In the field of historically-informed performance (HIP) new tools are continuously developed to unlock the musical meanings of eighteenth-century repertoires. Studies of Emily Dolan (2013) and Deirdre Loughridge (2018) have shed light on the historical accounts on timbre and its significance to the development of late-eighteenth-century chamber and orchestral idioms. On the other hand, theorists such as Robert O. Gjerdingen (2007) and Nicholas Baragwanath (2012, 2020) have rediscovered the creative processes of composers trained in the Neapolitan style, based on stock bass-melody patterns (schemata). Such in-depth theoretical inquiries have allowed modern-day musicians to access the intricate nuances of the Italianate galant style, which stood for a highly codified discourse in the late-eighteenth-century music making and reception in Central Europe.
Adaptive performance practice stands for a historical way of music making in which notated repertoire is modified in instrumentation or other aspects to suit the needs of the players and the moment (Laurie Stras, 2018). This flexibility is mirrored in Baragwanath’s accounts on Mozart’s accompanied keyboard sonatas, where the keyboard texture is commented and supplemented by improvised instrumental and vocal lines (2012). The existence of codified musical patterns (schemata) made spontaneous contrapuntal solutions possible on sight. This popular mode of eighteenth-century performance has been lost to us today.
During early 2024, I am conducting a case study with fortepianist Anastasios Zafeiropoulos to rehearse, perform, and record Johann Schobert’s quartets for keyboard and melody instruments (1764?) on replicas of eighteenth-century fortepianos and traversos (flutes). In our inquiry we ask which theoretical and rehearsal methods can facilitate the performance of accompanied keyboard sonatas. By working with historical fortepianos, we also inquire how tone quality factors into the construction of musical meanings when accompanying a keyboard sonata on the traverso. Our research methods are based on schematic analysis, organology, and a hands-on approach as chamber musicians to access, and document musical knowledge deeply rooted in adaptive and improvisatory musical practices.
Below you can find an early experiment where we added a flute line to the opening movement of Johann Eckard’s piano sonata Op. 1 No. 2:
Vera Plosila 