Klarinet Archive - Posting 000333.txt from 2003/10

From: ormondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: Re: [kl] Who speaks?
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 20:51:24 -0400

I wrote:

> I wanted to hear other people's responses
> [about the restraining one's own emotions
> while performing] in a broader context.

One reason why this question interests me is that some pieces of music
have been deemed to deserve different treatments over the centuries.
Such pieces of music did not, therefore, speak entirely for themselves.
Performers (or arrangers or conductors or whoever) lent different
flavors to them and, at the time, received a consensus of audience
approval.

Music is, ultimately, interactive. I acknowledge that searching for
'what the music demands' can be important. Looking for a cha-cha in
"Ride of the Valkyrie" would be silly; but putting ridiculous or comedy
performances aside, I question whether a composition necessarily has a
self-contained essence which a 'proper' performer (or audience) must
never violate.

It's a different situation, of course, if the goal is to perform a piece
the way that you believe the composer intended.

Returning to prayers and hymns, which is where this topic began, there
is so much meaning in a prayer or hymn that (imo) does not come from the
music itself. Hence "letting the music speak for itself' seems to me
to be an especially dangerous assertion in this case.

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