| The French prelude non mesure was an obscure subject in modern musicological literature until the latter half of the 1900s. Some aspects of it still remain ambiguous, especially in respect to performance practice, due to the lack of seventeenth-century treatises. The apparent problem is that the notation of the preludes non mesures is unmeasured, devoid of any time signature and rhythmic implication defined by regular music notation. It is a type of improvisation, yet the symbols and the context of notes denote specific information.;This thesis examines the evolution of the performance practice of Louis Couperin's preludes non mesures during the latter half of the twentieth century. It will examine recorded performances, recently published facsimiles and modern editions of prelude non mesure scores, and descriptions of the scholarly literature on performance practice. The main focus of the thesis is on a comparative analysis of published statements about performance practice from Davitt Moroney and Colin Tilney, with recorded performances by Ruggero Gerlin and Blandine Verlet, both representatives of the performance school of Wanda Landowska; these clarify the twentieth-century interpretation of slurs and notes as well as identify the two contrasting phases of the modern performance practice of preludes non mesures, one that reflects the ideas suggested by Moroney and Tilney and the other that does not. |
