Abstract
Performance traditions are constantly evolving entities. Some musical traditions purposefully look to the past to reinvent and consolidate a sense of national-cultural identity in the present, a compelling case for which is provided by the performance practice of Grieg's Sltter, Op. 72, No. 2. An investigation of this practice in piano and Hardanger fiddle recordings of this repertoire, by means of new empirical techniques for the comparative analysis of beat tempo and dynamics, traces the mechanisms of stylistic recombination in the performance of this music. Cultural-historical and ethnographic contextual evidence reveals tension between discourse and actual performance practice in (re)constructions of Norwegian cultural identity, with broader implications of reinventing the performance practice of this repertoire on contemporary Norwegian cultural memory. © 2012 Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.