and sentimental tempo ; Against musical temperance ; Not soulless pen music -- Verdi and Italian opera -- Between two epochs. The absolute ideal. Chamber music ; Dusting off old works -- Fin de siecle. Ars Gallica ; Simplicity -- Debussy. Human tenderness ; Language of fine shades ; Charming ridicule -- End and beginning. Romantic objectivity -- Part IV: The objective present. Historical correctness. Objective publication. Baroque organ reawakened ; Transcriptions ; Rescoring ; Objectivity of spirit -- Objective pitch -- New subjectivity. Symphony revised ; Opera revised -- The objective revolt. Stravinsky. Sculptured in marble ; The new rhythm ; Primeval forces ; Schooling the young interpreter -- Schönberg. New notation ; Song speech ; Light scale -- New gateways of interpretation. A new performer. Timbre and transmission ; Timing ; Controversial attitudes ; Electrogenic scores ; Interpretation standardized ; Invisibility of audience ; Television ; Moving pictures -- The American scene. Crucible of music. Folklore ; South of the Rio Grande ; Tango: style transformation -- Jazz: a return to improvisation -- Cosmopolitan trends -- Americanism: humanity. |
| Bibliography note | "Bibliography and references": pages 363-367. |
| Other title | Art of musical interpretation. |
| LCCN | 43002216 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Closed Stacks - Ask at Circulation Desk | ML430.5.D66 H5 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |