Article: Nineteenth-Century Pianists and Baroque Music

David ROWLAND

Professor, The Open University, UK

Abstract

Throughout the late eighteenth century and early decades of the nineteenth publishers around Europe brought out editions of music by early keyboard composers. Bach's music was particularly popular, especially after the publication of his '48' in a number of countries just after 1800. Handel's and Scarlatti's music also featured, in dedicated editions as well as in keyboard tutors. French music, on the other hand, is only very occasionally found in editions of the period.

How did musicians approach music that was originally conceived for the harpsichord? Some editors were surprisingly faithful to the original sources while others exercised a great deal of licence. Performers seem to have been similarly divided. This paper will examine the relative popularity of early keyboard composers as well as the evidence for the style of performance of their music in the first half of the nineteenth century.