Just my small inexperienced opinion. The group that I do historical
reenactment with has a basic premise of "learn history by doing" which
you do at whatever level you can presently achieve. For me as a
player/performer it is like peeling an onion. I'm going to start where
I can, with my modern ears and modern instrument skills, and work
backwards, seeking greater levels of authenticity as the awareness of
these elements and my technical ability to achieve them develops. And
as I grow in skill, I will seek out more authentic opportunities to
play for others. My big advantage is that I have the support of my
organization in helping to create these opportunities to play in
quasi-authentic surroundings. And even people committed to authenticity
to try to listen with ears that will try to imagine how it might have
been heard back in the day. My pursuit of a historical sound is couched
in there somewhere. Truly one can go insane trying to account for every
aspect of a historically authentic practice and demonstration --and not
just in music, I've seen it in art and costume and other things. I've
seen people of many different historical disciplines get burnt out by
the endless seeking after the most historical demonstration. I chase
the historical authenticity out of curiosity fueled by passion for the
instrument. At the end of the day, I'm still playing through my
passion, toward historical authenticity or not. If I lose the passion,
it's hard to play for any reason. So I protect the passion at all
costs. If it leads me toward historical authenticity then I explore
that. If it leads me back towards modern music, I'll go there, too.
Halle
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