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 [log in to unmask]