Klarinet Archive - Posting 000244.txt from 1996/04

From: Nate Burk <nathan@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Why Mozart -- performance leeway
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 19:01:01 -0400

> Seems like the only totaly wrong
>interpretation is a non-attempt, non-musical interpretation. Clarinettists
> grumble
>when someone like Stolzman improvs a little on a standard piece. Why???

Boy -- this sure has turned out to be a touchy subject. I believe that
performers have to say something when they play their music, but that goes
beyond representing only what they think the composer meant to say. Is
anybody else an actor? It's easy to say the words in a script, but if the
actors do not make the characters their own, then their audience will never
believe the perormance. In theatre and music alike, the performers must add
something of their own to their art. Imagine how empty these performances
would be if people weren't allowed to put themselves into it.

Here's something my teacher said on the subject that I found amusing. I
asked her if I could/should really exaggerate the hint of Klezmer in a duet
I'm performing next month for solo/ensemble festival, and she said "If you
do, I'll shake you're hand... why not make the judges sit up in their
seats!" Music should be exciting -- for the performer and for the audience.
If we, as musicans, are handcuffed whenever we put the Mozart Concerto on
our stands, why bother?

I know that many of you play for a living, and I have a great respect for
that. But I'm in this for fun. If the composers didn't want us to have fun,
why'd they bother writing for us?

If Mozart (or Weber, or Rosinni, or anyone else) was not willing to have
their music played any differently from their original intention, they
shouldn't have published it. Musicians are artists, and we must always be
allowed to go out on a limb to pursue any ideas for interpretation that we
have, whether we're playing Handel or Hindemith. And, as listeners, if we
happen to hear someone playing an interpretation that we don't care for, the
sollution is simple -- change the channel or stop the tape.

People were talking about big egos playing a role in incorrectly
interpreting a piece. I think it's just as arrogrant to trash someone else
for exploring their own ideas in an interpretation as it is to interpret
something "inocorrectly," if there is such a thing. There are more than just
"right" interpretations and "wrong" interpretations -- it's up the performer
to decide what he wants to do. If I want to play the Mozart Concerto on my
e-flat clarinet and with jazz licks in the cadenzas, that's my decision, and
I don't have to defend it in front of anybody. The performer must learn what
is acceptable or not, and then he makes the decision how far he wants to go
in interpreting a piece. Of course, musicians always have to deal with the
consequences of their decisions, but the principle of the thing holds
through -- in the end, it's up to the performer!!

--Nate

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