The Interpretation of Early Music

New revised edition.

Since it was first published in 1963, Robert Donington's classic text has become the standard reference for all would-be performers, students, and amateurs of baroque music. In preparing this exhaustive survey, the author called upon contemporaneous evidence to establish the prevailing practices of the period.

Organized for the greatest clarity, the study consists of four main "books", respectively entitled Style, The Notes, The Expression, and The Instruments. Each book is divided into its relevant parts, thus allowing the reader immediate acces to the specific subject under consideration. There are also nine invaluable appendices plus an in-depth annotated bibliography.

This edition is actually the third revision of "The Interpretation of Early Music"; it was greatly expanded in 1974, and again for the present volume, in which Professor Donington took into account the very latest research, the explosion of interest in accurate historical performance practice, and recently formulated theories.

"This book is a winner and a mine of information which no performer of this music can be without" (Times Educational Supplement)

"Donington's 'Interpreation' is already a classic, and it is almost inconceivable that it will be superseded" (The Music Teacher)

CONTENIDO:

Introduction: New thinking on early interpretation
I. Our changing attitude
II. Prospects for authenticity
III. Authenticity and personality
IV. Authenticity in early opera
V. Past and present
VI. Present and future

Book One: Style
I. The approach to early music
II. The interplay of styles
III. Music as expression

Book Two: The Notes
Part One. Accidentals
IV. Accidentals in early music
V. Interpreting written accidentals
VI. Adding unwritten accidentals
Part Two: Embellishment
VII. The place of embellishment
VIII. Sixteenth-Century ornamentation
IX. Early Baroque ornamentation
X. Later Baroque ornamentation
XI. Post-Baroque ornamentation
XII. The cadenza
XIII. Ornaments
XIV. A (i) The appoggiatura proper
XV. A (ii) The double appoggiatura
XVI. A (iii) The slide
XVII. A (iv) The acciaccatura
XVIII. A (v) The passing appoggiatura
XIX. B (i) Tremolo and B (ii) Vibrato
XX. B (iii) The trill
XXI. B (iv) The mordent
XXII. C (i) Passing notes and C (ii) Changing notes
XXIII. C (iii) The turn
XXIV. C (iv) Broken chords, C (v) Broken notes and C (vi) Broken time
XXV. D. Compound ornaments
Part Three: Accompaniment
XXVI. Figured bass
XXVII. The figuring
XXVIII. Going beyond the figures
XXIX. The texture of the part
XXX. The structure of the part
XXXI. Instruments of accompaniment
XXXII. The good accompanist

Book Three: The expression
Part One. General
XXXIII. Expression in early music
XXXIV. Repeats and omissions
Part two: Tempo
XXXV. Tempo in early music
XXXVI. Time-words
XXXVII. Dance tempos
XXXVIII. Time-signatures
XXXIX. Pulse
XL. Variations of tempo
Part Three. Rhythm
XLI. Rhythm in early music
XLII. Note-values
XLIII. Dotted notes
XLIV. Other sharpened rhythms
XLV. Inequallity
XLVI. Triplet rhythm
Part Four. Punctuation
XLVII. Phrasing
XLVIII. Articulation
Part Five: Dynamics
XLIX. Volume
L. Balance
LI. Accentuation

Book Four: Instruments
LII. Instruments in early music
LIII. Pitch
LIV. Temperament
LV. The voice
LVI. The viols
LVII. The violins
LVIII. Plucked instruments
LIX. The wind department
LX. Flutes
LXI. Reeds
LXII. Brass
LXIII. Percussion
LXIV. Keyboards
LXV. Choirs and orchestras

LXVI. Acknowledgments and conclusion

Appendices
I. Ligatures
II. Figured bass: three realisations
III. Ornamentation
IV. Orchestral improvisation
V. Responsibility for accidentals
VI. New thinking on ornaments
VII. Tempo and rhythm
VIII. A footnote to inequality
IX. Ornamentation in the reciting style

Select bibliography
Index of ornaments (signs)
General index