ABSTRACT
Western art music has long escaped the present and performed music of the past. This retrospective tendency can be traced to the early 18th century and found expression at the turn of the 20th century as Early Music Revival. During the 1960s, early music performance emerged as a distinct movement and marketable entity and has gone on to find a place within the classical music industry and exert a lasting influence on mainstream performing practices. Known variously as Early Music, period performance, and more recently Historically Informed Performance (HIP) or historical performance practice, it is founded on a principle of historical fidelity with the central aim of reconstructing as closely as possible original performance practices. Historical performance is arguably history brought to life, enlivened by sound.
