This is the first study to provide a systematic and thorough investigation of continuo realization styles appropriate to Restoration sacred music, an area of performance practice that has never previously been properly assessed. Rebecca Herissone undertakes detailed analysis of a group of organ books closely associated with the major Restoration composers Purcell, Blow and Humfrey, and the London institutions where they spent their professional lives. By investigating the relationship between the organ books' two-stave arrangements and full scores of the same pieces, Herissone demonstrates that the books are subtle sources of information to the accompanist, not just short or skeleton scores. Using this evidence, she formulates a model for continuo realization of this repertory based on the doubling of vocal parts, an approach that differs significantly from that adopted by most modern editors, and which throws into question much of the accepted continuo practice in modern performance of this repertory.
This book comprises selected essays concerning musical performance practice by conductor Andrew Parrott, an acknowledged expert in the field. Spanning some thirty-five years of Parrott's career as both performer and researcher, the volume brings together seminal writings on Monteverdi, Purcell and J. S. Bach, as well as an expanded version of a major new article from 2015. With a focus on vocal and choral music, the book covers a broad timespan (from the fourteenth to eighteenth centuries) and multifarious approaches (from extensive scholarly articles to radio broadcasts). Authoritative, provocative and readable, Parrott's writing is packed with detailed information of value to scholars, performers, students and curious listeners alike. At the same time, the book sheds light on key topics of historically informed performance from the past four decades. ANDREW PARROTT, conductor, is perhaps best known for his many pioneering recordings of pre-classical repertory from Machaut to Handel, principally for EMI with the London-based Taverner Consort, Choir and Players, which he founded in 1973. Recent CDs include his reconstruction of Bach's 'lost' Trauer-Music for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen (released in 2011) and a 'thoroughly researched and re-imagined' account of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (2013). He is also co-editor of The New Oxford Book of Carols (1992) and author of The Essential Bach Choir (The Boydell Press, 2000).
This practical guide treats the mechanics and evolution of the instrument, and offers a survey of its literature. The author provides valuable advice on touch and technique, including articulation and fingering, with a lucid exposition of the issues involved in historical performance practice and a clear explanation of ornamentation. The repertoire of each of the great national schools is presented and discussed, with four representative pieces singled out for detailed analysis. More advanced players will welcome the author's suggestions on continuo playing and the helpful discussion of tuning and temperaments. From advice on acquiring a harpsichord, to wise counsel on how to play it and what music to choose, to suggestions on maintenance and tuning, A Guide to the Harpsichord is an indispensable companion for both beginning and advanced harpsichordists.
The Ashgate Research Companion to Henry Purcell provides a comprehensive and authoritative review of current research into Purcell and the environment of Restoration music, with contributions from leading experts in the field. Seen from the perspective of modern, interdisciplinary approaches to scholarship, the companion allows the reader to develop a rounded view of the environment in which Purcell lived, the people with whom he worked, the social conditions that influenced his activities, and the ways in which the modern perception of him has been affected by reception of his music after his death. In this sense the contributions do not privilege the individual over the environment: rather, they use the modern reader's familiarity with Purcell's music as a gateway into the broader Restoration world. Topics include a reassessment of our understanding of Purcell's sources and the transmission of his music; new ways of approaching the study of his creative methods; performance practice; the multi-faceted theatre environment in which his work was focused in the last five years of his life; the importance of the political and social contexts of late seventeenth-century England; and the ways in which the performance history and reception of his music have influenced modern appreciation of the composer. The book will be essential reading for anyone studying the music and culture of the seventeenth century.
The first genuinely interdisciplinary study of creativity in early modern England In the seventeenth century, the concept of creativity was far removed from most of the fundamental ideas about the creative act - notions of human imagination, inspiration, originality and genius - that developed in the eighteenthand nineteenth centuries. Instead, in this period, students learned their crafts by copying and imitating past masters and did not consciously seek to break away from tradition. Most new material was made on the instructions of apatron and had to conform to external expectations; and basic tenets that we tend to take for granted-such as the primacy and individuality of the author-were apparently considered irrelevant in some contexts. The aim of this interdisciplinary collection of essays is to explore what it meant to create buildings and works of art, music and literature in seventeenth-century England and to investigate the processes by which such creations came into existence. Through a series of specific case studies, the book highlights a wide range of ideas, beliefs and approaches to creativity that existed in seventeenth-century England and places them in the context of the prevailing intellectual, social and cultural trends of the period. In so doing, it draws into focus the profound changes that were emerging in the understanding of human creativity in early modern society - transformations that would eventually lead to the development of a more recognisably modern conception of the notion of creativity. The contributors work in and across the fields of literary studies, history, musicology, history of art and history of architecture, and their work collectively explores many of the most fundamental questions about creativity posed by the early modern English 'creative arts'. REBECCA HERISSONE is Head of Music and Senior Lecturer in Musicology at the University of Manchester. ALAN HOWARD is Lecturer in Music at the University of East Anglia and Reviews Editor for Eighteenth-Century Music. Contributors: Linda Phyllis Austern, Stephanie Carter, John Cunningham, Marina Daiman, Kirsten Gibson, Raphael Hallett, Rebecca Herissone, Anne Hultzsch, Freyja Cox Jensen, Stephen Rose, Andrew R. Walkling, Amanda Eubanks Winkler, James A. Winn.
"This is the first study to provide a systematic and thorough investigation of continuo realization styles appropriate to Restoration sacred music, an area of performance practice that has never previously been properly assessed. Rebecca Herissone undertakes detailed analysis of a group of organ books closely associated with the major Restoration composers Purcell, Blow and Humfrey, and the London institutions where they spent their professional lives. By investigating the relationship between the organ books' two-stave arrangements and full scores of the same pieces, Herissone demonstrates that the books are subtle sources of information to the accompanist, not just short or skeleton scores. Using this evidence, she formulates a model for continuo realization of this repertory based on the doubling of vocal parts, an approach that differs significantly from that adopted by most modern editors, and which throws into question much of the accepted continuo practice in modern performance of this repertory."--Provided by publisher.
The study of sacred music under Louis XIII (r.1610-43) has advanced little in the past hundred years. Despite some important recent contributions by the late Denise Launay and others, much of our current perception of the Latin sacred music of the period is still informed by the pioneering research undertaken by Henri Quittard in the early years of the twentieth century. Even with Quittard’s work, however, the almost complete absence of surviving sources has severely limited our understanding of this era. But by re-examining one of the seventeenth-century ’treasures’ of the Bibliothèque nationale (MS Vma rés. 571), Sacred Repertories in Paris under Louis XIII reveals that, far from being a transitional period in which little music of any interest was produced, the reign of Louis XIII witnessed a flowering of musical activity and the development of musical techniques normally associated with the reign of Louis XIV. Based on an exhaustive and innovative manuscript study, Sacred Repertories shows that Vma rés. 571 (a largely anonymous source of previously unknown provenance) was copied in Paris by the composer André Pechon, and that it preserves three previously unidentified repertories with connections to the court of Louis XIII. The repertoire of the musique de la chambre, until now considered a secular institution, shows it to have been an equal partner of the chapelle in the provision of sacred music at court. The repertoire of the royal parish church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois, the only ’working’ liturgical repertory surviving from the century, illustrates musical practices at this important collegiate church. And the repertoire of the Royal Benedictine Abbey of Montmartre testifies to the richness of musical tradition in Parisian convents during a period when no other comparable music from France survives. Sacred Repertories thus transforms our understanding of the musical landscape of seventeenth-century France and provides a springboard fo
Using archival documents, music prints, manuscripts and contemporary writing, Getz examines the musical culture of sixteenth-century Milan. The book investigates the musician's role as an actor and a functionary in the political, religious, and social spectacles produced by the Milanese church, state and aristocracy within the city's diverse urban spaces. Furthermore, it establishes a context for the numerous motets, madrigals, and lute intabulations composed and printed in sixteenth-century Milan by examining their function within the urban milieu in which they were first performed.
Manuscript Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Magliabechiana XIX, 164-167 (FlorBN Magl. 164-7) has been the subject of considerable scholarly attention. The prevailing assumption had been that it was a Florentine source of the early sixteenth century. More recently, it has been argued that its provenance is not as easily determined as it first appears, and that there are Roman connections suggested by one of its codicological features. This monograph provides as full a bibliographical and codicological report on FlorBN Magl. 164-7 as is currently possible. Such evidence suggests that the earlier thesis is more likely to be correct: the manuscript was copied in Florence c.1520. After a review of the evidence for provenance and date, the repertory of the manuscript is placed in its historical and cultural context. Florence of the early sixteenth century is shown to have an organized cultural life that was characterized by the activities of such institutions as the Sacred Academy of the Medici, the famous group that met in the garden of the Rucellai, and others. FlorBN Magl. 164-7 is an exceedingly interesting and important source; an eclectic repository not only of compositionally advanced settings of Petrarchan verse by Rucellai-group intimate Bernardo Pisano but also of sharply contrasting works, popular in character. It is almost a manifesto of the sensibilities of preeminent Florentine cultural figures of the sort who frequented the garden of the Rucellai and as such is a revealing document of Florentine musical taste during those crucial years that witnessed the emergence of the new secular genre we know as the Italian madrigal.
