Quote:
Originally Posted by Hags888  Jumping in a little late, but here are my thoughts.
The thing with music before the era of recording technology is, we simply don't know what it really sounded like, period. We can play the old period instruments now, and read the treatises about what music sounded like back then, and get an idea of what it *probably* sounded like. But at the end of the day NOBODY really knows exactly what it *should* sound like. We just have pretty good guesses.
Compare that to the music of Copland, Stravinksy, Count Basie, or anyone from the last 100 years. We have recordings of this music either by the composers themselves or conducted by the composers themselves. We can pinpoint exactly the sound and style we should be getting with the music, because the sound and style has been precisely preserved with recording technology. Even the music of the 19th century was only a few generations removed in the recordings of the early 20th century. If you throw period music into the mix, it doesn't have a chance. People expect "correct" style and interpretation with Early Music, but it just isn't possible.
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And even recordings can't be completly dependable for things like tempos. Listen to some of the Clarke recordings, as fasinating as they are as a document of how Clarke played, he is limited by the technology (3 minute sides) so in my opnion some of the tempos are fast to the point of unmusical, but i write that off as having to try to fit a 5 minute solo on a 3 minute side with as little cutting as possible.