Historical Performance Practice at the Beginning of the New Millennium

Historical Performance Practice at the beginning of the new millennium Dorottya Fabian An interest in early music and performing practices of the past has a long history by now. Its characteristics in the nineteenth century have been mapped by several authors, especially in relation to the revival of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music, the Cecilian Movement and various musical developments in England. Even more pub- lications are available on its twentieth-century history.1 The initiatives during the early decades (e.g. the organ and recorder movements of the 1920s, the establish- ing of the Schola Cantorum in Basel in 1933) and the contribution of pioneers like Wanda Landowska and Arnold Dolmetsch have been extensively studied together with lesser-known figures, places and institutions.2 But as is well-known, it was during the second half of the twentieth century that the Early Music or Historically Informed Performance Movement has truly taken off, becoming a major force in the world of classical music. Many books and papers have been dedicated to the history of this development, its various phases, musical characteristics, key figures, aesthetic outlook and philosophical assumptions, and its achievements. There was a burgeon- ing of such literature and heated debates during the 1980s and 1990s followed by more comprehensive and ‘corrective’ analyses published during the early years of the 2000s, most focussing on the second half of the twentieth century.3 Much less has 1 Harry Haskell, The Early Music Revival – A History, London 1988; George B. Stauffer, Changing Issues of Performance Practice, in: John Butt (Hg.), Cambridge Companion to Bach, Cambridge 1997, S. 203–217; Martin Zenck, Reinterpreting Bach in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, in: John Butt (Hg.), Cambridge Companion to Bach, Cambridge 1997, S. 226–250; Edward Dannreuter, Musical Ornamentation, London 1893. 2 Denise Restout and Robert Hawkins (Hg.), Landowska on Music, New York 1964, R1981; Howard Schott, Wanda Landowska – A Centenary appraisal, in: Early Music 7/4 (1979), S. 467–472; Hans Oesch, Die Musik-Akademie der Stadt Basel, Basel 1967; Margaret Campbell, Dolmetsch: The Man and His Work, London–Seattle 1975; Peter Williams, The idea ofBewegung in the German Organ Reform Movement of the 1920s, in: Bryan Gilliam (Hg.), Music and Performance during the Weimar Republic, Cambridge 1994 (= Cambridge Studies in Performance Practice 3), S. 135–153. 3 Jolande van der Klis, Oude muziek in Nederland – Het verhaal van de pioniers 1900–1975, Utrecht 1991; Ludwig Hartmann, Geschichte der historischen Aufführungspraxis in Grundzügen Teil I: Von den Anfängen bis Harnoncourt, Regensburg 1988; Robert Strobl, Geschichte der historischen Aufführungspraxis in Grundzügen Teil II: Von 1970–1990, Regensburg 1992; Nicholas Kenyon 132 Dorottya Fabian been written about what has happened since.4 What was the impact of all that ac- tivity and debate? How have attitudes evolved in the aftermath and where are things now, towards the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century? In this paper I will attempt to sketch an answer to these questions. It will only be a quick snapshot of a few issues and examples for the field has broadened both in terms of repertoire and global reach. It would be foolish to think a single person in a single short paper could give it justice. Institutional changes: The internationalization of HIP (Historically Informed Performance) One clearly noticeable difference between now and the 1980s is the proliferation of tertiary level music departments specializing in historical performance, in training instrumentalists playing period instruments. During the twentieth century there were few conservatoria where musicians could focus on developing period instrumental techniques and an understanding of period aesthetics. Apart from the Scho- la Cantorum in Basel (Switzerland) and the summer school / festival in Haslemere (Surrey, UK) there was hardly anywhere else a budding instrumentalist could go for formal training or master classes until such departments opened in Amsterdam and The Hague Conservatory (Netherlands) during the latter part of the 1970s. Around the same time Thomas Binkley established the Early Music Institute at Indiana Uni- versity, Bloomington, USA (1979). Even the learning of the harpsichord was rarely available and often not as a primary instrument, let alone period versions of string, wind and brass instruments or vocal coaching. Today such programs are much more readily available across Europe (e.g. the Institute of Early Music and Performance Practice at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz and similar departments in Bremen, Köln, Leipzig, and elsewhere), although some were established as late as 2006 (Salzburg Institut für Musikalische Rezeptions- und Interpretationsge- schichte). This growth is not limited to the ‘old’ Continent. Early Music departments are mushrooming in the Antipodes (e.g. Melbourne, led by Erin Helyard and David (Hg.), Authenticity and Early Music, Oxford 1988; Bernard D. Sherman (Hg.), Inside Early Music: Conversations with Performers, New York 1997; Dorottya Fabian, Bach Performance Practice 1945–1975: A Comprehensive Review of Literature and Sound Recordings, Aldershot 2003; John Butt, Playing with History: The Historical Approach to Musical Performance, Cambridge 2002; Bruce Haynes, The End of Early Music. A Period Performer’s History of Music for the Twenty-First Century, New York 2007; and innumerable other articles and chapters in books. 4 For instance, Claudio Bacciagaluppi, Historical Performance, Past and Present, in: Early Music, 40/1 (2012), S. 161–163; Nick Wilson, The Art of Re-enchantment. Making Early Music in the Modern Age, New York 2014. Historical Performance Practice 133 Irving) and even ‘bastions of tradition’ in the New World have come on board, as an advertisement of The Juilliard School of Music demonstrates: Juilliard Historical Performance, the school’s graduate-level, full-tuition scholarship pro- gram for early music, enters its seventh performance season with a full schedule of concerts, tours, residencies, and master classes anchored by performances from its primary period-instrument ensemble, Juilliard415, along with its faculty ensemble Juilliard Baroque, and a roster of distinguished guests artists.5 These developments show the success of the movement; that from a position of ‘ex- perimental, begrudged alternative’ it gained mainstream status. The commercial success of its pioneers during the last quarter of the twentieth century together with coaching ‘pockets’ and doctoral programs formed around key instrumentalists, e.g. Malcolm Bilson (fortepiano) at Cornell University, Gustav Leonhardt (harpsichord), Frans Bruggen (recorder/flute), Anner Bylsma (cello) and the Kuijken brothers (vi- olin, flute, viola da gamba/cello) in The Hague, have created demand and paved the way for the younger generation to establish further ensembles, festivals and training opportunities all over the world. While earlier histories of the movement could focus on England and a few countries of Western Europe, now there are such musicians and activities everywhere from the Bach Collegium Japan, to The Brandenburg Orchestra in Australia, Il Giardino Armonico in Italy, Le Concert des Nations in Spain, The Dunedin Consort in Scottland, La Tempesta in Poland, Hortus Musicus from Esto- nia, Musica Florea in Prague, Capella Savaria in Hungary, or Música Ficta in Bogota, as well as dozens of others in the US, Canada, Australia and all over Europe (see list of early music ensembles in en.wikipedia.org, for example). Importantly, there are many ensembles that specialize in vocal and/or instrumental music from earlier and later periods or specific genres, like the string quartet (e.g. Quatuor Mosaïques) or Gregorian chant (e.g. Anonymous 4). The 1990s also saw the rising stars of counter-tenors like Andreas Scholl, bringing the professional standards in this vocal ‘Fach’ to ever new heights and enabling the luminous musical quality of soundtracks in films likeFarinelli (sung by Derek Lee Ragin and soprano Ewa Malas-Godlewska in a digitally combined voice).6 Of these specializations the inroads into nineteenth-century performance practice and historically informed baroque opera productions seem important to single out as these represent the latest experimentations and I will return to these in the second half of the paper where I discuss stylistic developments. 5 Anonymous Advert, in: School Band and Orchestra 18/8 (2015 August), S. 13. 6 One of the current counter-tenor superstars, Philippe Jaroussky, was 16 years old when the film was made in 1994. 134 Dorottya Fabian The institutionalization of HIP also fostered increasingly detailed research and scholarship. The considerable academic literature produced during the 1950s to 1980s period provided basic information through translations of the most important treatises and instrumental tutors and through ‘readers’ that summarized issues regarding performance parameters like rhythm, articulation, ornamentation, tem- po, expression and so on, at times offering collated citations from relevant historical sources.7 Since the 1990s many more treatises became available in modern editions and English translations and Cambridge University Press issued several books dedicated to early instruments and various performance matters.8 Importantly, students in doctoral programs have explored a myriad of additional issues from cadenzas for

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