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This series has at its centres of interest the history of performance and the history of instruments. It includes annotated translations of authentic historical texts on music and monographs on various aspects of historical performance and instrument history.

  • General Editors: John Butt, Laurence Dreyfus

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9 results in Cambridge Musical Texts and Monographs

Berlioz's Orchestration Treatise
  • A Translation and Commentary
  • Berlioz
  • Edited by Hugh Macdonald
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    08 August 2002
  • Berlioz's Orchestration Treatise is a classic textbook which has been used as a guide to orchestration and as a source book for the understanding both of Berlioz's music and of orchestral practice in the nineteenth century. This was the first English translation of Berlioz's complete text since 1856, and it is accompanied throughout by Hugh Macdonald's extensive and authoritative commentary on the instruments of Berlioz's time and on his own orchestral practice, as revealed in his scores. It also includes extracts from Berlioz's writings on instruments in his Memoirs and in his many articles for the Parisian press. The Treatise has been highly valued both for its technical information about instruments but also for its poetic and visionary approach to the art of instrumentation. Berlioz was not only one of the great orchestrators of the nineteenth century, he was also the author with the clearest understanding of the art.

Treatise on Vocal Performance and Ornamentation by Johann Adam Hiller
  • Johann Adam Hiller
  • Edited and translated by Suzanne J. Beicken
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    12 April 2001
  • Hiller's Treatise on Vocal Performance and Ornamentation was published in Germany in 1780 and is an important manual on vocal technique and performance in the eighteenth century. Hiller was a masterful educator and was active not only as a teacher but as a critic, composer, conductor and music director. Thus, his observations served not only to raise the standards of singing in Germany, based on the Italian model, but to present complicated material, particularly ornamentation, in a manner that his peers, the middle class, could emulate. This present edition, translated with an introduction and extensive commentary by musicologist Suzanne J. Beicken, makes Hiller's treatise available for the first time in English. With its emphasis on practical aspects of ornamentation, declamation and style it will be valuable to instrumentalists as well as singers and is a significant contribution to the understanding of performance practice in the eighteenth-century.

Introduction to the Art of Singing by Johann Friedrich Agricola
  • Johann Friedrich Agricola
  • Edited and translated by Julianne C. Baird
  • Published online:
    10 December 2009
    Print publication:
    26 May 1995
  • Agricola published Introduction to the Art of Singing in Germany, in 1757, consisting of the 1723 treatise of the Italian singing teacher and castrato, Tosi, to which Agricola added his own running commentary. The Introduction was recognized as invaluable not only for teachers and their pupils but also for advanced singers and professionals. This present edition, translated with introduction and annotations by the celebrated singer Julianne Baird, makes Agricola's work available in English. Tosi's work was the first basic treatise on singing; Agricola, a pupil of J. S. Bach at the court of Frederick the Great, brought Tosi's work 'up to date'. His commentaries are so extensive that the Introduction stands on its own as an important document in the history of performance practice.

Music Education and the Art of Performance in the German Baroque
  • John Butt
  • Published online:
    03 December 2009
    Print publication:
    26 May 1994
  • In considering the role of practical music in education, this book attempts to define the art of performance in Germany during the Baroque period. The author examines the large number of surviving treatises and instruction manuals used in the Lutheran 'Latin' schools during the period 1530–1800 and builds up a picture of the function and status of music in both school and church. The understanding, gained through these educational texts, of music as a functional art - musica practica - in turn gives us insight into the thoughts of the contemporary performer and how he might have performed the sacred work of Praetorius, Schütz, Buxtehude or Bach. For all those interested in historical performance this book provides valuable information on the growing science of performance practice and the development of a conscious awareness of style and idiom in this period.

A History of Pianoforte Pedalling
  • David Rowland
  • Published online:
    16 November 2009
    Print publication:
    02 December 1993
  • David Rowland traces the history of piano pedalling from its beginnings in the eighteenth century to its first maturity in the middle of the nineteenth century and beyond. Pedalling technique was a major feature of nineteenth-century piano performance and, coupled with new developments in piano structure, inspired many composers to write innovative works for the literature. Rowland examines this through the technique and music of composer-pianists such as Beethoven, Liszt, and Chopin. In addition, he follows the transition from harpsichord and clavichord to piano and outlines the physical properties of the various stops, levers, and pedals available at the different stages of the instrument's development. The book also includes an appendix of translated extracts from three well-known piano-pedalling tutors. It will be of interest to students and scholars of music history and performance practice, as well as to pianists.

Musica Getutscht
  • A Treatise on Musical Instruments (1511) by Sebastian Virdung
  • Sebastian Virdung
  • Edited and translated by Beth Bullard
  • Published online:
    14 August 2009
    Print publication:
    30 July 1993
  • Musica getutscht (Basel, 1511) is the earliest printed treatise on musical instruments in the West. Written by a priest and chapel singer named Sebastian Virdung, it provided rudimentary instruction on playing three instruments: the clavichord, the lute and the recorder. This early 'do-it-yourself' manual of instruction not only tells us about music-making in that era, it also illumines other aspects of society in the years just before the Reformation. Its author communicates in a popular style, choosing a mixture of media: a written text in the guise of an informal conversation, coupled with woodcut illustrations and visual aids. Enthusiasts of early music and its performance as well as historians of art, society and the German language will welcome Beth Bullard's substantial introduction and annotations, which help explain the text of this important work and its place in intellectual history.

The Virtuoso Flute-Player
  • Johann George Tromlitz
  • Edited by Ardal Powell
  • Introduction by Eileen Hadidian
  • Published online:
    01 June 2011
    Print publication:
    03 October 1991
  • This is an English translation of Tutor for Playing the Flute (1791) by Johann George Tromlitz. The most explicit of the eighteenth-century tutors for flute-playing, it now serves as a record of instrumental practice as well as a useful guide to the performance of German classical music. The Tutor covers all aspects of flute playing, including intonation, articulation, flute maintenance, posture and breathing, dynamics, ornaments, musical style, cadenzas, and the construction of the flute. This edition will be an indispensable manual for players of baroque and modern flutes, and the information it contains will be invaluable for all musicians, students, and specialists interested in the historically informed performance of German classical music. The text is annotated with critical notes and all of the original music examples are newly printed in modern notation. The volume also contains a fingering chart and a historical introduction.

Summa Musice
  • A Thirteenth-Century Manual for Singers
  • Edited by Christopher Page
  • Published online:
    14 January 2010
    Print publication:
    30 August 1991
  • How did medieval musicians learn to perform? How did they compose? What was their sense of the history and purpose of music? The Summa musice, a treatise on practical music from c.1200, sheds light on all these questions. It is a manual for young singers who are learning Gregorian chant for the first time, and provides a compact but comprehensive introduction to notation, performance and composition, written in a mixture of Latin prose and verse. More than that, however, it is also an introduction to medieval culture: what educated people believed to be worth knowing about music, how they reasoned when they discussed musical questions, the nature of musical thought and how it was expressed. Christopher Page's 1991 book provides an edition of the Latin text taken from the only surviving original copy, together with an English translation. Both texts are copiously annotated and introduced by an authoritative and illuminating editorial commentary.

Treatise on Harpsichord Tuning
  • Jean Denis
  • Edited and translated by Vincent J. Panetta
  • Published online:
    06 December 2010
    Print publication:
    09 April 1987
  • The Treatise on Harpsichord Tuning was the first French document to discuss keyboard performance practice in any detail. Jean Denis was both a harpsichord builder of renown and the organist of a prominent Parisian church, and is thus an authority worthy of careful study. The treatise addresses numerous matters of interest to both scholars and performers, including temperament, ornamentation, fugue, and the use of the organ in liturgical practice. Also included in the treatise are a keyboard prelude designed to reveal errors in tuning, and two delightful anecdotes attesting to the power of music. The forthright character of Denis's writing lends a unique and distinctly enjoyable tone to the work.