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  3. Master in Musicology
  4. Area of specialisation in Historical Musicology
  5. Interpretation Studies

Interpretation Studies

Objectives

(a) To reflect on historically-oriented musical practice, which will be considered as a method, in which the field of interpretive practices andhistorical musicology collaborate, emphasizing that it can be applied to any non-contemporary repertoire;
b) To learn about the history of the early music movement and to reflect on the contribution of its main interpreters and thinkers;
c) To make a critical assessment of the ideal of “authenticity” and the practice of the historical repertoire in our own time;
d) To beome acquainted with the bibliography on historically oriented interpretation, especially that produced in Portugal and Brazil;
e) To enable students to reflect on their own practice in the historical repertoire and, consequently, achieve a more aware and criticalmusical interpretation.

General characterization

Code

722021016

Credits

10.0

Responsible teacher

Alberto José Vieira Pacheco

Hours

Weekly - 3

Total - 280

Teaching language

Portuguese

Prerequisites

N/A

Bibliography

  • Augustin, K. (2013). Os castrati e a prática vocal no espaço luso-brasileiro (1752- 1822). [Doctoral dissertation, U. Aveiro].
  • Lawson, C., & Stowell, R. (Eds.) (2012). The Cambridge history of musical performance. Cambridge UP.
  • Lopes, A. M. (2010). O Valor de um Bach autêntico: um estudo sobre o conceito de autenticidade na execução de obras musicais. F. C.
  • Gulbenkian.
  • Mormile, A. (2010). Contratenori: la rinascita dei “nuovi angeli” nella prassi esecutiva dall’opera barocca. Zecchini.
  • Neto, M. M. T. (2011). Teoria e prática do baixo contínuo em Portugal (1735-1820) [Doctoral dissertation, U. Aveiro].
  • Pacheco, A. J. V. (2019). As modinhas do Pe. José Maurício Nunes Garcia: fontes, edição e prática. Per Musi, 1(39), 1-52.
  • Taruskin, R. (1995). Text and Act: essays on music and performance. Oxford UP.
  • Tosi, P. F. (2022). Opiniões de cantores antigos e modernos, ou seja, Observações sobreo canto florido. Ed UFRJ.

Teaching method

The seminar consists of weekly sessions, in which texts presented in the bibliography and/or others, from the same field of study andwhich are more helpful for the development of students' research, will be debated. Musical examples will also be discussed. At eachsession, students should be able to communicate a brief summary of the text(s) planned for that date. At the end of the course, eachstudent must deliver an essay of about fifteen pages, or a video of a lecture-recital, lasting approximately 20 minutes. In both cases, theworks must be related to the student's research project and must quote at least eight texts worked during the course and/or present intheir bibliography.

Evaluation method

Continuous assessment - Essay text or the recital lecture(50%), Full understanding of the texts, demonstrated by the reviews(30%), Student participation during the sessions(20%)

Subject matter

The course starts from the analysis of texts and phonographic records to reflect on concepts and themes such as:
1. The Early Music movement;
2. The ideal of historical authenticity;
3. Historical instruments;
4. Ornamentation and improvisation;
5. The temperaments and ancient pitches;
6. The interpreter facing primary musical sources and the issue of musical edition; 7. Diachronic pronunciation variants;
8. Music treatises and their translation;
9. Geographical specificities of past practices;
10. The interpretation of the early repertoire before a current audience.
Other related topics may also be visited, in accordance with the students' research projects. Care will be taken to give examples ofsuccessful research related to the Luso-Brazilian universe.