Op de Haubois of Basson meesterlyk spelen: Contextualising The Roles and Repertoire of Double-Reed Instruments in the Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden, 1677–1725
(2025)
author(s): Luis Tasso Athayde Santos
published in: KC Research Portal
This study seeks to illuminate a body of forgotten repertoire, documented in the Dutch Republic's courts, theatres, military, amateur circles, and churches. Comprising of a dissertation and two appendices, this study explores how double-reed instruments were used in the Dutch Republic in the years 1677–1725, focusing on seven types and sizes of instruments made by Richard Haka (<1646–1705). This critical period in double-reed history marks Europe's transition from the direct descendants of Renaissance-type instruments to the French-style instruments of the high Baroque period. The Dutch Republic, being the origin of one quarter of all pre-Classical oboes and the earliest-surviving datable bassoon, was one of the first places to adopt these French instruments outside of France — though the older forms of double-reed instruments continued to be used throughout the period of study. One could question the need for having so many of these instruments in a region which is largely unexplored in terms of historical performance practice and repertoire. Double-reed players of the Republic served in a variety of capacities and could be found playing several genres of music, but due to the historically-inconsistent use of terminology, determining the exact introduction and extinction of these instruments is nearly impossible; however, by contextualising an array of seemingly-unconnected primary sources and analysing details in the iconography of the period, a more-informed perspective on the matter can be gained.
A modern analysis of Historical Informed Performance: considerations about the method, its past and its future
(2022)
author(s): Pedro Antonio Pérez Méndez
Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
The results of this research will be presented to the public in the form of an exposition in which the whole analysis process will be explained and both an answer to the research question and a reflection about past and future of the Historically Informed Performance influence in the musical stage will be stated. Through this exposition we will be addressing relevant questions about the concept of Historically Informed Performance and its application as a work method that I encounter on my research, such as the use of reconstructed or modern instruments, the existence or absence of limitations of time and style frames for which the Historically Informed Performance is a useful tool or the common misconceptions about this idea by some group of musicians, aiming to establish a basis for the correct application of the Historically Informed Performance idea as a useful work method by any kind of musician and leading to a final reflection about the future development of the Historically Informed Performance ideal.
An improvisatory approach to nineteenth-century music
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Bert Mooiman
connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
In the field of Western art music, improvisation has become a much discussed topic. In this interdisciplinary study Bert Mooiman argues that in this context, improvisation is not to be seen as a quasi-autonomous skill or art form, but as an aspect of music-making in general. With this research, Mooiman offers a ‘panorama’ of nineteenth-century styles and situations of music-making that together sketch a picture of improvisatory aspects of nineteenth-century music. Music was generally experienced as a wordless language, and he argues that making music was understood as a rhetorical act: performers strove for musical persuasion. This study focuses on the performer: it explores how performers in the nineteenth century might have thought during the real-time act of music-making, and how performers today might learn to use musical languages from the past actively again. For this last aspect, the area of music theory is relevant; Mooiman concludes his dissertation with a discussion of how traditional music theory is challenged by improvisatory music-making.