David Runnion responds to Steve Schwartz:
>>Justifications:
>>
>>1. We don't know what the composer's will is, only what he wrote - quite
>>another thing.
>
>How? What is the composer's will other than what he wrote??? This makes no
>sense at all. ...
There is more to music than is contained in the notes.
Gustav Mahler.
>This seems strange in this day of HIPness, when every last detail of
>a composer's intention is respected, as well as the instruments, is
>faithfully recreated.
You think so? You are assuming it is easy to divine the composer's
intention.
If it were, then we shouldn't have HIP versions of Beethoven 9 with very
different tempos for the tenor solo - the scholars don't agree about the
interpretation of Beethoven's metronome marks.
But that's nothing to the problems faced in performing something like
an opera by Gluck or Monteverdi - IIRC Raymond Leppard wrote a book on
performance practice which is very enlightening in this regard. It's some
years since I read it.
Deryk Barker
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