"This book investigates the changing ways in which composers employed notation, and skilled musicians understood it, between the middle of the 18th century and the early years of the 20th century. While the trend was towards increasingly explicit notational practices, many aspects of performance, even in the late 19th century, were assumed rather than specified and it was still widely understood that much remained to be read between the lines. Furthermore, during the 20th century the intended implications of many notational practices were gradually forgotten and are now generally misunderstood, while others, such as continuous vibrato and the meticulous observance of vertical synchrony and notated rhythms, differ radically from anything the composer might have envisaged. The underlying message of the book is that composers' intentions for their notation ought not to be confused with their expectations for its execution. The employment of expressive practices that often involve substantial deviations from a conventional modern reading of the notation is not only a legitimate, but also an essential element in getting closer to the composer's conception. The following topics are investigated in sixteen chapters: metrical and rhetorical accentuation, dynamics, articulation, string-instrument bowing, phrasing, expression, tempo, tempo flexibility, ornamentation and improvisation, asynchrony, arpeggiation, rhythmic flexibility, sliding effects (portamento), and trembling effects (tremolo, vibrato)."
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