Concepts of Early Music Re-creation in Wanda Landowska’s Work
Authors: Kodenko I.I. 
Published: December 2019

Background. The XIX century presented the world with many wonderful musicians, among them there is Wanda Landowska (1879–1959), a researcher of the musical culture of the past. She is considered as one of the founders of the authentic movement in academic musical art, a representative of the first generation of “historical performers” who returned long-forgotten ancient music to their contemporaries. Landowska’s creativity, whose concerts with historical programs in the early XX century enjoyed extreme popularity, was covered in the press of that time, and, after, in special literature, although, given the world fame of the artist, clearly not enough. The name of W. Landowska is mentioned in passing by her contemporary A. Schweitzer in his famous monograph “J. S. Bach” (Schweitzer, 1965, transl. from German Ya. Druskin, p. 259); the review articles by famous Russian musicians and scientists A. V. Ossovsky (1971) and A. Maikapar (1991) are devoted to her. However, the fundamental studies of all aspects of W. Landowska’s activity are still lacking both in foreign and in domestic musicology. Ukrainian scientists have already taken certain steps in the study of the work of an outstanding Polish artist. G. Kurkovsky (1983) highlights the performances of a harpsichordist in Kiev, analyzing her repertoire. As a participant in concerts of the Imperial Russian Music Society, between 1907 and 1911 W. Landowska performed with constant success in Ukraine, not only in Kiev, but also in Odessa and Kharkiv. The researches by N. Svyrydenko, which appeared in the last decade (2010a, 2010b, 2017), gives a due assessment of the activity of the outstanding Polish musician in promoting ancient music. However, in general, in publications devoted to the artist, an analysis of the features of her performing style was not given enough attention, as well as her research works and notes. Objectives. This article aims to identify features of the concepts of W. Landowska regarding the performance of ancient music. The research material was, first of all, the notes of the outstanding harpsichordist collected by her student D. Restout; Russian translation by A. Maikapar (Landowska, W., 1991). The results of the study. Landowska is one of the firsts who was involved in the formation of the phenomenon of “early music”. She draws attention to the fact that few of her contemporaries carefully studied the music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque. Meanwhile, the musical practice of these eras lays the foundation for the formation of styles and Viennese classicism, and Romanticism, and new music. Working on the interpretation of ancient works, Landowska, first of all, proceeded from the historical context of the era and the general musical meaning. She emphasized the importance of playing music on the instruments of the exact era for which they were written. In her works, Landowska focused on the problems of reproducing ancient music on the harpsichord, namely, on such performance parameters as tempo, dynamics, registration, phrasing, ornamentation. In particular, Landowska presents and parses the tables of F. Couperin, J. Ph. Rameau and J. S. Bach with decipherments of ornamentations, touching in this connection also to issues of improvisation. Landowska laid the foundations of historically informed performing, emphasizing the need for musicians to study the treatises of Р. F. Tosi-J. F.Agricola, J.J. Quantz, F. Couperin, J. Ph. Rameau, L. Mozart, G. Frescobaldi, F. W. Marpurg, С. Ph. E. Bach. Relying on the old treatises, she sought to find a practical solution to the problems of interpreting ancient music precisely on authentic instruments, since the technique and character of the performance largely depend on the construction of the latter. Landowska studied in detail the clavier works of the outstanding harpsichordists F. Couperin and J. Ph. Rameau, and also paid great attention to the issue of the influence of French music on German music. Landowska believed that in order to find the right tempo, high-quality sound, it is necessary to thoroughly study the mechanism of the instrument. We can talk about the “sense of rhythm”, “accuracy and articulation of sound” about “spatial representations” only from the position of the harpsichordist, since the latter can have just different principles of intonation on the instrument and completely different decisions for fingering, than the pianist, due to the different construction of the harpsichord and piano (for example, without the passing of one finger under another). Landowska deals with the main key to ancient music – rhetoric. Increased attention in interpretation should be given to phrasing and breathing, which plays a major role, since each pause, caesura logically share a melodic line. At the same time, rhythmic freedom should not become synonymous with arbitrariness – Landowska’s playing was always distinguished by rhythmic accuracy, with which it conveyed the duration of sounds. “Some phrases within the play require rhythmic changes, while others – do not,” notes the artist (1991, p. 373). Thus, Landowska insisted on a completely different approach to the interpretation of music of past eras compared to what reigned in her time. She believed that turning to the music of masters of the past gives the musician the opportunity to develop a good musical taste and aesthetic feeling, and studying of the theoretical sources of ancient eras – to create a full-fledged idea of ancient music. In order to embody his vision of music in sounds, the performer should have good taste, Landowska insists on this, but it must be connected with knowledge of the material, styles of the past and historical context. Studying old treatises, Landowska made certain conclusions: the technology of playing an instrument is more complex and multifaceted than simply polishing “complex passages”, as it is considered today, and “coordination of thought and fingers” was called “technology” in that time (ibid., p. 150). In general, the artist puts “ears” and “consciousness” above just good finger coordination. The task of an authenticist is more difficult – it’s not enough to have good technique, you need to be able to combine all other performance components: touch&#233;, rhythm, breath, agogics, ornamentation, rhetoric, symbolism, sound, timbre, etc. Conclusions. W. Landowska positioned herself primarily as a harpsichordist, popularizing this instrument, although the sound of her harpsichord is still quite far from the sound of a “historical harpsichord”, for example, G. Leonhardt. Nevertheless, the sound of the harpsichord recreated by Landowska made a stunning impression on his contemporaries. As a result, it completely changed the then performer’s and listener’s ideas about ancient music, giving a powerful impetus to a complete revision and rethinking of generally accepted manners of performing and romantic clich&#233; of hearing. Fifty-year-old practical experience of Landowska-harpsichordist is very important for modern performers of ancient music, who strive for its most accurate reproduction, that open the perspectives for further in-depth study of the creative heritage of an outstanding artist.