ECU Libraries Catalog

Essays on the performance of Baroque music : opera and chamber music in France and England / Mary Cyr.

Author/creator Cyr, Mary
Format Book and Print
Publication InfoAldershot, Hampshire, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, ©2008.
Descriptionxi, [330] pages : illustrations, music ; 25 cm
Subject(s)
Series Variorum collected studies series ; CS899
Collected studies ; CS899. ^A355371
Contents Part 1. Vocal music in France. Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre: a biographical essay -- The sacred and secular cantatas of Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre: an introduction -- Representing Jacquet de La Guerre on disc: scoring and basse continue practices, and a new painting of the composer -- A new Rameau cantata -- Performing Rameau's cantatas -- Towards a chronology of Rameau's cantatas -- Declamation and expressive singing in recitative -- Eighteenth-century French and Italian singing: Rameau's writing for the voice -- On performing 18th-century haute-contre roles -- Basses and basse continue in the orchestra of the Paris Opéra 1700-1764 -- The dramatic role of the chorus in French opera: evidence for the use of gesture, 1670-1770 -- The Paris Opéra chorus during the time of Rameau -- 'Inclina Domine': a Martin motet wrongly attributed to Rameau -- Preface -- Bach's music in France: a new source -- Part 2. The viol and violin in England. A seventeenth-century source of ornamentation for voice and viol: British Museum Ms. Egerton 2971 -- Carl Friedrich Abel's solos: a musical offering to Gainsborough? -- Books on old violins and 19th-century playing from the bequest of T. Wesley Mills -- Tempo gradations in Purcell's sonatas -- Violin playing in late seventeenth-century England: Baltzar, Matteis, and Purcell -- Ornamentation in English lyra viol music, part I: slurs, juts, thumps, and other "graces" for the left hand -- Ornamentation in English lyra viol music, part II: shakes, relishes, falls, and other "graces" for the left hand.
Abstract In this collection of essays the author explores some of the written and unwritten performance conventions that applied to French and English music of the 17th and early 18th centuries. Using composers' own notations, marks added by 18th-century performers, historical treatises, and pictorial evidence, she investigates both vocal and instrumental genres, including opera, cantatas, instrumental chamber music, and solo music for the viol and violin. Some of the performance conventions remain controversial, such as the use of gesture by the French opera chorus, and others are still little-known, such as the use of the double bass for rhythmic and harmonic support in early 18th-century French opera. As many of these essays demonstrate, French Baroque music allowed performers a wider latitude of nuance and expression than is often assumed today. The essays in this volume will be of particular interest to scholars and performers who are interested in adopting a historically-informed approach to performing music by Henry Purcell, Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, Jean-Philippe Rameau, and their contemporaries. Several studies also deal with attributions, sources, and a newly-discovered cantata by Rameau.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
LCCN 2007035236
ISBN9780754659266 (alk. paper)
ISBN0754659267 (alk. paper)
Standard identifier# 99938402312

Available Items

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Music Music Stacks ML457 .C89 2008 ✔ Available Place Hold