Musicians in the 16th century had a vastly different understanding of the structure and performance of music than today’s performers. In order to transform inexpressively notated music into passionate declamation, Renaissance singers treated scores freely, and it was expected that each would personalize the music through various modifications, which included ornamentation. Their role was one of musical re-creation rather than of simple interpretation--the score represented a blueprint, not a master plan, upon which they as performer built the music. As is now commonly recognized, this flexible approach to scores changed over the centuries; the notation on the page itself became an ostensible musical Urtext and performers began following it much more closely, their sole purpose being to reproduce what was thought to be the composer’s intentions. Yet in recent years, scholars and performers are once again freeing themselves from the written page--but the tools for doing so have
long been out of reach.