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Nikolaus Harnoncourt pointing out the many differences be- while its resolution should fade away.
Baroque Music Today: Music as Speech tween the musical and social climates of Harnoncourt chooses the “bell-shaped”
(Ways to a New Understanding ofMusic) eighteenth-century Europe and those of tone as a model of articulation and makes
Translated by Mary O’Neill. Portland, Or- today. He recalls that “old music” held the following apt observation about dot-
egon: Amadeus Press, 1988. 208 pp. little interest for audiences in the distant ted rhythms:
$19.95 (hardcover). ISBN 0-931340-05-5 past. They wanted to hear only what was
new, whereas today’s contemporary art Common sense tells us that dotted
A ! 4 EN YEARS after their publica- music barely has an audience. Harnon- rhythms as such resist any precise
I tion in Germany, these lively court views with alarm the combined classification. The length of the long
-Ж_ essays by a leader in the perfor- trends of a widespread resistance to con- and the brevity of the short notes
mance of early music have at last appeared temporary music and an “airless” insis- are determined by the character of
in English. They will refresh and inspire tence that historical music be rendered the piece.
any musician engaged in the performance “faithfully.” At the same time, he recog-
(or appreciation) of Baroque music. Actu- nizes advantages as we contemplate mu- Harnoncourt also addresses tempo and
ally, the book’s scope is a bit broader than sic of the past from today’s perspective. choice of instruments, suggesting that
its title implies; Harnoncourt includes a Harnoncourt’s central thesis is encapsu- musicians prefer playing Baroque music
few words about Mozart. lated in his German tide: Musik als Klangrede on period instruments because the music
The book is divided into three sec- (Music as Tone-Speech). He perceives a shift works better on them. In other essays he
tions. The most broadly applicable no- in musical expression, occurring around offers useful ideas about intonation,
tions come from the first, “Basic Principles 1800, from the linguistic to the pictorial. acoustics, placement of musicians on
of Music and Interpretation.” The sec- The former must be understood, he asserts, stage, and other topics.
ond section focuses on period instru- while the latter is to be felt. Recognizing Overall the essays are exhilarating. The
ments—their sound, playing techniques, this dichotomy is useful in orienting the book as a whole, however, has three dis-
and the implications for interpretation. ear toward eighteenth-century music as a advantages: the looseness of its construe-
The final section treats individual com- kind of rhetoric or discourse. tion gives rise to a sometimes unwelcome
posers and forms. Addressing the thorny matter of nota- repetitiveness; the lack of an index makes
Harnoncourt discusses many of the tion, Harnoncourt distinguishes between it difficult to find passages or ideas; and
questions confronting performers of two types of written music: one wherein finally, although the occasionally lumpy
early music, emphasizing repeatedly that the work is notated and another wherein English is faithful to the original, some-
communicating a work in performance the performance is notated. Harnoncourt thing of Harnoncourt’s magnetism gets
is the goal to which all scholarship must determines that “in general, music prior lost in the translation.
lead. He offers a moving definition of to about 1800 is notated according to the Mark Shapiro
authenticity: work-principle and thereafter as a direc- Artistic Director
tion for performance.” I Cantori di New York and
A performance is only faithful to the Not surprisingly, his handling of am- Monmouth Civic Chorus
original when a work is allowed to biguities in notation pursues an expres- Red Bank, New Jersey
come most beautifully and most sive result. He warns against an overly
clearly to expression, which happens didactic approach: “Even if we followed
only when knowledge and a sense the rules [that historical texts] contain Nikolaus Harnoncourt
of responsibility ally themselves literally, much older music would end up The Musical Dialogue: Thoughts on
with the deepest musical sensitivity. sounding like a malicious caricature.” Monteverdi, Bach and Mozart
Harnoncourt maintains that musical prac- Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1989.
His approach is free of dogma, invok- tice was not uniform, that performers had 220 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-931340-08-X
ing common sense and innate musicality great interpretive latitude and could le-
as the final arbiters of how to perform a gitimately reach different conclusions 'W" "T’ AVE YOU ever imagined sit-
given work or passage. Harnoncourt re- about the same work, and that no defini- I"1 1 Έ ting over a cup of coffee with
jects pedantry, favoring performances that tive version was expected or sought. JL JL a leading figure in the early
are “historically uninformed but musically He does list some Baroque perfor- music movement and listening to him
alive” over those that are “historically im- mance practice rules: most notes are not or her talk about topics in the field?
peccable but which lack all vitality.” held for their full written value; the mu- Reading The Musical Dialogue, a com-
The author urges performers to hear sic adheres to the principle of linguistic pilation of lectures and essays by
and think within a historical context, stress; and a dissonance must be stressed Nikolaus Harnoncourt, realizes this
acfea
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