Musikhistoria

och uppfrandepraxis CA 1005

Assignment No. 1 Renaissance & Baroque
Read the following texts and answer the question(s) below each text.
The texts in Struncks Source Readings are short. You may dispose your writing to your own
preferences although you should comment all of the texts. Discursive texts are preferred and you
may or may not link the different texts in your argumentation.
Please write about two (2) A4 pages ( 6000 characters).
Oliver Strunk: Source Readings:
P 38 M Luther: Wittemberg Gesangbuch Foreword
P 40 J Calvin Geneve Psalter Foreword
P 41 Claude Goudimel Geneve Psalter Foreword t 1565 ed
Which similarities and differences are to be found in the forewords by Luther, Calvin and
Goudimel. To whom do the texts address? What does the texts tell us about music, church and
society in Luthers, Calvins and Goudimels world?
P 50 Giulio Caccini Le nuove musiche Foreword
What is the main purpose with Caccinis foreword? What does Caccini know about other
composers, singers and musicians? What does Caccini know that other musicians know or do not
know about the monadic style.
64 Rameu: From Trait de l'harmonie
Rameu describes some new ideas concerning harmony, please list a few and describe what is
different about Rameaus ideas versus earlier ideas?
C Ph E Bach: Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments.
Chap 6 Accompaniment
Chap 7 Improvisation
J J Quantz: On playing the flute
Kap XIV Of the Manner of Playing the Adagio
Kap XVIII section I, II, V & VI
The texts of C Ph E Bach and Quantz are from about the same period. Could you describe some
national tendencies and also some new tendencies in the two texts. Could you find any
similarities in the two chapters by Bach?

Literature:
Strunk, Oliver: Source Readings (Norton 1950)

Bach, Carl Phillipp Emanuel: Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments (Norton &
Company 1949/1974)
Quantz, Johann Joachim : On playing the flute (Faber 1985)
All three books can be found in the KMH library

Musikhistoria och uppfrandepraxis CA 1005
Assignment No. 2 Classical & Romantic music
Assignment
Musical instruments, playing techniques and musicians tastes are constantly changing through
history. This means that when a musical composition was performed 100 or 200 years ago it
often sounded different from how the same composition regularly sounds when it is performed
today. Some of these differences were discussed during the seminars. In discussions about
historical performance styles the term authenticity has often been used. In this assignment you
are invited to investigate this concept through the following two tasks. Write approximately 2
pages (A4, font size: 12 pt, line spacing: single space).
I.

Read the articles by Roland Jackson and Charles Rosen (see below).
a. Explain Peter Kivys four types of authenticities which Jackson describes in
his article. (This typology comes from Peter Kivys book Authenticities.)
b. Viewed through Kivys four authenticities is it possible for a musician to be
authentic in more than one way at the same time? If so how?
c. Why is Charles Rosen critical of the goal of striving to play a piece of music in
the way it was played during the composers life time? Is his argument
convincing? Why?/why not?

II.

Listen to this recording from 1910 where the violinist Arnold Ros plays
Wilhelmjs transcription of a piano nocturne by Chopin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg8SU27gSDo

a. How would you describe his playing? Is there something in his style which
sounds different from the playing of a modern violinist?
b. Can his performance be described as an authentic interpretation? Why/why
not? Is this an important question?
c. (Instead of the suggested recording you may choose another pre-1920
recording. Then answer the same questions in relation to the recording of
your choice.)

Literature:
-

Jackson, Roland (1997): Authenticity or Authenticities? - Performance Practice and

the Mainstream, in: Performance Practice Review, Vol. 10, nr 1, Spring 1997, pp 1-
10.

Rosen, Charles (1971): Should Music Be Played 'Wrong'?, High Fidelity Magazine,
Maj 1971, pp 54-58.

Links to files with Jacksons & Rosens texts (log in with your e-mail account):

https://moodle.kmh.se/course/view.php?id=484

Musikhistoria och uppfrandepraxis CA 1005

Assignment No. 3 20th century music
Welcome to this little enquiry about aesthetics! The purpose of this paper is NOT to ask you
many questions about composers, dates or technical terms (although there will be some questions
like this, too); my intention with the lectures have been to follow some threads of reasoning
which in my opinion have been, and still are, essential for the development of our culture. You
may not share my opinion about the choices I have made, but please remember, that there are
very few absolute truths within our field....! My aim is to see how you reason about certain topics
which I consider to be important.
1. What is the meaning of the word 'aesthetics'? You may use the Internet to explain, but I also

want to know if and how you use the concept yourself when talking about playing or singing.
The following questions are of a more general nature. Feel free to think aloud. A 'yes' or 'no' isn't
enough, please explain your standpoint!
2. Do we become better artists with more knowledge about a certain work of art? Whether the
answer is yes or no, please argue for your standpoint.
3. Does knowledge give us tools to express ourselves better artistically?
4. Does a composer have the right to compose just for the sake of experimenting with new
aesthetic elements? Explain!
5. World War I was an unparalleled moral and cultural catastrophe. The responses of the artistic
communities were very different, and there were strong currents on the losing side (Germany,
Austria) against the norms which dominated pre-war Europe. Why?
6. Read the enclosed handouts carefully. Please comment on them and conclude by explaining if
the texts have any importance for an imagined interpretation!
7. Igor Stravinsky writes about aesthetic developments in his 'Poetics of Music in the Form of Six
Lessons' from 1947. A reoccurring theme in his texts is the relation between the composer and
the performer; Stravinsky has very strong opinion about the term 'interpretation'. Why?
8. Furthermore, Stravinsky claims, that music 'cannot have a meaning'. Do you agree?

Literature:
Strainsky, Igor: Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons