Description
Forgotten Fagotten? Uncovering the Tacit Performance Practices of Fagotto Col Basso in the Early Classical OrchestraMusic manuscripts of the eighteenth century used the generic term ‘basso’ or ‘bassi’ to label the lowermost instrumental line of the score. Instruments were grouped according to their musical role, melody and basso. Treatises and manuscripts of the time give very little indication about which instruments were to play the basso line. New research shows the basso instruments included bassoon in addition to cello, a bass type instrument and or a keyboard. Nineteenth-century instrument taxonomy and scoring conventions group instruments according to sound production (wind, brass, percussion, string) and have the string instruments placed in the lowermost system of the score. Could this be the reason the bassoon today is not considered a basso instrument? Was the bassoon’s eighteenth-century col basso function forgotten once the compositions of the nineteenth century placed the bassoon into the section with winds? Could it explain why the basso today is being performed more often than not by only string instruments? I propose that the future of historic performance practice research requires a boarder approach which considers more than analysis of primary source material. I argue that consideration for and investigation of the implicit and unwritten tacit knowledge practices inherent in our historic colleagues is necessary to reveal historically informed performance practices worthy of today’s concert platforms.
Period | 29 Nov 2023 → 2 Dec 2023 |
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Event type | Conference |
Location | Adelaide, Australia, South AustraliaShow on map |
Degree of Recognition | National |
Related content
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Research output
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Fagotte Forgotten? The Bassoon in the Early Symphonies of Mozart, Haydn and Contemporaries in the 1760s and 1770s
Research output: Thesis › Non-UWA Thesis