English eighteenth-century music is comparatively neglected as an academic topic despite its increasing popularity with listeners, both on record and in the concert hall. Yet England in the eighteenth century was the scene of the liveliest and most various musical activity. The essays in this book, by leading English and American scholars, are devoted to the social and intellectual background, and to the composers who dominated the period, including Handel and Haydn.

In Essays in Honor of Christopher Hogwood: The Maestro's Direction, Thomas Donahue has collected several essays from authors who have been motivated and inspired by the distinguished keyboard player, music editor, writer, and conductor, Christopher Hogwood, in honor of his 70th birthday in 2011. As is clearly shown in the assembled articles, Hogwood has had considerable influence in the latter half of the 20th century in advocating the historically informed performance of early music. Contributions from such scholars as Yo Tomita, Richard Troeger, Sabine K. Klaus, Bridget Cunningham, and Annette Richards pay tribute to this major musician of the 20th century, one of the strongest advocates for the performance of early music. The volume begins with a foreword by Bernard Brauchli, followed by a chronology of Hogwood's education and career, including his publications and awards. The succeeding essays cover a variety of subjects associated with Hogwood's approach to early music, including the interpretation of composers' notations, discussions of musical instrument construction and use, elucidation of performance traditions and conventions of the past, and analysis of the music itself. The essays provide insights on the music of Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and J.S. and C.P.E. Bach and consider various keyboard instruments such as the clavichord, square piano, spinet, and claviorgan. An afterword by Hogwood himself completes this well rounded collection.

This handbook covers Handel's best known public music, the Water Music, written at the outset of his English career, and the Music for the Royal Fireworks, the last and largest of his orchestral creations. The genesis of these two orchestral suites is examined in its political as well as musical context; practical questions of performance style and interpretation are balanced by an enquiry into Handel's compositional processes, and the relationship of his other large-scale orchestral compositions, especially the Concerti a due cori, to these suites. Original source material is set alongside the most recent theories on Handel's character and working methods. In particular the problem of 'borrowings' is addressed with reference to most recent identifications of Handel's sources, together with the later presentation of these works in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with an account of recordings, editions and a summary of performance questions.

Twelve of today's most distinguished scholar-performers offer essays in this volume on new and intriguing aspects of baroque keyboard music. Topics include fresh evidence on music of the seventeenth century (Frescobaldi, Froberger and Purcell), the place of the keyboard in concerted music and on comparative teaching methods (Couperin, Marpurg and Roeser), studies of the repertoire of J. S. Bach and his sons (including ornamentation in C. P. E. Bach and the Polonaises of Wilhelm Friedemann), and writing on the later eighteenth century (including Mozart) and on matters of repertoire and performance practice (continuo playing, improvisation). The volume gives a balanced picture of the latest theories and discoveries in keyboard music, of interest to both academic and performing musicians, and includes a new arrangement for keyboard of Bach's D minor Violin Partita, published here for the first time.

This handbook covers Handel's best known public music, the Water Music, written at the outset of his English career, and the Music for the Royal Fireworks, the last and largest of his orchestral creations. The genesis of these two orchestral suites is examined in its political as well as musical context; practical questions of performance style and interpretation are balanced by an enquiry into Handel's compositional processes, and the relationship of his other large-scale orchestral compositions, especially the Concerti a due cori, to these suites. Original source material is set alongside the most recent theories on Handel's character and working methods. In particular the problem of 'borrowings' is addressed with reference to most recent identifications of Handel's sources, together with the later presentation of these works in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with an account of recordings, editions and a summary of performance questions.

The clavichord, forerunner of the piano, was one of the most important instruments in Western keyboard history until the first decades of the nineteenth century. Bernard Brauchli's comprehensive history fills a major gap in the literature on this instrument. Beginning with the earliest-known references, he traces the clavichord's evolution up to the mid-nineteenth century, ending with a study of performance technique. The clavichord's structural developments (traced largely through an analysis of extant instruments), literary documentation (much of it presented here for the first time in English), treatises and iconographical sources are presented in chronological order. What emerges from this study of the various sources is an overview of the essential role this instrument played both socially and musically for more than four centuries, restoring the clavichord to the position it justly deserves in history. Awarded the Nicholas Bessaraboff Prize for 2001, honoring the best book-length organological study in the English language published in 1998/99.

This stimulating guide will help students and their teachers to achieve stylish performances of music of the Baroque period. Individual chapters from leading experts focus on historical background, notation and interpretation, and sources and editions, presenting the latest thinking on performance in a clear, helpful and practical way. There are also dedicated chapters of specialist advice for keyboard, string and wind players, and singers, plus a recommended playlist of illustrative, authoritative recordings. Fully illustrated throughout with many music examples, facsimiles and pictures, this is a valuable resource for students of the Baroque period which will also add to the knowledge and understanding of amateur and professional musicians.