Don Satz wrote:

>This might be a dumb question, but I'll ask it anyways.  Singers of
>lieder rarely play the piano part themselves - why?  Reynaldo Hahn did
>both.

Not such a dumb question at all.  It does get done from time to time,
and apart from Reynaldo Hahn the results are not encouraging.  To sing
Lieder really well requires intense concentration and technique, as
does the piano part: few people have the dual talent to function on two
levels.  Second, the piano part and the voice part function as a dialogue,
commenting one off the other - it's hard to keep focus while being two
equally important "roles".  Last, sitting down is not a great position
for voice production.

Other examples that "work" are composers singing to their own music.
Charles Ives and Hanns Eisler recorded their own songs for fun.  Both
have horrible voices, but oh, what panache!

Anne
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