Klarinet Archive - Posting 000504.txt from 1997/01

From: Donald Yungkurth <DYungkurth@-----.com>
Subj: "Authentic Performance"
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 18:40:29 -0500

Edwin V. Lacy, Bill Edinger and Roger Shilcock have written about "authentic
performance". This seems to be an outgrowth of the A or Bb in Brahms 3rd
question. Ed Lacy summarized in part:

The "authentic performance" movement is not absurd at all to me. It is a

valuable exercise in legitimate musicological research. Anyone who is

interested in history will have a natural desire to know "exactly what

things were like in those days." Hearing these performances can give us

fresh insights into music.

However, this is not without its problems. First, we don't know exactly

what the music sounded like when it was first performed. Attempts at

historically authentic performances are at best educated guesses at how

the music originally sounded - some more educated than others, and some

more successful than others.

But, the thing which such attempts can never solve is the fact that we

can't listen with 19th century ears. So in the final analysis, if the

wish is for us to experience music exactly as it was originally

experienced, that can't be accomplished. (cut)

I agree with this view completely. My hearing of "authentic performance"
recordings must go back at least 20 years. My original reactions were
significant displeasure with the horrible intonation (at least to 20th
century ears), more unhappiness with the distraction of tone quality
differences from note to note with the winds and, perhaps most of all, the
grating (to my ears) of many stringed instruments playing slightly different
pitches without vibrato.

As the years have gone by, most of my concerns have been resolved. In many
recent "authentic performance" recordings, the intonation seems to be
exactly what my ears expect. The wind players have learned to get quite
uniform (and "modern") tone quality from their instruments and the strings,
while still avoiding vibrato, seem to all play at the same pitch. It
certainly sounds better to me than the early version, but is it "authentic"?
I don't have a clue. For works written before recordings could be made,
there is no absolute answer possible as to what "authentic" actually sounded
like.

What sound did Mozart or Beethoven have in their minds when they wrote. What
sounds were in their ears when contemporary musicians played to their liking?
We have no way of ever knowing.

Current attempts at "authentic performance" of 19th century and late 18th
century music bring to my mind thoughts which follow:

1. In many case, the "authentic" performers might just as well use modern
instruments, since the sound they produce isn't greatly different from that
produced for modern performance. I would cite, for example on clarinet, some
of Neidich's recordings on period reproduction instruments. He may get great
satisfaction in playing on these instruments, but he plays so well that I
hear "modern clarinet" rather than "authentic clarinet".

2. The most obvious differences have to do with balance of the orchestra
sections (including percussion), accents, vibrato, dynamics and tempi, but
not with the basic sound of the instruments. Most of this could be
accomplished with modern instruments.

3. A characteristic of modern performance expectations seems to be the
uniformity of tonal quality a wind player achieves throughout the range of
the instrument. The ability of players of period instruments to do this has
improved markedly in the last 20 - 30 years. This implies that the period
instruments are flexible as to tone and pitch and the experienced player can
pretty much get the result he/she desires. What was desired in Mozart's or
Beethoven's time (or Brahms's, for that matter) really isn't known.

4. I believe that the modern conductor of Mozart, Beethoven or Brahms
expects the performer to play with uniform tone quality in a seamless and
predictable manner. Intellectually the correctly pitched clarinet is
preferred. In practice, uniformity is wanted.

5. If you are going to be dogmatic about whether to use the A or Bb because
that is what the composer specified, you shouldn't be playing on modern
instruments at all! How far will that get you in your next audition?

Don Yungkurth (DYungkurth@-----.com)