Just some small quotes as I rummage trough period performance practise readings.
From Mr. C.P.E. Bach’s The True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments
- What comprises good performance? The ability through singing or playing to make the ear conscious of the true content and affect of a composition. Any passage can be so radically changed by modifying its performance that it will be scarcely recognizable.
Could this better describe modern performance practise? The importance of the gesture and “true content and affect of a composition” is both a responsibility of the performer AND the listener.
- In order to arrive at an understanding of the true content and affect of a piece, and, in the absence of indications, to decide on the correct manner of performance, be it slurred, detached or what not, and further, to learn the precautions that must be heeded in introducing ornaments, it is advisable that every opportunity be seized to listen to soloists and ensembles; the more so because the details of beauty often depend on extraneous factors. The volume and time value of ornaments must be determined by the affect. In order to avoid vagueness, rests as well as notes must be given their exact value except at fermate and cadences. Yet certain purposeful violations of the beat are often exceptionally beautiful.
I love the inclusion of the term “purposeful,” I often tell my students the difference of purposefulness and negligence. Guitarist’s often miss the importance of reading the music exactly as written and only changing the material with educated and tasteful “purpose”. My advise is to always be able to explain yourself in words when you’ve made a change to the notes or articulation. Listen to soloists and ensembles…thanks CPE!
