Output details

The Cambridge history of musical performance

This collaborative volume is the largest and most comprehensive history of musical performance in the English language, tracing the rich panorama of performance history, conventions and practices from the Ancient World to the present. The first of its eight major divisions is dedicated to generic issues. Parts 2-7 address performance and performance practices in specific historical periods, each part comprising an overview chapter for each period and laying the historical foundations on which the succeeding chapters, devoted respectively to vocal and instrumental performance build, due appreciation also being given to performance for voices and instruments. Case studies review the historical and performance practice issues involved in interpreting work or works from six of the periods under scrutiny. In Part 8 Stowell and Lawson speculate on 21st-century developments and the performer’s future role.

Stowell (with Lawson) planned, compiled, commissioned contributions from leading scholars and practitioners, and co-edited this volume, also contributing two further chapters.