Look again by Inês de Avena Braga

It goes without saying that engaging with the ethos of early music demands a considerable amount of continuous research on the practices of the past, as most aspects of performance are not written in the score, and the understanding and usage of signs and other written indications have changed considerably over time. As curious musicians, research is not only a source of inspiration and innovation in our work but also a source of constant questioning and strengthening of our musical practices. Questions such as “is this actually true?” and “can I really say/do that?” are recurring, and, although these are not always fully or definitively answerable, we find it important to keep asking, going back to the sources and answering over and over again. In this research, as part of the 2021 Lectorate ‘Music, Education and Society’ of the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, we will look again at well-known Italian sources and search for new sources of information on performance practice of music written in Italy in the first half of the 18th century (music methods, instructional writings and evidences in repertoire), without imposing our current practice on it, but being open to what these sources may say that is in shock with what we usually do or take for granted. What can we (re)learn about the performance practice of late 17th- and early 18th-century Italian music by going back to the sources? Our conclusions and inconclusions will hopefully stimulate a review of today’s performance practice and renew approaches on the research of performance practice.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary sources

Please refer to the sources listed here (pp. 53-59).

Secondary sources

"Corelli: 12 Sonate a violino, Op.5", Trio Veracini: J. Holloway, D. Watkin, L.U. Mortensen). Novalis 150128, 1996 (2 CDs).

"Corelli: Sonate a violino e violone o cimbalo, Op. 5" (Sonatas 1-6), C. Banchini, J. Christensen, L. Contini and K. Gohl). Harmonia Mundi, HMA1951307, 1989 (1 CD).

“Estienne Roger”, IMSLP, https://imslp.org/wiki/Estienne_Roger and https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Scores_published_by_Estienne_Roger (accessed on 15 October 2022).

Anonymous: Rules for Measured Music, Counterpoint and Accompanying (Regole di canto figurato, contrappunto, d’accompagnare), trans. Flavio Ferri Benedetti, ed. Elam Rotem. (Early Music Sources, PIE Series Vol. I, 2020.)

Arcangelo Corelli: 12 Sonater for violin og bc, ed. Jens Egeberg, 1989.

Emily Joye Baines: The Ghost in the Machine: The role of mechanical musical instruments as primary sources for eighteenth-century performance practice in England, and an examination of the style(s) contained therein. (Unpublished Doctoral thesis, Guildhall School of Music & Drama / City, University of London, 2017).

Terence Best: “Handel's Solo Sonatas”, Music & Letters, Oct. 1977, Vol. 58, No. 4 (Oct., 1977), pp. 430-438.

Maria Caraci: “CASTRUCCI, Pietro.” Treccani Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 1979: https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/pietro-castrucci_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/(accessed on 26 July 2022).

Salvatore Carchiolo: "La prassi esecutiva del basso continuo al clavicembalo nella musica di Arcangelo Corelli alla luce delle Regole per accompagnar sopra la parte della Biblioteca Corsiniana di Roma", in Arcomelo 2013: Studi nel terzo centenario della morte di Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), ed. Guido Olivieri and Marc Vanscheeuwijck. (Lucca: LIM, 2015.)

Salvatore Carchiolo: Una perfezione d'armonia meravigliosa: prassi cembalo-organistica del basso continuo italiano dalle origini all'inizio del XVIII secolo. (Lucca: LIM, 2007.)

Owain Edwards, and Simon McVeigh: "Castrucci, Pietro." Grove Music Online, 2001: https://www-oxfordmusiconline-com.access.authkb.kb.nl/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000005154 (accessed on 26 July 2022).

David Fuller: “An Unknown French Ornament Table from 1699”, Early Music, Jan., 1981, Vol. 9, No. 1, Plucked-String Issue 1 (Jan., 1981), pp. 55-61.

Francesco Gasparini: L'Armonico Pratico al Cimbalo, trans. Frank S. Stillings (New Haven: Yale School of Music, 1963.)

Gregory S. Johnston: "Polyphonic Keyboard Accompaniment in the Early Baroque: An Alternative to Basso Continuo", Early Music, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Feb., 1998), pp. 51-60, 63-64.

Lars Ulrik Mortensen: "'Unerringly Tasteful'?: Harpsichord Continuo in Corelli's Op.5 Sonatas", Early Music, Nov., 1996, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Nov., 1996), pp. 665-679.

Giulia Nuti: The Performance of Italian Basso Continuo: Style in Keyboard Accompaniment in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. (London and New York: Routledge, 2016.)

Rudolf Rasch: "The Music Publishing House of Estienne Roger: Caix-Croft", https://roger.sites.uu.nl/catalogue/ (accessed on 26 July 2022).

Rudolf Rasch: “«La famosa mano di Monsieur Roger»: Antonio Vivaldi and His Dutch Publishers,” Informazioni e Studi Vivaldiani 17 (1996), pp. 89-137.

Rudolf Rasch: “The Thirty-One Works of Francesco Geminiani: Work One: The Violin Sonatas of 1716”, https://geminiani.sites.uu.nl (accessed on 26 July 2022).

Vivaldi, ed. Michael Talbot (Farnham UK: Ashgate, 2011).

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Inês de Avena Braga, Claudio Ribeiro - Look again - 2023