18th Century Music Performance Analysis

Musical performances are evaluated on many different aspects, including if the performance is historically accurate. The Eightieth century Opera was an up and coming genre that was spreading its way through Europe. Opera’s style and aesthetics in the baroque period could always be traced back to its Italian roots. In Ryszard Daniel Golianek’s article In Search of a Perfect Performance of the 18th Century Opera; Johann George Silzer’s Lexicon as an Aesthetic Guide he states “three general conditions of a good performance are mentioned: Deutlichkeit(Thoroughness), Ausdruck (expression) and Schönbeit(beauty)”. (p.150) Castrati were often used in lead roles of baroque opera. When performing baroque opera today, conductors are left with a difficult descion on how to replace the castrato while still attempting to remain historically true to the values of the composition. Schönbeit or the beauty of the music has strong ties to the aesthetic of the time period and it’s relation to the performers realization of the score. With beauty being an abstract

The key concept of thoroughness is tempo. It is important that the performer finds their tempo giusto, or desired tempo. (p. 150) Once the ideal tempo is found it should be maintained throughout all regular measures. Deutlichkeit seems to be one of the easiest of the three spheres to excel in outside or virtuosic passages, or when there is no tempo marking from the composer. If the composer leaves no tempo marking in vocal music such as opera, it is up to the performer to find clues in the text of the music. In Va lacito e nascosto, an aria from Handel’s Gulio Cesare, the composer leaves obvious clues to what the tempo giusto should be. The first two lines translate into “Silently and stealthily the cunning hunter moves”. It is clear that Handel is asking for a slower tempo than a typical walking or marching tempo. (p.