Project MUSE®: Early Music - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Early Music.daily12026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 32 (2004) - Vol. 35 (2007)Latest Articles: Early MusicTWOProject MUSE®Early Music1741-72600306-1078Latest articles in Early Music. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Advertisers' Index
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228465
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NEMA, National Early Music Association (UK) 650BIOS/Oxford University Organ in Britain conference 692Cambridge Early Music Summer Schools 538Karlsruhe, 20th Internationale Händel-Akademie 524Milan, Accademia Internazionale della Musica 638Northumbrian Recorder and Viol Schools (NORVIS) viSargent, Sally, Historical keyboard tuition viCuenca, Semana de Música Religiosa 574Affourtit, Pieter bows 573Bexley Harpsichord Workshops Limited 627Bizzi Clavicembali ibcBridgewood & Neitzert, string instruments 692Deegan, Robert harpsichords 604Ducornet, Marc, Atelierharpsichords ifcKüng recorders 608McNulty, Paul fortepianos 627Mollenhauer, Conrad GmbH flutes, recorders 604Morley, Robert & Co. keyboard instruments 650Polak
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallAdvertisers' Index2008-01-03text/htmlen-USAdvertisers' Index2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®36252026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Annual Index
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228466
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallAnnual Index2008-01-03text/htmlen-USAnnual Index2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®4030652026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03The motet around 1500
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228467
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Early music studies do not always rank high on the agendas of university music departments these days. There are of course exceptions, a recent one in Britain being the appointment of Thomas Schmidt-Beste to the chair at Bangor, followed by the appointment of an additional expert in medieval and Renaissance music, the establishment of a Centre for Research in Early Music ('CREAM') and the hosting of the 'Med-Ren' conference at Bangor next year (24-27 July 2008). The dynamism of the new team was apparent in a flagship conference held there, 29 March-1 April 2007: 'On the relationship of imitation and text treatment? The motet around 1500'.Those years are characterized by momentous changes in music history, musical
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallThe motet around 15002008-01-03text/htmlen-USThe motet around 15002008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®184602026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Plainchant in Tuscany
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228468
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The legend of Minias (Miniato in Italian) tells of a Christian convert who came from some exotic, Eastern country—perhaps Greece or Armenia—and settled in Florence to live the life of a hermit on Monte alle Croci, the hill that rises to the south-east of the River Arno. Miniato was martyred for his faith in ad 250 and the story goes that his decapitated body picked up its head and flew over the river to his hillside cave where he finally laid down to die. Such was the power of the myth that Miniato was canonized and over nine centuries later, in 1013, a church was erected on the site of his death and dedicated to the hermit saint.The magisterial church of San Miniato al Monte is one of the most harmonious pieces of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallPlainchant in Tuscany2008-01-03text/htmlen-USPlainchant in Tuscany2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®66332026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Ludford illuminated
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228469
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This very substantial volume is the second of three in which Early English Church Music will present all the surviving works of Nicholas Ludford. The first (2003) contained all six votive antiphons and the five-part Mass Inclina cor meum (reviewed Early Music, xxxii (2004), p.335); the third will contain the cycle of seven daily Lady Masses and the fragmentary Mass 'Leroy'. All of the remainder appears here: three five-part Masses (Christi virgo dilectissima, Lapidaverunt Stephanum, Regnum mundi), two six-part Masses (Videte miraculum, Benedicta et venerabilis) and the six-part Magnificat Benedicta.Despite this considerable output, until quite recently—for no reasons other than the inscrutable vagaries both of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallLudford illuminated2008-01-03text/htmlen-USLudford illuminated2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®156972026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Haydn's Masses en masse
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228470
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Our age has an urge for completeness. Every day we are bidden to fall for this, that or the other desirable offer, as often as not because it is 'complete', or likes to advertise itself as complete. The CD collector (who may or may not be the same thing as the music-lover) is more than familiar with the record company's assurance that the whole of a composer's oeuvre is available, and often at bargain price: Order Now! The proliferation of CDs of popular repertoire encourages promoters to reassemble existing recordings and present l'intégrale, usually of a segment of the composer's output—though in rare cases (the Philips Complete Mozart Edition of 1991, the Bach editions from Hänssler and Brilliant Classics, and a
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallHaydn's Masses en masse2008-01-03text/htmlen-USHaydn's Masses en masse2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®166672026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Elements of rhythmic inequality in the arias of Alessandro Scarlatti and Handel
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228471
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Inequality has been aptly defined by David Fuller as 'the uneven performance of evenly written values'.1 He is describing what might be called 'implicit' inequality, which does not appear on the page but is added by the performer. There is another type of inequality, however, which is expressed visibly in dotted notation—let us call this the 'explicit' kind. Explicit inequality makes the composer's wishes totally clear, while implicit inequality is subject to interpretation. Unexpectedly, a small but significant corpus of operatic arias by Handel and Alessandro Scarlatti has turned out to be a source for both kinds of inequality. In these arias explicit dotting usually predominates but there may also be patches of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallElements of rhythmic inequality in the arias of Alessandro Scarlatti and Handel2008-01-03text/htmlen-USElements of rhythmic inequality in the arias of Alessandro Scarlatti and Handel2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®1100652026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Gagliano and Ghizzolo
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228472
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That the dawn of the 17th century was a key moment in the history of vocal chamber music is undeniable; the diversity of the songs from the time, including solo, two-and five-part madrigals as well as strophic duets, is amply demonstrated by two of the latest volumes in the series Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era: a collection of five-part madrigals by Gagliano and a set of monodies by Ghizzolo.Marco da Gagliano is perhaps best known to posterity as the composer of the opera Dafne (Mantua, 1608) and for holding the posts of maestro di cappella at both Florence Cathedral and the Medici court from 1608/9 until his death in 1643. However, he also made a significant contribution to the five-part
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallGagliano and Ghizzolo2008-01-03text/htmlen-USGagliano and Ghizzolo2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®125402026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Feast of the Gods
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228473
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The 14th Boston Early Music Festival: Feast of the Gods (11-17 June) reached a new level of excellence with the North American première of Lully's 1678 Psyché. The opera, acclaimed by national and local press, became the hub of Boston's musical life and the point of departure for an exceptionally high level of festival programming. Centred on the major operatic production, a series of 14 concerts and an international exhibition, the festival week was enhanced by a multitude of concurrent events, including symposia, workshops, masterclasses and a 'family day'.For many attendees, a highlight of the biennial festival is the 'fringe concerts', an opportunity for musicians from near and afar to perform and publicize
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallFeast of the Gods2008-01-03text/htmlen-USFeast of the Gods2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®123412026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03The Austro-German Baroque
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228474
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During the 17th century, several of the Habsburg emperors, including Ferdinand III, Leopold I and Joseph I, were keen musicians and indeed practising composers themselves. It is not therefore surprising that their court at Vienna attracted many leading musicians, particularly from Italy. While the most celebrated and lavish examples of their activity are operas such as Cesti's Il pomo d'oro for Leopold I's wedding festivities in 1668, this selection of CDs reminds us of the wealth of sacred vocal and instrumental music from this fertile period of Austria's musical history.Musik am Hofe derer von Bünau II (Raumklang RK 9902, rec 2005, 61') charts the influence of the Bünau family, one of the leading aristocratic
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallThe Austro-German Baroque2008-01-03text/htmlen-USThe Austro-German Baroque2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®252562026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Chambonnières, Jollain and the first engraving of harpsichord music in France
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228475
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In 1688 Jean Rousseau, a viol player at the French royal court, responded to an inflammatory essay by his rival the Sieur de Machy. Though de Machy's essay, now lost, and Rousseau's response are concerned primarily with viol playing, their debate digresses to other matters of interest, including the career of Jacques Champion de Chambonnières, who had served as joueur d' epinette at the court until his retirement in 1662. Specifically, they each offer a reason to explain Chambonnières's departure from his court appointment, in which he was succeeded by Jean-Henri d'Anglebert.1 Rousseau writes[de Machy] said that the late Mr Chambonnières never wanted to accompany [from a bass] on the harpsichord and he despised
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallChambonnières, Jollain and the first engraving of harpsichord music in France2008-01-03text/htmlen-USChambonnières, Jollain and the first engraving of harpsichord music in France2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®966032026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Erratum
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228476
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Unfortunately the reproduction of the Rheinhold Thim painting of an Irish harper at the Danish court (1622) as illus.6b of Christopher Macklin's article 'Approaches to the use of iconography in historical reconstruction, and the curious case of Welsh harp technique' (EM, May 2007, pp.213-23, at p.221) has been inadvertently reversed in the printing process. The author wishes to point out that his analysis of the painting (pp.220-2) was based on the image in its original orientation, with the harp resting on the player's left shoulder. Given the importance of the correct presentation of the image to the author's argument, the painting is reproduced again
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallErratum2008-01-03text/htmlen-USErratum2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®17192026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Shakespeare and friends
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228477
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Readers of this journal are likely to have something of a hard-core early music habit, and may long since have learned to avoid gift-shop compilation recordings aimed at the day tripper. Too many of these down the years have indeed been shamefully poor offerings, reflecting the ignorance or downright cynicism of manufacturer or retailer, and must have put some people off early music altogether. But all caution can be put aside in the case of the double CD This world's globe (Signum SIGCD007, issued 2006, 142') performed by the musicians and actors of the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Company, which like so many things about the replica Elizabethan theatre, is excellent. The music is performed by 25 musicians, with
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallShakespeare and friends2008-01-03text/htmlen-USShakespeare and friends2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®209932026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03The world of Gautier de Coinci
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228478
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Gautier de Coinci (also Coincy) could easily be considered one of the most neglected composers of medieval music. Guillaume de Machaut has his biographies and editions of his works, as do Leoninus, Perotinus and even Adam de la Halle. But Gautier, with 22 musical works to his name, and over 150 different readings between them, all found in his lengthy verse work the Miracles de Nostre Dame, has received comparatively little musicological scrutiny. This despite the fact that Gautier is not only one of the earliest known Western art music composers, but the first known editor of his own musical compositions, over a century before the great Machaut. Thankfully, this volume begins to redress the situation. Kathy Krause
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallThe world of Gautier de Coinci2008-01-03text/htmlen-USThe world of Gautier de Coinci2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®102272026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Santiago de Murcia versus François Le Cocq
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228479
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It was fascinating to read Alejandro Vera's description of the recently discovered manuscript of music by Santiago de Murcia with the new insights it affords. It is unfortunate, however, that he was not able to examine the manuscript of music by François Le Cocq as this is an important source of concordances with Murcia's Passacalles y obras.Le Cocq's guitar music survives primarily in the manuscript B:Bc Ms.S.5615. This was copied in 1730 by the Flemish clergyman, Jean Baptiste de Castillion, a friend of Le Cocq. The manuscript is in two sections; the first includes music by Le Cocq, the second music by 17th-century composers including Perez de Zavala. In the preface Castillion explicitly states that in 1729 Le
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallSantiago de Murcia versus François Le Cocq2008-01-03text/htmlen-USSantiago de Murcia versus François Le Cocq2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®46012026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Bach unaccompanied
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228480
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The recording of J. S. Bach's works for solo violin represents a high point in a string player's performance career. With a distinguished legacy of interpretations on both modern and period instruments available to the listening public for the better part of a century, an informed consumer would today be in the position to assume that any musician now daring to embark on such a project must have attained a sufficient level of technical and interpretational mastery—and the necessary aesthetic (or spiritual) maturity—to tackle these difficult compositions. Moreover, any such production by well-respected record labels in an already crowded marketplace effectively endows these instrumentalists with an investment into
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallBach unaccompanied2008-01-03text/htmlen-USBach unaccompanied2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®142222026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Editorial
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228481
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The recent death of Pavarotti, and the ensuing media coverage, including televisual retrospectives, again raises the issue of celebrity status and its key place in modern society. It could be argued, of course, that it was ever thus: the singers who performed on the opera stages of Handel's time were certainly international celebrities in their own right, and virtuoso instrumentalists from at least the 17th century achieved renown as performers beyond the immediate circles in which they were employed. But the nature of being a celebrity has undoubtedly changed in more recent times: modern 'celebs' are not necessarily particularly good, let alone great, at what they do; and even if they are, that alone may not be
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallEditorial2008-01-03text/htmlen-USEditorial2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®60742026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Scarlatti complete
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228482
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Composer anniversaries can be an excellent opportunity to stimulate interest in a musician both from scholars and performers. This and last year's special Early Music issues on Buxtehude and Agricola, for example, reflected such developments. Domenico Scarlatti has in 2007 had a less successful year, alas. Although the composer has featured at various festivals, there has not been very much in the way of important new books, articles or recordings. A newly completed recording of all the composer's 560-odd keyboard sonatas on 36 discs in Scarlatti: Complete keyboard sonatas (Brilliant Classics 93546, rec 2000-7, 2307') from the talented young Dutch harpsichordist Pieter-Jan Belder makes some amends, however.The
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallScarlatti complete2008-01-03text/htmlen-USScarlatti complete2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®85072026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Towards an optimal instrument: Domenico Scarlatti and the new wave of Iberian harpsichord making
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228483
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Second only to the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, the keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, alongside works of George Frideric Handel, François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau, formed the core repertory of the 20th-century revival of the harpsichord.1 Sizeable groups of Scarlatti sonatas were recorded on the harpsichord by such first- and second-generation pioneers of historically informed performance as Wanda Landowska, Yella Pessl and Ralph Kirkpatrick. Thus, there is a certain irony that much of the discussion in recent decades about which instruments are historically appropriate for the performance of Scarlatti's keyboard music has centred around the proposition that this composer was 'the piano's first
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallTowards an optimal instrument: Domenico Scarlatti and the new wave of Iberian harpsichord making2008-01-03text/htmlen-USTowards an optimal instrument: Domenico Scarlatti and the new wave of Iberian harpsichord making2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®1944722026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Transposition in Monteverdi
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228484
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In my communication regarding Andrew Johnstone's article '"High" clefs in composition and performance' (Early Music, xxxv/1 (2007), p.166) I made the following remark:I also wish to make a minor correction to Johnstone's end-note 1, where he says 'Parrott's view [about high clefs] has been adopted by Jeffrey Kurtzman in The Monteverdi vespers of 1610: music, context, performance ...'. In fact, I argued as early as 1978 that the chiavette in the Missa in illo tempore, Lauda Jerusalem and the two Magnificats of the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 suggest downward transposition by a fourth in my book Essays on the Monteverdi Mass and Vespers of 1610 (Houston: Rice University Studies, 1978), pp.37-40.Andrew Parrott has
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallTransposition in Monteverdi2008-01-03text/htmlen-USTransposition in Monteverdi2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®78802026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Early Bach
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228485
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This is the first instalment of a two-volume survey that aims to cover all Bach's works. It therefore overlaps with other surveys. Christoph Wolff's Johann Sebastian Bach: the learned musician (reviewed Early Music, xxix (2001), pp.128-30) is a monumental account of Bach's life and environment, but is light on analysis of the music. David Schulenberg's The keyboard music of J. S. Bach (the original 1993 version was reviewed in Early Music, xxii (1994), pp.137-9, the revised version of 2006 is too recent for Jones to have used, as is the recent discovery of Bach's earliest keyboard manuscripts), while roughly chronological in layout, is not so much concerned to trace lines of development as to provide commentaries
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallEarly Bach2008-01-03text/htmlen-USEarly Bach2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®92602026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Devotional music from Stuart England
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228486
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Ross Duffin is well known for his scholarly editions of motets by Josquin, La Rue and Mouton. His A Josquin anthology (Oxford, 1999) has become an established performing resource. With this new edition of 'madrigalian' motets he makes a thought-provoking foray into Catholic music from late 16th- and early 17th-century England. Works by familiar names such as William Byrd, Thomas Tomkins and John Wilbye are present, but the bulk of the volume comprises relatively obscure repertory that deserves more exposure. Duffin acknowledges the efforts of scholars who brought a handful of these pieces to notice in early editions, many of which are now out of print. Given that some of their efforts are incompatible with current
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallDevotional music from Stuart England2008-01-03text/htmlen-USDevotional music from Stuart England2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®230452026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Music and musicians in ecclesiastical institutions
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228487
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In an increasingly busy conference schedule, a coherent programme of papers and a setting that allows for exchange between researchers and students of different nationalities on a specific subject is very welcome. These favourable conditions were largely achieved at the conference 'Music and musicians in ecclesiastical institutions: early modern Andalusia' held on 7-9 December 2006 under the auspices of the Universidad Internacional de Andalucía in the beautiful Renaissance town of Baeza. The conference, directed by Miguel Ángel Marín and Tess Knighton, formed part of a well-organized series of annual courses held at the UIA since 2003. It also coincided with the tenth anniversary of the Festival de Música Antigua
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallMusic and musicians in ecclesiastical institutions2008-01-03text/htmlen-USMusic and musicians in ecclesiastical institutions2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®131232026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Musical instruments in Hans Memling's paintings
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228488
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Hans Memling (sometimes spelled Memlinc) was born as Hans Momilingen (his father came from Mömlingen), probably at Seligenstadt near Frankfurt-am-Rhein, between 1430 and 1450/51, in which year his father died. He is thought to have studied with Rogier van der Weyde, who died in the summer of 1464, and the first positive place and date we have for Memling's life is six months later, 30 January 1465, when he was granted citizenship of the Flemish town of Bruges. He spent the rest of his life there, dying in 1494.1 The Memlingmuseum in the Sint-Janshospitaal in that town preserves a number of his works.2His best known and most comprehensive painting to show musical instruments is the Christ as Salvator Mundi now in
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallMusical instruments in Hans Memling's paintings2008-01-03text/htmlen-USMusical instruments in Hans Memling's paintings2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®741602026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03World enough and time: early music around the globe
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228489
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Though in this batch of discs we do not quite accompany Marvell from the Humber to the Ganges, it is encouraging indeed that tunnel vision concerning early music has so far diminished as to allow into a perfectly arbitrary collection of recordings such as this music from Mexico, Poland, Catalonia and Russia (though sung by Latvians) and standard European repertory performed by groups from Australia and Canada—and all of it is of the highest quality.Emma Kirkby: Magnificat (ABC Classics 476 5255, rec 2005, 63') is, in effect, a portrait disc, complete with a suitable hagiographical text by Andrew O'Connor. The programme is, by and large, rather obvious, one might think, but it works well, and the excerpt from The
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallWorld enough and time: early music around the globe2008-01-03text/htmlen-USWorld enough and time: early music around the globe2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®155272026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Oboe methods over the centuries
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228490
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When I look at an edition of a document or a piece of music, I always find myself wondering about the sources: what they looked and felt like; what they would be like to read or play from; and, especially, what one might learn from them. Unfortunately, it is not always possible or practical to examine the original source; not to mention the time and expense involved, considerable expertise may be required to interpret a source properly. Paper, although surprisingly durable, does not last forever—manuscripts and prints from centuries past are not always in good enough condition to be examined by many curious hands. Hence the series Facsimilés Jean Marc Fuzeau: Méthodes & traités is proving to be a great boon to the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallOboe methods over the centuries2008-01-03text/htmlen-USOboe methods over the centuries2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®77622026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03'So much wealth in such simple trappings'
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228491
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Long disparaged as so many 'tuneful trifles' propped up by 'anaemic chords and arpeggios', 18th-century song— especially German—is enjoying a long-overdue re-assessment thanks to a growing number of impressive recitals, both live and recorded. A rich harvest of performances documenting the tuneful efforts of C. P. E. Bach, Haydn, Reichardt, Mozart, Beethoven, Carl Friedrich Zelter, Franz Paul Lachner and others is beginning to show the extent to which past scholarship has relied too heavily on progressively developmental clichés. At the same time they provide compelling evidence that this music is deserving of attention in its own right. Another motivation stems from the wish to find out more thoroughly the way
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmall'So much wealth in such simple trappings'2008-01-03text/htmlen-US'So much wealth in such simple trappings'2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®215712026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Bach for solo harpsichord
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228492
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With repertory ranging from three works in the Möller Manuscript to The art of fugue, this batch of recordings spans most of J. S. Bach's creative working life. The interpretative accounts vary from traditional brilliance to enlightened experimentation, thus providing a snapshot of today's ever-diversifying throng of musicians in the arena of historically informed performance.Variety is most apparent in the two contrasting sets of Bach: Well-tempered clavier, Book 1. Whilst Luc Beauséjour (Naxos 8.557625-26, rec 2005, 111') plays on a delicately quilled Saxon-influenced instrument, Peter Watchorn (Musica Omnia mo0201, rec 2005, 145') uses a resonant pedal harpsichord, where the manuals are after Ruckers, Blanchet
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallBach for solo harpsichord2008-01-03text/htmlen-USBach for solo harpsichord2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®176202026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Three Messiahs
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228493
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Since Messiah underwent a succession of revisions necessitated by the exigencies of individual performances, especially the need to make the best use of the available vocal talent, no one definitive version of the score exists. However, inasmuch as those versions (of which up to ten can be identified) represent what was heard on specific occasions over which the composer presided, they can all be regarded as 'authentic', and well worth reviving in their own right—even if unsuspecting listeners used to today's most commonly heard versions may sometimes be surprised at what they hear. Each of these three recordings (all on two CDs) is inspired by one such contemporary performance. That by the Dunedin Consort and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallThree Messiahs2008-01-03text/htmlen-USThree Messiahs2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®150282026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Exotic nectar transformed: the grands motets of Lalande's maturity
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228494
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In 1707, France's foremost court composer, Michel-Richard de Lalande (1657-1726), 'the Latin Lully' whose 350th anniversary falls this year on 15 December and whose fame was to last through much of the 18th century, turned 50. In the same year, he produced his most celebrated composition for the Versailles chapel of Louis XIV, Cantate Domino, a grand motet which was also to become the most-performed work by any composer in the whole history of the Paris Concert spirituel.1 If Charpentier is the name most often associated today with French Baroque choral music, this phenomenon is of recent date, and certainly does not reflect the situation in 1707, when his music had been quickly forgotten even three years after his
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallExotic nectar transformed: the grands motets of Lalande's maturity2008-01-03text/htmlen-USExotic nectar transformed: the grands motets of Lalande's maturity2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®686272026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03To sing, to play, or to recompose
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228495
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Appearances can be deceptive. The titles of these three varied and engaging editions will probably attract those searching for new choral material (since all were originally derived from vocal sources); however, only one is readily usable by singers, the others being intended for instrumentalists.More than 130 years separate the repertory in these editions and each includes a diverse array of styles, influences and techniques. Music for the Duke of Lerma contains a selection of succinct imitative songs and motets from northern Castile, most of which date from the later 16th century. These works were compiled for the duke's professional instrumentalists; the edition also contains a few previously unpublished works
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallTo sing, to play, or to recompose2008-01-03text/htmlen-USTo sing, to play, or to recompose2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®163282026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03A fresh look at Domenico Scarlatti's Essercizi per gravicembalo, and the 'tremulo di sopra'
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228496
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According to their dedication, Domenico Scarlatti's Essercizi per gravicembalo, which number 1 to 30 in Kirkpatrick's catalogue and were published in London in 1738 or 1739, were 'born under the highest auspices' of John V of Portugal, in the service of the king's daughter Maria Barbara and brother Antonio, and therefore between 1719 and 1727, during Scarlatti's residence there.1The apparent lack of organization in the Essercizi compared to the later Venice and Parma manuscripts,2 where most of the sonatas have been arranged in twos or threes with a common tonic, has led almost all writers to the conclusion that the single pair and triptych which do occur (K9-10 and K12-14, see Table 1), are coincidental, if they
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallA fresh look at Domenico Scarlatti's Essercizi per gravicembalo, and the 'tremulo di sopra'2008-01-03text/htmlen-USA fresh look at Domenico Scarlatti's Essercizi per gravicembalo, and the 'tremulo di sopra'2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®442272026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Resurrecting Scheidemann
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228497
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Heinrich Scheidemann (c.1595-1663) has in the past been little more than a footnote in the history of music, listed among the many students of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. Performers and scholars have focused on other Sweelinck students such as Samuel Scheidt, with the result that Scheidemann has tended to be overlooked. Although editions of his keyboard music began to appear in the late 1960 s and early 1970s, Pieter Dirksen is the first to make a claim for Scheidemann's historical importance, particularly in the composer's creation of a new genre of the chorale fantasia.Dirksen's book is divided into three parts. In the first, the author gives a detailed account of each manuscript source of Scheidemann's keyboard
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallResurrecting Scheidemann2008-01-03text/htmlen-USResurrecting Scheidemann2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®78062026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03The art of Italian continuo playing
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228498
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Are we more conversant with how the French and Germans realized their figured basses than how the matter was dealt with by the people who invented the whole idea? Giulia Nuti, a performer and teacher herself, feels that modern continuo players often ignore 'two and a half centuries of diverse and wonderful Italian music', basing their stylistic practice on 'treatises from other times and other musical cultures'. But as she notes, 'there is no single practice that meets the time span of musical creation from the late 1500s to the late 1700s'.A small book such as this hardly permits an exhaustive examination of the subject. For the early period it cannot supplant what practising musicians can find elsewhere. Although
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallThe art of Italian continuo playing2008-01-03text/htmlen-USThe art of Italian continuo playing2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®161932026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Italians at home and abroad
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228499
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Considering the popularity of three of Antonio Lotti's Crucifixus settings—which, contrary to ordinary belief, are movements wrenched from larger works—it is surprising how little of his sacred music with instruments, as opposed to his more utilitarian simple settings in the stile antico, is performed and recorded today. Lotti: Vesper psalms (CPO 777 180-2, rec 2005, 74'), makes a welcome contribution to remedying the situation and has a particular value in that the four psalms in the recording (Dixit Dominus, Laudate pueri, Credidi and Laudate Dominum) all come from Dresden, where they were archived by the Hofkapelle during Lotti's brief period of service as Kapellmeister (1717-19) and between them represent four
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallItalians at home and abroad2008-01-03text/htmlen-USItalians at home and abroad2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®147562026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03'Taking stock': a Taverner symposium
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228500
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The appropriate marking of a significant birthday is an issue that we all face at some point. Andrew Parrott's idiosyncratic choice for the celebration of his recent six-decade milestone was a Taverner symposium held in Oxford's Holywell Music Room on Sunday 15 April 2007, under the title of 'Taking stock'. This centred on musical life before 1800, which happens to be the subject of a book of formidable gestation which Parrott hopes to be ushering into the world before too long.There have been a number of Taverner symposia in previous years (on 'Performance practice', 'Cornetts and sackbuts', 'The voice' and 'Bach's choir'). This, however, was rather different. Parrott clearly did not wish this to be a conventional
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmall'Taking stock': a Taverner symposium2008-01-03text/htmlen-US'Taking stock': a Taverner symposium2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®110512026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Bach's ouvertures
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228501
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Musicologists in the past few decades have worked hard to reshape the profile of their discipline by seeking to challenge, renounce or transcend its philological past; yet this has by no means prevented scholars from continuing to unearth archival documents, inspect watermarks and catalogue copyists' handwritings to good purpose. In this most recent volume of Bach perspectives, a series published by the American Bach Society, Joshua Rifkin demonstrates that a sharp eye can still extract striking information from much-studied source materials. His contribution ('The "B minor Flute Suite" deconstructed: new light on Bach's Ouverture BWV 1067'), which scrutinizes the sources and composition history of Bach's Ouverture
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallBach's ouvertures2008-01-03text/htmlen-USBach's ouvertures2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®95522026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03Reconstructing the archangel: Corelli 'ad vivum pinxit'
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228502
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John Smith's beautifully executed mezzotint of Arcangelo Corelli (illus.1) is inscribed, 'H. Howard ad vivum pinxit' and 'I. Smith Anglus fecit', phrases that might loosely be translated (and expanded) as 'painted from life by H[ugh] Howard' and 'engraved by J[ohn] Smith, Englishman'. The Howard painting to which this inscription refers is familiar to Corelli scholars as one of the items in the Oxford Music Faculty collection (illus.2). It has been reproduced many times (on the cover and as the frontispiece of the Corelli Catalogue raisonné, for example 1)—and, in the 18th century, achieved wide circulation in engraved copies by William Sherwin, Thomas Cole and Gerard Vandergucht that were incorporated as
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/265/image/coversmallReconstructing the archangel: Corelli 'ad vivum pinxit'2008-01-03text/htmlen-USReconstructing the archangel: Corelli 'ad vivum pinxit'2008-01-032008TWOProject MUSE®511752026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002008-01-03