Historically Informed Performance (HIP)

[anacrusis]

A subject which raises a lot of rancour "out there", as I'm finding - opinions range from the argument that Bach would've preferred to write for modern instruments rather than the ones he knew, had he been able to, through to the idea that no performance of early music is "correct" unless strict attention is paid to all contemporary thinking about the music, and "original" instruments at "correct" pitches are played with early technique by musicians dressed in frock coats and periwigs....

Where does everyone stand on this one?

I love hearing Bach's and Scarlatti's music played on the piano as much as on harpsichords or clavichords; I think Piers Adams plays outrageously - and gets away with it; I'm all for a degree of leeway in tempo when playing baroque music, providing it doesn't destroy an underlying sense of the pulse....


but I can't stand heavy vibrato, and in singers, heavy wobbliato, nor playing Bach's music as if it were made of treacle



;D

[jod]

As a singer who sings Baroque music, Vib can be added as an ornament. I love Period Instrument performance, and because of it there is a degree of vocal clarity you do not get in my post 1750 performances.

As for the frock coats... I don't go that far. There is a lot in the treatise that is valuable to the period instrument player and the modern instrument player. I like both.

[anacrusis]

vibrato as an ornament, yes - and on recorders we get to use a number of different techniques to achieve it - my grouse is with the all-pervasive-single-frequency heavy vibrato found in modern performance - very good for projection, but also excellent for destroying much of the delicacy of interplay of lines of counterpoint...

[jod]

I use it to warm a long note up and remove it again at the end. That is support vib produced as a breathing technique. A warm bath of vib - take that away.

[anacrusis]

Another of the issues causing controversy is the whole original-instruments business - modernists moan about the thinner sounds produced by gut strings, and the intonation problems faced by players of the baroque flute; on the other hand, the lighter stringing of early violins means that counterpoint jumps out into sharp (and I don't mean out of tune!) relief, and the more open-textured harmony resonates clearly, in a way it can't on modern instruments.
The phenomenon I love best is the difference/Tartini tones - difficult to achieve if using a heavy vibrato - and absolutely fabulous in its effects. Being able to play absolutely in tune with another instrument, and to have the volume suddenly redoubled because of the difference tones, as well as being able to hear a further note which adds to the harmony, gives me such a buzz. Literally ;D.