CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS
At the end of this research process I reached several conclusions. First of all, after reading all the literature I worked with, I was initially trying to create a clear summary of romantic techniques for string players. Somehow, I really relied on textual sources, from which I expected to draw my own conclusions, giving evidence through the edited scores. But in that process I started to notice how difficult it was to capture performance practice in words. Maybe this is why my research was struggling for many months, as I was finding more and more written evidence. Gaps and ambiguity made my brainstorming very confused sometimes, and many inconsistencies arose from the written sources. In that moment I saw myself in front of a huge amount of superficial information, realizing that I wasn’t going to be able to find some "rules".
Working with early recordings, however, suddenly opened my mind and everything started to make more sense. Only then I started to understand that written sources don’t always show reality in a clear manner. First, because the social and musical context in which we live is different from the context in which those texts were written. Second, because maybe treatises are usually written by more conservative people, who are trying to enforce some rules in the face of stylistic changes they disapprove of. This is why my first important conclusion from this project is that early recordings are really valuable information when trying to understand the true (messy, contradictory) sounding reality of the 19th century.
After reaching this conclusion, I continued working hard in trying to find patterns, something that I could show in a more “scientific” way. But again I realized that studying performance practices shouldn’t be dogmatic. I didn't want to establish more rules: I became interested in the Romantic period in the first place because I was tired of today’s “rules." Finding wrong nor right practices just results in more rules. The point of this kind of research is to find totally new ways to use historical sources in order to obtain an emotionally stronger performance. This means that our practice should be stimulated rather than restricted. As Sherman points out in Performing Brahms: Early Evidence of Performance Style, “the finest playing comes about when performers put their ingrained habits to the service of insights into the music. Focusing too much on surface mannerisms that conflict with life-long habits may stifle spontaneity.” (Sherman, 2003:7). This could be also related to the institutionalization of Historically Informed Performance (HIP) and its increasing standardization within mainstream practices (MSPs):
When 19th century HIP sets practices such the exploration of non-vibrato playing or the use of period instruments as 'correct,' without questioning the contradictions that arise between 20thcentury treatises and sonic evidence, performers “find themselves relegated to executive rather than creative roles, as the ‘rules and regulations’ of historical treatises are superimposed upon the structuralist, neat and tidy, and score-adhering approaches inherent to Mainstream Performances.” (Stam, 2019:28)
Historical evidence can stimulate and inspire performers, offering new insights into music. What’s more, in order to contextualize our performances, I find it of essential importance to listen early recordings. This will likely open up our possibilities as performers in order to take musical decisions, enlarging the range of today’s performance practices. This is perhaps the most important conclusion we can draw.
I think this would allow us to get rid of restrictions imposed by today’s dominant performance practice and “the pervasiveness of thoroughly-edited modern digital recordings, which have become the authoritative standard against which the professional and interpretive qualities of today’s performers are judged.” (Stam, 2019:13)
To sum up, the main outcome I found is that diverse and emotional approaches to music-making made the Romantic period unique. I hope these tools can encourage today’s cellists and string players in general to create new, more personal, freer and more creative approaches to playing Romantic repertoires.
The goal ... is not to ‘resurrect’ past performing styles but rather to use those styles to make music in an alternative and more personalized fashion; to focus on communicative, moment-to-moment music-making rather than on high technical standards. (Stam, 2019:12)
[HIP's] success has been sufficiently significant to foster the adoption of many elements of their performance style across Western Art Music performance practice, with HIP conductors regularly appearing with conventional symphony orchestras, and with many musicians playing on both ‘modern’ and ‘period’ instruments. The ease with which musicians move between HIP and so-called conventional practices demonstrates how HIP, with its focus on scores, texts, and agreed-upon understandings of style, is as much a part of MSPs as so-called ‘conventional’ practices. This belonging is further illustrated by gaps between sonic evidence of past performances in the form of early recordings and current HIP performance practices.” (Stam, 2019:27)
What we hear on early recordings has the potential to open up new terrain for modern-day performance practices, allowing different possibilities for how Western Art Music might sound to take shape. An early-recordings-derived performance style can allow musicians today to explore and express canonic works differently, in a style that is communicative on a moment-to-moment level, and that is more intimate, personal, and deeply connected with performer creativity. (Stam, 2019:12)