Recently retired as a performer, Bruce Haynes worked for many years in Holland. He introduced the hautboy into the Dutch music curriculum, teaching at the Royal Conservatory. Currently, he is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Music at the University of Montreal. He has published widely on the history of the oboe and performing pitch standards.

Haynes always writes as the insider performer, and his writing is fresh and direct...likely to be enjoyed by most musicians.

• List of Musical Examples List of Recorded Excerpts Preface: If this Muses Come to Call Acknowledgements Part I: Performing Styles One: Performing Style: When You Say Something Differently, You Say Something Different Two: Mind the Gap: Current Styles Three: Mainstream Style: "Chops, but no Soul" Part II: How Romantic Are We? Four: Classical Music's Coarse Caress Five: The Transparent Performer Six: Changing Meanings, Permanent Symbols Part III: Anachronism and Authenticity Seven: Original Ears Eight: Ways of Copying the Past Nine: The Medium is the Message: Period Instruments Ten: Baroque Oratory Compared with Romantic Autobiography Eleven: Gestural Phrasing Part V: The End of "Early" Music Twelve: Passive and Active Musicking: Stop Staring and Grow Your Own Thirteen: Mainstream Musicking as "Early Music" Fourteen: Perpetual Revolution Notes List of Bibliographic Abbreviations Bibliography Index