Academic literature on the topic 'Performance practice (Music) – History – 17th century'

ABSTRACT By the turn of the 18th century serenatas performed in Rome's urban squares as political or dynastic propaganda were a well-established ritual. In this public forum the effect of sound produced by large instrumental forces was a central feature, yet the serenata was a complex performance in which music was but one element in a series of other displays. Though undoubtedly an important part of the serenata, music's role in this multifaceted performance and its effect on audiences remain unclear. Part of that ambiguity stems from the serenata's ability to service both public and private consumption. Patrons exploited this dual nature, using the more spectacular elements of the serenata to influence the public at large, while also relying on other elements (primarily word and sound) to sway elite audiences. In the context of Rome and its dynastic politics, Giacomo Buonaccorsi's and Pietro Paolo Bencini's serenata Le gare festive in applauso alla Real Casa di Francia (1704) demonstrates how the serenata's dichotomous structures and multiplicity of meaning were deeply linked to larger cultural frameworks and social tensions——in this case, brewing over the War of Spanish Succession. The serenata was both a musical work and a performed event effectively shaped by the genre's ritual practice and by history and politics in late 17th- and early 18th-century Rome. The logic of the serenata's ritual practice shows significant correspondences to the genre's narrative strategies. Within the serenata, allegory served as the catalyst to express layers of meaning to diverse audiences. But more than that, allegory provided the means by which music was contained and its delivery marked. For public audiences, sound was as much visual as it was aural, an immediate and palpable special effect. For privileged listeners, music required reflection as to how spectacular effects acquired deeper meaning when anchored in the significance of the poetic text. Thus music in the serenata was not merely an element in a multifaceted performance but was multidimensional in itself, uniquely straddling both sides of the public/private divide.

Background. The article deals with the interaction of the constructive evolution of the instrument and the development of bassoon performing of the 16–17 centuries. The aesthetics of that time was associated with the search for new expressive means, realization of which could be ensured by new instruments with rich and expressive sound. One of such instruments is bassoon; it was during the Baroque era when the bassoon took its shape and the sound image we know today. Thanks to technical evolution, the instrument acquired new artistic capabilities and new sound quality. A new repertoire was formed; bassoon became the part of such instrumental genres as sonata and concerto, it was firmly fixed in the score of the symphony orchestra. In music science, there are a number of studies devoted to wind instruments, the most significant of which are researches by G. Abadzhyan, V. Apatskiy L. Belenov, V. Berezin, V. Bohdanov, N. Volkov, V. Gromchenko, Yu. Dolzhikov, V. Kachmarchyk, V. Lebedev, V. Popov, I. Pushechnikov, Yu. Usov, and A. Kiziliayev. There are works, which focus on the bassoon, its history, expressive and technical capabilities (G. Abadzhyan, V. Apatskiy, V. Bubnovich, N. Karaulovsky, S. Levin, V. Leonov, V. Popov, V. Starko, Anthony Baines). It is worth noting the rather important and comprehensive work by V. Apatskiy “Bassoon from A to Z”. There are numerous scientific publications of international woodwind performers associations, such as the International Double Reed Society, the Australian double reed community, the British double reed community, the Japan bassoon society, the Finnish double reed community. The purpose of the article is to reveal the specifics of the relationship between the structural improvements of the bassoon and the performance on the bassoon in the period of 16–17 centuries. Achieving this goal will help to perform tasks such as a historical overview of the development of the bassoon in the Baroque era and identify the relationship between constructive changes, artistic possibilities, repertoire potential (including the genre palette of the instrument) and composer work for the bassoon of this period. The presented article is a material used in the candidate’s dissertation, which is devoted to a wide range of issues of performance on the bassoon from the origins to the present. Methodology. The main research methods are historical, organological and performing. The historical method is associated with the characterization of the historical conditions of origin and development of the bassoon; the organological method is necessary to establish the connection between the constructive changes of the instrument with the new quality of its sound; the performing method helps to reveal new tendencies in bassoon performance of the 16–17 centuries from the new repertoire to the functional purpose of the instrument. Research results. Around the middle of the 17th century, fundamental changes occurred in the construction of the bassoon. They were caused by the need to regulate the overall tuning system of the instrument in such a way that it could participate in joint music-making with other instruments, as well as by the desire to make the instrument more portable. At the turn of the 16–17 centuries, in the process of bassoon chromatization as the result of complication of composer creativity, fundamental changes were made in the design of the instrument: new “chromatic” holes and valves, as well as fork fingering appeared. It was all connected with the formation of certain musical and aesthetic needs and developed along with them. So, the evolution of the bassoon 16–17 centuries led to such qualitative changes in the sound of the instrument as: softness of the tone, pitch control, expansion of the working range, great power of sound, ease of playing the instrument. The above-mentioned factors entailed fundamental changes in the composers’ attitude towards the instrument. The bassoon enters a more complex functional level in the works of various music genres (interlude to the comedy “La Pellegrina” by Girolamo Bargalia, “Sacrae symphoniae” by Giovanni Gabrieli, “Messa a 4 voci et Salmi” by C. Monteverdi, “Fantasy for basso continuo” by Bartolome deSelma-i-Salaverde, sonata “Lamonica” by PhilipFriedrich Bodekher, nine sonatas for solo bassoon and basso continuo by Giovanni Antonio Bertoli, sonata for two bassoons by Philipp Friedrich Buchner, opera “Il pomo d’oro” by Antonio Cesti, singspiel “Seelewig” by Sigmund Theophil Staden). The role of Antonio Vivaldi in the formation of the concerto, including concerto for bassoon, is difficult to overestimate, and thirty-nine Vivaldi’s concertos for bassoon are evidence of that. The creative work of Antonio Vivaldi affected Johann Sebastian Bach, who wrote bassoon parts in his works of different genres. George Philippe Telemann, Bach’s contemporary, is known for a large number of pieces with bassoon parts. Conclusions. Constructive changes resulted in the arrival of the bassoon to a new timbre, figurative-intonational, genre, and performance level. Meanwhile, there is a linear rather than reciprocal relationship between the above-mentioned levels. On the one hand, there is a direct dependence in the evolution of bassoon performance: new constructive features – technical capabilities of the instrument – more individual timbre character – new expressive possibilities – solo parts – solo pieces. On the other hand, all this creates new requirements both for the performer and for the instrument, which brings the situation back to the need for further search. The results of this research can be used in further studies devoted to the history and theory of bassoon performance in the historical, organological and genre-stylistic directions.

This essay discusses the music of the Maronite Church, a Christian church based in Lebanon. It provides an overview of the chants used in religious services and examines their transmission and performance practice. The Maronites have always faced challenges to maintain their identity and preserve their heritage while adapting to their cultural milieu. Their religious music reflects the dichotomy between safeguarding tradition and accepting contemporary trends. Since the late nineteenth century, Maronites looking for better opportunities and political freedom have increasingly immigrated to the New World, where they face new challenges to preserving their religious identity while assimilating to the culture of their new homeland. Therefore, this essay reaches beyond the traditional geographic boundaries of the Maronite Church in Lebanon to examine issues in the transmission of Maronite music in the diaspora.

A generation or so ago, scholarly discussion about the creation of new scientific knowledge in seventeenth-century England was often framed in terms of the respective contributions of scholars and practitioners, the effects of their training and background, the relative importance of the universities compared with London, and of the role of external and internal factors, and so forth. These discourses have now largely been put aside in favour of those emphasizing spatial metaphors and models, which are recognized as powerful conceptual tools for representing the dynamics of complex systems. The role that geographies play in the fostering of creativity and innovation in human systems at both the social and cognitive levels is a subject that is attracting widespread interest.

AbstractDouble-voiced singing was a popular form of variety show entertainment from the 1860s through to the 1920s. Double-voiced performers were able, through intonation and tone, to sound as though they had at least two separate and distinct “voices,” generally one soprano and one baritone. But as Claire Rochester, a double-voiced singer of the early twentieth century made clear, their act was more than just a matter of a woman singing low notes or a man singing high ones; it was all about a performer adopting the “voice” of the other sex. The unusual practice of these singers was to sing duets (and sometimes as much as quartets) to themselves and by themselves, flipping back and forth between their male to female “voices.” I place this strange form of entertainment in the context of changing attitudes to gender and sexuality and suggests that conventional interpretations of “freak” performances as “transgressive” fail to account for these vocal wonders. Double-voiced singers shunned the “transgressive” billing, especially when their own sexual identity was called into question. In making this argument, I suggest that we need to widen our understanding of “freakery,” imposture and the meaning of “nature” and “truth,” as they were revealed both on stage and off.

Technology influences all art, and therefore all music, including composition, performance and listening. It always has, and it always will. For example, technical developments in materials, mechanics and manufacturing were important factors that permitted the piano to supersede the harpsichord as the primary concert Western keyboard instrument by about 1800. And with each new technical development new performance issues have been introduced. Piano performance technique is quite different from harpsichord technique, and composers responded to these differences with new music ideas and gestures. The multiple relationships between technology and composer and performer are dynamic and of paramount importance to each party. And a true consideration of any aspect of music requires that all three areas be examined. This has always been a part of music, and so these relationships are inherently important within computer music. The difference is that electronic technology has caused a fundamental change for all aspects of music, a difference that is as pivotal in the history of Western music as was the shift from oral to written preservation of music over a thousand years ago, and then also the accessibility provided by printed music five hundred years ago. In computer music, all parties are always acutely aware of the presence and influence of machine technology in both the visual and audible realms.

Congregational song occupies a central place in the history of Methodism and offers an insight into the theological, doctrinal, cultural and educational principles and practices of the movement. The repertoire, performance styles and musical preferences in evidence across Methodism at different points in its history reflect the historical influences that shaped it, the frequent tensions that emerged between local practices and the movement's hierarchy and the disputes that led to a proliferation of breakaway groups during the nineteenth century. The focus of this article will be the implicit tension between the evidence of local practice contained within the Illingworth Moor Singers' Book, which forms part of the archives at Mount Zion Methodist Church and Heritage Centre, near Halifax, UK, and the repertoire and performance practice advocated by John Wesley in the latter part of the eighteenth century. While the study of a single, locally produced collection cannot be regarded as representative of wider practices, it is nonetheless useful in highlighting the need for a more nuanced approach to the history of Methodist music, which takes account of local circumstances and practices.

The article was based on a fragment of the author’s doctoral dissertation entitled The birth of cello as a solo instrument – instruments, practice, and selected literature examples (Academy of Music in Łódź, chapter The evolution of cello in the 17th century) and consists of two parts. The first part outlines of the evolution of cello from its birth in the 16th century to the 18th century (the text is supplemented with illustrations), whereas the second part describes the role and use of cello in music of that period. The introduction to the article includes a critical reference to the list of academic and popular science publications therein, in Polish and other languages, touching on the cello issue in the 17th and 18th centuries. The historical part touches on the circumstances of how the violin family emerged with a special attention paid to bass representatives of that group of instruments. Following a detailed analysis of preserved instruments, their reliable copies, luthier publications, illustrations and treatises from that period, the author discussed the construction of the earlies cellos. Apart from data concerning sizes and scale length of these instruments, the article includes information about their body, neck, fingerboard (with slope angle), bridge and tailpiece, materials they were made of, and types and gauge of strings used at that time. It also describes cello tuning methods. Moreover, the author mentions different types of cello (piccolo, da spalla, basse de violon) and different ways of how it was held. A separate issue are the bows, especially types of bows, their evolution and ways of holding. This part of the article is concluded with a list of different names of bass variants of the violin used in the 16th and 17th centuries before the name cello/violoncello finally settled. The second part of the article elaborates on the most important functions of cello: as a consort instrument, a universal continuo instrument or a solo instrument. Cello (along with viola da gamba or dulcian/bassoon) managed especially well as a melodic instrument co-rendering the continuo parts, and the result was that the basso continuo became the most important domain of cello in the Baroque, having a significant influence on the shape of playing technique and performance practice of that instrument. As one of melodic bass instruments, cello performed an important role in shaping the concertante style, along with the violin, shawm/oboe, cornet or flute. It was that practice combined with the improvisation practice developed simultaneously (which also influenced the development of the instrument itself) that the idea to write first autonomous compositions for the cello (solo, chamber or with basso continuo) emerged from at the end of the 17th century. Continuation of this article, which shall be devoted to Baroque works for the cello and their composers, will be published in the following issue of “Notes Muzyczny”.

The intent of this study is twofold: first, to explore the dramatic and musical functions of chorus in baroque operas in Italy, France, and England; second, to identify choral excerpts from baroque operas suitable for present-day concert performance. Musical and dramatic functions of chorus in baroque opera are identified. Following a brief historical overview of the use of chorus in the development of Italian, French, and English baroque opera, representative choruses are selected for analysis and comparison. Examples are presented to demonstrate characteristic musical use of chorus in baroque opera; characteristic dramatic use of chorus in baroque opera; or, the suitability of a chorus for use as concert repertoire. Musical examples are drawn from a twenty-five year period in the late seventeenth century, 1667-1692, as represented in Italy by Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Sartorio, and Antonio Cesti; in France by Jean-Baptiste Lully; and in England by Henry Purcell. The results of this study indicate that there are numerous choruses appropriate for concert performance to be found in the English baroque opera repertoire, the semi-operas of Henry Purcell in particular; there are some suitable examples to be found in French baroque operas, although frequently choruses by Lully are harmonically simpler than those by Purcell; and, there are choruses available for extraction from early Italian operas such as those by Monteverdi, but very few to be found in late seventeenth century Italian operas. The document concludes with an appendix of selected baroque opera choruses considered appropriate for concert performance. The appendix includes only those choruses considered to be harmonically, melodically, and textually autonomous, and of sufficient length to be free-standing. Selections chosen for the appendix are drawn from a wider range of composers and a broader time span than those discussed in the body of the paper. Information contained in the appendix includes composer, opera title, date, act and scene, chorus title, voicing, source, and editorial remarks.

This study aims to provide a critique of Baroque performance practice, with specific reference to the organ Preludes and Fugues of Johann Sebastian Bach. Drawing from the extensive body of literature pertaining to Bach’s keyboard music, a number of relevant issues are explored in so far as these may provide understanding of the manner in which the organ Preludes and Fugues should be performed today. These include: • The notion of Bach’s ‘generic’ keyboard works. Were the generic keyboard works as a whole intended to be performed on more than one keyboard instrument? The instrumental designations given by Bach in these works are a valuable source of information in answering this question. • The type of organ that was known to J.S. Bach and typical registration used in the Baroque, called the plenum. • Identification of the grey area that persists in the interpretation of Bach’s organ works with regard to registration, tempo, rhythm, articulation, phrasing, fingering and ornamentation. This study also engages with the current authenticity debate in musical performance as seen from the modernist and postmodernist points of view. The modernist ideal of authenticity is to “re-create” or “reconstruct” performances of Bach’s music with as much accuracy as the evidence of historical musicologists can provide. For the postmodernist, however, authenticity lies in embracing the human element of contingency in musical performance, along with a thorough grounding of such performance in historical evidence. In aligning itself with the postmodernist point of view, this study ultimately argues that we cannot learn everything there is to know about Baroque performance practice from books. Instead, in addition to historical evidence, we draw much of our understanding in this regard from our innate or tacit levels of knowing. In this regard the scholar of Bach’s organ works can draw valuable lessons from the levels of tacit knowledge of leading organ pedagogues and performers on the subject of Baroque performance practice.

English publisher John Playford (1623-1686/1687) first published his "The Division Violin: Containing a Collection of Divisions Upon Several Grounds for the Treble-Violin" in 1684. The first edition of this violin collection contains 26 written-out examples of improvisation, serving as a living snapshot of the performance practice of the time. This research is based on the second edition, which Playford had expanded into 30 pieces for the violin, published in 1685. The purpose of this study is to investigate the art of improvisation in England during the late 17th century, focusing on Playford's "The Division Violin." The dissertation first surveys the development of English violin music in the 17th century. Then, the dissertation traces eight selected 16th-century Italian diminution manuals. This will help readers understand the progression of the Italian diminution and improvisation practice in the 16th century and how it relates to the English division of the 17th century. Finally, based on a thorough research of the 17th-century improvisatory style and rhetorical approach, the author of this study provides performance suggestions on "Mr. Farinell's Ground," No. 5 from "The Division Violin."

The purpose of this study is to determine the influence of scholarly research on the orchestral performance practice of conductor Raymond Leppard.This study presents, with supporting evidence, what an international conductor does today to incorporate the results of research into the interpretation of music. From this study, the writer has presented the influence scholarly research has had on orchestral performance practice, how one of today's conductor and orchestras deal with the issues raised and how they are carried into current performances, and to what degree do musicologists influence his performance. Orchestra conductors continue to learn from performance practice research and young conductors must be encouraged to gain knowledge from this field.Three scholarly musicians, Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940), Edmund H. Fellowes (1870-1951), and Thurston Dart (1921-1971), among many others, did much to revive authentic performances of earlier music. Their critical and historical writings are based on original sources and the concept of interpretation by studying composers' original manuscripts and editions in order to better present their musical style and heritage. This developed a strong movement towards the study of incorporating authentic music research into music performance.Maestro Leppard is known particularly for his interpretations of seventeenth and eighteenth century music. He prepared the revivals of Monteverdi and Cavalli's Italian operas. Maestro Leppard has had many experiences with European and American orchestras and has made many recordings. The contents of the interview focused on (1) orchestra size and seating, (2) the authenticity of music, (3) some basic performance practice elements such as tempo, rhythm, dynamics, articulation and phrasing, ornamentation, vibrato, and portamento, (4) string bowing, (5) editions, and (6) interpretation and personal observations.
School of Music

At the end of the sixteenth century, Simone Verovio printed a series of canzonetta anthologies in Rome. These collections were unique, in that they contained keyboard and lute intabulations alongside their vocal parts. The keyboard intabulations seem primarily intended as accompanimental parts. As such, they inform us about the use of keyboard instruments in ensembles of mixed voices and instruments. This thesis examines how the printing format of Verovio's keyboard intabulations arose from a larger context. In particular, it asks what were the skills and training of amateur keyboard players (often women), when or when not to transpose pieces with chiavette (or high clefs), and how instrumental embellishments relate to the canzonetta's text as well as musical texture. This examination contributes to a better understanding of Italian sixteenth-century performance practice, especially of the ways in which instruments were used along with voices in domestic music making.

This paper is an examination of the battle chansons of Clement Janequin for references to Renaissance trumpet music. The following issues are addressed: dating the early use of the clarino register; the history and evolution of the courtly trumpet ensemble; and the transition from the shorter trumpet of the Middle Ages to the longer instrument of the middle Renaissance and Baroque eras. Because the earliest Janequin battle chanson predates all known written trumpet sources by over fifty years, musical evidence gleaned from these battle chansons can help to establish the existence and character of trumpet performance practices in the first third of the sixteenth century. The first chapter summarizes all of the known primary sources of information on Renaissance trumpet performance, and identifies important issues worthy of further investigation. The second chapter examines trumpet music and trumpet style in the Renaissance, including trumpet ensemble performance, military trumpet calls, and the imitation of trumpet style in purely vocal music, and contains eight musical examples. The third chapter discusses the battle chansons of Janequin and their influence on other sixteenth-century works. Chapter £our analyzes the battle works of Janequin for allusions to trumpet music and includes eleven musical examples. The fifth and concluding chapter places the musical allusions into the context of trumpet history. The musical references pointed out in these chansons provide the first musical evidence that trumpeters in the early sixteenth century were performing in the clarino register. Clear references to unequal articulation, military calls, characteristic: trumpet rhythms, and to the music of the courtly trumpet ensemble are demonstrated. The chansons also provide evidence of the simultaneous use of trumpets in at least two different keys, probably for two different styles of playing.

During the 1950s the experience of recording was transformed by a series of technical innovations including tape recording, editing, the LP record, and stereo sound. Within a decade recording had evolved into an art form in which multiple takes and editing were essential components in the creation of an illusory ideal performance. The British recording industry was at the forefront of development, and the rapid growth in recording activity throughout the 1950s as companies built catalogues of LP records, at first in mono but later in stereo, had a profound impact on the music profession in Britain. Despite this, there are few documented accounts of working practices, or of the experiences of those involved in recording at this time, and the subject has received sparse coverage in academic publications. This thesis studies the development of the recording of classical music in Britain in the long 1950s, the core period under discussion being 1948 to 1964. It begins by considering the current literature on recording, the cultural history of the period in relation to classical music, and the development of recording in the 1950s. Oral history informs the central part of the thesis, based on the analysis of 89 interviews with musicians, producers, engineers and others involved in recording during the 1950s and 1960s. The thesis concludes with five case studies, four of significant recordings - Tristan und Isolde (1952), Peter Grimes (1958), Elektra (1966-67), and Scheherazade (1964) - and one of a television programme, The Anatomy of a Record (1975), examining aspects of the recording process. The thesis reveals the ways in which musicians, producers, and engineers responded to the challenges and opportunities created by advances in technology, changing attitudes towards the aesthetics of performance on record, and the evolving nature of practices and relationships in the studio. It also highlights the wider impact of recording on musical practice and its central role in helping to raise standards of musical performance, develop audiences for classical music, and expand the repertoire in concert and on record.

The Buxheim Organ Book, the largest fifteenth-century manuscript of keyboard tablature, has never before been examined as a whole in light of musica ficta issues, although it contains far more accidentals than any contemporaneous source in mensural notation. Although tablature has been used by various scholars to examine accidentals in sixteenth-century music, studies of fifteenth-century accidentals have focussed on theoretical evidence and small groups of pieces from mensural sources. The author uses the Buxheim Organ Book to extend the investigations of accidentals in tablature back into the fifteenth century, combining the large data set provided by this manuscript with a statistical approach modelled on that of Thomas Brothers's smaller-scale study of the chansons of Binchois. Specialised computer programs are introduced, which detect musical structures relevant to the analysis of Renaissance music such as different types of cadential voice leading. These programs function as extensions to David Huron's Humdrum Toolkit. With these tools, signing practises in the intabulations are statistically compared with all of the concordances of the models. Conclusions are suggested pertaining to issues of signature accidental transmission, partial signatures, mode, and musica ficta, which can be used as a contextual backdrop for the analysis of individual pieces. The evidence provided by the accidentals in Buxheim and its concordances draws a clear picture of how a group of fifteenth-century musicians added accidentals to polyphonic music. For the first time, this study provides us with principles and guidelines for musica ficta -decisions based on actual practice.

By considering sixteenth-century English chorister training, modern singers of Renaissance vocal music are informed of the practical and academic demands unique to Elizabethan musicians and audiences. Clauses in relevant choirmaster contracts provide an insight into pedagogical expectations of teachers and their choristers. Studies included plainchant, grammar, Latin, rhetoric, improvisation, poetry, morality, instrumental instruction on organ and viols, and composition. For those not associated with cathedrals and collegiate chapels, Thomas Morley outlined the educational sequence of his teacher's generation in his 1597 publication, "A plaine and easie introduction to practicall musicke." Morley presented education as discourse between students and teacher, and covered the fundamentals of singing, improvisation, and composition. With the digitization of and online access to Renaissance performing sources, present-day performers can readily examine the design of sixteenth-century manuscript and printed partbooks. Performance practice recommendations can be gleaned from the physical nature of the music that once equipped the Renaissance chorister with the visual means necessary for expression. Combined with principles of chorister training, this project suggests learned choices in pronunciation, tone, intonation, phrasing, pitch, text underlay, musica ficta, rhetoric, and expression for the prima pars of William Byrd's middle period motet, "Tristitia et anxietas." With the digitization of and online access to Renaissance performing sources, present-day performers can readily examine the design of sixteenth-century manuscript and printed partbooks. Performance practice recommendations can be gleaned from the physical nature of the music that once equipped the Renaissance chorister with the visual means necessary for expression. Combined with principles of chorister training, this project suggests learned choices in pronunciation, tone, intonation, phrasing, pitch, text underlay, musica ficta, rhetoric, and expression for the prima pars of William Byrd's middle period motet, "Tristitia et anxietas."

Traditionally, art history divided the arts into four genres: painting and sculpture, poetry and music. Hence the art-historical canon was dominated by a strict division into the arts of space and those of time. Movement (both of an internal and externalized kind) did not find a place within this classificatory corset. In 1766, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing framed the classical art-theoretical approach through his famous text ‚Laocoon: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry‘, in which he splits the arts into those unfolding in time and those unfolding in space. Lessing’s ‚Laocoon‘ is the founding text defining poetry and music as time-based, sculpture and painting as space-orientated. By 1900, this strict system of classification and hierarchization began to dissolve, giving way to cross-border experiments in the arts of the twentieth century up to the present day. This overturning of classical genre divisions between the static and the dynamic arts, between sculpture, installation, and performance enables us to examine artworks as variations of movement in terms of ‚constellations between scene and scenario‘. Furthermore, the development of movement as an artform implies the activation of the audience in participatory arts practice.

This chapter documents the prehistory of drum kit performance practice and the invention of the trap drummer’s outfit. First, it examines the impact of the transatlantic slave trade on American musical culture. Second, it explores the history of the snare drum, bass drum, and cymbals, and how they come together in ensemble performance. Third, it discusses the emergence of highbrow and lowbrow culture and the consequences for the status of drummers. Fourth, it discusses the types of music that a drummer was likely to play working in nineteenth-century USA. Fifth, it examines the tinkerers, inventors, and entrepreneurs who developed the key components of the early drum kit, known in its time as the ‘trap drummer’s outfit’.