Klarinet Archive - Posting 000342.txt from 2005/11

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Mozart improvises
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2005 14:45:24 -0500

And you were at point where you could have driven the nail home,
and then it slipped away from you.

It is not what Beethoven and Mozart did that is the central
issue. These men played in a way that was unformly a part of the
performing tradition for live musicians. It was as important to
their performances that they improvise as it was for them to wear
pants. It was what was expected of them. Nobody hung out a sign
that said, "Tonight's performance will have improvisations."
Everybody assumed that to be the case, no matter who was playing.

And now, the leap you failed to nail down: what Beethoven and
Mozart did was what every performer was expected to do, namely to
become part of the creative process of music making. "You give me
a tune, Mozart, and watch me run with it." That was the
performance practice of the time, just like wearing pants.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Ormondtoby Montoya [mailto:o4rmondtoby@-----.net]
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2005 11:27 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: [kl] Mozart improvises

An interesting concert last night included two Mozart piano
sonatas and
a pair of 'vigorous' (which is an understatement!) variations on
Mozart
themes by Tsontakis and Liszt.

The printed program discussed Mozart's improvising during his
performances, and it said the same things as Dan had posted in an
earlier message (thank you, Dan); but the article really drove
the point
home.

I think this is a good lesson to keep in mind. At every lesson
and
master class, the emphasis is always on learning about the music
as we
know it today via manuscripts, editions, etc. The student hears
admonitions such as "What you just played isn't what's written on
the
page" or "...what the composer intended". It's easy to forget
that the
likes of Mozart and Beethoven often improvised when they
performed, more
than just adding a few ornaments.

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