Helen Duggan writes:

>Can a performance of 18th century music ever be right if the
>audience is a 20th/21st century one?"

I say three cheers for her!  I prefer period performances and I demand the
repeats if the composer intended them.  However, I think there is a very
valid argument for using contemporary instruments and appealing to the
contemporary audience without changing anything the composer did.

We live in the post "Star Wars" world of stereo surround sound, special
effects and commercial jingles everywhere around us.  We are bombarded with
emotional music and fantasy productions on screen and in print.  This was
not the case in the time before radio.  So, as Helen Duggan suggests, the
audience has changed!

I for one would love to listen to Mahler's second symphony with the third
and fourth movements translated into English.  How's that for controversy?
Choral music in translation!  From German to English I think we monolingual
Americans would gain far more than we'd loose by deviating from the text.
Maybe even Shoenberg could gain an American following!

For the record, I don't think I could advocate Italian compositions in
translation to English but why not Italian to Spanish? In short, where
languages have a compatible sound (consonant to consonant sounding like
English and German; or, vowel to vowel sounding like Italian to Spanish)
I don't see why translations should be avoided.

Donald Scarinci
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