ellen@ucla-cs.UUCP (12/18/84)
Well, about Joe's comments: >4) Program notes. Which kind do you prefer: > a) "The lyrical second movement gives way to a lively scherzo in > duple rhythm dominated by thrusting syncopation and flitting > semiquavers." > b) "Beethoven was in agony over the realization that he was going > deaf, and in fact had just written a suicide note which he > never sent, as he sat down to write out the second movement." > c) "Mozart always composed in his head, and in fact many pieces > were not fully written out at performance time." > d) "The first movement is in sonata-allegro form, with the second > theme actually just a diminution of the first." > e) "The length of the movements is: I-3:20 II-7:40 III-4:19." > My preferences: > a) No shit. I'm here to hear it myself, not to read about how it sounds. > b) While it's interesting to know what immediate pressures bore on > the composer, music also expresses ideas that have less to do > with the temporal than the ideological. > c) Neat! ("Amadeus" fans, unite! :-) > d) Helps me listen to the piece. > e) I may be flamed about this, but I want to know about how long the > music lasts. It helps me in listening for form. >Comments? Criticisms? > >-- > Joe Guthridge > ..!akgua!lanierrnd!jwg i'll jump in. And MY preferences are: a) i don't mind this. sure, i can hear if it is lively. but then, i'll also be able to tell if the general interpretation is supposed to be lively, and the conductor/performers are, instead, lugubrious. b) the composer may be expressing ideas which have NOTHING to do with her/his temporal circumstances, and then again, i may find that there is some interesting correlation between the ideas in the music and the life s/he was leading. (like, starving and suffering, but still wrote an incredibly joyous piece; or settled and sane and middle-class, but wrote something so woeful, that it is wonderful; or going deaf and agonizing over it, but then coming to grips with it, and the music reflects this). you can then hear whether the piece is "autobiographical" or written to express ideas on some higher plane (or at least you may make these attributions). (sure, i can read it in a book, i can read almost any of these comments in a book, but i don't feel like reading while i'm listening in the concert hall.) c) this seems to be a comment on the compositional/performance techniques of the composer/performer, and Mozart wasn't the only one to sit down to play in front of a blank sheet of paper. other techinques or quirks may also be equally interesting, like, always wrote in a tub full of sherry, or performed only while wearing red silk under-shorts :-) if you can find out whether or not the composer was in agony while writing this piece from a book, you can find out from a book if the composer was an inveterate procrastinator as well. d) this strikes me as being in the same league with (a), which Joe didn't like, or appeared to feel was demeaning to his musical intelligence. i find this just as useful/useless as (a). this is type of information is definitely written down in the score, just as the comments referred to in (a) are part of the score. if you can read the score or hear while the music is being played that you're in the midst of a lively scherzo, you should also be able to read/hear the fact that it's a variation of the original theme. e) (is it getting hot in here?) yes, it's helpful to get an idea of whether or not a piece or movement is brief or extended, but down to the minute:second !?! on a record, sure, it's always the same length, but in a live performance, there is probably a bit of divergence from performance to performance; say, the conductor's tails get caught in the music stand, knocking it over in the middle of a quiet movement, and he feels compelled to begin over again, then the second time, the solo bassoonist is stricken with a violent attack of stomach flu half way through the solo.... ///|\\\ /// \\\ //{o} {o}\\ ll " ll 'll ~ ll` lll lll ''' ```