Sing Romantic Music Romantically: Nineteenth-Century Choral Performance Practices

(Hardback)

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There is a paucity of material regarding how choral music specifically was performed in the 1800s. The Historically Informed Performance (HIP) movement has made remarkable advancements in choral music of the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods, with modest forays into the music of Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and other early nineteenth-century composers; however, there are no sources with a comprehensive examination of how choral music was performed. Using more than one-hundred musical examples, illustrations, tables, and photographs and relying on influential, contemporaneous sources, David Friddle details the performance practices of the time, including expressive devices such as articulation, ornamentation, phrasing, tempo, and vibrato, along with an in-depth discussion of period pronunciation, instruments, and orchestral/choral placement. Sing Romantic Music Romantically: Nineteenth-Century Choral Performance Practices fills a gap in choral scholarship and moves forward our knowledge of how choral music sounded and was performed in the nineteenth century. The depth of research and abundance of source material makes this work a must-have for choral professionals everywhere.

Reviews

"David Friddle has compiled not only an essential compendium of numerous nineteenth-century treatises and sources regarding contemporary performance practices but also generously references their historic sources, as well as the modern perspectives of performers of the HIP movement that influence our contemporary practices of nineteenth-century music.

While the title suggests both nineteenth-century and choral practices, this single volume draws upon a much broader array of sources in order to develop both a pre-nineteenth-century context and reflections on late-twentieth-century views of performance practices of this repertory. Friddle's compendium addresses not merely the vocal aspects of choral music, but many of the important topics of accompanying instruments, especially within the orchestra.

Again and again, I appreciated the breadth of the sources, both familiar and unfamiliar, woven together into discussions pertinent to making decisions as a conductor and performer of music from this vast literature. Indeed, this volume is broad enough for any nineteenth-century researcher to begin to understand the salient issues and important perspectives that together create a valid musical perspective of this period. Friddle's manuscript leads the reader down a path of source-discovery that will enlighten, challenge, and no doubt shape future performances."

Sing Romantic Music Romantically is a remarkable achievement. David Friddle has created a formidable reference work, as well as a sourcebook of digestible essays on a number of important topics related to 19th-century music-making. The extensive endnotes and bibliographic information included in this volume will also serve as an excellent starting place for continued research into performance practices in the Romantic era.

Author Bio

David Friddle is a conductor, organist, educator, scholar, and composer.