The authentically minded interpreter who wishes to do justice to masterpieces of the past faces a multitude of complex problems. Musicology, established now for a century as a positive science, has seen its objectives broaden and diversify. Performance practice, without being altogether a new sphere, is now a field in which musicology is proving itself to the greatest effect. In recent times musicological studies have contributed towards revitalizing or reconsidering the interpretation of gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony and concertante style, also shedding a clearer light on the realization of continuo, ornamentation and improvisatory elements of Baroque music. The combined efforts of organologists, instrument makers and performers enable us to-day to enjoy all the sumptuousness of Monteverdi's instrumental colouring; in Mozart the woodwind take on a new savour, emerging with unaccustomed clarity.

But with the music of the last century, and with Romantic piano music in particular, only recently have we begun to realise that they too present the performer with problems analogous to those encountered in the music of more remote periods. This new preoccupation arises from an awareness that our epoch, no longer comfortably attached to the end of the preceding century, has broken away from it altogether.