Historical Performance and New Music (Studies in Contemporary Music and Culture)

The worlds of new music and historically informed performance might seem quite distant from one another. Yet, upon closer consideration, clear points of convergence emerge. Not only do many contemporary performers move easily between these two worlds, but they often do so using a shared ethos of flexibility, improvisation, curiosity, and collaboration―collaboration with composers past and present, with other performers, and with audiences.

Bringing together expert scholars and performers considering a wide range of issues and case studies, Historical Performance and New Music―the first book of its kind―addresses the synergies in aesthetics and practices in historical performance and new music. The essays treat matters including technologies and media such as laptops, printing presses, and graphic notation; new music written for period instruments from natural horns to the clavichord; personalities such as the pioneering singer Cathy Berberian; the musically “omnivorous” ensembles A Far Cry and Roomful of Teeth; and composers Luciano Berio, David Lang, Molly Herron, Caroline Shaw, and many others.

Historical Performance and New Music presents pathbreaking ideas in an accessible style that speaks to performers, composers, scholars, and music lovers alike. Richly documented and diverse in its methods and subject matter, this book will open new conversations about contemporary musical life.

Rebecca Cypess, musicologist and historical keyboardist, is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. Her publications include Women and Musical Salons in the Enlightenment (2022) and Curious and Modern Inventions: Instrumental Music as Discovery in Galileo’s Italy (2016).

Estelí Gomez is Assistant Professor of Voice at Lawrence University. Praised for her “clear, bright voice” (New York Times), she is a founding member of the Grammy-award-winning vocal octet Roomful of Teeth and a specialist in both early and new repertoires. Gomez holds degrees from Yale and McGill.

Rachael Lansang serves as Assistant Director of Academic Affairs at the Mannes School of Music. She holds a Ph.D. in Musicology from Rutgers University, and her research interests include vocal pedagogy, music and gender studies, and contemporary opera and musical theater.