Klarinet Archive - Posting 000432.txt from 2010/11

From: Robert Howe <arehow@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Sabine Meyer, but actually,text and meaning
Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2010 11:48:04 -0500

> Hall himself draws a comparison
> between drama and the period instrument movement, notably the focus on
> both getting the composer's text right and getting the interpretation
> right. There's a paragraph where he contrasts this with the common and
> casual practice of cutting and even rewriting Shakespeare -- something
> which is unthinkable with e.g. Pinter or Beckett -- and urges that we
> should place value on every word and phrase, just as musicians do with
> notes.

This displays the common, insipid modern obsession with Text. What is more
important, the text of a work or the meaning of the work? If a small
"unthinkable" re-write in Pinter, or dropping a scene in Shakespeare, or
playing a Mozart symphony on a modern orchestra will permit one to
experience the work in a way that better meets the artists' interpretation,
what is wrong with that? I mean really, guys--Pinter and Shakespeare and
Mozart were all active performers, they understood that what the auteur
writes is neither final nor definitive, that theater is a living art which
requires accommodation to local artistic circumstances. Indeed, if what the
auteur writes were final and definitive, you clarinet guys and gals would be
sitting out the g minor symphony...

Cheers

Robert Howe
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