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Date: | Mon, 10 Apr 2000 19:56:19 -0400 |
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David Runnion wrote:
>In chamber music the performers rarely play by memory. In fact I was once
>told that it is disrespectful to the composer to play sonatas or trios by
>memory, because the performer is somehow putting his or her own "show"
>ahead of the music. So many times playing sonatas I have the music in
>front of me even if in reality I am playing most of it by memory.
About five years ago my wife and I heard the Tokyo Quartet at the Yale
Summer School of Music in Norfolk, CT, playing Schubert and Beethoven.
There was a severe summer thunder storm and we lost power and lights.
The quartet tried to play in the dark for a few bars but had to give up.
I don't know whether the reason was that they hadn't memorized the parts
sufficiently or whether, even w/ the parts memorized, the players have to
see each other to play together.
Fortunately, power came back a short while later.
Walter Meyer
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