Annotated Scores

Richard Wagner’s essay ‘On Conducting’ was written in 1869, the result of almost forty years of experience as a conductor.

Factsheet

  • Schools involved Bern Academy of the Arts
  • Institute(s) Institute Interpretation
  • Research unit(s) Performance and interpretation
  • Funding organisation SNSF
  • Duration 01.09.2015 - 31.08.2019
  • Head of project Dr. Christopher Walton
  • Project staff Christoph Moor
  • Partner Hochschule für Musik Basel
    Royal Academy of Music
    Universität Bern

Situation

His approach to interpreting the Classical and early Romantic orchestral repertoire remained a paragon for the next generations of conductors. More than any other conductor of the 19th century, Wagner exerted a major influence on his successors. Wagner initiated a conducting tradition in the German-speaking world, and for this reason, this research project into the interpretation of orchestral music in the 19th and 20th centuries begins with him. It ends in the 1960s with the rise of historically informed performance practice. This project will thus cover the period roughly from 1850 to 1970.