Customer Reviews

Classical and Romantic Performing Practice 1750-1900

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This is the single most important work on this topic for any musicians serious about informing themselves of the practices of musicians and composers of European music in the 18th and 19th centuries. Almost everything you need to know is right here. Clive Brown has collated all the data, done all the research and distilled it into this single tome of brilliance. Every musician who plays this repertoire should own this book and heed its contents.

I realize it's impossible to cover a century-and-a-half of performance practice in just over 600 pages, but I was disappointed to see the accompaniment of recitative virtually ignored. Given the numbers of operas by Mozart alone and the prevalence of secco and recitative accompagnato, I certainly expected some discussion - at least a paragraph! There really is NONE. There's an 8 page section termed "Recitative Accompaniment" and I got all excited when I saw it! But it only talks about the movement in the early 19th century to move away from using keyboard instruments to more cello and strings in general. I didn't need an expensive book to tell me that.