Klarinet Archive - Posting 000016.txt from 1999/03

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Sabine Meyer's Stamitz
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 15:02:02 -0500

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.10
> Subj: RE: [kl] Sabine Meyer's Stamitz

> One can perform compositions from another era in two ways. One using the
> knowledge we have of what was considered proper performance practice at the
> time of composition (a HIP performance), the other using modern performance
> practice. Both methods can result in musical performances (I prefer HIP but
> that's a personal preference), or either can result in bad music if poorly
> done. The Meyer performance is a hybrid, with a little of each type. IMHO
> the result in this case is a very musical performance, although it may not
> satisfy either purists or HIP haters. My feeling is that one can have a
> musical performance without following all the HIP rules, although one must
> understand that the result, while musical, may not conform to the composers
> intentions. Others on the list have strongly disagreed with this. It really
> is a matter of personal taste. Music is not a science with absolute rules,
> even though we sometimes try to claim so.
>
> Steve Goldman
> Glenview, IL

Dear Steve,

BALONEY!! It has nothing to do with taste. "Taste" is an excuse
that permits the performer to do anything s/he wants and then claim
that it is historically informed.

A HIP is a science with very much absolute rules. The problem is that
for some of those rules we no longer have clear understanding of what
was meant. But there was a rule. We don't know what it is.

I once did a work with a conductor who said, "Well, in the final analysis,
taste must be the overriding consideration in any performance" to which
I replied, "The last thing that one should apply to any performance
should be taste. It's simply an excuse for not knowing anything."

Don't fall into that trap by excusing what you do with the "taste"
excuse. Should you continue in this way, I will not permit you to
marry my daughter. Is that clear? Reform your ways, please or the
wedding is off.

>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Craig Hill / Karen Hutchinson [mailto:hutchill@-----.net]
> Sent: Sunday, February 28, 1999 9:08 PM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: Re: [kl] Sabine Meyer's Stamitz
>
>
>
> Now if not *HIP* ( an Historically Informed Performance) - it is surely
> intended to be a musical performance!
> So, is the articulation musical? What purposes does it seem to serve?
>
> Since the recording " stands on its own merits" - what merits might those
> be? Answer that and you have defined the *modern* performance practice of
> *our era* (or is that really a decade ago? or maybe two.. ;-) )
>
> Craig
>
>
>
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=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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