Jon Johanning wrote:

>How do list members feel on this issue? I would especially like to hear
>what non-performers think -- do you tend to look down on a pianist, singer,
>or other soloist who performs from the score? Is it time to say farewell
>to this particular tradition in this tradition-happy art?

The worst memory slip I saw from a professional was made by a Hungarian
pianist, Andor Foldes, who was playing Beethoven's Pathetique sonata.  He
got in trouble in the 3rd movement and did a fast segue to the last couple
of lines.  It was extremely obvious and pretty much obliterated the effect
of the piece.  I'm not sure how much he left out but it was a lot.  If all
you feel after a performance is sympathy for the performer, it were a bad
night for all concerned.

I agree that the pressure of memorization puts incredible demands on many
performers.  Others don't seem to have any trouble.  Conductors suffer
from the same disease.  It's considered a rite of passage on the way to
professional work in conducting to conduct without a score.  Conductors,
however, are a bit better off than instrumentalists because relatively
fewer people watching can tell when a conductor screws up.  As long as
(s)he keeps h(er)is arms moving with the music and doesn't register too
many after-the-fact cues (see the Great Conductors video (the first one)
where Richard Strauss is suddenly awakened by the timpani while conducting
his Till Eulenspiegel--a case of the player cueing the conductor!), the
conductor will succeed.

One defence of memory work is by analogy with the actor on stage.  But
it's a poor one, since the instrumentalist is not creating an illusion of
reality, but rather the illusion of making it up on the spot.  Everybody
knows that's not the case, so why continue with the charade except to prove
one can do it?-- which puts one in the category of a daredevil act.  A
better defence is to say that memory gives the performer more freedom with
the music.  I think this is probably true in a lot of cases.

Chris Bonds