Meter in Music, 1600-1800: Performance, Perception and Notation (Music: Scholarship & Performance)

A Choice Outstanding Academic Book. The notation of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music is often a puzzle to performers. The symbols look familiar, but their meanings of some have evolved dramatically. The period between 1600 and 1800 witnessed a transition both in notation and in the treatment of meter in performance. Merely transcribing earlier works into modern notation can actually mislead the performer. When performed according to the conventions of its own time, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music conveys a paradoxical mixture of precision and flexibility that has an enchanting lilt, grace, and vitality. Illustrating his presentation with generous quotations and musical examples from theoretical treatises and instruction manuals of the period, George Houle provides a practical guide to the performance of Baroque and early Classical music, including discussions of notes inegales, fingerings, woodwind tonguings, and string bowings.