The seeds of growth

Historical performance in theory and practice has truly established itself as part of everyday musical life. Period instruments are routinely encountered in the concert hall and are virtually obligatory in substantial areas of the repertory. Throughout the world there has developed an immense interest in discovering the original expectations of composers in terms of sound and musical style and in acquiring appropriate instrumental techniques for their faithful realisation. This has involved not only finding and experimenting with relevant instruments and equipment, but also exploring earlier styles of performance through the examination of a wide range of primary source materials; for, as Roger Norrington has observed: ‘a relationship with the past needs to be founded on truth as well as sympathy, concern as well as exploitation, information as well as guesswork’.

This notion that works of the past should be stylishly interpreted with the musical means its composer had at his disposal has a fascinating history. But it was not until the late nineteenth century that musicians began purposefully to contemplate using instruments and performing styles that were contemporary with and appropriate to Baroque or Classical music. The violinist Joseph Joachim directed a Bach festival at Eisenach in 1884, where Bach's B minor Mass was performed with some care taken towards the recreation of the composer's original instruments.