Andrys Basten wrote:

>Charles Dalmas wrote:
>
>>Even if you read music, you cannot glean any useful information about a
>>message or statement from the printed page.  You know what the music is
>>conveying only if you know the piece, and have heard it before.  Without
>>this contextual knowledge, it is impossible to know what the music is
>>saying just by looking at the printed page.

This is not true at all.  As a conductor I never, absolutely never, learn
a score at the keyboard or via a recording.  I sit at my desk in a silent
room and "hear" every thing on the page by looking at the score.  This
forces me to look for every detail, every dynamic, tempo, phrase and
articulation marking.  It also forces me to have in my ear all of the
harmonies.  If I go plunk out the score on the piano I only have a tactile
memory of the piece.  I neglect the details and don't deal as well with
the mechanics of conducting the work.  As a singer I rarely if ever play a
piece on the piano.  Only if the work is very disjunct and the harmonies
are illogical (or, truth be told if I am in a giant hurry) do I use an
instrument as a crutch.  Any professional musician worth his salt should
be able to hear nearly any piece, especially those from the common practice
in his or her head.

>As Dave Runnion says, this isn't true.  It's said most conductors have
>absolute pitch.

I disagree here to. I know dozens of professional condutors, and indeed very
few of us have perfect pitch. Many of us have a highly developed relative
pitch, but not perfect.

>With this and musical training, one can look at a score and hear all the
>parts at once, as far as the pitches are concerned and your interpretation
>of the markings so that you 'hear' the dynamic changes too.

Good reading skills do not come from the ability to hear pitches in one's
head.  They come from a thorough knowledge of how the parts interact
harmonically, and from the acquaintence with a large body of repertoire.
Much of the common practice music was written to rather strict rules of
harmony and form.  Once you are familiar with these structures, then you
start to know how Mozart (for example) "goes".  After this familiarity
becomes second nature you instantly recognize melodic and harmonic gestures
in the music and sing or play them automatically.

Kevin Sutton