Matthew Westphal writes:
>I do wonder if we should also bring this up in rec.music.early.

All of these aspects have been raised of late there, although
admittedly not in the same thread.  They will be again, I'm sure.

>I can't help thinking that HIP performance is driving classical
>sales (in the relevant repertory, at least) in large part because
>THE MUSIC SOUNDS BETTER THAT WAY.

Well, I don't really agree....  Most of the medieval & Renaissance
music was not performed at all prior to HIP, so there isn't much
to compare.  For the rest, I have no clear preference either way,
frankly.  I'm definitely interested in the "historical education"
aspect though, and I think that's a clear benefit.

>If Peres gave any indication that HE thought of his work as
>"post-authentic", I'd be thrilled.

I don't have any of his remarks at hand, but if one reads them as
if he might think this, and in the sort of French postmodern idiom
he uses, I don't find the idea so difficult to believe.  Perhaps
I read too creatively?

>Can Todd or anyone else give any other examples of "post-authentic"
>performance?

Hmm, a good question....

Do you know Sour Cream's _Passion of Reason_?  That's one I can
think of off the top of my head.  The remarks by Kees Boeke are
rather interesting as well.  I made some other comments on it in
my web column, under the title "Recorder Consorts" if you want to
look.  Sylvain Bergeron also did an interesting dramatic program
around Reis Glorios.  There are other examples... but it is an
embryonic field.

>Would Bimbetta qualify?  The collaborations between Jan Garbarek
>and the Hilliard Ensemble and between the Orlando Consort and
>Perfect Houseplants?   Female ensembles singing music generally
>considered to have been written for men's voices and vocal ranges
>(Musica Secreta singing Palestrina or Anonymous 4 singing the
>Monpellier Codex)?  The Mediaeval Baebes?

I want to answer these, at least to clarify what I meant by the
term.  Perhaps others will revise the definition.

Bimbetta I do not know.  I would call Hilliard/Garbarek as simple
"fusion" and not post-authentic at all, and the same for the Orlando
Consort.  Female ensembles would be a more straight-forward
adaptation, and again not what I would call "post-authentic" at
least in the examples you cite.  The Mediaeval Baebes I do not know
either, but I might guess from what I've heard that they are pop-HIP
fusion.

There are always various boundary cases, of course, where things
become less clear.

>The problem is that we're not really certain how informed our mad
>genius M. Peres is

I disagree.  He is very informed.  Look at the erudition of his
sources, etc.  That is information... in other words, informed.
Does he make "rational" choices?  Perhaps not, but I would argue
that it is a different thing.  I do not see rationalism as integral
to art.  There are repercussions to that remark.

Todd McComb
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