The Emergence of Efficient Musical Texts during the Age of Reason

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Ronald Broude
Mary Cyr

Abstract

Modern Western musical notation is “efficient” in the sense that every element of a text corresponds to an essential element of the composition represented and to an essential element of every valid performance of that composition. Western notation became efficient only during the eighteenth century. Previously, much Western music — especially music for solo instrument and small ensemble — operated on pretextual, oral principles: it was performed in small communities dominated by celebrated performer/composers who re-created compositions with each performance; their students were taught to perform in this quasi-improvisational way. In such circumstances, a composition could be represented by many different texts. Notation became efficient when increasing numbers of recreational amateurs required music that did not have to be re-created with each performance and that could be learned by realizing texts literally. Printers and composers accommodated them. As texts became efficient, compositions became stable entities defined by texts established by their composers.

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Article Details

Section
Essays
Author Biographies

Ronald Broude, The Broude Trust

Ronald Broude is principal of Broude Brothers Limited and founding trustee of the Broude Trust for the Publication of Musicological Editions. His articles have appeared in journals ranging from Early Music, The Musical Times, and Notes to Textual Cultures, Variants, and Book History. He sits on the executive committee of the Society for Textual Scholarship, and he served as executive Director of that organization from 2004 to 2005. In 2010, the Association for Documentary Editing awarded him its Boydston Prize.

Mary Cyr, University of Guelph

Mary Cyr, professor emerita at the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada), has had careers as both viola da gamba soloist and as music historian. Her research includes topics in performance practice, iconography, the history of string instruments, source studies, and scholarly editing.  Her recent articles have dealt with portraits of musicians by the artist Carmontelle, François Couperin’s viol music, and the musical reception of Swift’s Travels in France. She has edited music by Louis Couperin, Henry Du Mont, Jacquet de La Guerre, and the Forquerays.