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Playing with History: the Early Music Movement and Its Impact on Recent Performing Trends - MUS4801

Honours NQF level: 8 Credits: 24
Module presented in English Module presented online
Purpose: This paper deals with an aspect of late twentieth-century and early twenty-first century musical history which has become crucially significant for performers, listeners and indeed the entire 'art music' industry as a whole, including the not insignificant recording industry: the unfolding of the early music movement and the effect it's had on how we perform, listen to and perceive early music. And since the term 'early music' - no longer refers to the esoteric music of some bygone age - it is now taken to mean Western music up to and including the early twentieth century (Mahler, Elgar, Ravel, Bartok and so on) - it includes most of the repertoire that almost all performers and music-lovers are familiar with. 'Early music' is therefore no longer a specialist category in music. The purview of this paper affects all of us to a substantial degree.