HOPP SCHWIIZ! HOPP HIPP!

(HIPP = Historically-Informed Performance Practice.)

I love living in Switzerland. It’s a society where the arts and culture are well nurtured and still highly valued.

The “HIPhip” articles in De Swaen’s concert programmes were popular with audiences and have been read by many online. Not much of what I’ve written has been made public since then. HOPP HIPP will be a kind of blog to air some thoughts on aspects of HIPP. Yes, there’s an extra “P” now. But before the navel-gazing can begin, the rest of the website must be built.

So, the first HOPP HIPP is a simple question:

Let’s say that you are involved in a performance of 17th or 18^th-century music with the label “historic” but you, or others, are consciously playing an instrument with a design and/or set-up that your “informed” side knows did not exist before the late 20^th century.

How would you honestly describe the performance?

And no, believe me, it does not sound the same!

Answers on a post-card to: