Klarinet Archive - Posting 001505.txt from 1999/03

From: "Michael Whight" <michael@-----.uk>
Subj: [kl] Interpretation and mistakes
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 19:22:30 -0500

I've been reading the digest mail on urtext editions, interpreting and
spontaneous musical response and I would be interested to hear how people
feel about the relationship between the three.

It seems to me that playing Classical music in a large concert hall with a
full size symphony orchestra can never hope to catch the composers wishes
because the sensitive musician will be responding to the acoustic and
different weight of sound coming from modern instruments. This inevitably
leads to all the balance problems that exist in "traditional" performances.

Or is it that we must take a more pragmatic approach to a score? Certainly
many composers are very easy-going about their scores and will not mind all
sorts of tampering with it with regard to phrasing. But what are the
acceptable perameters of alteration when the composer is not around? And how
does this leave the status of the urtext?

Hicholas Harnoncourt's bell-tone approach to cleaning up modern orchestral
textures in Classical and early Romantic music moves in the direction of the
intention of the urtext and yet many performers feel that they are having to
work against the nature of their instruments and the acoustic, and so for
them the performance is an unsatisfactory experience.

I am sure that although urtext editions provide the best clues to the sound
world that we try to re-invent at each performance the real truth of music
lies somewhere else.

Michael Whight

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