Historical Performance – serie

The German lied, or art song, is considered one of the most intimate of all musical genres—often focused on the poetic speaker's inner world and best suited for private and semi-private performance in the home or salon. Yet, problematically, any sense of inwardness in lieder depends on outward expression through performance. With this paradox at its heart, Intimacy, Performance, and the Lied in the Early Nineteenth Century explores the relationships between early nineteenth-century theories of the inward self, the performance practices surrounding inward lyric poetry and song, and the larger conventions determining the place of intimate poetry and song in the public concert hall. Jennifer Ronyak studies the cultural practices surrounding lieder performances in northern and central Germany in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, demonstrating how presentations of lieder during the formative years of the genre put pressure on their sense of interiority. She examines how musicians responded to public concern that outward expression would leave the interiority of the poet, the song, or the performer unguarded and susceptible to danger. Through this rich performative paradox Ronyak reveals how a song maintains its powerful intimacy even during its inherently public performance.

The German lied, or art song, is considered one of the most intimate of all musical genres—often focused on the poetic speaker's inner world and best suited for private and semi-private performance in the home or salon. Yet, problematically, any sense of inwardness in lieder depends on outward expression through performance. With this paradox at its heart, Intimacy, Performance, and the Lied in the Early Nineteenth Century explores the relationships between early nineteenth-century theories of the inward self, the performance practices surrounding inward lyric poetry and song, and the larger conventions determining the place of intimate poetry and song in the public concert hall. Jennifer Ronyak studies the cultural practices surrounding lieder performances in northern and central Germany in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, demonstrating how presentations of lieder during the formative years of the genre put pressure on their sense of interiority. She examines how musicians responded to public concern that outward expression would leave the interiority of the poet, the song, or the performer unguarded and susceptible to danger. Through this rich performative paradox Ronyak reveals how a song maintains its powerful intimacy even during its inherently public performance.

Who originally authored the anonymous, undated French manuscript Traité d'accompagnement et de composition? Carla E. Williams tackles this mystery while providing the first English translation of this rare manuscript, which resides in the collections of the Lilly Library at Indiana University Bloomington. A Case for Charpentier presents a side-by-side transcription and translation of the treatise along with an introduction that offers historical context. In the manuscript itself, late 17th-century and early 18th-century writers discuss principal musical elements of composition including major and minor modes, the fundamental chords of both modes, dissonances and consonances, meter, tempo, and continuo realization, as well as basse continue. While these writers have not been formally identified, Williams argues that the handwriting of one is that of composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. By providing a full physical description of the manuscript, along with comparisons of Charpentier's other writings and his handwriting, Williams sheds new light on both the treatise and Charpentier's theoretical writings. With this translation, Williams not only shares invaluable insights into the pedagogical approaches for composition and continuo realization in late 17th-century France but also finally makes Traité d'accompagnement et de composition available to a broader audience.

Sir Philip Sidney was one of Elizabethan England's greatest poets, producing an enormous body of poetry, voluminous letters, and his seminal treatise, The Defence of Poesie. He also loved music, describing "words set in delightfull proportion, either accompanied with, or prepared for the well enchanting skill of Musicke." Most notably, his pastoral romance, Arcadia, is filled with poems described as songs, with descriptions of characters singing, sometimes to a particular instrument, and to tunes that are variously "joyful," "doleful," "lamentable," or "ravishing."Aside from a few specific tune titles provided by Sidney, however, most of these "songs" remain without known music. Enchanting Arcadia fills this void, setting almost 100 of the Arcadia's songs to period music. Using his extensive knowledge of early modern English song, Ross W. Duffin has carefully matched musical models to Sidney's poems using works by composers such as William Byrd, John Dowland, Thomas Morley, Thomas Campion, Robert Jones, and William Corkine, all of whom had some connection to Sidney or his family.Enchanting Arcadia aims to realize at long last the musical enchantment of Sidney's poems, allowing modern readers to experience them not only as poems to be read silently or aloud but also as songs to be sung and enjoyed.

Sir Philip Sidney was one of Elizabethan England's greatest poets, producing an enormous body of poetry, voluminous letters, and his seminal treatise, The Defence of Poesie. He also loved music, describing "words set in delightfull proportion, either accompanied with, or prepared for the well enchanting skill of Musicke." Most notably, his pastoral romance, Arcadia, is filled with poems described as songs, with descriptions of characters singing, sometimes to a particular instrument, and to tunes that are variously "joyful," "doleful," "lamentable," or "ravishing."Aside from a few specific tune titles provided by Sidney, however, most of these "songs" remain without known music. Enchanting Arcadia fills this void, setting almost 100 of the Arcadia's songs to period music. Using his extensive knowledge of early modern English song, Ross W. Duffin has carefully matched musical models to Sidney's poems using works by composers such as William Byrd, John Dowland, Thomas Morley, Thomas Campion, Robert Jones, and William Corkine, all of whom had some connection to Sidney or his family.Enchanting Arcadia aims to realize at long last the musical enchantment of Sidney's poems, allowing modern readers to experience them not only as poems to be read silently or aloud but also as songs to be sung and enjoyed.