Historically informed performance
Historically informed performance is an approach to the performance of classical music which aims to be faithful to the approach, manner and style of the musical era in which a work was originally conceived.
It is based on two key aspects: the application of the stylistic and technical aspects of performance, known as performance practice; and the use of period instruments which may be reproductions of historical instruments that were in use at the time of the original composition, and which usually have different timbre and temperament from their modern equivalents. A further area of study, that of changing listener expectations, is increasingly under investigation.
Since no sound recordings exist of music before the late 19th century, historically informed performance is largely derived from musicological analysis of texts. Historical treatises, pedagogic tutor books, and concert critiques, as well as additional historical evidence, are all used to gain insight into the performance practice of a historic era. Extant recordings from the 1890s onwards have enabled scholars of 19th-century Romanticism to gain a uniquely detailed understanding of this style, although not without significant remaining questions. In all eras, HIP performers will normally use original sources, or scholarly or urtext editions of a musical score as a basic template, while additionally applying a range of contemporaneous stylistic practices, including rhythmic alterations and ornamentation of many kinds.
Historically informed performance was principally developed in a number of Western countries in the mid to late 20th century, ironically a modernist response to the modernist break with earlier performance traditions. Initially concerned with the performance of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music, HIP now encompasses music from the Classical and Romantic eras. HIP has been a crucial part of the early music revival movement of the 20th and 21st centuries, and has begun to affect the theatrical stage, for instance in the production of Baroque opera, where historically informed approaches to acting and scenery are also used.
Some critics contest the methodology of the HIP movement, contending that its selection of practices and aesthetics are a product of the 20th century and that it is ultimately impossible to know what performances of an earlier time sounded like. The older the style and repertoire, the greater the cultural distance and the increased possibility of misunderstanding the evidence. For this reason, the term "historically informed" is now preferred to "authentic", as it acknowledges the limitations of academic understanding, rather than implying absolute accuracy in recreating historical performance style or a moralising tone.
Early instruments
The choice of musical instruments is an important part of the principle of historically informed performance. Musical instruments have evolved over time, and instruments that were in use in earlier periods of history are often quite different from their modern equivalents. Many other instruments have fallen out of use, having been replaced by newer tools for creating music. For example, prior to the emergence of the modern violin, other bowed stringed instruments such as the rebec or the viol were in common use. The existence of ancient instruments in museum collections has helped musicologists to understand how the different design, tuning and tone of instruments may have affected earlier performance practice.As well as a research tool, historic instruments have an active role in the practice of historically informed performance. Modern instrumentalists who aim to recreate a historic sound often use modern reproductions of period instruments on the basis that this will deliver a musical performance that is thought to be historically faithful to the original work, as the original composer would have heard it. For example, a modern music ensemble staging a performance of music by Johann Sebastian Bach may play reproduction Baroque violins instead of modern instruments in an attempt to create the sound of a 17th-century Baroque orchestra.
This has led to the revival of musical instruments that had entirely fallen out of use, and to a reconsideration of the role and structure of instruments also used in current practice.
Orchestras and ensembles who are noted for their use of period instruments in performances include the Taverner Consort and Players, the Academy of Ancient Music, the Concentus Musicus Wien, The English Concert, the Hanover Band, the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, the English Baroque Soloists, Musica Antiqua Köln, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Les Talens Lyriques, Les Arts Florissants, Le Concert des Nations, La Petite Bande, La Chapelle Royale, Concert de la Loge Olympique, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, and the Freiburger Barockorchester. As the scope of historically informed performance has expanded to encompass the works of the Romantic era, the specific sound of 19th-century instruments has increasingly been recognised in the HIP movement, and period instruments orchestras such as Gardiner's Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique have emerged.
Harpsichord
A variety of once obsolete keyboard instruments such as the clavichord and the harpsichord have been revived, as they have particular importance in the performance of Early music. Before the evolution of the symphony orchestra led by a conductor, Renaissance and Baroque orchestras were commonly directed from the harpsichord; the director would lead by playing continuo, which would provide a steady, harmonic structure upon which the other instrumentalists would embellish their parts. Many religious works of the era made similar use of the pipe organ, often in combination with a harpsichord. Historically informed performances frequently make use of keyboard-led ensemble playing.Composers such as François Couperin, Domenico Scarlatti, Girolamo Frescobaldi, and Johann Sebastian Bach wrote for the harpsichord, clavichord, and organ.
Among the foremost modern players of the harpsichord are Ralph Kirkpatrick, Scott Ross, Karl Richter, Alan Curtis, William Christie, Christopher Hogwood, Robert Hill, Igor Kipnis, Ton Koopman, Bob van Asperen, Wanda Landowska, Davitt Moroney, Kenneth Gilbert, Gustav Leonhardt, Pieter-Jan Belder, Trevor Pinnock, Skip Sempé, Andreas Staier, Colin Tilney, and Christophe Rousset.
Fortepiano
During the second half of the 18th century, the harpsichord was gradually replaced by the earliest pianos. As the harpsichord went out of fashion, many were destroyed; indeed, the Paris Conservatory is notorious for having used harpsichords for firewood during the French Revolution and Napoleonic times. Although names were originally interchangeable, the term 'fortepiano' now indicates the earlier, smaller style of piano, with the more familiar 'pianoforte' used to describe the larger instruments approaching modern designs from around 1830. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the fortepiano has enjoyed a revival as a result of the trend for historically informed performance, with the works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert now often played on fortepiano. Increasingly, the early to mid 19th century pianos of Pleyel, Érard, Streicher and others are being used to recreate the soundscape of Romantic composers such as Chopin, Liszt and Brahms.Many keyboard players who specialise in the harpsichord also specialise in the fortepiano and other period instruments. Some keyboardists renowned for their fortepiano playing are Ronald Brautigam, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Melvyn Tan, Steven Lubin, Bart van Oort, Gary Cooper, Viviana Sofronitsky, Paul Badura-Skoda, Ingrid Haebler, Robert Levin, Alexei Lubimov, Malcolm Bilson and Tobias Koch.
Viol
A vast quantity of music for viols, for both ensemble and solo performance, was written by composers of the Renaissance and Baroque eras, including Diego Ortiz, Claudio Monteverdi, William Byrd, William Lawes, Henry Purcell, Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, J.S. Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann, Marin Marais, Antoine Forqueray, and Carl Frederick Abel.From largest to smallest, the viol family consists of:
- violone
- bass viol
- tenor viol
- alto viol
- treble or descant viol
- pardessus de viole
Recorder
Although largely supplanted by the flute in the 19th century, the recorder has experienced a revival with the HIP movement. Arnold Dolmetsch did much to revive the recorder as a serious concert instrument, reconstructing a "consort of recorders all at low pitch and based on historical originals". Handel and Telemann, both noted recorder players, wrote several solo pieces for the instrument. Often, recorder players start off as flautists, then transition into focusing on the recorder. Some famous recorder players include Frans Brüggen, Barthold Kuijken, Michala Petri, Ashley Solomon and Giovanni Antonini.Singing
As with instrumental technique, the approach to historically informed performance practice for singers has been shaped by musicological research and academic debate. In particular, there was debate around the use of the technique of vibrato at the height of the Early music revival, and many advocates of HIP aimed to eliminate vibrato in favour of the "pure" sound of straight-tone singing. The difference in style may be demonstrated by the sound of a boy treble in contrast to the sound of an opera singer such as Maria Callas.Certain historic vocal techniques have gained in popularity, such as trillo, a tremolo-like repetition of a single note that was used for ornamental effect in the early Baroque era. Academic understanding of these expressive devices is often subjective however, as many vocal techniques discussed by treatise writers in the 17th and 18th centuries have different meanings, depending on the author. Despite the fashion for straight tone, many prominent Early music singers make use of a subtle, gentle form of vibrato to add expression to their performance.
A few of the singers who have contributed to the historically informed performance movement are Emma Kirkby, Max van Egmond, Julianne Baird, Nigel Rogers, and David Thomas.
The resurgence of interest in Early music, particularly in sacred renaissance polyphony and Baroque opera, has driven a revival of the countertenor voice. High-voice male singers are often cast in preference to female contraltos in HIP opera productions, partly as a substitute for castrato singers. Alfred Deller is considered to have been a pioneer of the modern revival of countertenor singing. Leading contemporary performers include James Bowman, Russell Oberlin, Paul Esswood, Derek Lee Ragin, Andreas Scholl, Michael Chance, René Jacobs, David Daniels, Daniel Taylor, Brian Asawa, Yoshikazu Mera, Jakub Józef Orliński, and Philippe Jaroussky.