Recent years have seen a major shift in the meaning of the term “early music”: up until a few years ago, it essentially denoted music composed before the Vienna Classical period, but the concept of historically informed performance practice has now expanded to include repertoire up to the end of the nineteenth century. Rather than simply referring to the performance of “early music” on period instruments, the concept now addresses fundamental questions of musical interpretation in terms of performance practice, whether on historical or modern instruments.
Consequently, the study of performance practice at a modern university of music is no longer confined to tuition on “historic” instruments as a major or minor subject, although this obviously plays a part. In all its facets, historically informed performance practice now constitutes an important part of all concert schedules and so has become a normal part of musical training.
This is the declared objective of “Historically Informed Performance Practice” at ZHdK. The aim is to increase students’ awareness of the question of performance practice in all areas of modern university activities by using a variety of event formats. This fundamental problem in any kind of music-making needs to be addressed from both the theoretical and the practical point of view. Theoretical work in lectures and study groups is no less important than practical master classes, workshops, ateliers and concerts. It is, of course, a question not only of actual musical activity but also of studying the intellectual background and identifying areas of common ground with the other art forms.
In addition to lecturers from the ZHdK, internationally renowned greats in the field of historical performance practice are invited for the various events: Midori Seiler, Charles Toet, Jed Wentz, Robert Toft, Dagmar Glüxam, Christine Schornsheim, Xenia Löffler, Laurenz Lütteken, Pierre Goy, Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen, Gudrun Skamletz, Rachel Brown, Katharina Arfken, Anselm Gerhard and many more.
Every academic year, the Historical Performance Practice devotes itself to a new focus of work with a current reference. In recent years, these have been topics such as "Louis XIV - King and Artist", "500 Years of Reformation - Language and Music", "Sapere aude! - Germany and the Enlightenment" and "Paths to Romanticism".