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Most authentic performance artists would not advocate authenticity for its own sake, but rather as a way of achieving more artistically effective performances of older music. It is felt that the gradual changes in the construction of instruments and in the training of musicians have produced instruments and styles that are optimal for (roughly) mid to late 19th-century music, but not for older work.
In the community of classical musicians, students have over the centuries learned ways of playing and interpreting music from their teachers and also from performances they hear. This results, to some degree, in stylistic accretion, as modes of performing developed by outstanding musicians are echoed through time in the performances of the younger musicians that they influenced. Thus, the way that music is performed is in part a function of the musical culture as it has evolved up to that time.
The authentic performance movement emphasizes instead historical scholarship, covering both instruments and performance practice, in order to obtain a more direct view of original performance practices. Such scholarship is the work both of the performers themselves and of non-performing specialist scholars, usually working in universities.
Adherence to principles of authentic performance is not an all-or-nothing matter. Many traditional musicians are deeply interested in what scholarship can tell us about how music was performed in the composer's time. Moreover, modern instruments can be played in ways that approximate to some degree what can be achieved on instruments of the composer's day.
Many of the instruments of early music disappeared from widespread use, around the beginning of the Classical era. Others continued in use, but greatly altered their sound quality and playing characteristics in the course of the 19th century. The discussion below (see also Organology) covers instruments that had to be revived entirely, followed by instruments whose earlier form was rediscovered.
Among keyboard instruments, the most dramatic disappearance was that of the harpsichord, which gradually went out of style during the second half of the 18th century. Many harpsichords were destroyed–notoriously, they were used for firewood in the Paris Conservatory during Napoleonic times. Composers such as William Byrd, François Couperin, and J. S. Bach wrote for the harpsichord and not the piano, which was invented ca. 1700 and only widely adopted by about 1765. The music of these composers sounds very different, and requires a different interpretive approach, when played on the harpsichord instead of the piano. Notably, since every note on a harpsichord is equally loud, subtle variations of timing and articulation, as well a judicious use of ornamentation, are employed to achieve an expressive harpsichord performance.
The harpsichord was revived in the first half of the twentieth century by Wanda Landowska. Since most useful knowledge of harpsichord construction had been lost by that time, Landowska needed to use a rather peculiar harpsichord, based on the modern grand piano, which was made for her by the Pleyel company of Paris. In the view of many later listeners, the tone of this harpsichord was not very successful. Later, harpsichord builders learned to make better instruments by following the procedures of the harpsichord builders of long ago. The revival of the authentic harpsichord began in the 1950's, with the work of the builders Frank Hubbard and William Dowd . Today, harpsichords in the style of the old makers are produced in workshops around the world.
The viol (also called the viola da gamba) is a stringed instrument that (in its bass version) roughly resembles a six-stringed, fretted cello. Its tone is more delicate than a cello's, noble and resonant in the deeper notes and somewhat nasal and astringent in the upper range. The viol was largely abandoned by the end of the eighteenth century. Previously, a great literature for it had been created by composers of the Renaissance and Baroque eras, including William Byrd, William LawesWilliam Lawes ( 1602- 1645) was an English composer and musician. He was born at Dinton in Wiltshire on May 1 1602, the son of Thomas Lawes, a vicar choral at Salisbury Cathedral. His patron (Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford) apprenticed him to the compos, Henry PurcellHenry Purcell ( c1659 November 21, 1695), was an English Baroque music composer. He is considered to be one of England's greatest composers. Purcell was born in St Ann's Lane, Old Pye Street, Westminster. His father, Henry Purcell (or Pursell pronounced w, Marin MaraisMarin Marais (Born: 31 May 1656, Paris, France, Died: 15 August 1728, Paris, France) was a pupil of Lully and of the viol player Sainte-Colombe. He was hired as a musician in 1676 to the royal court of Versailles. He did quite well as court musician, and, and J. S. Bach. The Elizabethan composers wrote complex polyphonic music for viol consort , which combined viols of three sizes (all held vertically): the bass, the tenor (about the size of a guitarnylon strings. steel strings and more guide dots on the fretboard. A guitar is a stringed musical instrument played with the fingers or a plectrum ( guitar pick). The sound is produced by vibrating strings. Guitars have a body (which is hollow for acousti, and the treble (about the size of a viola). Among the foremost modern players of the viol are Wieland Kuijken , Jordi Savall and John Hsu .
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