Re: The Bach Choral Dilemma (Pierre Divenyi )


Subject: Re: The Bach Choral Dilemma
From:    Pierre Divenyi  <pdivenyi(at)EBIRE.ORG>
Date:    Thu, 30 Jan 2003 11:31:23 -0800

Because the five-line staff notation has been making less and less sense for contemporary composers, many of them transformed it or invented new schemes. I am thinking of composers like Xenakis, Stockhausen, Kurtag, Risset (to name only a very small number of them). The problem with relying on recordings is that, inevitably and thankfully, the performer will bring in his/her interpretation which, then, will become inseparable from the composer's intent. Let music continue to be noted on paper and let the performers figure out what the composer meant -- it is part of the thrill. For the musicians among you: I am still discovering new meaning and new details in pieces I have been playing for 40 years. Looking at the printed music reveals different things to different people and to the same person at different times. Pierre At 09:45 AM 1/30/2003 +0100, =?X-UNKNOWN?Q?T=F3th_L=E1szl=F3?= wrote: >On Wed, 29 Jan 2003, Leon van Noorden wrote: > > > Why is the player not allowed to pause for each bass note? > > Why do you believe in one god in the era of scientific polytheism? > > >I suppose the main goal of music sheets is to preserve music for the >next generations (at least, surely this was before the invention >of sound recording). If this is true, then the notation should be >as unambiguous as possible. If the baroque notation allows for such huge >differences in performance, then it's surely failed this this goal. > > Laszlo Toth >


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