Apr 29, 2021
I’m delighted to introduce my guest today, Professor Massimiliano Guido, he is an expert in the fields of historical performance practice and improvisation. He is the editor of the book "Studies in Historical Improvisation: From Cantare Super Librum to Partimento" and he is going to talk to me today about a wide range of topics including counterpoint, partimento, music theory, music history, and much more!
0:43 What is your background?
2:46 Did you improvise at the beginning?
6:06 Did you learn any theory on the way to being a performer?
7:36 When did you switch to more historically informed methods?
9:01 What was the theoretical basis to Professor Bellotti’s
approach?
10:51 Girolamo Diruta
15:04 Claudio Merulo
18:46 How did think about keys, modes and tonality back then?
23:17 Is it fixed that certain modes fit to certain points in the
Catholic Mass?
28:20 The massive amount of melodies in the Liber Usualis
29:46 What is a vesper?
30:48 What do you mean by Seicento?
33:17 How have these older, historical methods of counterpoint
instructed affected your students?
38:20 How difficult did the counterpoint go in terms of
singing?
39:40 What skills do you get out of learning these older methods
that can be applied to today?
41:48 H.A.B. Crawford’s trenchant quote
44:23 How would free composition been taught historically?
48:26 What are steps someone should take toward learning to
improvise canons and fugues?
52:34 Do I have to know the terms like Tenorizans and
Cantizans?
53:24 Bernardo Pasquini
54:22 What do you mean by Frescobaldi pushing the system to it’s
limits
57:41 William Porter
1:00:34 Giorgio Sanguinetti and Partimento
1:02:17 Do these traditional methods stem out of the Catholic
Church rather than Nationalism?
1:04:26 How did the Reformation and Counter-reformation affect the
music of the period?
1:08:23 Who are your favorite composers for keyboard and organ from
the late Renaissance?
1:12:25 Are there any composers that have been unjustly ignored but
should be really known better?
1:16:41 Who are some historically informed performers that you
like?
1:19:36 What tuning and temperaments do you feel are appropriate
for the late Renaissance?
1:22:17 What do you make of Tonal Harmony, Chordal invertibility,
Roman Numerals and function theory?
1:26:10 Future Projects
1:27:59 Wrapping Up