Contents:
PROLOGUE
• INTERPRETATION: APPLIED MUSICOLOGY
o Interpretation: Objective or subjective
o Notation cannot express intangibles
o Interpretation lives through style
PART I: THE BIRTH OF MODERN INTERPRETATION
CHAPTER I: FROM RENAISSANCE TO BAROQUE
• ECLLESIASTICAL SPIRIT
o Universality of Expression
o Maestro di cappella Palestrina
• A CAPPELLA STYLE
o Free declamation
o Setup of chorus
• LE NUOVE MUSICHE
o Ancient ideals
o Old Italian methods of singing
o Subordination of song
• MADIGRALS
o Italian and English styles
o Stilo rappresentativo
o After-supper singing
• KEYBOARD PERFORMANCE
o Royal virginalists
o Freschobaldi’s organ playing
CHAPTER 2: THE BAROQUE
• THE STORY OF THE SCORE
o Four stages of evolution
o Medieval manuscripts
o First printed scores
o Architecture creates performing style
o Sonata piano e forte
• THE OCHESTRA MAKES ITS DEBU
o Monteverdi’s instrumental palette
o Reformer Lully
o Alteration of rhythm
o Unity of bowing
• BANCH AND HANDEL
o Traditions and its dangers
o Bach: from Weimar to Leipzig
o Handel: baroque proportions
Chapter 3: ROCOCO AND ENLIGHTENMENT
• ORNAMENTATION
o Functional and ornamental graces
o Philipp Emanuel Bach on “Manieren”
o Graces: German, French, Italian
• DANCE TYPES
o The function of the dance
o The Preclassical suite
o Dances from the galliard era
o Dances from the minuet era
o The waltz
• Affektenlehre
o Emotions: the aim of performance
o Major and minor
o Time signatures
o The interpreter’s emotion indispensable
• THE MANNHEIM SCHOOL
o Conservative and progressive dynamics
o Crescendo in Italy and Germany
o Jommelli and Stamitz
PART II: CLASSICISM: THE SCRIPT BECOMES BINDING
CHAPTER 4: PHRASING AND DYNAMICS
• IMPROVISATION DISAPPERS
o Manuscripts of Haydn and Beethoven
o End of figured bass
• BACKGROUND OF PHRASING
o Articulation and part organization
o Breathing and bowing
• DYNAMICS
o The echo
o Three classes of dissonances
o Acoustic conditions
• PERFORMANCE AND PROPORTION
o Double direction
o Haydn: Esterház and London
o Haydn’s humor

CHAPTER 5: TEMPO AND METRONOME
• INITIAL TEMPO
o Was old music played more slowly than modern?
o Mozart’s presto
o Tempo modification
• MOZART AND TEMPO RUBATO
o Where to play rubato
o The Mozart correspondence
o The vocal background
o License and limits
o Melodic charm
• THE STORY OF THE METRONOME
o Metrical measurement before 1800
o Maelzel
o Beethoven’s Metronomizations
CHAPTER 6: VICTORY OF FORM
• BEETHOVEN’S PIANO PLAYING
o Legato, pedaling, and dynamics
o Restrained liberty
o Controlled rubato
• THE POETIC IDEA
o Tragic and serene vantage grounds of interpretation
o Form triumphant
o Obligato accompaniment
PART III: ROMANTICISM
CHAPTER 7: CLASSICAL ROMANTICISM
• ROMANTICISM: AN ETERNAL FEATURE OF INTERPRETATION
o The classicists romanticized
o Work fidelity
• LIED PERFORMACE
o Poetry sounds and music speaks
o Melodies interwoven
• BACK TO THE MANUSCRIPT
o Script versus print
o Fantasy behind bars
• RETURN TO THE PAST
o Bach Renaissance
o Fluent tempi
o The Parisian piano school
o Purism of interpretation
• ROMANCE AND BALANCE
o The well-defined phrase
o Chopin’s rubato
CHAPER 8: POWER AND VIRTUOSITY
• BERLIOZ
o Dream orchestra
o Lifelong campaign against arbitrariness
o Singers, orchestra players, conductor
o The interpretative duality
• VIRTUOSITY
o G string alone
o The riddle of perfection
o Génie oblige
o Freedom of meter
o The letter kills the spirit
CHAPTER 9: CORRECTIONS
• MASTERWORKS REVISED
o Corrections from above
o Corrections from below
o The question of repeats
o Piano Transcriptions, orchestrations
o Defense of the sure spirit
CHAPTER 10: OPERA
• TOWARD THE MUSIC DRAMA
o Scores tailor-made for singer
o Gluck’s reforms
o Gesamtkunstwerk before Wagner
o Theater orchestra
• WAGNER’S METHOD
o Naïve and sentimental tempo
o Against musical temperance
o Not soulless pen music
• VERDI AND ITALIAN OPERA
CHAPTER 11: BETWEEN TWO EPOCHS
• THE ABSOLUTE IDEAL
o Chamber music
o Dusting off old works
• DFIN DE SIÈCLE
o Ars Gallica
o Simplicity
• DEBUSSY
o Human tenderness
o Language of fine shades
o Charming ridicule
• END AND BEGINNINGS
o Romantic objectivity
PART IV: THE OBJECTIVE PRESENT
CHAPTER 12: HISTORICAL CORRECTNESS
• OBJECTIVE PUBLICATION
o Baroque organ reawakened
o Transcriptions
o Rescoring
o Objectivity of spirit
• OBJECTIVE PITCH
• NEW SUBJECTIVITY
o Symphony revised
o Opera revised
CHAPTER 13: THE OBJECTIVE REVOLT
• STRAVINSKY
o Sculptured in marble
o The new rhythm
o Primeval forces
o Schooling the Young interpreter
• SCHÖNBERG
o New notation
o Song speech
o Light scale
CHAPTER 14: NEW GATEAWAYS OF INTERPRETATION
• A NEW PERFORMER
o Timbre and transmission
o Timing
o Controversial attitudes
o Electrogenic scores
o Interpretation standardized
o Invisibility of audience
o Television
o Moving pictures
CHAPTER 15: THE AMERICAN SCENCE
• CRUCIBLE OF MUSIC
o Folklore
o South of the Rio Grande
o Tango: style transformation
• JAZZ: A RETURN TO IMPROVISATION
• COSMOPOLITAN TRENDS
• AMERICANISM: HUMANITY
EPILOGUE

Includes bibliographical references and index.