Lloyd quoting my hero Leonard Bernstein:
>Leonard Bernstein once explained the difference between "classical" >music and "popular" music by saying that "classical" music was, more >or less, EXACT music and "popular" music was, more or less, >UNFINISHED music.
This is a useful thumbnail definition but I personally prefer not to get mired in the classical/popular labelling question. My contention is that there is not a one to one correspondence between classical and closed score, or between popular and open score. There are classical scores (I'm talking about the printed page) that are highly unfinished -- from Handel da capo arias to the Berio Sequenzas. It isn't even a question of the performer applying his or her own personality to the score but rather that the performer has to make decisions about what notes and rhythms to sing or play. And if you regard musical theatre as popular, surely the quintet from LB's West Side Story would be considered a finished score.
>The performing classical artist must >find a means of personal expression WITHIN the limitations of the >composer's intent. He may not impose his personality on the music. >He must express his personality THROUGH the music. This point is >often confused, even within the ranks of classical artists. Witness >the song "stylizing" of Elizabeth Swartzkopf and Dietrich >Fischer-Dieskau and compare "their" versions with what the composer >so carefully wrote.
Forgive me, I'm not sure if I am interpreting your statement correctly. Are you saying, Lloyd, that Fischer-Dieskau and Schwarzkopf overstepped the boundaries of the composers' intentions?
>Of course, the interpretive decisions are always >individual but the basic performing process must remain; the >composer's intent must be sought and honored.
I always ask myself, how can I possibly know the intentions of someone who is not in the room to explain them to me? All I have is the printed page. Musical notation is in some ways miraculously precise and in some ways not so precise. What does a tenuto really mean? Is it a change of length, dynamic, color? Is a Wolf tenuto different from a Verdi tenuto? Experience and taste and the ever-elusive style suggest that there would be a difference, but nothing in the notation is actually different. Our attempts to realize the composer's intent are informed by things that are not on the printed page. So how "finished" is the score really?
It's simpler, of course, when the composer is in the room. I do a lot of work with the composer in the room, and I think you would be surprised at how little the notes matter to many of them. If I sing something for them as written (even if it has been performed by someone else already) and it doesn't work in my voice, most composers offer a different solution. In fact I've never had anyone insist on my singing an uncomfortable note. I find it hard to imagine that the dead guys were any less flexible, any less motivated by the desire to have their piece *work* and sound good. The only problem is that Mozart and the boys are not in the room with me as I work things out, so if I were to change a note here and there (and I'm not saying I do so much as asking why I don't!) I would have no way of getting feedback from the composer about whether my change is ok.
Thank you for the interesting discussion! I'm really enjoying this.
Naomi Gurt Lind
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