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Hans von Bülow made two tours of the Midwest, where he essentially gave solo recitals with only a brief respite by the Canadian-American soprano Lizzie Cronyn (1852-1921). Letters that Bülow wrote while in America vividly record the rigors of constant traveling, which eventually wreaked havoc on his already depleted nervous system, forcing him to withdraw from his contract after fulfilling only 139 concerts out of 172. Bülow's performances, though possessing greater perfection than Rubinstein's, did not create the same sensation as Rubinstein's overtly emotional ones. However, Bülow's greater faithfulness to the intentions of the composers helped establish orthodox interpretations of the canonic piano repertoire for the next generation of serious performers and teachers.

Chapter 8 focuses on musical interpretations. Jewish examples include a reconstruction of Jewish cantillation of Psalm 1 by Mitchell, and, in the twentieth century, compositions for performance outside the synagogue (Weiner’s Yiddish version of Psalm 1 and Bernstein’s use of Psalm 2 in Chichester Psalms). Christian compositions are more prolific , especially from the sixteenth century onwards. Liturgical compositions include those by Merbecke, Tallis, Beale, and Elgar, and metrical psalms by Sternhold and Hopkins, Lawes, Tate and Brady, Watts, and Charles Wesley. Non-liturgical compositions include those by Schütz, Handel, and Mendelssohn. Twentieth-century liturgical examples include those in the Gelineau Psalter, Psalm Praise and Rachmaninov’s All Night Liturgy; modern compositions for the concert hall include Williams (Psalm 2) and Goodall (Psalm 1). The more secular musical ‘performance’ of both psalms, independent of either faith tradition, has made them more universally known.

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's key themes. This book aims to recover the multiplicity of ideas about music in Renaissance England, arguing that Shakespeare is extremely skeptical about the claims to authority made on their behalf. It documents the ways in which Shakespeare denaturalizes his culture's presumptions about music, both in the text of the plays and in their musical performances. It argues that the plays of Shakespeare reveal connections between theories of music and specific ideological ends. Throughout, the book presents examples that throw into relief the ideological and cultural presumptions behind theories of music. Rather than approach music in Shakespeare's plays as a code to be deciphered, the book examines the ideological implications of musical codes themselves.

This chapter provides an account of what the vocal interpretation of a jazz standard consists in; of how such an interpretation functions in context; and of what is communicated by such an interpretation. How does the listener understand what is conveyed by a jazz version of a song, through the narrowly musical choices involved, but also the voice, body, and gestures, of the singer? And in what way does jazz vocal interpretation of a standard differ most importantly from jazz instrumental interpretation of a standard? In the last part of the chapter some of the points made and positions taken are illustrated in connection with an array of performances of a well-known standard, Cole Porter’s “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To.”

Performers have unique experiences of musical repetition due to the extensive motor involvement and the hours they spend playing and replaying passages in the practice room. A large part of musical training involves the close imitation of particular sound sequences, giving performers a unique perspective on repetition. Additionally, they have interesting choices to make with regard to notated repetitions; do they manipulate unfixed expressive parameters differently each time a score instructs them to repeat, or do they attempt to fix elements like expressive timing and dynamics and replicate them as closely as possible with each iteration? This chapter examines evidence suggesting that performers actively seek to highlight the perceptual roles of repetition outlined in the other chapters.