Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The past ten years have seen a rapidly growing interest in performing and recording Classical and Romantic music with period instruments; yet the relationship of composers' notation to performing practices during that period has received only sporadic attention from scholars, and many aspects of composers' intentions have remained uncertain. Clive Brown here identifies areas in which musical notation conveyed rather different messages to the musicians for whom it was written than it does to modern performers, and seeks to look beyond the notation to understand how composers might have expected to hear their music realized in performance. There is ample evidence to demonstrate that, in many respects, the sound worlds in which Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, and Brahms created their music was more radically different from ours than is generally assumed. This is an essential book for all performers and students of Classical and Romantic music.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 Accentuation in Theory
• 2 Accentuation in Practice
• 3 The Notation of Accents and Dynamics
• 4 Articulation
• 5 Articulation and Expression
• 6 The Notation of Articulation and Phrasing
• 7 String Bowing
• 8 Tempo
• 9 Alla Breve
• 10 Tempo Terms
• 11 Tempo Modification
• 12 Embellishment, Ornamentation, and Improvisation
• 13 Appoggiaturas, Trills, Turns, and Related Ornaments
• 14 Vibrato
• 15 Portamento
• 16 The fermata
• Recitative
• Arpeggiation
• The Variable Dot and Other Aspects of Rhythmic Flexibility
• Heavy and Light Performance
• Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Brown (Univ. of Leeds, UK) has produced a work of the greatest scholarship and utility. Since a single book could hardly encompass all of the matters pertaining to performance practice within two, distinct style periods, Brown restricts his exploration to just a few matters of the greatest urgency. Central among these is the "relationship between notation and performance." Consideration of notation, of course, leads to consideration of other things that might seem to reside in different territory (e.g., tempo, vibrato, improvisation). Not only has Brown examined a staggering number of primary and secondary sources, he has also accumulated vast practical experience by advising some of the world's most eminent "historical" performers and groups. The conclusions that emerge are most convincing yet evince no hint of the dogmatic. The sheer erudition is noteworthy. Brown extends and refines Frederick Neumann's work on Mozart, for example, even though Brown surveys a much broader field. This is not a work for the general reader, and not even musicians will care to read it through. However, it may be consulted profitably by any musician or aspirant who performs the Classic or Romantic repertoire. Recommended--required!--for all libraries with music collections serving upper-division undergraduates and above. B. J. Murray; University of Alabama

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Clive Brown is Professor of Applied Musicology at the University of Leeds; and Consultant, London Classical Players