florida state university college of music performance practice

true in the sphere of duration, where very little difference was observed in the subsequent
recordings. 444
Recommendations for Future Research
Performance is an inherent component of experiencing music. Recordings are an
increasing important component in tracing the practices of conductors in performances.
Missing from this study are representative recordings from conductors of nations like
France, Russia, Slovakia, just to name a few, that could add to the richness and variety of
the overall interpretations of any given musical work. Throughout this research,
recordings from the United States and England were easier to obtain. Additionally, efforts
should be made to make recordings more accessible for longer periods. The availability
of recordings is unfortunately driven by consumer demand and those that do not do well
in an already competitive and narrow market niche are subject to becoming unavailable
for listening and or study. Further research should be done on those countries and regions
that are not typically included in the United States commercial recordings market for a
more accurate portrayal of contemporary performance practice of earlier works.
While this study could not draw concrete conclusions regarding if recordings of
this one representative work are becoming faster or slower, perhaps a longer longitudinal
study would yield results that showed a preferential trend. Until then continued
discussions should occur that ask questions regarding why conductors prefer to follow
certain historical practices while ignoring others. These discussions would help define
even more contemporary endeavors of performance that may discover and point to larger
sociological considerations.
444 Duration results of conductors who have recorded the St. John Passion more than once may be seen in
Appendix K.
156