--- On Wed, 11/10/10, João Pais jmmmpais@googlemail.com wrote:
From: João Pais jmmmpais@googlemail.com Subject: Re: [PD] Musical notation object on Pd To: "patko" colet.patrice@free.fr, "Jonathan Wilkes" jancsika@yahoo.com Cc: "pd-list" pd-list@iem.at Date: Wednesday, November 10, 2010, 11:52 PM
Absolutely, he can't (and
that can be a good thing). How do
you know how a staccato in a Beethoven piano sonata really
sounds?
Do you mean "how a staccato in a Beethoven sonata sounded to an audience member listening to the
composer himself play
it"? Because I don't at all understand what it
means to say
what a notated piece of music "really" sounds like.
the original question had to do with how a composer expresses his wishes as well as possible so other performers interpret it correctly.
Right. And, for the sake of argument, let's assume that we can precisely reproduce the sonic/cultural setting you were referring to in your Beethoven analogy, and we hear the staccato in that setting.
What's the relevance of that experience for a performer who wants to
interpret that staccato in a performance? I think the answer
depends on issues surrounding the rest of around 200 years of reception
history of that piece, as well as various other historical/cultural
/musical factors that the performer keeps in mind. It could be
anywhere on a spectrum from completely
irrelevant, as it is in many performances in the early 20-th century
on modern instruments, to the sole factor in some other performance.
But it doesn't make sense to call any point on that spectrum
"correct" interpretation just because it jibes with the "original"
sound of the staccato (still assuming that could be known). It does,
however, seem fitting to call some interpretations "boring"
because the performer limits his/her imagination to fit whatever
models of interpretation are fashionable at the time.
Also, when speculating about original intentions, it seems curious that people tend to assume such knowledge would clear up issues of interpretation. It seems equally possible that, upon magically hearing Mozart or Beethoven play some enigmatically notated articulation or slur, that one would come out more confused than when they entered.
Maybe a shorter way to say all this is that clear, well thought-out
scores in the 21st century made by considerate composers have a very
high likelyhood of receiving a serious and considerate performance.
Really, who are these composers whose scores are so misunderstood that
their complex poly-rythms get played back as homophony?
-Jonathan
What a pieces "really" sounds like is another question, most likely much more complicated, I guess.
It's actually quite simple: the piece really sounds like what one hears when listening to the piece. What else could possibly be the case?