florida state university college of music performance practice

CHAPTER 2
THE HISTORICALLY INFORMED MOVEMENT
The enterprise of performing and listening to music in contemporary society is an
impressive but more divergent phenomenon than a century ago. A recent 2005 study from
Early Music America indicates that 98.5 million adults in America listened to early music
on the radio or on a recording over the course of a year. 30 Other impressive findings
indicate that 21.4 million adults (10% of American adults) attended a live performance of
early music during that year while 6.9 million adults (3% of American adults)
participated in rehearsing or performing early music throughout that year. 31 These
numbers provide evidence that early music is a thriving endeavor widely accepted by
practicing musicians and the public as well.
What is early music?
The consensus is that the term “early music” refers to repertory from before 1800
but also can imply a specific approach to performance. A retrospective look into the
movement indicates that several analogous terms have been used to describe the
movement. Designations such as “early music,” “authenticity movement” and
“historically informed movement” all have been used to describe the movement popular
in the past century. Each of these designations has served the movement in similar but
different ways, sometimes drawing stiff criticism. Each of these terms will be explored in
the following summary of the movement.
Antecedents of the Historically Informed Movement
The fascination and appeal of historical performance practice and early music
repertory has enjoyed a rich, albeit controversial, history. Some consider the movement
in its full maturation, surviving a timid inception and infancy experienced in the middle
of the twentieth century and a tumultuous adolescence of Sturm und Drang proportions
occurring in the later part of the twentieth century. Reflection upon the movement is
rational to establish criteria for qualitative evaluation of accomplishments and to avoid
30 Early Music America, A Study of Early Music Performers, Listeners, and Organizations, 2005.
31 Ibid.
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