Performance Practice
The Department of Music at Duke University has a longstanding interest in performance practice. This focus on historical performance studies is reflected in the activities of its faculty and students; its library and DUMIC (Duke University Musical Instrument Collections); and an extensive offering of concerts, lectures, and workshops. The degree program in Performance Practice emphasizes a scholarly approach to the performance of music of both the remote and more recent past. To this extent, the program parallels that in musicology; but it includes practical courses in performance and recitals. After completing the A.M. in Performance Practice, students generally continue working toward the Ph.D. in Musicology.
The Duke Collegium Musicum, directed by Tom Moore, is devoted to the performance of early music, including Gregorian chant, Renaissance motets and madrigals, and Baroque sonatas and cantatas. In 2004, the Collegium presented a concert entitled "Mia benigna fortuna: Petrarch and the Italian madrigal" as part of an interdepartmental Petrarch symposium taking place on campus. Earlier in the season, the Collegium presented "Music for a German Renaissance Wedding: sacred and secular works of Orlando di Lasso." Works from previous years include Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Carissimi's Jephte, and a concert entitled "Splendor & Solace: Music of Baroque France," which featured Charpentier's Te Deum, in addition to chamber works and rarely heard motets by Guillaume Bouzignac.