Personally, I hate playing baroque music out of style. I'm not going to go through the trouble go to an extreme for period performance, but I always cringe when I hear a romantisized version of a baroque piece. The same goes for classical music. For example, I do not approve of playing Mozart the same way that one would play Bruckner.
It would do any musician well to read some texts about how music was played during the 17th and 18th centuries. There's some small things about baroque music that one should really pay attention to when playing pieces from that era that make a huge difference in performance:
-Vibrato was not unheard of, but wide vibrato was seen as an ugly element that destroyed the purity of the music. Vibrato was used for emotional reasons, but it was NEVER overdone. Furthermore, it was regarded as bad technique.
-When working out phrases, there is more of an emphasis on the bow compared to the left hand action. Weight and speed are the two main things to think about. For an excercise, try playing a scale as emotionally as you can without using vibrato.
-All trills start on the upper note.
-Most of the musical forms come out of folk dances. It might do some good to keep this in mind when playing fast music as fast almost always means danceable.
-Oftentime strict note value is not observed. Notes died more quickly on baroque instruments than they do on modern instruments (this is especially true with brass) and oftentimes dotted rhythms replaced 64th notes instead of 32nd.
What especially gives me a headache is playing baroque music for auditions. I feel like I'm not doing the music justice playing it in a modern style just because that's what's expected. That's why, in my opinion, the Juilliard requirement for a baroque sonata should be amended (without getting into the real reason that it's there). I'm not saying that playing baroque music requires going out and buying pure gut strings and playing with a bow that could be used for gamba playing, but baroque composers were well aware of how music was played back then. Their music was written to suit it. Playing complete anti-HIP makes this part of the music obsolete, covered up by performance practices the music never intended to be played with.
It would do any musician well to read some texts about how music was played during the 17th and 18th centuries. There's some small things about baroque music that one should really pay attention to when playing pieces from that era that make a huge difference in performance:
-Vibrato was not unheard of, but wide vibrato was seen as an ugly element that destroyed the purity of the music. Vibrato was used for emotional reasons, but it was NEVER overdone. Furthermore, it was regarded as bad technique.
-When working out phrases, there is more of an emphasis on the bow compared to the left hand action. Weight and speed are the two main things to think about. For an excercise, try playing a scale as emotionally as you can without using vibrato.
-All trills start on the upper note.
-Most of the musical forms come out of folk dances. It might do some good to keep this in mind when playing fast music as fast almost always means danceable.
-Oftentime strict note value is not observed. Notes died more quickly on baroque instruments than they do on modern instruments (this is especially true with brass) and oftentimes dotted rhythms replaced 64th notes instead of 32nd.
What especially gives me a headache is playing baroque music for auditions. I feel like I'm not doing the music justice playing it in a modern style just because that's what's expected. That's why, in my opinion, the Juilliard requirement for a baroque sonata should be amended (without getting into the real reason that it's there). I'm not saying that playing baroque music requires going out and buying pure gut strings and playing with a bow that could be used for gamba playing, but baroque composers were well aware of how music was played back then. Their music was written to suit it. Playing complete anti-HIP makes this part of the music obsolete, covered up by performance practices the music never intended to be played with.
