The End of Early Music: A Period Performer's History of Music for the Twenty-First Century

by Bruce Haynes

Part history, part explanation of early music, this book also plays devil's advocate, criticizing current practices and urging experimentation. Haynes, a veteran of the movement, describes a vision of the future that involves improvisation, rhetorical expression, and composition.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2007

Reviews

[Jordan Kinsey]

"For listeners in Rhetorical times, to have heard a piece of music a second time was probably like seeing a play or reading a book a second time is to us now. It is something one does only occasionally with with very special works or difficult ones."

"Imagine what would happen to a good book if we read it twice a year for five years, and if we heard recordings of it in elevators; that is what we are doing to the Four Seasons."

"In Rhetorical times, being dead was a definite disadvantage to a composer. After 1800, however, it was almost required in order to achieve greatness. The new Canon included more and more music by dead composers, and as a consequence, the 'conductor' appeared. Conductors acted as the dead composer's surrogate."

[Arkady Blekherov]

Ik heb echt zin in de studiepunten hiervoor jammie

[Rose]

A polemical book--I enjoyed the author's central thesis--that performance of "early music" is always grounded in its time and place, and that the best thing we can do as performers of old repertory is 1) see what period, or copies of period instruments have to teach us about sound/phrasing/musicality 2) improvise, improvise, improvise--in early music, the score only gives us a sketch of the sounding work, and should not be treated as the last word, 3) understand the importance of rhetoric & oratory--the art of communicating--to the performance, especially of 17th- and 18th-century music, 4) and how a musician might unlock the rhetorical potential of a piece by attending to the phrasing--getting out of the 19th-c ideal of the "long-line phrase."

I liked the way Haynes, a performer himself, puts performance at the center here & the way he advocates bringing the music to life, for current audiences. I used this with a group of conservatory students and they found it accessible and freeing. The on-line musical examples are a great addition.

[Nino Bos]

An honest review of the current situation surrounding research in HIP. The points he makes surrounding the unwanted influence from modernism is strong and well argumented. It is a must read for every early musician!

[David Simmons Wood]

I was engrossed by this. As a longtime performer, teacher, and student of performance practice this text put many of my vague thoughts into solid ideas and helped to expand the ways in which I will approach historically-informed performance. Is the author biased? It would seem so, but he doesn’t hide it, and I don’t think it hurts his case at all.

[Alcofrybas]

Great read about the conventions of (pre)classical music performance and reception. You don't have to be a performer to go into this book, any classical and early music enthusiast will find it insightful.

[Marcel]

I regret I didn't read it before. Everyone who is interested in performing "early music" or listening to it will benefit enormously from reading it. I didn't get any feeling of receiving a lecture from reading it, but actually felt that my critic thinking grew bigger and more flexible.

[Via Valencia]

Offers an insightful perspective on classical music norms and “etiquette”. Changed the way I approached Baroque repertoire. I LOVED the critique on authenticity.

[Lindsey]

This book does well pointing out certain conventions in our musical society today that we often recognize as fact instead of cultural phenomena, and getting you to think of them in a different light. However, Haynes is extremely opinionated, and manages to insult anyone who considers him/herself a modern musician. I don't think that Period performing has to be quite so black and white, all or nothing.

[Megan]

Geez, this guy is seriously not into modern conservatory training and orchestral playing. Vitriolic, nearly. Great with the examples of different recordings to listen to (though it slows down my reading because you have to be near a computer), and I'm learning a lot about style, even if it is heavily prejudiced. At least I have my own opinions and experience to temper what I'm reading.

[Alex Fisher]

For specialists in this field the book offers many conventional truths, sometimes even banal ones (that rhetoric is a crucial lens for viewing Baroque performance practice, for example). The online audio examples are useful. But he practically ignores music prior to 1600, and the book lacks coherence - it comes off as a string of short vignettes rather than presenting a compelling argument.