Donald Clarke replies to Donald Satz:

>>I do agree with Steve that liking the HIP approach mainly due to
>>historical accuracy has little to recommend it.  Before I heard any
>>period instrument performances of baroque music, I was not satisfied.
>>With the advent of HIP, the music took on a new life for me and was
>>illuminating.  Accuracy had nothing to do with my conclusions.
>
>You weren't satisfied, but then you were?  If the accuracy had nothing
>to do with it, what was it then?  Musn't it be a good idea to enter into
>the spirit of what the composer had in mind?.

I think that HIP (not all of it) may throw a different light into baroque
works, and so, features that sometimes were obscured at old performances
(v.g.  clarity of counterpoint lines etc.) may appear new and revealing.
But it's hard to say whether that was what the composer "had in mind"
at writing, or even whether that was what he actually heard at performances
of his times.  HIP -whatever the criteria used at particular occasions-
is just an approach to historical accuracy, and I think it's healthy to
hold it always in its state of hypothesis.  It's revealing, no doubt,
but a chance remains that -at some features- it doesn't looks much like
what baroque audiences ever heard.  Concerning what the composer had in
mind, perhaps historical accuracy isn't always a good way to approach
to it.  Lacking of universal performance standards at those times stated,
who knows if every composer was satisfied of the performing resources
available at his particular circumstances?.  Sometimes, a composer had
to adapt his writing to what he had at hands to play it, so where the
accuracy lies?.  It's "accurate" to perform an HIP Matthew's Passion
with musicians far better in sound and tuning than those that Bach had
at hand in 1729?.

That's a question -hardly an argument-, so I'll love to read answers.

Regards

Pablo Massa

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