florida state university college of music performance practice

concerning early music and the performance practice of it. Many of these publications
dealt with the performance of Bach‟s choral works, which will be explored more
thoroughly in the next chapter.
Perhaps no one group is as consequential in experimenting and publicizing ideas
concerning performance practice of early music than Concentus Musicus Wein and its
director, Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Nikolaus Harnoncourt founded the ensemble in 1953
and the early years were devoted to research, meticulously copying manuscripts, and
experimenting with various ideas and sounds concerning performance. Four years passed
before the group performed a public concert in 1957 with Harnoncourt directing the
ensemble from the cello. 103 Harnoncourt‟s self-professed mantra has been, “The music of
every period can best be brought to life and is most convincingly realized using the
resources of the time.” 104 The influence of Harnoncourt and the growing popularity of
Concentus Musicus Wein secured Vienna as an important center for research and
experimentation during the 1950s. 105
English performer and musicologist, Thurston Dart, became the ideal persona
blending both his experience in performance and scholarship into his 1954 survey book,
The Interpretation of Music. 106 Dart‟s influence as a pedagogue influenced many
musicians, most notably two of his students of importance in contemporary early music
and performance practice circles, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Christopher Hogwood.
One of the most influential and often cited books in English-speaking countries
was Robert Donington‟s comprehensive 1963 book with subsequent revisions in 1974
and 1989, Interpretation of Early Music. 107 This publication proved to be as significant as
Dolmetsch‟s 1915 book on earlier generations. 108 Fabian postulates that the first
publication of Donington‟s book (1963) coincided with an era of study and growing
specialization 109 A systematic and methodical approach to teaching performance on
instruments largely forgotten ensued that resulted with subsequent generations learning
103
Official Nikolaus Harnoncourt website http://www.styriarte.com/harnoncourt/index_en.php (accessed
October 25, 2007).
104
Ibid.
105
Fabian Somorjay, “Musicology and Performance Practice,” 79.
106
Lawson and Stowell, The Historical Performance of Music, 12.
107
Fabian Somorjay, “Musicology and Performance Practice,” 80.
108 Ibid.
109 Ibid.
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