Klarinet Archive - Posting 000060.txt from 1999/03

From: "Steven J Goldman, MD" <sjgoldman@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] About authenticity
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 02:42:04 -0500

Why do people talk as if we have little or no knowledge of historical
performance practice? From the Renaissance on, we have an abundance of
treaties on how music of the time should be performed. And just as today,
one had a range of accepted techniques which one would mold into a
performance of quality, the various eras each having their own acceptable
(and unacceptable) techniques. Composers of those times used the musical
"language" of those times, and when one follows the rules and uses
instruments with the timbers that the composer had in mind, I find that the
music is much more effective and expressive than when we try to impose
modern techniques etc. on it. I feel we owe it to the composers to play
their works to the best possible advantage (which means using HIP
techniques). Again we DO know what many of these techniques were. Some of
the treaties are maddeningly vague, but many are crystal clear. We have much
more to learn but does this mean that we should not use the knowledge we
have accumulated so far? In no way does this shift emphasis to the
performance. It is the music that benefits. The Shakespeare analogy is
bogus. The "language" of music crosses culture and time. You may not
understand Elizabethan pronunciation but what does that have to do with
being emotionally moved by a Lute piece by Dowland played on its proper
instrument, with proper instrumental technique. Many of the flute works I
perform on historic instruments with their subtle variations of timber from
note to note - each key having its own feeling - seem like boring uninspired
drivel when played on the modern flute (with people like Tony Pay around I
don't dare attempt historic clarinets - I could never come close). The
problem is not in the composition, but in the use of an improper instrument
without the subtlety of the original. The good composers intimately knew the
instruments they wrote for, and used the qualities found on those
instruments to best advantage.

Now, I do not go as far as Dan as to there being absolute laws in
performance (I am trying to write a thoughtful reply to his post but its
hard going up against a master), but to ignore, or worse, put down HIP is
uninformed and short sighted.

Steve Goldman
Glenview, IL

sjgoldman@-----.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Gustavson [mailto:mgustav@-----.com]
Subject: [kl] About authenticity

Being a composer as well as performer, I have some thoughts about this HIP
thread. One must ask a few questions. What is the true intent behind
desiring
authenticity of a reality one has no experience of? Does this approach
shift the
emphasis from the music to the performance? When actors perform Shakespeare
and
his contemporaries, would it be a greater experience ifi they speak in the
exact
dialects that were spoken in the 16th century--the sounds that Shakespeare
heard? Even if you could realize that reality would you understand a word
of
it? At the least, these questions concerning musical authenticity are about
surface details and have no affect on the music's qualities. Such
performances
have no affect on the musical idea: the form, melodic material and harmonic
progressions the work is based upon. It is a "crime", moreover, to add to
someone else's creation and ignorance is not an excuse. Unless there is
solid
documentation available that states that this is how the composer wanted
something to be performed and word of mouth from an "expert" who has no
concrete
evidence only that this is how "Master So and So" did it, then don't change
the
music. There is no room for guess work or adding to the music. When I
went to
music school I attended performances by HIP followers but often there was
no
concrete evidence behind their decisions just an "expert label" and an ego
that
wanted to shift the emphasis from the composer's music to THEIR performance
of
it.

Mark Gustavson
Composer/clarinetist

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