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Early Music Defended Against Its Devotees: a Theory of Historical Early Music Defended against Its Devotees: A Theory of Historical Performance in the Twentieth Century Author(s): Laurence Dreyfus Reviewed work(s): Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 3 (Summer, 1983), pp. 297-322 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/742175 . Accessed: 01/12/2012 19:03 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Musical Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions UL0 E CNIRMt SUMMER, 1983 Vol. LXIX, No. 3 scH7I RM f THE MUSICAL QUARTERLY Early Music Defendedagainst its Devotees: A Theory of Historical Performancein the Twentieth Century LAURENCE DREYFUS Tryingto develop a new theory,we mustfirst takea stepback from the evidence and recon- siderthe problem of observation. - Paul K. Feyerabend,Against Method A Theoryof EarlyMusic? ITHIN thecultural phenomenon called "Early Music," there W has been little,if any, philosophical reflection on itsown activ- ity.There is,of course, a largeand growingliterature which charts the day-to-daycourse of historicalperformance. But thelanguage hereis pragmatic,designed to answerthe question: How ought we to per- formthis? This concernmay be entirelylegitimate. But once we wish to explore the motivationsunderlying this question, to understand why late twentieth-centuryculture should place such a value on historically"correct" renditions of centuries-oldmusic-in effect, 297 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 298 The Musical Quarterly once we wish toarticulate a theoryof Early Music-there seemsto be a conspiracyof silence.' When thequestion is raisedat all, we are most ofteninformed that Early Music resultedfrom the progress of modern musicology.But thismerely displaces the problem onto musicology. More commonlythe question is answeredwith a logic thatsounds oddlytheological: "Thou shaltperform the music in accordancewith thecomposer's intentions, for this is (H)is will." Authenticrenditions, it appears, are ethicallysuperior to inauthenticones. Many people apparentlyfind this argumentpersuasive. Yet as a justificationfor historicalperformance, much less a theoryof genesis and structure,it is evasive and empty.Small wonderthat the criticsof Early Music remainunconvinced and continueto view it as a hoax or nuisance. But ifEarly Music is indeedsomething more than a passingantiquar- ian fad, then it requiresa theoryembracing both explanation and critique.A theoryshould no doubt answerthe detractors. But, curi- ously,it mustalso rescueEarly Music fromits moralizingdevotees. But what is "Early Music?" Certainlynot only theset of musical objectscomprising the older repertories of European music.For this definitionwould gloss all too neatly over the firstquestion of a theoreticalinquiry: namely,Why has a sectorof "serious" music culturedevoted itself to therecovery of forgottenrepertories, instru- ments,and practices?It is thereforemore useful to defineEarly Music as a late twentieth-centuryensemble of social practicesinstead of restrictingit to the workswhich occasion the interest.To be blunt: EarlyMusic signifiesfirst of all people and only secondarilythings. A brieflisting of theactors and theirprops is necessary.First there are the performers(professionals and amateurs of varyingprofi- ciency),together with the teachersand scholars,this last group pri- marilymusicologists but also otherhumanists interested in dance, theater,iconography, and culturalhistory. Then thereare thosein the supportingprofessions such as luthiersand otherinstrument makers, music publishers,newspaper critics, concert managers and agents, recordcompany executives, and sound engineers.And complement- ing theseactive participantsare the consumers-the ever-growing audiences,who are mostheavily concentrated in WesternEurope and (increasingly)in NorthAmerica, but who bynow span theglobe from 1 The New GroveDictionary of Music and Musicians (London, 1980),for example, does not contain an articleentitled "Early Music," nor any coherentdiscussion of the twentieth- centuryrevival of earlierrepertories, instruments, and practices. This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions EarlyMusic 299 Melbourne to Moscow. We must mentionthe visible tools of the trade-those exteriorsigns of Early Music-the "original instru- ments": both antique and reconstructedviols, "baroqued" violins, pluckedlutes, harpsichords and organs,winds of endlessvariety, and a vastarray of percussion. Only thendo we arriveat themusic itself: a massivecorpus extendingfrom liturgical chant of the Middle Ages throughClassical symphoniesof theeighteenth century and (at the presentwriting) casting a covetousglance at thenineteenth century. Finally thereare the keysthat unlock the doors to historicalrecon- struction:the didactic treatises, the archival documents, and theico- nographical and notationalevidence which formthe basis for the discipline"performance practice." If thereis an idea whichcements together this diverse collection of people and things,it is authenticity.Whether or not it is named,this highlycharged concept underlies every conscious act of EarlyMusic. One mightwonder exactly what is meantby it. First,as a regulative ideal, authenticityexpresses a supposed opposition to the self- aggrandizingindividualism prevalent in Mainstreammusical praxis. In the typicalversion of thiswidespread myth, the individualMain- streamartist harnesses the musical text to his own will, thereby glorifyingself-expression at theexpense of the composer's intentions. A musicianhumbled by authenticity, on theother hand, acts willingly in theservice of the composer, thereby committing himself to "truth," or,at thevery least, accuracy. But there'sthe rub. For ifwe peerbehind theuplifting language, we findthat one attainsauthenticity by follow- ing the textbookrules for "scientific method." Early Music, in other words,does notpreach some empathetic leap intothe past in an act of imaginativeVerstehen. What it has in mind is a strictlyempirical programto verifyhistorical practices, which, when all is said and done, are magicallytransformed into thecomposer's intentions. Au- thenticityin EarlyMusic, then,is groundedin a philosophicalposi- tion I shall call objectivism.By "objectivism"I mean above all the epistemologicalproposition that knowledge is assuredby accurately describingthings in the world withouttaking stock of the biased vantage point fromwhich the (human) observerperceives the phe- nomena. Only bymaintaining this strict separation of subject-object can Early Music restrictitself in practiceto empiricalaccumulation and researchwhile claiming authenticityin principle as a moral value. This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 300 The Musical Quarterly Adornoon EarlyMusic There is no betterdiagnosis of this objectivismthan thatof the Frankfurt-Schoolcritic, Theodor W. Adorno,in thefew passages he devotesto "historicalperformance.''2 To be sure,Adorno is no friend of EarlyMusic. Having evengone so faras to castigateStravinsky for his causticreturn to a pseudo-Baroqueidiom-branding it a regres- sion in consciousness--thismandarin of modernismis unlikelyto have anythingkind to sayabout EarlyMusic's wholesaleevacuation of the twentiethcentury.3 On theother hand, Adorno'spronounce- mentspierce forcefully through the well-intentioned but pitiful apol- ogeticsthat characterizes most discussions of EarlyMusic. Although his conclusions,as we shall see,are quite wrongheaded,his orienta- tion providesan excellentintroduction to a more comprehensive theory. Adorno'smost substantive criticism focuses on theillusive objec- tivitywhich underlies the notion of Werktreue--loyaltyto the musical work.He pointsout thatwhile no one would claim thatthe essence of a musicalwork is tantamountto thesum of historically demonstrable factssurrounding its performance,the "fansof old music" go right ahead claimingthat authenticity is guaranteedby reconstructing the relevantinstruments, texts, and practices.But in so doingEarly Music has no room forcrucial nonempirical considerations--such as emo- tional expressionor the meaning of a work-without which, all would agree, music making is inconceivable.As Adorno puts it: "Objectivityis not leftover once the subject is subtracted."4More perniciously,he sensesthat this theoretical exclusion actually encour- ages theliquidation of subjectivity. That is,since the daily preoccupa- tion of Early Music stressesthe objective retrieval of historicalprac- 2 Adorno discussesthe matterin threeplaces: (1) in a 1951article entitled "Bach gegen seineLiebhaber verteidigt" ("Bach DefendedAgainst his Devotees"),later collected in
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