How do archaic instruments affect contemporary music?

Question

Many once-common instruments are now rare or obsolete. For example, some transposing instruments have fewer variants than they used to – the B♭ soprano clarinet has largely supplanted the A and C clarinets. Other instruments, like the grand piano, overshadow earlier members of their family like the fortepiano, clavichord, and harpsichord. How does this affect contemporary performance?Specifically, do older works fall out of favor because of archaic instrumentation? Do performers adapt and arrange the works to suit contemporary instruments? Do older works keep archaic instruments in use, among professionals at least? I suspect that the answer is that “it depends.” If so I would like to know the major historical trends and broad classes are among professional musicians. What disappears, what sticks around, and what adapts?

Answer 1

You are correct that the best answer is "it depends" because it is very dependent on many factors. Unfortunately, a fair number of archaic instruments are no longer accessible. However, many performers will research the intended performance instrument and use this knowledge to emulate this sound on the modern instrument they have access to. There are performers who still perform on these rare instruments, which is great because this can also serve as a model for those who do not have access to these instruments but would like to perform a particular work on the more modern version. I hope this was helpful to you and if you still have any questions I would love to discuss them with you!