HMVA0431BU Musikvidenskab: KA-emnekursus: Interpretation and Performance

How can we perform today a repertory from the past? How much does the act of interpretation affect the nature of the work? Is there one or several possible interpretations of the same work? Can two opposed interpretations be defended?

These questions will be addressed in the course by studying the history of interpretation and performance practices. Various pieces ranging from the 16th c. to the 19th c. (Palestrina, Monteverdi, Couperin, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner) will be analyzed both as sound and text. The music score is a representation of sound in “text”, often incomplete and based on conventions. Many of these are unwritten and hard to understand today (durational rules, idiomatic writing, genre conventions, ornamentations, improvisation, articulations, dynamics, tempi). From the revival of early music in the 19th century to the actual ‘historically informed performance’, we will investigates early recordings, contemporary practices, scores, and source readings in relations with performance.