Early Music America Summer 2013 - (Page 27)

By Matthias Maute Early Music, 21st-Century Style of historical performance practice, we are living in interesting times. The past ﬁfty years have brought about a revolution, a true sea change, in the interpretation of the music of the Classical and pre-Classical period. Viewed from our vantage point in the early years of the 21st century, it has had a huge impact not only within the world of early music performance, but in the wider classical music world as well. Enough time has elapsed to allow a look back upon the cultural phenomenon that is historical performance practice, identify many of the conditions out of which it was created, and observe its evolution. We live in an era that has brought staggering advances in communication and in the ease that information can be acquired and shared. Much of the research previously only available to scholars has been put into the public sphere by the Internet, and access to scores and recordings has never been easier or cheaper. The youngest of the pioneering ﬁgures in the early music revival, the musicians and scholars who essentially conceived and invented the language we call Baroque and Classical style, are now in the twilight of their careers, yet the early music community continues to grow and ﬂourish, thanks to the institutions they created and to their many students—now in the prime of their careers— who picked up where they left off. Our circumstances today present us with a wonderful opportunity for self-reﬂection and renewal. Indeed, the overabundance of information at our disposal makes that a necessity. We cannot simply copy our teachers, for they would never have wanted that. For all the work, all the research that has already been done, it has always been the goal A S PRACTITIONERS of the historical performance movement to enquire, to experiment, to use the past as a source of inspiration that replenishes and informs each generation’s search for truth, even if that truth is dynamic and ever-changing. Each musician and each ensemble must keep looking for their own answers. For my own ensemble, Ensemble Caprice, our search has taken us on a journey through the Eastern European gypsy tradition of the 18th century and prodded us to experiment with playing the music of Dimitri Shostakovich in Baroque style, projects that attempt to engage with the music we love in a creative, open-minded way, respectful of the past, but always aware that we are part of a living tradition. We have seen enough of the early music movement to know that it will never stay the same. What might be in our future? Looking back The modern history of early music performance practice really begins with the work of Arnold Dolmetsch (1856-1940), the Surreybased musician and instrument builder, who, inspired by the collection of historic instruments found in the British Museum, went on to build copies of harpsichords, lutes, viols, recorders, indeed most of the instrumentarium from the 15th to the 18th centuries. In the years leading up to the Second World War, performers like the great harpsichordist Wanda Landowska and the Swiss cellist/gambist August Wenzinger began performing and teaching early music, while during the war, composer Paul Hindemith led a collegium musicum at Yale University. By the 1950s, Dutch musicians like Leonhardt, at the forefront of a rapidly ﬂowering early music movement, were actively giving recitals and teaching, while Frans Brüggen was professor of recorder at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague as early as 1955. In Vienna, Early Music America Summer 2013 27

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Early Music America Summer 2013

Editor's Note
Reader Forum
Sound Bytes
Profile: Christopher Jackson
Musings: When the Music Becomes Ours
Recording Reviews
Early Music, 21st-Century Style
The Indigenous Musicians of Cuzco
Bird Quills, the Art of Touch, and Other Pleasures
Pallade Musica: A Swift Rise, All'Italiana
Book Reviews
Ad Index
In Conclusion: Finding "Local Content" in the Music of New Spain

Early Music America Summer 2013