Books in the Publications of the Early Music Institute series

Revised and expanded, A Performer's Guide to Seventeenth Century Music is a comprehensive reference guide for students and professional musicians. The book contains useful material on vocal and choral music and style; instrumentation; performance practice; ornamentation, tuning, temperament; meter and tempo; basso continuo; dance; theatrical production; and much more. The volume includes new chapters on the violin, the violoncello and violone, and the trombone-as well as updated and expanded reference materials, internet resources, and other newly available material. This highly accessible handbook will prove a welcome reference for any musician or singer interested in historically informed performance.

Written by Joan Benson, one of the champions of clavichord performance in the 20th century, Clavichord for Beginners is an exceptional method book for both practitioners and enthusiasts. In addition to detailing the historical origins of the instrument and the evolution of keyboard technique, the book describes the proper method for practicing fingering and articulation and emphasizes the importance of touch and sensitivity at the keyboard. A CD featuring Benson in performance and a DVD of interviews and lessons accompany the book, illustrating important exercises for the beginner. The discs also include discussions on topics that range from 16th-century keyboard masters to the frontiers of electronic music research.

Written by a leading authority and artist of the historical transverse flute, The Notation Is Not the Music offers invaluable insight into the issues of historically informed performance and the parameters-and limitations-of notation-dependent performance. As Barthold Kuijken illustrates, performers of historical music should consider what is written on the page as a mere steppingstone for performance. Only by continual examination and reexamination of the sources to discover original intent can an early music practitioner come close to authentic performance.

Drawing on the principles of Francesco Geminiani and four decades of experience as a baroque and classical violinist, Stanley Ritchie offers a valuable resource for anyone wishing to learn about 17th-18th-and early 19th-century violin technique and style. While much of the work focuses on the technical aspects of playing the pre-chinrest violin, these approaches are also applicable to the viola, and in many ways to the modern violin. Before the Chinrest includes illustrated sections on right- and left-hand technique, aspects of interpretation during the Baroque, Classical, and early-Romantic eras, and a section on developing proper intonation.

A practical handbook for early keyboard technique

Transitioning from modern stringed instruments to the baroque guitar

The cornett is made of wood but has a brass cup mouthpiece and uses woodwind finger technique. It is capable of great virtuosic display and was featured in works by Monteverdi, Giovanni Gabrieli, and Praetorius, and later by Bach, Handel, and Gluck. This book compiles detailed listings of pieces from 200 printed collections.

Presents sixteen noels, including their lyrics and arrangements for two flutes. This collection of noels unites sacred and profane texts, music, and dance as performed from the late Middle Ages through the Baroque. It discusses the history and uses of the form, suggests appropriate dance steps, and examines its musical and poetic style.

The Lira Da Braccio may be the missing link between the medieval fiddle and the modern violin. By analyzing iconographical representations and instruments in museums, this work identifies several categories of design and shape. It provides charts of chords and fingerings, and arrangements of pieces that can be performed on the Lira Da Braccio.

A revised and expanded guide to performance practice issues in Renaissance music

The hurdy-gurdy, or vielle, has been part of European musical life since the eleventh century. In eighteenth-century France, improvements in its sound and appearance led to its use in chamber ensembles. This new and expanded edition of The Hurdy-Gurdy in Eighteenth-Century France offers the definitive introduction to the classic stringed instrument. Robert A. Green discusses the techniques of playing the hurdy-gurdy and the interpretation of its music, based on existing methods and on his own experience as a performer. The list of extant music includes new pieces discovered within the last decade and provides new historical context for the instrument and its role in eighteenth-century French culture.

Known around the world for his advocacy of early historical performance and as a skilled violin performer and pedagogue, Stanley Ritchie has developed a technical guide to the interpretation and performance of J. S. Bach''s enigmatic sonatas and partitas for solo violin. Unlike typical Baroque compositions, Bach''s six solos are uniquely free of accompaniment. To add depth and texture to the pieces, Bach incorporated various techniques to bring out a multitude of voices from four strings and one bow, including arpeggios across strings, multiple stopping, opposing tonal ranges, and deft bowing. Published in 1802, over 80 years after its completion in 1720, Bach''s manuscript is without expression marks, leaving the performer to freely interpret the dynamics, fingering, bowings, and articulations. Marshaling a lifetime of experience, Stanley Ritchie provides violinists with deep insights into the interpretation and technicalities at the heart of these challenging pieces.

What were the methods and educational philosophies of music teachers in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance? What did students study? What were the motivations of teacher and student? This title addresses these topics and others to understand the identities of music teachers and students from 650 to 1650 in Western Europe.

Ockeghem's Missa cuiusvis toni (Mass in any mode) has fascinated musicians, historians, and theorists since the fifteenth century. This comprehensive edition presents the singers' parts (SATB) in mensural notation, but also provides full scores and parts in modern notation for the Phrygian, Mixolydian, Lydian, and Dorian modes.

Suitable for enlightening on differences between French and German practice, this book treats pitch, ornamentation, bowing, and more.