Deryk Barker <[log in to unmask]> writes:

> There is more to music than is contained in the notes.
>              Gustav Mahler.

This is, of course, true, but there is nothing contained in the repeat sign
beyond the instruction to repeat a passage.  If a composer considered the
repeat optional, he was at liberty to specify that.

>... 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.

Again, there may be reasonable scholarly disagreements on such matters,
but that has nothing to do with the instruction to repeat, which is
unambiguous.

-Jocelyn Wang
Culver Chamber Music Series
Come see our web page: www.bigfoot.com/~CulverMusic