John wrote:
>It is amazing to me what nonsense is accepted as o.k. in the
>classical music world. I go to a concert and I expect the musicians
>to know the music inside and out, but there they are on the stage
>buried in a book. Would we accept that from an actor? Only in a
>reading, not in a performance for which we pay real money. Would we
>accept that from a pop singer, or a folk singer? Only at a very low
>level, like a high-school coffee house, and even there it is not done
>by many performers. So why is the same behavior accepted in the
>classical music world? I think it is a shame.
It can be quite annoying. The point, of course, is to communicate the
music and text (listed in alphabetical order!). Most classical singers,
most of the time, in most music do this with music memorized. However,
even if the music is not memorized, the performer should still be off-book
enough to make eye contact with the audience and tell the story.
In very complex music, I don't think there's any shame in having the pages
on a stand in front of you. Having just done Webern Op. 25 in New York, I
have a bit of a self-serving agenda, of course! I basically had the music
memorized, but if something had gone wrong, I would have been up the
proverbial creek had I not had my music in front of me as well as in me!
Naomi Gurt Lind
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