Author: Gregory Smith ★2017
Date: 2004-04-14 23:10
Liquorice wrote:
> ...Every composer of classical music that I've worked with,
> including Pierre Boulez, Michel Jarrell and Heinz Holliger, has
> been adamant that one plays exactly what was written in the
> score. I remember Pierre Boulez getting highly irritated with
> the viola section because they weren't playing his written
> dynamics!
Phil Farkas, the esteemed former principal horn of the Cleveland Orcheatra under Rodzinski and the Chicago Symphony under Reiner, teacher extrordinaire, had this to say in his book "The Art of Musicianship."
To paraphrase:
Rodzinski insisted that one play EVERYTHING already in the music - the dots, the dashes, the accents, the crescendos, the diminuendos...and in the proper style. To overlook any aspect of the printed indications by the composer was tantamount to missing that note.
Here is an old anecdote which might illustrate how important all the elements of even one musical note can be:
A trumpet player in the village band had just one solo to play in a certain composition. It consisted of one glorious golden note, played just right. But at the performance, in his nervousness or carelessness, the trumpeter made seven mistakes on his one note!
1) He came in a measure too soon.
2) He played the wrong note.
3) The wrong note was too flat.
4) The attack was too loud.
5) The note was made a cresc. instead of a dim.
6) The tone was fuzzy.
7) He held the note one measure too long.
> ...A lot of what
> he played had very little to do with what Copland wrote.
> Despite this, his performance was convincing, and the audience
> called him back to play 3 encores!
So did Liberace.
> ..... But why did he feel he had to actually change
> notes, rhythms, tempi, dynamics etc., to be able to do that?
> Why couldn't he do that and still stick to the text?
> ....Some performers can.
"Some performers" such as Heiftz, Rabin, Piatigorsky, Browning, Szell, Reiner, Marcellus, Herseth, Lifschey, Schnabel, R. Serkin, etc, etc, etc. have a vision of the music they play, not simply the playing of it.
This doesn't even address one, of if not the most important aspect of music making. Tempo.
Unlike architecture, which is expressed in terms of space, music is dominated by the inexorable flow of time. Setting and maintaining the proper tempo is therefore one of the most important elements of the performer's complex task. A piece of music performed at the wrong tempo is like a building erected on a shaky foundation; in both cases the structure is bound to collapse.
Meaningful music making has much less to do with simple grandstanding.
Post Edited (2004-04-15 06:51)
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