The History of Music in Performance: The Art of Musical Interpretation from the Renaissance to Our Day

by Dorian and Frederick Dorian

Book Overview

From the great scores that have made history, from the statements of the composers about their work, from old treatises, scholarly textbooks, and contemporary literature, the author has gathered an engrossing array of evidence on the trends of interpretation. Here the art of the performer is studied in all its aspects, spiritual, technical, historical: the old Italian methods of singing, the royal virginalists, Frescobaldi's organ playing, dance types from galliard to waltz, phrasing and dynamics, acoustical conditions, the story of the metronome, Beethoven's piano playing and Chopin's rubato, the rise of virtuosity with Paganini and Liszt, the dream orchestra of Berlioz, and the theoretical commentaries of Wagner. Of special interest in these days of individualized expression by performers is the discussion of revisions and corrections of famous musical scores. The book closes with a consideration of musical performance on records and in radio, moving pictures, and television.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393003698
• ISBN13: 9780393003697
• Release Date: April 1966
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 404 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Pioneering effort in performance practices; still useful.

While copyrighted in 1942, this small book addresses the problems facing performers of Western Art music. Interpretation and Performance Practices is the darling of academia today, and the "experts" in this field demand adherence to their orthodxy. To them, Dorian's effort is viewed as "quaint". But to mere mortals, this book is still an indispensable tool for finding one's way through the wilderness of stylistic practices in art music