Gramophone – September 2019

122 GRAMOPHONE SEPTEMBER 2019 gramophone.co.uk

DavidVickerswelcomesadictionary

ofhistoricalperformancepractice:

TimAshleyadmiresauseful

guidetoTheMagicFlute:

TheCambridgeEncyclopedia

ofHistoricalPerformance

inMusic

EditedbyColinLawsonandRobinStowell

CambridgeUniversityPress,HB,774pp,£125

ISBN9781107108080

It seems that ‘historically

informed performance’

(what used to be called the

dreaded term ‘authenticity’)

is here to stay – but newcomers seeking a

gateway lacked a single-volume reference

guide until now. Co-editors Colin Lawson

and Robin Stowell have created an A-Z

lexicon of historical performance that

contains diverse entries contributed by

over 100 experts, and their preface

expresses hope that dipping into this

book will be useful to ‘performers, teachers,

students, audiences, music-lovers in general

and perhaps even scholars’.

A vast array of topics includes composers,

usually with a focus on their ideas about

performance; issues of performance style

and techniques are represented with

necessary objectivity and avoid giving

polemical advice about how we should

(or should not) apply historically informed

principles to our own music-making.

Users will need to consult the appended

bibliographies of ‘Further Reading’ to

discover more specific advice. Essentially,

this is a place to find out where to start

research, and not where to find answers

to all our practical questions.

There are highly useful and digestible

explanations of complex core issues such

as ‘Key character’, which shrewdly outlines

that different theorists from French and

German traditions during the Baroque

era contradicted each other completely

about the ‘meaning’ and emotional

connotations of F major. There is an

admirable definition of the thorny concept

of ‘Notes inégales’ in French music, and a

good thumbnail view of the history of the

‘Orchestra’ and its various layouts. There

is an immensely helpful and lucid overview

of ‘Pitch’, presenting a brilliant summary of

the vast amount of research that has been

done on the full range of historical pitches

preserved across numerous instruments in

different countries, from very high A=522

to rather low A=392.

‘Scordatura’ (alternative tunings of

stringed instruments), ‘Tactus’ (sense of

beat), ‘Temperament’ (systems of tunings)

and ‘Tempo’ are all handily concise

introductory essays. Fundamental issues of

scholarship and research are set out clearly,

such as ‘Editing/Editions’, ‘Urtext’ (the

marketing-driven problems of the term

explained succinctly), and different kinds

of ‘Manuscripts’ – although neat-copy

autographs intended as gifts to patrons

and performing scores are not mentioned.

‘Iconography’ lacks specific examples of

how it has informed performance practices,

and, ironically, has no illustrations.

Many useful entries are penned by

respected performers. Robert Levin’s

‘Improvisation and unwritten performance

practices’ is entertainingly polemical and

covers a wide range of examples within his

fluent prose. John Butt writes an erudite

summary of the benefits and pitfalls of

musical ‘Notation’, and both editors jointly

author an impressively careful summary of

factual evidence regarding ‘Vibrato’ that

avoids taking sides intransigently. Richard

Wistreich writes magisterial overviews on

‘Singing’ and ‘Performance practice

scholarship’ (a helpful definition of what

historical performance actually is). The

history of almost every relevant instrument

you can think of (and several more) is set

out in masterfully broad texts authored by

leading practitioners, including Ashley

Solomon (‘Flute’ and ‘Recorder’), Andrew

Lawrence-King (‘Harp’), Terence

Charlston (‘Harpsichord’ and other

keyboard-related topics), Jakob Lindberg

(‘Lute’ and ‘Theorbo’ – I would have

appreciated more on the latter), David

Ponsford (‘Organ’), Trevor Herbert

(‘Trombone’) and John Wallace

(‘Trumpet’), and the editors take on their

specialisms of ‘Clarinet’ (Lawson also writes

on the ‘Oboe’) and ‘Violin’ (Stowell also

deals with several other string instruments).

Not all is felicitous – I doubt the usefulness

of the ‘Double bass’ entry informing us that

electric bass guitars by Fender, Gibson and

Rickenbacker get used a lot in pop music.

Theorists and their works are discussed, as

are a veritable host of authors of treatises and

instructional methods from medieval times

up to Robert Donington. In addition to

well-known names (Praetorius, Mattheson,

Tosi, Geminiani, Rameau, Quantz), many

less familiar yet significant sources are

introduced. Uninitiated newcomers will

have to spend a lot of time using the

general index or skim-reading to discover

which entries they should look up – in this

respect a compendium rather than an A-Z

structure to the contents might have

worked better, or perhaps a concordance

could have been provided in an appendix

for aspiring instrumentalists or singers to

more efficiently find every relevant article.

Another imperfection is that vocal

genres which do not include instruments

are neglected. Those seeking illumination

on sacred polyphony or secular madrigals

from Josquin to Morley will not find much

here. The core strand of entries on

performers and period-instrument

orchestras that have made seminal

contributions over the last half-century

opens a sizeable can of worms. Most (but

not quite all) entries are excellently written

and judiciously selective, but the editorial

pantheon of innovative scholar-performers

has far too many shocking lacunae: there

is nothing on Alan Curtis, Jean-Claude

Malgoire, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Hermann

Max and Christophe Rousset, and far too

few French and Italian period-instrument

groups are represented. Vocal ensembles,

choirs and chamber groups (such as viol

consorts) are almost entirely absent.

To be fair, this monumental tome

could be twice as long and still not have

covered everything comprehensively.

Notwithstanding a small number of vexing

imperfections, this is an impressively

authoritative snapshot of the world of

historical performance. David Vickers

‘This is a place to find out where to start

research, and not where to find answers

to all our practical questions’

‘Nicholas Till contextualises the

opera’s sexism as a reflection of

Masonic male values’

Books