Alon Schab is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of Haifa and a committee member of the Purcell Society. A musicologist, composer, and recorder player, he focuses on English music and has published extensively on the music of Henry Purcell.
A comprehensive and insightful examination of the origins of the historical performance phenomenon, what it has become today, and where it might be going in the future. Highly recommended. * Mark Kroll, Harpsichordist and Fortepianist; Professor Emeritus, Boston University; Editor, The Cambridge Companion to the Harpsichord * Alon Schab urges performers of early music to cultivate a 'historic curiosity.' His book should inspire many to do so. With well-chosen examples and lucid explanations, Schab gets readers into the inner workings of processes often taken for granted to the detriment of truly knowledgeable and committed music-making. No one who follows him on the paths he sets forth will fail to come out with greater enlightenment * whether playing Van Eyck's recorder solos, recapturing the spirit of Ortiz's glosadas, reading critical editions critically, or mediating between new and old with arrangements and even original compositions. *