The historical and more recent source materials for study in Romantic-era performance practice are vast. Below are a selection of significant resources for performance and academic study in the playing styles of the 19th and early 20th centuries, including books, early sound recordings, recent recording projects, major recording repositories and online materials.
For any addition requests or to this list, feel free to email us at contactamericanromantics@gmail.com.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Tempo Rubato (first published in "Success in Music and How it is Won," 1909)
(Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909) | Link here.
Mathis Lussy: Traité de l'expression musicale
(Paris: Heugel, 1874) | Link here.
Joseph Joachim: Violinschule
(Berlin: N. Simrock, 1904) | Link here.
Leopold Auer: Violin Playing as I Teach It
(New York: Frederick Strokes Company, 1921) | Link here.
Alberto Bachmann: An Encyclopedia of the Violin
(New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1929) | Link here.
Richard Wagner: On Conducting/Üeber das Dirigiren
(Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik/New-Yorker Musik-zeitung, 1869) | Link here.
Collection of Historical Annotated String Editions, University of Huddersfield
Brahms: Symphony No. 1, Allegro Non Troppo
Berliner Philharmoniker, Max Fiedler (conductor)
1931 | Link here.
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor
Eddy Brown, violin | Orchestra of the Staatsoper Berlin, Frieder Weissmann (conductor)
1924 | Link here.
Wagner: Vorspiel zu "Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg"
Grosses Odeon-Streich-Orchester, conductor unlisted
1911 | Link here.
Mahler: Symphony No. 5, Adagietto
Concertgebouw Orchestra, Willem Mengelberg (conductor
1926 | Link here.
Robert Philip: Early Recordings and Musical Style
(Cambridge University Press, 1992) | Link here.
Clive Brown: Classical and Romantic performing practice, 1750-1900
(Oxford University Press, 1999) | Link here.
Neal Peres da Costa: Off the Record - Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing
(Oxford University Press, 2012) | Link here.
Robert Philip: Performing Music in the Age of Recording
(Yale University Press, 2004) | Link here.
Daniel Leech-Wilkinson: The Changing Sound of Music
Approaches to Studying Recorded Musical Performances
(Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (CHARM), 2009) | Link here.
Anna Scott: Romanticizing Brahms - Early Recordings and the Reconstruction of Brahmsian Identity
(Orpheus Institute, 2014) | Link here.
Lost Voices: The Aesthetics and Practices of Romantic-Era Choral Performance
Mark Bailey (Jacobs School of Music: Historical Performance:
Theory, Practice, and Interdisciplinarity, 2017)
Presentation link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dibLbpyKaQw
Recreating early 19th-century style in a 21st-century marketplace:
An orchestral violinist's perspective
Clare Holden (IMR Seminar, 2012)
Link here.
Yale Collection of Historical Sound Recordings
Yale University
Mark Bailey, head/director
https://web.library.yale.edu/music/hsr
UCSB Cylinder Archive
University of California, Santa Barbara
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/
Stanford University Archive of Recorded Sound
https://library.stanford.edu/libraries/ars/about
Rodgers and Hammerstein Archive of Recorded Sound
New York Public Library
https://www.nypl.org/about/divisions/rodgers-and-hammerstein-archives-recorded-sound
AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (CHARM)
King's College, London
https://charm.rhul.ac.uk/index.html
Russian-Records
Studying Performance Practice Through Sound Recordings
Yale Collection of Historical Sound Recordings
Kevin Sherwin, contributing author
https://guides.library.yale.edu/hsrperformancepractice
The Brahms Lab, Kate Bennett Wadsworth
https://www.facebook.com/brahmslab/
Historical Romanticism (Playlist), Kate Bennett Wadsworth
Link here.
Transforming 19th-Century HIP, University of Oxford
Link here.
(Re)constructing Early Recordings, Inja Stanovic
Mahler, Gustav: Symphony No. 4 / Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen
Smithsonian Chamber Players and Santa Fe Pro Musica, Kenneth Slowik (conductor)
(Dorian Recordings, 2003) | Link here.
Brahms: Clarinet Sonatas and Trio
Marie Ross, clarinet; Petra Somlai, piano; Claire-Lise Démettre, cello
(Centaur Recordings, 2019) | Link here.
Johannes Brahms: Sonatas for Cello and Piano, Op. 38 and Op. 99
Kate Bennett Wadsworth, cello | Yi-heng Yang, piano
(Deux-Elles, 2018) | Link here.
Johannes Brahms: Violin Sonatas
Leila Schayegh, violin | Jan Schultsz, piano
(Glossa, 2018) | Link here.
Chasing the Butterfly: Recreating Greig's 1903 Recordings and Beyond...
Sigurd Slåttebrekk, piano
Tony Harrison, creative director | Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Michail Jurowski (conductor)
(Simax Classics, 2011) | Project website here.
The Romantics: Grieg, Mendelssohn, Paganini
Australian Brandenburg Orchestra | Shunske Sato, violin and guest director
(ABC Classics, 2017) | Link here.
Brahms: Tones of Romantic Extravagance - Piano Quartet No. 1 | Piano Quintet
Ironwood
(ABC Classics, 2016) | Link here.