A Performer's Guide to Baroque Music

Book excerpt: This book makes available the fruit of a lifetime's research into baroque performing practice. Drawing on the encyclopaedic wealth of material in the author's classic studies, it supplies a basic grounding for students, performers and all early music enthusiasts. From the teeming abundance and confusion of the contemporary evidence, the author has here picked out all the essential information which the modern musician needs to guide his own interpretative decisions. Wherever possible this is cited in the words of the baroque composers and writers themselves.