Reddit reviews TEXT & ACT

We have evidence, but a lot of guesswork and experimentation has been performed. Yes, we have the evidence xiaopb lists, but we also have to figure out what to make of it.

Performance practice is a complex thing to discuss... If you want to do some reading, these are good places to start:

• The End of Early Music: A Period Performer's History of Music for the Twenty-First Century. Great book by one of the guys who was part of the authentic performance revolution in the 60s.
  
  
• Early Music: A Very Short Introduction. A short book on the history of the "authentic performance" movement.
  
  
• Authenticities: Philosophical Reflections on Musical Performance. What exactly is "authentic"? Is it achievable? Is authentic performance a fad, just fashionable nonesense? Are we really listening to "what Bach intended"? Very nice book.
  
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• Text and Act: Essays on Music and Performance. Written by a very well read man, who is not afraid to share his opinions, and who has a particular way to write. Consider these two ideas: 1) historical performance is not very historical, it's modernist thinking 2) Performance is about actions and not about texts. What now?
  

I don't know much about Nigel Kennedy, but the idea that the 'cult of authenticity' is ruining classical music has also been made extensively by musicologist Richard Taruskin in the book Text and Act, among other places. Taruskin makes some good arguments, I think, albeit in a polemical manner.