Historical Performance Practice
In questions of performance practice, the modern-day music business has ceased to recognise any distinction between “old” and “modern” music; they are relevant in the entire repertoire up to the beginning of the 20th century and have become a matter of course. Even the instruments used are no longer an argument for asking these questions, or not. Consequently, historical performance practice no longer concerns only “early” music, but all music of past eras. Accordingly, the curriculum at a modern higher-education music institution is constantly concerned with the subject in almost every area.
Parallel to this, the content of performance practice has changed. The practical examination on the basis of a wide variety of sources still plays a central role, but beyond this, far more comprehensive questions arise: the relationship of music to other art forms (especially at a modern university of the arts) is just as crucial as the preoccupation with the intellectual-historical background in general, the social context of an era and its political classification.
At ZHdK, an attempt is made to do justice to this thematic complexity with the widest possible range of subjects. Semester courses, ateliers, concerts, workshops and master classes are offered on changing thematic focal points in addition to the main and variant subject lessons (regardless of on modern or historical instruments).
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