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In the Forum: Musical Discussions
In the Thread: Tools, Materials and Personnel
Post Subject: Improv into the 19th centuryPosted by rowuk on: 7/19/2026
I think that we have to be careful about assumptions. Even back as far as Bach, he had relatively strict rules for imbellishment, but they had notation for it and there were treatises on what exactly to do. So this is much different than the Rennaisance and early baroque freedom. I know of no Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven compositions with "artistic license". In Bach`s cantata works, the cornetto does appear a couple of time - with little room for improvisation - if there even were cornettists that still could master those earlier skills - nobody was teaching it. By the time the late baroque was over, composers were writing exactly what they meant but there was often space for cadenzas.
I have performed with these "Historically Informed Practice" ensembles and even although they use historic instruments, for classical and romantic music, they are not improvising anything. Dynamics and articulation are generally dealt with in a more "gentle" way. This changed dramatically with symphony and operatic form in the post baroque period.
Maybe we need program suggestions to cover certain interests. We have learned so much in the last 70 years.
Anybody looking for some really fun Bach cantata interpretation, check out this: https://bachstiftung.ch/
It is simply dazzling. Their Youtube channel has hundreds of hours of free examples. https://www.youtube.com/@BachstiftungRerurn to Romy the Cat's Site