Authentic Culture

Authentic Culture often Isn't

At the Boston Early Music

FestivalIn June2005

I attended a talk & demonstration of differences
between Bach performed on the cello before & after Kant's followers dicatated what was authentic in music.
Among other techniques, pizzicato & thumb use were lost after the early 1700's, despite the composer's intention. The Romantic playing of Casals would satisfy Kant but not Bach.
Yo Yo Ma has made pre-Kant gestures by reverting to an earlier style bridge for example. Much of what we accept as appropriate interpretation of early music may need re-interpretation.

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I have read that something similar is true regarding my Scottish heritage in terms at least of the kilt & of Scottish dancing: They are largely statements of early 1800's Romanticism.
I wonder what other artistic traditions (like most of Shakespeare's portraits) go no further
back than the early 1800's.
For a start, was the piano tuned & played in classical music the way it is now?
We do know that A=440 was not the

practice due to the low tensile strength of strings then

until late in the 1800's.

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The question of whether the camera obscura was widely used by others than Vermeer in plotting a picture
may fall into the same category of questioning. Romanticism has altered our
understanding of how performances were accomplished.

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Assuming these "facts" can be generalized, why have we not been alerted by our cultural historians?