Leslie Kinton wrote:

>I'm constantly all over my students about taking inappropriate (!)
>liberties with a score, and I try to impress upon them the two principles
>that a) *everything* they do must be justified by the text, and b)
>everything on the page must be realized in their interpretation.  [snip]
>>All artists must be true to their vision:  the composer, through medium of
>sound, realizes his or her vision of the final piece by means of the score;
>the performer, through the medium of his or her body (and its instrumental
>surrogate), realizes his or her vision of the score by means of the sound
>created in performance.  I put it to you that both processes are co-equal
>in the final creative act of realizing the musical work.

As a mere amateur performer, I would put this very valid point this way:
the performer should do everything possible to follow principles a) and b),
but it must be realized that even though this is done, each performance
must embody a personal interpretation of the score, simply because the
performer is a human being, not an automaton programmed by the notes
(though many a performer almost sounds like one!).  But it may be dangerous
for the performer to think too much about the interpretive aspect, because
she or he may then forget about the score and become too self-indulgent.
So musicians who are famous for swearing up and down that they are
"strictly faithful to the score," a la Toscanini, may really be reminding
themselves that it is wiser to keep one's mind on the notes.

Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]