florida state university college of music performance practice

how to master historical instruments such as the viol, recorder, sackbuts and shawms. An
increased quantity of musicians who had the training and capacity to perform on early
instruments propagated early music ensembles and concerts, which paved the way for a
renaissance in performance style and an opportunity for the recording industry.
American Sol Babitz was doing equally important work in the fields of Baroque
instrumental techniques such as fingering, bowing and exploring performance style in
rhythm and articulation. 110 While already publishing articles in various journals in the
1950s it is his Early Music Laboratory and annual newsletter Bulletin for which he is best
known. The newsletter was published modestly out of his Los Angeles home and focused
on experiments with historical instruments. 111 Despite the newsletter‟s unassuming means
of publication, it influenced many, including subscribing early music notables such as
Leonhardt and the Kuijken brothers. 112
Authenticity
It is difficult to discover the contextual origin for the phrase “authentic
performance.” In England, the phrase “authentic performance” seemed to become
increasingly in vogue during the 1970s. 113 The study and writing about performance
practice seemed to explode in England as confirmed with the launching of the journal
Early Music in 1973, specifically relating to early music repertoires and their
interpretation. In its first issue, editor J.M. Thomson relates how ten years prior the
embarking on such an endeavor would have been unfeasible. 114
However, critiques of authentic performance and Werktreue 115 ideology were
already present in the 1950s. Theodore W. Adorno, in his 1955 thoughts collected in an
essay entitled Bach defended against his devotees is known as the first thorough criticism
of the early music movement through the context of the German Bach revival. 116 Adorno
110
Fabian Somorjay, “Musicology and Performance Practice,” 81.
111
Ibid.
112
Ibid.
113
Fabian, Bach Performance Practice, 1945-1975, 1.
114
J.M. Thomson, “Editorial,” Early Music 1.1 (January 1973): 1.
115
The idea of one true interpretation of a work
116
Dorottya Fabian, “The Meaning of Authenticity and the Early Music Movement: A Historical Review,”
International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 32.2 (December 2001): 157.
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