David Runnion wrote: >In chamber music the performers rarely play by memory. In fact I was once >told that it is disrespectful to the composer to play sonatas or trios by >memory, because the performer is somehow putting his or her own "show" >ahead of the music. So many times playing sonatas I have the music in >front of me even if in reality I am playing most of it by memory. About five years ago my wife and I heard the Tokyo Quartet at the Yale Summer School of Music in Norfolk, CT, playing Schubert and Beethoven. There was a severe summer thunder storm and we lost power and lights. The quartet tried to play in the dark for a few bars but had to give up. I don't know whether the reason was that they hadn't memorized the parts sufficiently or whether, even w/ the parts memorized, the players have to see each other to play together. Fortunately, power came back a short while later. Walter Meyer