Author: EEBaum
Date: 2008-10-14 17:21
Tony wrote:
>>
So you see that I'm not that much of a purist about composers' intentions -- just a purist about being HONEST when we are making free with them, and not pretending that somehow we are justified in doing what we do by the slippery notion of 'interpretation'.
I'm very glad, by the way, that Brian, Mike and perhaps Alex, are finding ways to play the Copland without messing about with it. And surely, that's what we should always BEGIN with, rather than with other people's recorded messes -- whoever they are.
<<
While I might suggest that the composer's intentions may be "do whatever you want with this, mess with it, screw it up, whatever" and he just didn't write that on the score (which is often the case with what I write), I think I can be comfortable with your suggestion. I might word it "as written" rather than "composer's intentions", but that's more semantics than anything else.
When I mess with a piece of music, I make no claims to myself of accuracy to the page, but rather take an "I think it sounds cool this way too" angle. People who have heard me take the Copland cadenza to the practice room rather than what I'll play for, say, an audition committee will vouch for that.
The problem, for me, can arise with different opinions of whether messing with the music is appropriate. It's probably marketing more than anything else. If I play my wholly messed-with version for someone and claim that it's an "interpretation", there will probably be more acceptance from some circles than if I claim I'm screwing with the piece. Most of my circles are cool with the idea of messing around with what's written, but a few can be hypercritical of that, so "interpretation" may be a bit of double-speak to gloss over it and pretend it's not happening. Like "enhanced interrogation techniques."
Oddly enough, since I've always heard the Copland with a few gallons of rubato slathered on top, to my ears playing it as written feels like I'm messing with it.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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