54

This is the pre-publication copy of Chapter 2 of my book published by Ashgate in 2003:

Bach Performance Practice 1945-1975: A comprehensive Review of Sound Recordings

and Literature, pp. 29-52.

Please note, that page numbers are different in the published book!

The early music movement: a style oriented history

In the recent past there have been several publications concerning the history of the

early music movement (for instance, Cohen & Snitzer, 1985, Brown, 1988, Haskell,

1988, Hartmann, 1988 & 1992, Klis, 1991). Some were more extended or scholarly than

others; some focused on specific issues (repertoire, geographical region), others were

general in scope and coverage. Elste’s (2000) excellent book is also invaluable. Apart

from a detailed overview of major trends in Bach performance and research it also

provides succinct summaries of the recorded history of every single composition by

Bach.

The task of this chapter is to give a chronological overview of events,

concentrating on issues related to Bach-research and performance in the context of the

general course taken by the movement. The material presented here is partly based on

the above-mentioned publications but supplemented with more specific data relevant to

the investigation at hand. Although it is concerned primarily with the post World War II

period, certain milestones in the earlier twentieth century history of performance

practice as a discipline are also recaptured.

The Early Music Movement to the end of World War II.

 55

One of the first such landmarks was the publication of Edward Dannreuther’s two-

volume book Musical Ornamentation in 1889-90. A quarter of a century later it was

followed by another book: The Interpretation of the Music of the 17th & 18th Centuries by

Dolmetsch (1915). This considerably expanded the topics by including chapters on

Expression, Tempo, Alteration of Rhythm, Ornamentation, Thorough Bass, Position &

Fingering, and Instruments of the Period. Nevertheless the main focus of the discussion

remained ornamentation, as can be seen from the internal proportions of the book: the

ornamentation chapter taking up more than half of the entire content, leaving only 46

per cent for the remaining seven sections. Dolmetsch’s book was extremely influential.

Nothing comparable appeared in print until one of his pupils, Donington, published The

Interpretation of Early Music in 1963 (Donington, 1989). 1 Two reprints in 1946 and

1949 furthered the impact of Dolmetsch’s work that led to the dissemination of its tenets

all over Europe.

Another milestone of similar significance was the appearance of Wanda

Landowska on the musical scene. She gave her first public recital in 1903 (Cohen, 1985,

p. 25). Her book, La Musique Ancienne (1904), was much read and her concerts

contributed significantly to the rediscovery of keyboard repertoire. Today her name is

synonymous with the beginning of the harpsichord revival - just as Alfred Deller’s is

with the re-introduction of the solo counter-tenor voice in musical performance. Due to

her professorship at the Berlin Musik Hochschule between 1913-1918, Landowska

established a long-lasting influence on German harpsichord players and on their choice

of instruments. She left her mark not only on the European Continent but on parts of the

United States as well, for she toured America (first in 1923), sparking interest in early

1
Thurston Dart’s book (Dart, 1954) falls into a different category because it handles issues in a more
general way. Similarly, the publications of Arnold Schering (Schering, 1931) and Robert Haas (Haas,
 56

music and old instruments on the East Coast (Haskell, 1988, p. 103). One of her

American pupils, Ralph Kirkpatrick became a towering figure of the early music

movement from the 1930s onward until the early 1980s (he died in 1984).

During the 1920s a revival of baroque organs started on the Continent,

particularly in Germany. Together with the resurgent interest in playing the recorder,

this proved to be of lasting importance. Since some of these organs had survived intact

from the eighteenth century their tone and dispositions could be used as benchmarks in

the reconstruction of the baroque sound ideal (Eggebrecht, 1967). 2

Among these early landmarks the first modern performance of the Brandenburg

Concertos in ‘original Fassung’ should also be mentioned. In September 1924 there were

two concerts in Munich where all six concertos were played: numbers 1, 2, 4, and 5 with

chamber orchestra and numbers 3 and 6 with soloists (Döbereiner, 1955, pp. 10-11). 1924

was also the year when Charles Sanford Terry’s book, the first substantial study devoted to

Bach’s Mass in B Minor was published (Butt, 1991, p. 33).

In the stream of Bach performances that seem to have flowered towards the end of

the 1920s special attention should be drawn to the enterprise of the German Radio in

Cologne, which formed an early music society in 1930. Among the first broadcast

programs was the St Matthew Passion from the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Ernst Latzko

leading his Collegium Musicum (Haskell, 1988, p. 121). During 1931-1938 Straube and

the Thomanerchor broadcast virtually all the Bach cantatas (Haskell, 1988, p. 209). The

Neue Zeitschrift für Musik also reported on these broadcasts in May 1931 (p. 3 and p. 509).

Kirkpatrick’s European debut falls in this period, too. In 1932 he performed Bach’s

Goldberg Variations in Berlin. Another important event was Adolf Bush’s recording of the

1931) are general in approach and descriptive in their discussions.

2
Gustav Leonhardt never misses an opportunity to draw attention to the importance of the organ revival,
lamenting the lack of dialogue between musicians in general and organists. For further details on the
‘organ movement’ see Williams, 1994. About the role of recorder playing see also Klis, 1991 (especially
 57

Brandenburg Concertos in 1935.

In terms of formal training and education the most important initiative of the pre-

war era was the founding of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in 1933. 3 According to Paul

Sacher, the aim of this ‘Lehr- und Forschungsinstitute’ was ‘to research and experiment

with all questions that relate to the reviving of old music so that a lively exchange between

musicology and practice could be established’ (Arlt, 1983, p. 35). Ina Lohr, one of the

institute’s founding members explained in the early 1950s: ‘The aim of the Schola at

Basel was to find ... answers – first internally, then publicly – to the problems of old

music and then to put the results at the service of today’s musical practice.’ (Lohr, 1952,

p. 27) At the beginning, programs mostly included renaissance and early baroque music.

The director of the Schola was Paul Sacher, the eminent conductor, leader of the Basel

Kammerorchester and promoter of new music. The founding members included August

Wenzinger, distinguished viola da gamba virtuoso, author of a tutor for the instrument and

Paul Baumgartner, keyboard player and conductor. The first formal curriculum for training

in early music was also established incorporating practical studies of early instruments

with theoretical work in the form of special courses on ornamentation, continuo, history

and notation. Although the Schola acquired Otto Lobeck-Kambli’s historical collection of

over 350 instruments in 1935, which was later extended by further purchases (by Sacher)

that made the collection some 700 instruments strong by 1967, initially the institute

somewhat neglected the issue of appropriate instruments (Arlt, 1983, p. 56 and Oesch,

1967, p. 78). When Leonhardt became a pupil at the Schola in 1947 he was instructed

on a Neupert until his graduation in 1950. Apparently his teacher, Eduard Müller

(appointed to the Schola in 1939), had a great ear for organs but not so much for

p. 91).
3
The Schola amalgamated with the Conservatorium and Musikschule in 1954 to form the Musikacademie der
Stadt Basel (Oesch, 1967, pp. 21-86 and pp. 87-127)
 58

harpsichords and he took it as a matter of course to play on modernised instruments. 4

This is all the more interesting since the Schola had an early instrumental ensemble (led

by August Wenzinger) giving concerts and making recordings for the Archiv label soon

after the Second World War (for instance the performance of Bach’s gamba sonatas by

Wenzinger and Müller in February 1944 and the recording of the Brandenburg

Concertos in 1950-1953). How accurate those string and wind instruments were as

copies is hard to tell from gramophone recordings. 5 Nevertheless it seems that, in

principle, the logic of performing on eighteenth century instruments has been accepted,

whereas in the case of harpsichords there seemed to have been a satisfaction with

pseudo-historicity, as if the harpsichord per se would be an old instrument that the

historically minded should use instead of the piano. This attitude (as it will be shown in

the later chapters) was not unique to the Schola in Basel but constituted a general status

quo until well into the 1970s.

Finally, to this pre-war period belong the publications of Ralph Kirkpatrick’s

exemplary edition of Bach’s Goldberg Variations with a ‘Preface’ (Kirkpatrick, 1938), and

Ludwig Landshoff’s Urtext edition of the Inventions and Sinfonias (Landshoff, 1933). The

latter was often referred to in later studies of ornamentation, articulation or Bach-

performance in general. Both include extended discussions of tempo, dynamics, phrasing,

articulation, accenting and ornamentation. On the latter topic, Kirkpatrick’s essay is more

detailed than Landshoff’s but both of them offer solutions to specific sections of the edited

works. Their views will be re-visited in relation to particular aspects of performance

practice as examined in later chapters.

The war brought about the migration of musicians and the dissemination of

4
Verbal comment communicated to the writer by Leonhardt in July 1996
5
According to Wenzinger’s notes accompanying their recordings of the Brandenburg Concertos (Archiv
APM 14107) they have used authentic instruments or copies; strings with shorter neck and old bows,
recorders (fiauti in No. 4), traversière (No. 5), but modern (muted) trumpet for technical reasons. The
 59

continental (primarily German) approach to early music both in terms of scholarship and

performance. Karl Haas was active in London with the London Baroque Ensemble (1943-

1966). Hindemith directed the Collegium Musicum at Yale University (1945-1953).

Erwin Bodky founded the Cambridge Society for Early Music at Brandeis University in

1949, and Putnam Aldrich defended his thesis (Aldrich, 1942), the first ever to be

written on performance practice, at Harvard in 1942 – to name but the most important

examples of cross-continental influences.

The recordings of Karl Haas and his ensemble will be mentioned in later

chapters. Of Hindemith’s performances with the Yale Collegium it should suffice to say

that the programs consisted mostly of earlier music (Perotin, Dufay, Josquin, up to the

period of Gabrieli and Monteverdi), and that although he used period instruments, he

never intended to be a model of historical performance practice (Boatwright, 1973). His

friend, Emmanuel Winternitz, was curator of the Metropolitan Museum’s instrument

collection (Haskell, 1988, p. 108). 6 Among Hindemith’s students we find George

Hunter, later at the University of Illinois (Echols, 1986), and the harpsichordist Albert

Fuller who, in the 1970s made recordings (for instance a complete set of Brandenburg

Concertos in 1977) for the Smithsonian Institution with Aston Magna, a musical

organization he founded with Lee Elman in 1972 (Schott, 1986 and Sanford, 2000).

The contribution of Bodky was similarly influential. According to him the aim

of the Cambridge Society for Early Music was ‘to offer the musical public of Boston

and Cambridge a series of concerts devoted to the music of the Renaissance, the

Baroque and the early Classical periods, and to perform the music in a manner faithful

to the styles ... yet not in terms of dry pedantry’ (Slosberg et al, 1965). Bodky’s

speciality was Bach but the programs covered a wide repertoire, mostly from the Italian,

horns and oboe also sound modern. In Concerto No. 2 Gustav Scheck is listed to perform on a flauto.
6
See also Babitz’s opinion about the ‘reconstruction’ of these instruments (Babitz, 1975-1977, p. 24).
 60

French and German ‘high’ baroque period but also earlier and later music (from about

Monteverdi to Mozart and Michael Haydn). Bodky also appeared as a soloist playing

many harpsichord pieces, including the Goldberg Variations on 18 November 1949

(ibid). He crowned his scholarly activities with a book on the interpretation of Bach’s

keyboard music (completed in 1958 and published two years later), which will be

discussed in detail later (Bodky, 1960).

The results of Putnam Aldrich’s thesis and subsequent research on baroque

ornamentation were disseminated in various shorter publications. His tenets and their

influence on performance practice will be examined in the chapter on ornamentation.

To conclude the war-years, two further publications should be mentioned:

Dorian’s book of 1942 and The Bach Reader (Mendel and David, 1945; rev. Wolff,

1998b). Although the former is not a book of original citations, it covers many aspects of

performance with the aim of establishing an historically correct style of interpretation. The

Bach Reader on the other hand, provides an extensive compilation of original documents

related to Bach’s life, works and performance practice in English translations.

In summary, the first half of the twentieth century saw the awakening of interest in

instruments and playing techniques of earlier periods. The bulk of publications dealing

with issues of performance practice nevertheless were usually only nominally informative

due to their generalist, descriptive approach and limited specific detail. The interest in and

revival of old instruments were also geographically sporadic and mostly limited to those

that had disappeared from regular practice: the lute, harpsichord, recorder, viola da gamba,

and the like. The main goal of the period was to re-establish old masterpieces in to the

repertoire in their own right, and in unaltered or unabridged performances. Charismatic

personalities and educational institutions played an invaluable role during these

exploratory years when the seeds of future developments were planted.

 61

1945-1960: Scholarship and performance at the beginning of the modern era

After the war, Germany was among the first to promote early music under the general

policy of national heritage conservation. Deutsche Grammophon launched the Archiv

label in 1945, issuing the first recording in 1947. This recording featured Bach’s organ

music played by Helmut Walcha on the historic organ of the Jacobskirche in Lübeck. The

first director of DG Archiv was Fred Hamel, a musicologist who studied with Arnold

Schering and Friedrich Blume. Hamel envisaged and designed ‘research periods’

according to which the label would ‘document German musical monuments’

(Holschneider, 1972). He also committed the series ‘to recording works “in their

complete authentic form”, using specialist performers playing period instruments

whenever possible’ (Haskell, 1988, p. 127). The second half of this assertion seems to

be an overstatement, at least in relation to recordings of Bach’s music. Although in the

1950s Archiv recorded the Brandenburg Concertos with an ensemble playing on

‘historical instruments’ (Wenzinger and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis), by the end of

the decade the decision was made (by Hamel’s successor, Hans Hickmann) to contract

Karl Richter and the Munich Bach Ensemble to record the master’s major choral and

instrumental compositions. After only one recording, Harnoncourt was dismissed 7 (and

quickly picked up by Telefunken’s daring producer Wolf Erichson), whilst other

musicians with similarly searching attitudes were also left out from programming

schedules and plans. In general, the recordings of the later baroque period by DG Archiv

did not use period instruments at all. The company turned out to be an early music label

only in the sense of repertoire but not so much in terms of the performance style of its

7
The one and only recording of Harnoncourt and the Concentus Musicus Wien for the Archiv label is:
Kaiserliche Hofkapelle ‘Maximilian-Zeit’ (rec. April 1963; Archiv 14323 198323)
 62

artists. In fact, during the 1960s, Archiv became the centre of traditional Bach

performances, aiming at a conservative perfection, which is also confirmed by the

choice of vocal soloists (Dadelsen, 1976, R1983, p. 125). According to Dadelsen, the

only exception in the ‘Archiv-style’ is the recording of Bach’s three Violin Concertos

performed by Eduard Melkus and his Capella Academica Wien (ca. 1973). This

interpretation searched for an original sound not only through old instruments, metre

and ensemble-size, but also through specific playing techniques; thus probing new roads

in historical performance practice (p. 127). Nevertheless, the goal of Archiv was not so

much the reconstruction of an historical sound but the communication of historical

knowledge in a modern manner. The relatively large size of the Munich Bach Orchestra

(8/6/4/3/2 strings) and Karl Richter’s tendency to use big dramatic gestures fitted in

well with this concept. The situation remained unchanged until the end of the 1970s

when ill health and old age (of Helmut Walcha and Karl Richter) enabled Dr

Holschneider, the then executive, to enter a new path. For the recording of baroque

instrumental pieces he contracted Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert (especially

for Vivaldi and Bach) and also Reinhardt Goebel’s Musica Antiqua Köln (especially for

German baroque repertoire). 8

The year 1947 is also noteworthy for Boyd Neel’s recording of the Brandenburg

Concertos. Neel and his ensemble had a seminal influence in England and their ‘sportive

yet intimate’ Bach playing gained the highest esteem of critics and audiences alike. They

appreciated the chamber quality of the performance and the substitution of heavy accents

for longer phrases (The Gramophone, 25 [December 1947], p. 98, [January 1948], p. 118

and [March 1948], p. 153). The Concertos also figured in a concert series at the Schola in

Basel (18, 19, 22 September 1947) performed by Wenzinger and his ensemble (Gutmann,

8
Andreas Holschneider took up office in 1970, inherited the contracts with Karl Richter, Melkus,
Wenzinger, Ulsamer, the Regensburger Domspätzen, etc. and a newly signed one with Sir Charles
 63

1992).

Technological breakthroughs and the introduction of long-playing records mark

1948. In May the Schola in Basel presented its next all-Bach concert by Wenzinger and his

ensemble: Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, Orchestral Suite No. 2 and the Concerto for Two

Violins in D minor (Gutmann, 1992).

In 1949 Albert Schweitzer’s book Out of my Life and Thoughts was published.

According to John Butt ‘Schweitzer gives a useful review of the performance practice of

his age’ (Butt, 1991, p. 33). He complains that many performances of the B minor Mass,

especially the solo movements, are too slow and criticises productions that use massed

forces. However, Schweitzer also complains about ‘conductors who do not add strings and

woodwind to the bare vocal lines of the ‘Credo in unum Deum’ and ‘Confiteor’; his reason

being that ‘without this doubling, the plain-chant cantus firmus lines are inaudible’,

implying that Schweitzer would want these to ‘be highlighted like some ecclesiastical

Leitmotiv’ (Butt, 1991, p. 33).

The number of events and the introduction of novelties accelerated in the 1950s.

The beginning of the new decade was heralded by Landowska’s recording of the Goldberg

Variations in New York (June 1945), which was followed by her complete recording of

the Well Tempered Clavier in 1950-1952. Her interpretation contrasted greatly with the

general, ‘just play the notes’ attitude of the past and coming decades. One early music

practitioner of more recent times described Landowska’s recordings the following way:

‘Her playing of the Bach-Vivaldi concertos reflects a crazy technicolour registration,

arbitrary changes of tempo and octave, intensely personalized phrasing. But the control!

The rhythmic energy! The sense of dramatic gesture – marvellous performance.’ (Cohen &

Snitzer, 1985, p. 26).

Mackerras (see Anderson, 1987). Holschneider retired in 1997.

 64

The year 1950 was the bicentennial anniversary of Bach’s death. Among the

celebrations were several conferences giving new impetus and excitement to Bach-

scholarship and performance. One of the keynote speakers at the Hamburger Bach-Fest

was Hindemith. His encouraging words delivered on 12 September were first cited by

Harnoncourt as seminally influential in his own concern for baroque music (sleeve notes to

Brandenburg Concertos, SAWT 9459/60-A, 1964).

People still insist on regarding both the small number of players and the

peculiarities of the sound and the technique of the instruments used at that time as

factors that imposed intolerable restrictions on the composer ... There is no

evidence that bears out such an assumption ... We can rest assured that Bach felt

quite happy with the vocal and instrumental stylistic media at his disposal, and if

we are anxious to present his music as he himself imagined it, we must restore the

conditions of performance of that time. It is then not enough to use the harpsichord

as a continuo instrument. We would have to string our bowed instruments

differently; we would have to use wind instruments with the same bore as was

usual at that time ... (Hindemith, 1952).

Other conferences and festivals were organised around Germany, for instance in Leipzig,

Göttingen and Berlin. The Bach Society launched the Neue Bach Ausgabe edited by a

team of scholars at the Johann Sebastian Bach Institute in Göttingen and in the Bach-

Archive in Leipzig (the first volume and Critical commentary being published in 1954).

Meanwhile there were many performances of the passions, the B minor Mass, the

suites, the Brandenburg and other concertos from Leipzig to Basel and from Vienna to

London as well as across the Atlantic. Smaller sized ensembles have often been preferred
 65

as can be seen from contemporary reviews in, for instance, the Musical Times or in

reference to Robert Shaw or Arthur Mendel’s concerts in New York (Butt, 1991, p. 39).

In America and England, Sol Babitz and David Boyden experimented with

baroque violins, whereas in Vienna Harnoncourt founded the Concentus Musicus Wien

(1953). Alfred Deller and the Leonhardt Baroque Ensemble, a small consort playing on

period instruments recorded Cantatas No. 54 and No. 170 together with the Agnus Dei,

from the B minor Mass and other vocal solos from Bach and Handel compositions

(Vanguard BG550, 5038). Hermann Scherchen’s St Matthew Passion recording of 1954

used boys’ voices in the opening chorus and the Schola in Basel continued its concert

series of Bach performances with artists such as Eduard Müller, Fritz Neumeyer, Paul

Baumgartner on keyboards; Walter Kägi, Marianne Majer on violins and Wenzinger on

gamba (Gutmann, 1992). In 1953 (the same year as the Concentus Musicus Wien was

founded) DG Archiv completed the recording of the entire set of Brandenburg Concertos

with August Wenzinger leading the Ensemble Schola Cantorum Basiliensis playing on

period instruments. Its English review acclaimed the performance for the use of

‘historically informed articulation and lowered pitch’ (The Gramophone 32 [April 1955],

pp. 484-486). However, as was pointed out earlier, the instruments were not all original or

accurate copies thereof, and the historical evidence for lowering the pitch by a semitone

was questioned by Mendel in the same year as the review appeared (Mendel, 1955). In

terms of articulation, one observes a rather regular, semi-detached (elsewhere semi-legato)

manner of playing, which is moderately differentiated through accents and emphasized

cadence points, but mostly counterbalanced by the lighter tone-production and relatively

springier bowing. The added ornaments and their stylish execution also contribute to the

‘historically informed’ disposition of these recordings.

Germany also followed suite in establishing its own specialist ensembles. The
 66

Westdeutscher Rudfunk (Köln) formed Cappella Coloniensis (directed by August

Wenzinger and Eduard Gröninger). In later years this became the first early-instrument

chamber orchestra to gain wide exposure on radio and recordings as well as through

touring (Haskell, 1988, p. 123). The instigators were Alfred Krings and Eduard Gröninger.

Krings was a musicologist, producer and general manager of West-German Radio in

Cologne. His influence on and patronage of early music were enormous. Apart from the

Capella Coloniensis he established the Collegium Musicum des Westdeutschen Rundfunks

(later called Collegium Aureum) and encouraged players to experiment with performance

styles. According to Reinhard Goebel (personal communication, Sydney, 5 October,

1995) Krings discovered the Kuijken brothers and brought Leonhardt in to play with the

Collegium Aureum. He also founded Deutsche Harmonia Mundi9 and produced the first

recordings of many Dutch and Belgian players who have since become household names

in the early music scene.10 The Capella Coloniensis played on variously reconstructed

copies of eighteenth century instruments. Its repertoire consisted mostly of works from

Lully to the early classics. It existed for 19 years playing with many different conductors.

Other projects of Krings involved solo ensembles with Gustav Scheck (flute), August

Wenzinger (gamba), Fritz Neumeyer (harpsichord), and a quartet of crumhorns in early

baroque repertoire (Schütz, Monteverdi, Gabrieli, Schein). Wilhelm Ehmann (with his

Herforder Kantorei) was also associated with Radio Cologne, for instance during the

Schütz Festival in June 1953 (Gröninger and Krings, 1973).

The first half of the 1950s also saw important publications: Ehmann reported his

experiences in performing Bach’s choral works with differently sized groups, concluding

that the smaller size not only made the music clearer, the rhythm more precise and the tone

9
A franchise of Harmonia Mundi which was established in the early 1960s for the recording of early
music with ensembles like the Collegium Aureum and later (during the 1970s) La Petite Bande.
10
In an informal conversation during the Early Music Days, Sopron (Hungary), 26-30 June, 2000, Barthold
Kuijken also confirmed Krings’ inspirational role and invaluable contribution.
 67

more transparent, but it also allowed the vocal parts to melt better with the doubling

instrumental parts, giving a truly combined tone colour (Ehmann, 1951). Mendel’s edition

(with an extended ‘Introduction’ discussing performance practice) of the St John Passion

was published in the same year (Mendel, 1951). Babitz’s article, which argued in favour of

unequal playing and over-dotting throughout the baroque period, a year later (Babitz,

1952). Emery’s Bach’s Ornaments and Dart’s Interpretation of music appeared in

subsequent years (Emery, 1953; Dart, 1954). The contents of these studies will be

examined in later chapters. Also in 1954, Harnoncourt gave a lecture: Zur Interpretation

historischer Musik that remained basically unnoticed in English-speaking countries at the

time. However, in 1982 it was published in a collected volume of essays that was

eventually translated in to English towards the end of the 1980s (Harnoncourt, 1988, pp.

14-18). The paper contains Harnoncourt’s ‘first observation on the topic which also

represents the “credo” of Concentus Musicus, which was founded at the same time’

(Harnoncourt, 1988, p. 7). In it Harnoncourt drew attention to the need to look at old

music in its own context and therefore to use period instruments in combination with

historical techniques and in historical locations rather than in modern concert halls. In this

way balance and proportion could be recreated making the music sound not only

historically more correct but also more lively. Grove’s fifth edition (in 8 volumes, edited

by Eric Blom) was also published in 1954. Donington wrote the following articles for it:

Inégales (notes), Dotted notes, Harpsichord Playing, Ornamentation, Ornaments, Baroque

interpretation, Dolmetsch and possibly others. There was no entry on Authenticity,

Performance practice, Editing or Rhythm. The entry on Donington was as long as the one

on Kirkpatrick, whereas the one on Wenzinger was much shorter. The bibliography of the

keyword Baroque interpretation listed two references: Babitz’s The problem of Rhythm

(Babitz, 1952) and Schmitz’s Prinzipien der Aufführungspraxis (Schmitz, 1950). The entry
 68

was divided into the following sections: General - ‘Notes have to be found’ (incorporating

figuration, ornamentation, accompaniment) - Expression (discussing mood, tempo,

rhythm, accents, dynamics, balance, texture, articulation, phrasing) - Instruments.

Rosamund Harding wrote the article Harpsichords and Donington the one on Harpsichord

playing. This alerted the player to issues concerning the choice of instrument by posing

questions such as: ‘Can the tone be made to sustain well? Are the quality and volume even

throughout the compass?’ and by making statements like: ‘Action should be not too heavy

nor too light’(Donington, 1954b, pp. 102-103). He then proceeded to discuss the

importance of harpsichord touch and asserted: ‘… the harpsichordist must acquire the

touch proper to that instrument, without which it will sound tinny and unsonorous’ (p.

103). Despite his counsel almost a decade had to pass before the first recordings appeared

on which one can witness a harpsichord touch distinct from piano playing; and even then

these were the exception for about another ten years (more on this in later chapters).

The stream of groundbreaking articles and interesting performances continued in

the second half of the decade, too. Mendel collected evidence against lowering the pitch in

early music (Mendel, 1955) and raised questions about choice of tempo and tempo

relations (Mendel, 1959). Blankenburg published an important study about the performing

bodies in Bach’s choral works, especially in the St Matthew Passion. In this article he

quoted the conductor Hans Grischkat’s arguments for smaller ensembles: the number of

original parts, the balance between orchestra and choir, and the dramatic effectiveness of

such proportions, for instance their eliminating of the problem of an aria sounding too faint

after a choral/orchestral movement performed by massed forces (Blankenburg, 1955).

Blankenburg also argued in favour of orchestral accompaniment in the chorale movements

(Blankenburg, 1956). Grischkat put these views to the practical test when he performed the

St Matthew Passion with 17 instrumentalists and 33 singers in each choir at Easter 1955 in
 69

Stuttgart and in Sindelfingen (Blankenburg, 1955, p. 171).

A similarly historic occasion was the release of Gould’s first recording of the

Goldberg Variations (1955) and the recording of the Brandenburg Concertos with one

instrument per part by Thurston Dart and the Philomusica of London (1958-1959). The

clarity and transparency of Bach’s music were revealed to wider twentieth century

audiences perhaps for the first time.

The end of the decade is marked by a further three significant publications and an

important dissertation: George Houle defended his doctoral thesis The Musical Measure as

Discussed by Theorists from 1650 to 1800 at Stanford University in 1960. This may have

signified a major step towards gaining a better understanding of tempo and metre and their

implications for performance. However, its content was not presented in a published form

until much later (Houle, 1987). As mentioned earlier, Erwin Bodky completed The

Interpretation of Bach's Keyboard Works in 1958 discussing choice of instruments

(clavichord, harpsichord or piano), registration, dynamics, and ornamentation. He argued

against the use of notes inégales in Bach’s compositions. Bodky’s book was

complemented by Rosalyn Tureck’s much shorter study: An Introduction to the

Performance of Bach (Tureck, 1960). This was mostly concerned with articulation, the

‘shaping’ of figures, fingering, touch, dynamics and ornamentation. The modest size of

this publication is entirely misleading; it contains wise, musicianly and remarkably up-to-

date information on Bach playing. Tureck’s own performances of Bach – among them her

two recordings of the Goldberg Variations (1958 piano, 1978 harpsichord) that will be

discussed in detail later – testify that not only her theoretical knowledge was ahead of her

time, but her interpretation was also similarly visionary. Finally, attention should be drawn

to Georg von Dadelsen’s review of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe’s edition of the B Minor Mass

(1955; Kritische Bericht 1956, both by Friedrich Smend), which outlined crucial problems
 70

both in this new version and in the general manner in which editions had often been

produced (Dadelsen, 1959).

Thus the 1950s seem to have been the decade of ‘beginnings’. Major signposts

have been firmly established to help the orientation of the more detailed ‘mapping’

undertaken during the following decades. The first specialized studies of performance

practice (on ornamentation, rhythm and keyboard playing) have been completed and the

stream of articles exploring specific aspects of performance conditions and their historical

context (based on close study of documentary evidence) has also begun to appear.

Performers started experimenting with putting the theory in to practice (Wenzinger,

Tureck, Ehmann, Grischkat); and the initial backing of commercial organizations,

especially that of the German Radio under Krings’ leadership provided crucial support for

these endeavours. Nevertheless, the activities of ensembles playing on period instruments

were mostly limited to local support or interest and remained ‘workshop-’ or laboratory-

like in character (Harnoncourt and the Concentus Musicus Wien).

Recordings 1960-1975

Since the 1960s was perhaps an even more exciting decade with many more

recordings made and more specific scholarly investigations published, it is advantageous to

look at the two areas of activity separately during the last fifteen years under study.

At the outset there was David Willcocks and Thurston Dart’s St John Passion

recording with chamber forces (1960); at the close of the decade Harnoncourt’s B minor

Mass (1968) heralded the arrival of a new era: an era that would embrace, however

gradually, not only the use of historical instruments (or copies thereof) but also a style of

performance that was claimed to resemble more closely eighteenth century practices.
 71

The 1960s and 1970s were therefore the decades of struggle. First (during the

1960s) came the struggle for the acceptance of historical instruments, then the struggle to

learn to play them and thirdly the struggle to find makers who could supply them. Then (in

the later 1970s), it was the struggle for acceptance of playing old music in the old way;

successfully applying those expressive means and performance practices which were

discussed in contemporary tutors and treatises. During these decades the early music scene

became more polarised. The baroque repertoire was shared among all musicians regardless

of their artistic attitude to interpretation. Among the passion-conductors we find choral

directors, Bach specialists and big stars (Willcocks, Gönnenwein, Rilling, Münchinger,

Richter, Klemperer, Karajan, Jochum). The Brandenburg Concertos were performed by

chamber orchestras, festival ensembles, special gatherings of soloists and traditional

symphonic orchestras as well as by ensembles dedicated to historical performance practice

(I Musici di Roma, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Lucerne

Festival Strings, Bath Festival Orchestra, Virtuosi of England, Philharmonia Orchestra,

Berlin Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Collegium Aureum, Concentus Musicus, St

Martin-in-the-Fields etc.). The Goldberg Variations was recorded over twenty times,

mostly on the harpsichord, but hardly ever on close copies of eighteenth century

instruments. Divergent scholarly opinions, heated public discussions, traditional as well as

experimental performances and slowly changing taste characterise these years. It is

fascinating to trace their chronology.

The establishment of Telefunken’s Das Alte Werk series was one of the most

influential initiatives in the early 1960s. 11 As it competed for a market share of Deutsche

Grammophon’s Archiv label, it must have been in its interest to offer a real alternative. Up-

11
The sources do not seem to yield an exact date of ‘launching’ the series. The first recording of Bach’s
music is in fact 3 Cantatas performed by Karl Richter and his ensemble (with Peter Pears) in 1958.The
change to period instruments groups must have occurred straight after this, ca 1960-1961, when Erichson
was appointed (Keller, 1993).
 72

and-coming, radically minded young artists dedicated to the cause of early music

benefited, especially because a favourably disposed producer was in charge of artistic

decisions. Wolf Erichson began by having the smaller scale repertory recorded with

Gustav Leonhardt, Anner Bylsma, Frans Brüggen and others. In an interview he

remembers these early days as exciting even if problematic. For instance, due to

difficulties with woodwind players they ‘had to make do with editing bar by bar’ and

‘produced Harnoncourt’s first Brandenburg set in ten-bar segments’ (Keller, 1993, p.

32). Erichson asserts that although ‘every recording then was an experiment’ and

everybody involved ‘had the feeling that with all these little corrections and editing we

were losing a total interpretation’ the results could not have been ‘all that bad’ because

many of the undertakings are still available on the market, demonstrating their lasting

value (p. 33). Larger works soon followed and in 1964 Telefunken launched the little

known Viennese period instrument ensemble, Concentus Musicus Wien, into the

international arena of music making with Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos.12 Harnoncourt’

ensemble gave its first public concert in 1957 at the Schwarzenberg Palace in Vienna.

At the time of their first recording with Telefunken they were touring Western Europe

with a program of Austrian baroque music and the Brandenburg Concertos.

Subsequently the Orchestral Suites (1965) came out, then the St John Passion (1967), the

B minor Mass (1968), the St Matthew Passion (1971) and eventually the project of

recording all the Bach cantatas (completed in 1989). It is impossible to overestimate the

role this steady backing by a major gramophone company played in the history of the early

music movement. Without its financial support and international dissemination of

recordings, the development of interest by audiences and musicians would have been much

delayed. As Erichson recalls in the above-mentioned interview, the playing on some of

12
However, this recording was released in the UK only three years later as its review in the March 1967
issue of The Gramophone (44) demonstrates.
 73

these instruments was of rudimentary skill at that time. This limited the programming of

live performances just as the size of customary concert halls did, since they often proved to

be too big for the volume of sound produced by the old instruments. This situation is also

reflected in the fact that Harnoncourt and the Concentus Musicus only gradually settled

for the baroque repertoire. Even as late as 1964 they gave a concert at the Schola in

Basel performing late Medieval and Renaissance music (Gutmann, 1992). Without the

editing opportunities of studio recording the amount of experimenting must have been

impeded. Thus it seems that Erichson at Telefunken provided a similar forum for practical

‘workshops’ in early music interpretation to that instituted by Alfred Krings at

Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne. These opportunities may have enabled a selected

group of continental musicians to ‘gain a lead’ over their colleagues across the English

Channel who were much slower in establishing their own period instrument ensembles

(1973: Academy of Ancient Music) and even slower to incorporate the more subtle aspects

of eighteenth century performance practice in their interpretative style. Apart from the

many successful historical reconstructions of Dart and the Philomusica of London

documented mostly on the L’Oiseau lyre label, the other ensembles active in Britain seem

to have been more concerned with satisfying ‘mainstream’ expectations and general

conventions than to apply the suggestions resulting from mint scholarly inquiry into

performance traditions of the past.

Although Willcocks and the Philomusica of London made their historic St John

Passion recording at the end of the previous decade, it was not released until 1960 and

represents the very best achievements of the late 1950s and early 1960s: namely the use of

chamber forces (29 singers and 24 instrumentalists) and the creation of a transparent, clear

texture without robbing the music of its dramatic power. While embracing historical

evidence with regard to performing size, Dart and Willcocks seemed reluctant to follow
 74

other scholarly findings: a harpsichord was used to accompany the recitatives, limiting the

organ continuo to instrumental sections.13 This preference for harpsichord accompaniment

prevailed for another five or so years and can be noted in reviews as well. For instance, in

Karl Richter’s St John Passion recording the critic missed the harpsichord (The

Gramophone 42 [October 1964], pp. 189-90), while Klemperer’s St Matthew Passion

recording, which employs the harpsichord for the recitatives, received an enthusiastic

review despite its very slow tempi (The Gramophone 39 [April 1962], pp. 507-509 & 40

[June 1972], p. 98). Nevertheless, the English critics’ preference was eventually set aside

and the prevailing argument for an exclusive use of the organ as the keyboard continuo

instrument became generally accepted for the time being. The ‘triumph’ of 19th century

German protestant tradition (assumed to be true of Bach’s time as well) over concert

performance conventions was reinforced by the fact that renowned Kantors (that is church

organist-conductors) were regularly engaged to record Bach’s choral works. Karl Richter’s

St John Passion (1964) and Gönnenwein’s renderings of both Passions (in the late 1960s)

were followed in the 1970s and 1980s by Helmuth Rilling’s contributions which

culminated in a contract to record all the cantatas.14 However, the first performances of

Bach’s extended choral works using historical instruments did not occur within the Kantor-

tradition, but was initiated and fostered by concert ensembles, although the direct

involvement of choral conductors is undeniable. The list opens with the St John Passion in

1966-67 (Harnoncourt/Concentus Musicus); the B minor Mass in 1968

(Harnoncourt/Concentus Musicus); and closes, at least in terms of the period examined

here, with the St Matthew Passion in 1969 – a concert performance by Hans-Martin

13
Arnold Schering argued for organ alone performances already in the 1920s (Schering, 1936). Among
many others, Mendel reiterated this view in 1950 and 1951. However, more recently Dreyfus provided a
comprehensive study of the issue in which he proposed the possibility of ‘dual accompaniment’ (Dreyfus,
1987). See more about this in the next chapter. One should also keep in mind, that one of the surviving
MS versions of the St John Passion requires the harpsichord.
14
Interestingly, Rilling reverted to the use of harpsichord in the recitatives of his St Matthew Passion
 75

Schneidt conducting the Capella Coloniensis and the Regensburg Domchor (Gröninger &

Krings, 1973, p. 110) – and, on record, in 1971 (Harnoncourt/Concentus Musicus).

Gönnenwein’s performances were praised for representing the ‘best current German style:

fast tempi, smallish forces, and easy, natural flow.’ (The Gramophone 46 [April 1969],

pp. 1452-3) At the same time the period instrument performances were thrashed: not so

much the recording of St John Passion, in which case the reviewer simply noted that

although it went beyond the Archiv recording in authenticity, it was an intellectual, not an

emotional performance (The Gramophone 44 [March 1967], p. 482), but in particular the

recording of the B minor Mass. Here Harnoncourt used boys’ voices in the choir too, and

employed a new approach to phrasing, balance and articulation. Many years later John

Butt summed up succinctly the ‘novelties’ of the recordings: ‘The contrast with recordings

using “conventional” forces could hardly be more pronounced: not only is the texture ...

lighter ... and the style of articulation more locally nuanced, but also many fundamental

features of tempo and rhythm are ‘new’ (Butt, 1991, p. 40). Few musicians could readily

accept this ‘new’ style. One of the most antagonistic critics was Paul Henry Lang who,

upon release of Harnoncourt’s St Matthew Passion recording, attacked the early music

movement in an editorial of The Musical Quarterly. He expressed his deep concern over

the fact that the ‘pronouncedly individual, though romantically warm’ past performance

style was ‘being replaced by the cool, depersonalised, meticulous but equally

conjectural “science” of performance practice’. He censured Harnoncourt for ‘ignoring

the socio-cultural element’ and ‘carrying historical accuracy to absurd length’. To

support his view he referred to the ‘well-appointed institution’ of the Dresden

Kreuzcantorat, which used substantial choirs and orchestra. Lang claimed that doubling

or even tripling of the wind choir was a standard ‘remedy’ of the ‘somewhat pale and

recording in 1978 (CBS Master Works 79403).

 76

subdued’ effect of ‘the Baroque combination of … instruments doux with a small

choral ensemble’. He even called on Quantz whose ‘ideal Baroque orchestra [consisted

of] twelve violins, three violas, four cellos, two bass viols, four flutes, four oboes, three

bassoons, two harpsichords, and one theorbo’ and noted that ‘Harnoncourt’s double

orchestra is smaller than Quantz’s standard single ensemble’ (Lang, 1972, pp. 117-127).

However, the same recording received a very constructive review in The Gramophone by

Stanley Sadie (48 [April 1971], pp. 1644, 1649). Robert Marshall treated with similar

respect and positive disposition the first volume of Harnoncourt and Leonhardt’s Bach

Cantatas series on the pages of the same Musical Quarterly a year later (Marshall, 1973).

Although he warned that ‘in regard to textual authenticity ... the Telefunken project is

assuming some risk whenever it records any work ... that has not yet been published in the

Neue Bach-Ausgabe’ (p. 148), Marshall then proceeded to acknowledge Harnoncourt’s

awareness of the problems and stated: ‘His aim has been to reconstruct not the actual

sound of J. S. Bach’s performances but the type of sound Bach would have considered

“optimal”.’ (p. 149) Nevertheless, continued Marshall, the question remains whether ‘the

larger or the smaller historical context’ shaped the ‘spirit’ of the music more definitively.

Marshall agreed with the use of small forces and boys voices (and an all-male choir) but

had reservations about eighteenth century instruments; partly because of intonation

problems and partly because he (relying on Mendel’s research) was somewhat sceptical

about the authenticity of lower tuning. Discussing the performance style of the recordings

his tone became more enthusiastic praising the musicians for their ‘empathetic grasp of the

spirit informing [the] conventions [associated with Bach performance]’ (p. 155) and for

demonstrating that they ‘have evidently assimilated the essence of the conventions and can

apply them unselfconsciously’ (p. 158). However, Marshall was critical of the players’ use

of agogics and dynamics. Although he considered many as ‘unobtrusive and convincing …

 77

falling within Neumann’s framework of “agogic articulation” and as such “inherent in a

flexible performance” (Neumann, 1965, p. 343)’, he also found some mannered and

believed that the ‘motive-oriented, rhetorical conception of phrasing result all too

frequently in a short-winded articulation of phrases and motives that is rather affected than

affective’ (Marshall, 1973, pp. 156, 158). The reviewer concluded on a positive note that

sums up well the state of affairs in the earlier half of the 1970s. It also pinpoints the crucial

problem in evaluating musical performances:

I must add at once that my delight in the Telefunken performances has

grown with each hearing. Like so many new and unfamiliar experiences,

they obviously demand a lot of getting use to. There can be little doubt that

beauty, its recognition, and its delectation are direct functions of familiarity

and that we must be on our guard not to judge the aesthetic validity - much

less the historical authenticity - of any rendition of an artwork by our first

(or even ultimate) response to it. (Marshall, 1973, p. 159)

Looking at the discography of instrumental works one can immediately note an abundance

of recordings of the Brandenburg Concertos, the Orchestral Suites and the Goldberg

Variations. Other concertos, chamber pieces and solo keyboard compositions were much

less in evidence.

The Brandenburg set with the Lucerne Festival Strings conducted by Rudolf

Baumgartner with Ralph Kirkpatrick at the harpsichord on the Archiv label was welcome

for its use of the new NBA score prepared by Besseler. According to The Gramophone’s

critic the use of modern instruments make it less ‘archaeological’ and ‘more musical’ than

the earlier Archiv version (directed by Wenzinger), while the ‘properly practised and
 78

expertly controlled slow trill … really sounds as an eighteenth century trill should’ (The

Gramophone 38 [May 1961], p. 579). Listening to the recording a similarly light tone

production as in Wenzinger’s rendering can be observed, but Baumgartner’s approach to

phrasing seems more broad and legato than what we hear in the earlier version. The heavy

regular accents and rhythmically even manner of playing create a rather mechanistic and

undifferentiated interpretation; much closer to the ‘sewing machine’ style than

Wenzinger’s performance.

In the same year Klemperer’s recording was acclaimed for its ‘sober maturity’ and

the ‘clarity of the small ensemble’. However, the reviewer also lamented that George

Malcolm was ‘restricted in his imaginative elaborations’ (The Gramophone 39

[November 1961], p. 249). The differences in taste and style of performance between

‘traditional’ and experimental groups can be further seen in the reviews of the

Brandenburg Concertos with Casals and the Marlborough Festival Orchestra (1966),

Britten and the English Chamber Orchestra (1969), Karl Richter and the Munich Bach

Orchestra (1968), Karl Münchinger and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra (1972), and the

performances, later recordings, of Leppard (1969, 1976) and Marriner (1972) on the one

side, and Harnoncourt and the Concentus Musicus Wien (1964) and Leonhardt with the

Collegium Aureum (1965), on the other. Importantly, there seems to be a general

confusion among critics regarding what to expect from these performances: in the case of

‘normal’ chamber ensembles the reviewer sometimes fails to notice historical stylistic

features, but more often seems satisfied with the lack of them. Reports on period

instrument groups on the other hand, are often over-concerned with the sound and nature

of the performing media, neglecting the critical analysis of the interpretative style. Some of

these opinions have been cited already in Chapter 1 (see pp. 000-000) to which a few

typical ones can be added here.

 79

The recording of the New Philharmonia Chamber Orchestra led by David Littaur

and Raymond Leppard was praised as a ‘robust set’ with ‘fine soloists… rich textures…

sweet sound’ and a ‘sentimental and slow Affettuoso’. Leppard’s melodically conceived

harpsichord continuo was also highlighted (The Gramophone 46 [April 1969], pp. 1427-

8) and compared to Dart’s from the late 1950s. It is interesting to juxtapose the reception

of Britten’s and Münchinger’s respective sets that appeared four years apart from each

other. Britten received a lukewarm treatment in 1969, the reviewer expecting a more

‘romantic’ approach ‘with expressive and expansive slow movements’ (The Gramophone

47 [November 1969] p. 752). There is no trace of such demand for expressivity or rubato

in another writer’s account of Münchinger’s version. The performance is instead praised

for its superb musical quality, ‘springy rhythm allied with moderate tempos’ and for its

‘accuracy of historical sound and balance’ (The Gramophone 51 [October 1973], p. 677).

Listening to these recordings today, my perception of them is different. To me

Münchinger’s set is technically very accomplished, but musically rather homogenous and

under-interpreted; Littaur and Leppard’s joint effort distributes similarly clockwork-like,

heavily accented and broadly phrased qualities which are combined with a rather intense

tone production and sustained legato style in the slow movements. Britten’s performance

on the other hand, is more articulated, uses accents that highlight the pulse and

occasionally observes paired slurs and other details of the score. Nevertheless, tempo and

rhythmic flexibility do not feature here either.

Harnoncourt’s first recording of the Brandenburg Concertos came out in 1964.

With this recording the music-aesthetical doubt over the ‘historical objectivity’ of Archiv

Produktion could not be denied any more (Elste, 1984, p. 44). Nevertheless its ‘bombshell

effect’ (as Elste would have you believe) was not immediately apparent. For instance, it

was not released in England until 1967 and then it was unfavourably compared to the sets
 80

by Menuhin (1959) and Newstone (1959, R1965). These were considered ‘more enjoyable

[for having] more imagination and rhythmic life’. Harnoncourt’s tempi were deemed

‘eccentric, either rushed or stodgy’ and the inégal interpretation of the Andante of

Concerto No. 4 was regarded ‘curious’ for ‘giving the impression of a rocking compound-

time rhythm’ (The Gramophone 44 [March 1967], p. 468). Moreover, in 1968 Archiv

released yet another recording of the set with Karl Richter and his Munich Bach Orchestra.

Although this must reflect simply the natural course of programming schedules at Archiv,

it is worth noting that even potential ‘bombshells’ need a couple of years (if not longer) to

change the taste and opinion of the audience or to alter the path taken by the musical

establishment. It seems that the first indication of the appearance of a different view on the

pages of The Gramophone was the more positive tone with which Harnoncourt’s

orchestral suites recording was received (The Gramophone 45 [February 1968], p. 424).

The other more or less period instrument15 recording of the Brandenburg set from the

1960s had a similar fate: the performance of Leonhardt and the Collegium Aureum (1965)

appeared on a smaller label,16 and received even less attention than Harnoncourt’s, which

was promoted with all the might and resources of Telefunken. The Collegium Aureum’s

version was not reviewed in The Gramophone until 1973 and even then was not

acknowledged for its moderate employment of baroque performance effects such as

pointed dotting, mild notes inégales and clear articulation, especially in the harpsichord

part of Concerto No. 5 featuring Gustav Leonhardt.

This brief overview already shows what later chapters further explain: many more

recordings of the Brandenburg Concertos were made after Harnoncourt’s first issue which

15
There are arguments about what sort of instruments the Collegium Aureum used; probably just slightly
adjusted strings and ‘modern’ winds. The review in The Gramophone (50 [February 1973], p. 1496) notes
that they play on ‘original type instruments’ which is explained as ‘not a painstaking return to old
instruments’.
16
BASF BHM23-20331 according to The Gramophone review (see previous note), but on Harmonia
Mundi IC151-99643/4 according to Trevor Croucher’s discography (Croucher, 1981). My original cassette
 81

used neither period instruments nor historically informed interpretative style. The analyses

provided later on also demonstrate that Harnoncourt’s recording was ground breaking not

because of the style of playing but rather because it used period instruments; while other

interpretations (by Casals, Britten and especially the Collegium Aureum) should have

received more notice because of their effective employ of certain crucial elements of

eighteenth century performance practice. According to the collected evidence the first

decisively historical recording of the concertos on period instruments using the full range

of baroque expressions and interpretative means occurred only in 1976-78 when

Leonhardt, Sigiswald Kuijken and a group of other Dutch and Belgian players came out

with the series on the Seon label. Because of the minority status of the label, however, it

seems that the performances have never received the limelight they deserve; apart from a

short review in Early Music (Pettitt, 1982) and Taruskin’s intensive discussion of the 5th

Concerto (Taruskin, 1988, pp. 203-207), there is little mention of it in the literature and the

set was reissued on CD only in 1999 by Sony Classical.

The real surprise regarding the Goldberg Variations recordings of the 1960s is not

that the harpsichord versions outnumber those on piano, but that out of these only one is on

a replica instrument based on an eighteenth century model. The year of issue is 1965; the

label is again Telefunken’s Das Alte Werk rather than DG’s Archiv, and the performer is

not George Malcolm or Karl Richter, nor even Ralph Kirkpatrick, but Gustav Leonhardt,

playing on a harpsichord built by Skowroneck after Dulcken. Not only were the

instruments modernised harpsichords, but the way artists played on them was also different

from the historically documented practice. As shall be demonstrated later, a lack of

familiarity with eighteenth century playing techniques, especially with regard to touch and

articulation, and the use of harpsichords designed to suite twentieth century expectations

copy is from Victrola: VICS 6023 (licensed by Harmonia Mundi, Germany)

 82

seem to have induced players to employ a smooth legato and to use varied registration,

possible only on their ‘pseudo-historical’ instruments. This indicates a contradiction

between scholarship and performance, for by the mid 1960s several studies had been

published which argued against the overwhelming use and frequent changes of registers, in

other words against a late nineteenth century ‘organist’ approach to harpsichord playing.

Performers who were regarded as representatives of the forefront of musical scholarship

and performance did it nevertheless. Contemporary reviews also show that, just as in the

case of the Brandenburg Concertos, public opinion and taste preferred these often

romanticised interpretations to those offering eighteenth century type expressivity. Piano

versions were sometimes dismissed largely on grounds of performance medium, 17 while

Leonhardt’s rhetorically articulated performance was not always favourably compared to

Kirkpatrick’s or Richter’s renderings.18 In 1981, the re-issue of Kirkpatrick’s recording

was hailed as ‘quite the best of the rest currently available (The Gramophone 58 [April]

1981 p. 1343) and in 1973 Richter’s version was acclaimed as a ‘splendid recording ...

[with a] range of colour lavished on the music; ... [on an] excellent harpsichord offering

alternative registrations in abundance’ (The Gramophone 50 [April 1973], p. 1888).

There were opposing views expressed as well. For instance, Jeremy Noble noted George

Malcolm’s tendency to take ‘full advantage of his Goff instrument to avoid any

suggestions of monotony’. For him the result was ‘rather too highly coloured’ but ‘in

keeping with Malcolm’s generally large-scale virtuoso conception of ... [the] work.’ He

also favoured the vigour and resilience in Malcolm’s rhythms over Kirkpatrick’s whom

he found sometimes ‘unwilling to articulate the music sufficiently’ (The Gramophone 40

17
See, for instance, statements like “...if it has to be played on the piano, it could not be better done than
it is by Mr Rosen...” (The Gramophone 46 [March 1969], p. 1308)
18
See, for instance, the reviews of Tureck’s 1978 recording (The Gramophone 57 [February 1980], p.
1281); or of Leonhardt’s 1965 version (The Gramophone 45 [July 1967], p. 73.). Obviously, the
reviewer’s musical background would also need to be taken into account when analysing the opinions
expressed. On the whole, however, the reviews are representative of contemporary taste and the opinion
 83

[May 1963], p. 521).

The 1970s continued the work of the previous decade. There was more talk about

the need to re-instate period instruments, yet - at least at the beginning - there was little

progress in terms of establishing such groups or providing more opportunity for

performance and/or recording the baroque repertoire with them. Until the end of the period

examined here there were only two further recordings of the Goldberg Variations on a

period-copy harpsichord (Newman, 1971 and Kipnis, 1973) but several on spurious

models. Moreover, apart from Harnoncourt and his circle’s activities, traditional

orchestras, soloists and conductors (e.g. Abbado, Boult, Jochum, Karajan, Münchinger,

Britten etc.) continued to record both the Brandenburg Concertos and the passions. In the

United States there were exceptions from this generalisation: Anthony Newman and his

‘Instrumental Ensemble’ recorded the Brandenburg Concertos for Columbia in 1972

using some historical instruments and techniques; then, in 1977 the Smithsonian

Institute issued the complete set with Albert Fuller and the Aston Magna Ensemble of

original instruments (‘first period instrument recording in the USA’ - claims the cover).

But in England, the newly formed Academy of St Martin-in-the Fields (directed by Neville

Marriner) remained dedicated to modern instruments and there was a general reluctance to

incorporate stylistic features of baroque performance practice – apart from brisker tempi,

lighter sound and more detached articulation. 19 Only during the second half of the 1970s

had this situation started to change gradually. A new generation of musicians together with

an invigorated and confident economic situation in Western Europe provided the

opportunity for the next stage in the early music movement. This, however, is beyond the

of the musical establishment, for The Gramophone Magazine is one of the most widely read English
language journals on classical sound recordings.
19
Although Christopher Hogwood’s period instrument ensemble the Academy of Ancient Music was
established in 1973, the only Bach-recording listed in their performance in Croucher’s Early Music
Discography (Croucher, 1981) is the Magnificat (Florilegium, DSLO 572). Since it is not included in the
Gramophone Classical Catalogue 1979, it is assumed that the recording was made just around 1979-1980,
 84

scope of the current investigation, therefore only a glimpse of it is provided here by way of

a brief list of events and recordings: In 1973 Hogwood formed the Academy of Ancient

Music in London and Goebel the Musica Antiqua Köln in Cologne. In 1975 Norrington

performed Bach’s St Matthew Passion and in 1976 Gardiner formed the English

Baroque Soloists. In 1977 Norrington performed the St John Passion whilst Parrott’s

Taverner Choir & Players the B minor Mass (this was of course before Parrott took on

board Rifkin’s theory first published in 1982). The same year also saw the release of the

first recording of the Goldberg on an original harpsichord (Christian Zell Hamburg,

1728) by Alan Curtis. In 1978 Trevor Pinnock signed his contract with Archiv, and in

1980 Harnoncourt and Leonhardt shared the Dutch Government’s Erasmus Prize for

recreating baroque music.

Scholarship 1960-1975

Looking at musicological activities and the state of scholarship during the 1960s, and early

1970s one can see many important achievements, discoveries and a more detailed analysis

of available sources and documents. Research seems to have concentrated on making old

treatises available (both in original language and in translations), and on issues of rhythmic

performance, ornamentation and continuo practice. Hardly any studies appeared on

articulation, vocal style or harpsichord playing, and the understanding of the influence of

playing techniques on the expressive means of performance has not been fully grasped.

One can also notice the considerable discrepancy between scholarly opinion and

performance. For instance, there was Hubbard’s book on the history of harpsichord

making, promoting a complete re-examination of current harpsichord-building practices

well after the period examined here. Their Brandenburg Concertos came out in 1985.
 85

(Hubbard, 1965). However, as was shown, players in general did not express much interest

in demanding ‘proper’ instruments for at least another decade. The re-examination of the

violin and violin playing had also been undertaken. After several shorter articles in the

1950s, David Boyden published his comprehensive book on the topic (Boyden, 1965). Yet

musicians were similarly slow to put his finer points into practice, just as keyboardists

were reluctant to discard their pedal harpsichords. Then there were the different articles

arguing for soloistic choral performances, at least in the B minor Mass (e.g. Ehmann, 1960,

Dürr, 1961, Kolneder, 1967). 20 The presentation of supporting evidence was stronger,

documentary research was more thorough and the arguments put forward were more

convincing than in previous studies of similar topics, yet performers shied away from

attempting to put the claims in to practice. Not until Joshua Rifkin re-addressed the issue in

1982 and provoked fellow musicians and the general public through his recordings that

this notion has at least been properly put to the practical test.21 The problem of using boys’

voices in solo roles or in choirs has also been debated extensively (e.g. in Wiora, 1968, pp.

82-96) but remained a rarity in recording practice, an almost exclusive trademark of earlier

Leonhardt and Harnoncourt recordings.

There was also Babitz’s article on Bach’s keyboard fingering (Babitz, 1962) urging

players to experiment and to learn to play with early fingerings, for their implications

regarding articulation and rhythm could not be otherwise properly incorporated into the

20
See also the other correspondence ensuing Ehmann’s original study. Music Review 23 [1962] pp. 149-
153; Music & Letters 43 [1962] pp. 149-153; Musica 16 [1962] p. 277
21
It does remain on the periphery, however, with only a few performers such as Andrew Parrott and
Cantus Köln following suite. The reason might be purely commercial and practical. Some argue that this
kind of performance is much more successful on record than live although my experiences with such
performances during the last two years or so indicate that the basis of this view has been weakened.
Another point often mentioned is that there are not too many singers capable of doing a solo performance
of the B minor Mass, yet there are quite a few good chamber choirs (with just 3-4 voices per parts) who
seem to satisfy the claim for a much lighter texture and tone. Most importantly, not everybody is
convinced that the argument and evidence for solo performance are conclusive in spite of Parrott’s
thorough overview of the available documents and their possible interpretations (Parrott, 2000). However,
it is worth noting that Rifkin’s single-voice theory seems to have pushed Bach's literal specification of 3 to 4
singers per part in to the foreground making the 30-50 singer strong chamber choirs look somewhat
conservative.
 86

performance style. He claimed to have demonstrated his concept to Wenzinger and the

Basel Orchestra in the same year, but their reception of it remains uncertain. Babitz’s

view was contrary to Dart’s who, after recommending the study of baroque fingerings,

concluded that it would be ‘ridiculous to suggest that [a player] should revert to those

[fingerings] in use in earlier centuries’ (Dart, 1954, p. 100). Babitz published other

pioneering studies as well, for instance one on articulation and timing (Babitz, 1967).

However, the reception of his views was rather hostile and he remained a lonely figure,

without academic status, working from his home in Los Angeles and producing a yearly

Bulletin (often with accompanying audio tapes) called ‘Early Music Laboratory.’ 22 On the

pages of these he voiced his views on instruments, baroque bowing, fingering, articulation

and other problems of performance. Among the subscribers to this Bulletin we find the

names of Stravinsky, Leonhardt, the Kuijken brothers, O’Donnell, Lasocki and others. By

the second half of the 1970s he reported a marked influence of ‘Early Music Laboratory’

(Babitz, 1975-1977). According to the Bulletin, in 1976 Babitz was invited to give a

lecture-demonstration at the Schola in Basel, where (apparently) the staff and students

were mostly familiar with his work (and his Bulletins). The members of the Kuyken

(sic) Quartet also invited him to give classes in The Hague Conservatory. Typically,

Babitz’s report on these occasions was semi-critical: ‘They teach unequal playing to

their students, but they don’t do it themselves.’ (Babitz, 1975-1977, n. p.) The

statement, however, is not true, as the Brandenburg Concerto recording from 1976-8

(Seon RL 30400 EK) testifies. O’Donnell’s letter to Babitz published in the same

Bulletin is also a telling document of the tone of the EML. Complaining about the lack

of knowledge at US and Canadian Universities, O’Donnell adds:

22
Babitz is not listed in The New Grove Dictionary of American Music. According to Grove 6 and also
Grove 7 (article ‘Babitz, Sol’), he studied the violin with Flesch, but was, nevertheless, largely self-
taught. His interest in historical performance practice was aroused by Dolmetsch and encouraged by
Stravinsky whose violin parts he edited for many years. He established the Early Music Laboratory
 87

They are still living in the pre-1952 days! 23 ... I am nearing completion

of an article on the French overture which should silence Neumann

forever on the subject. My evidence is overwhelming; in addition to

which I believe some light will be shed on certain notational

‘inconsistencies’. I hope it will be accepted by M[usical] Q[uarterly] and

ask your permission to dedicate the study to you on the 25th anniversary

of the publication of ‘A Problem of Rhythm...’ (Babitz, 1975-1977, n.

p.) 24

The only musicologist who openly built on Babitz’s findings was Robert Donington. As

mentioned earlier, he listed ‘The Problem of Rhythm...’ in the bibliography of his entry

on ‘Baroque performance’ in Grove 5 (1954), and in his seminal book The Interpretation

of Early Music (1963) he also relied on Babitz’s research.

Opinions differ regarding the importance and influence of Donington’s book. The

divergence reflects perhaps more a change of generations than a qualitative judgment. For

Leonhardt’s contemporaries, Dolmetsch’s book was more important; for Ton Koopman’s

generation Donington and Boyden were more influential. 25 The wealth of pure data

compiled, translated and made readily accessible by Donington signified a major stepping

stone towards a more ‘objective’, ‘accurate’ and complex picture of earlier performance

practices. His book was not just a reworking of meagrely referenced old sources like

Dorian’s study of 1942 or Dart’s popular guide of 1954. Neither was it a compilation of

longer selections from a chosen few treatises like Dolmetsch’s of 1915. This publication

Organization in 1948.
23
The term ‘pre-1952’ is a reference to the publication date of Babitz’ first article (Babitz, 1952)
24
John O’Donnell’s article eventually appeared in Early Music (O’Donnell, 1979)
25
Personal communication with Ton Koopman and Gustav Leonhardt, July 1996
 88

provided the student of early music with a comprehensive handbook covering most major

tutors, and other documents that contained information on performance practice. The

opinion has been put forward that by the time Donington’s book was first published there

was nothing ‘new’ in it, yet the publishing of original (or translated) early sources had only

recently begun. 26 Hence it is disputable how well known they were, especially those in a

foreign language (and in the baroque form/style of that foreign language). It should also be

noted that no undertakings similar to Donington’s occurred in German language:

Linde’s Kleine Anleitung (Linde, 1958) is just a little booklet of about 10 pages on

ornaments summarizing C. P. E. Bach and Quantz, yet its popularity in German

speaking countries is demonstrated by its numerous reprints and ready availability in

music shops. Whereas Gotthold Frotscher’s book (Frotscher, 1963) is – in spite of its

claim to be a comprehensive reference work – a general overview of performance

issues, not unlike those written by Schering and Haas some 30 years earlier. Looking

back from the late 1990s it seems that Donington’s book started a new era: an era of

growing specialisation, an era of comprehensive and detailed study, an era when those

concerned gradually accepted that Leopold Mozart’s or C. P. E. Bach’s teachings were not

necessarily adaptable to performances of J. S. Bach’s compositions, or that the distinction

between national styles might not be as clear cut as previously believed.

One of the key figures in this new wave of scholarship emerging from the second

half of the 1960s was Frederick Neumann (1907-1994). His contribution to the field was

immense. Due to many controversies and the possibility of reading available documents in

different ways he also provoked several heated discussions, fostered extended

correspondences in various journals and alienated many readers through the stubborn and

26
Here is a selection of twentieth century publishing dates of English translations or facsimile editions of
commonly used sources: Agricola 1966, CPE Bach 1949, Bacilly 1968, Corrette 1970, Couperin 1969,
Geminiani 1952, Heinichen 1966, Hottetere 1968, Kirnberger 1968, Loulié 1965, Marpurg 1969,
Mattheson 1969, Leopold Mozart 1948, 1951, Quantz 1966, Tosi 1968.
 89

often biased tone of his writings. The stream of articles started in 1964 and centred on

ornamentation (especially trills and appoggiaturas) and the performance of rhythm (dotted

patterns and the employ of notes inégales).27 These were followed by a more general

attack on the ‘cite and play’ type of early music performers (Neumann, 1967). 28

Eventually his comprehensive study entitled Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-

Baroque Music came out (Neumann, 1978), although this did not at all mean a decline of

Neumann’s further scholarly publications on the topic (see References for more detail).

Meanwhile the books of Dart and Dolmetsch were reprinted in 1967 and 1969

respectively, showing an incessant thirst for information on the performance of early

music. Another indicator of this was the creation of the International Bach Society

Incorporation in 1967 by Rosalyn Tureck. Her aim was to organise yearly international

gatherings in order to foster a dialogue between musicologists and performers. She invited

distinguished researchers to give lectures on, for instance, ornamentation, harpsichord

construction, old instruments and manuscript studies as well as to participate in

‘performance workshops emphasizing historical studies and methods of stylistically

appropriate performance applications’ (Tureck, 1972, p. 172).

This ‘spirit of the age’ was instrumental for the success of perhaps the most

significant musicological events of the early 1970s: the founding of the journal Early

Music in 1973 by John M. Thomson. It established not just a regular international forum

specifically for the study of earlier repertoires and their performances but also indicated

official acknowledgment of the fact that the study of early music and performance practice

had matured into a new and independent discipline. A discipline enrolling numerous first

27
The content of these will be discussed later, but basically Neumann did not accept the ‘absolute truth’ of
starting all trills from above, and of playing most appogiaturas long; neither did he subscribe to the tenet
that dotted rhythms (especially in relation to the so called ‘French overture style’) should be over dotted.
He argued passionately against the use of inégalité in German music (i.e. Bach) but acknowledged the
validity of flexible rhythmic groups (or ‘agogic articulation’) as inherent in any flexible performances.
28
Neumann uses the expression ‘cite and play’ to refer to performers who seek out a rule in an old source and
 90

rate professionals rather then enthusiastic but not very skilful amateurs – the image of the

movement throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

A more general acceptance could also be seen from reviews, concert programs and

the mushrooming industry of early music festivals, exhibitions and conferences.

Harnoncourt’s St Matthew Passion recording was chosen for the annual Good Friday

broadcast by Radio der Deutschen und Rätoromanischen Schweiz in 1972 – a sure sign

that the movement had come out of the ‘Nische des Spezialgebiets’ and had started to

become part of the mainstream (Hagmann, 1992, p. 162). FM Radio in France also

switched programming policy (around 1976) and started to broadcast large quantities of

early music played by Leonhardt, Harnoncourt and others (Cohen, 1985, pp. 3-4). The

Holland Festival of Early Music in Utrecht was soon established as well (1981).

Competitions for harpsichordists and other early instrumentalists (for instance in

conjunction with the Brügge Early Music Festival which started in 1965), and instrument

fairs (for example the Boston Biennial Early Music Festival and Exhibition since 1981)

began to be organized. Instrument makers acquired a new status, for the study of

different instruments and performances on them came to centre stage. 29 Several

specialist journals have also started around this time many of them publications of

societies interested in various old instruments such as the recorder, lute, or gamba, to

name but only some (Baratz, 1988). Training in early music also became an issue with

courses being established at The Hague Conservatorium of Music and elsewhere.

Accordingly, the 1970s witnessed an increasing debate between groups playing

on old versus modern instruments which led to an intensified discussion of other issues of

performance practice and to the establishment of new ensembles, especially in England

then play everything accordingly.

29
A further evidence of this is reported by Hagmann: On February 5, 1972 a concert was held at the Schola in
Basel entitled ‘Cembalomusik aus drei Jahrhunderten auf historischen Instrumenten’ - According to
Hagmann this was a recital where 5 harpsichords of different make [Bauart] and a virginal were used.
 91

(Gardiner, Pinnock, Hogwood, etc). There was a growing belief in the potential of old

instruments to create an appropriate new/old style. This notion was most seriously attacked

from within the movement – by specialists playing on modern instruments (for instance by

Leppard and Rilling). 30 Donington also warned in 1978 that concerns for style should take

precedence over concerns for sound. Although both are important, no good will come from

using eighteenth century violins and bows if the musicianly, or stylistic issues (such as

bow strokes, vibrato, left-hand colouring, phrasing, articulation, tempo flexibility etc.) are

missing (Donington, 1977, pp. 12-16).

The debate about authenticity was gaining momentum, despite the fact that the

question of producing an historically authentic performance had always been more a

marketing ploy than the real goal of some performers associated with the movement. This

issue was the topic of the previous chapter. The details of what constitute the baroque style

of performance are explored in the following chapters, which, in turn, provide the sonic

history of the early music movement. A conclusion would, therefore, be premature at this

stage. Instead, I would like to conclude by quoting Leonhardt’s opinion on the matter

expressed as early as 1976-1977 on the occasion of recording Bach’s Brandenburg

Concertos:

The performance of a piece of music can, however, never be authentic,

since music itself refuses to be tied down. … Even the composer gives a

new authenticity to every performance of his work. It seems to me that

the conflict between authentic and unauthentic ... is less important than

the question of artistic quality. ... I hope this recording will not be

(Hagmann, 1992 p. 161)

30
According to Nicholas Kenyon (1988, pp. 7-8) one such article by Raymond Leppard appeared in the
October 1982 issue of Keynote magazine, New York. See also Leppard, 1988; Thomson, 1977, n. 16; or
‘Podiumdiskussion’ 1978, pp. 185-203 for Rilling’s views on the matter.
 92

labelled ‘definitive’ or ‘authentic’ on account of the instrumentation. ...

The ear adjusts more quickly than one might think, which is good, for

then instruments will again have become for the players and listeners

literally ‘instruments’ in the service of the music and everyone ... can

surrender themselves ... to J. S. Bach’s unfailing sense of proportion and

immense inventive power. (Liner notes, Seon Musikfilm BL-2001)