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From:  Linda Fox <linda@f...>
Linda Fox <linda@f...>
Date:  Thu Apr 19, 2001  12:34 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Mozart in falsetto/ how styles change (was: grumpy mozartians)


Greypins@a... wrote:
Greypins@a... wrote:
>

>
> one cannot take 'sublime' as a given either.

Not my word. But it's an adjective I've seen in more than one review of
her singing, by different people. Isabelle's comment that her views on
Kirkby's singing should be taken "as a given" imply that they are
axiomatic like 2+2=4; in other words, something that goes without saying
for all of us.

>you yourself made the
> distinction between ms. kirkby and cheryl studer. prefering one over the
> other is probably more common than liking both. what is 'sublime' to one
> might well be 'horrible' to another.
> and i'm sure there are singers who sang duets with ms. studer in college who
> might be offended by your comments on her (i don't criticize your loyalty).

Huh? What comments on her? All I did was to ask whether Isabelle would
prefer a singer of Cheryl Studer's undoubted talent in her chosen field,
in early Baroque lute and viol ensembles. I'm not sure I'd choose Kirkby
to play Violetta, for that matter. According to you, that is equally
offensive.
>

> when i was in high school (early 70s), a bunch of us were discussing the
> harnoncourt recordings of bach cantatas. my friend ray was saying how
> horrible they were. a teacher of ours countered by saying "of all the
> recordings currently available, these recordings are closest to bach's
> intent." ray responded "oh! i guess i don't like bach as much as i thought
> i did."
>
Quite. It's a matter of taste as much as anything else. Sometimes
acquired taste. If you hear the sound of the fortepiano, after hearing
music that was originally composed for it being played on a concert
grand all your life, you are bound to find the sound thin and
disappointing at first. Then it's your choice whether to persevere with
appreciating the sound that the composer would have heard, or you can
say "I like the grand piano, therefore I prefer this music played on the
grand piano even though it wasn't originally meant for it - it's an
improvement on the original". Or you can appreciate both, just as you
can appreciate the gigantic mural and the Mona Lisa. You can appreciate
both for their own merits and not set the one above the other.

And if your taste is for Purcell sung by someone who is more at home
with Wagner, to use an extreme hypothesis, then you go listen to them.
What you don't do is dismiss whole areas of scholarship and tradition as
worthless and tell everyone that it's a "given" (which is getting to
sound like a more and more clumsy expression every time I type it; it
was ok the first time when Isabelle used it - what is the word or
expression I'm groping for here, someone?)



cheers

Linda


  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
11207 Re: Mozart in falsetto/ how styles change (was: g Greypins@a...   Thu  4/19/2001   3 KB
11267 HIP of vocal music thomas mark montgomery   Sat  4/21/2001   3 KB
11209 Taste in Singers, was:Mozart in falsetto/ how sty John Alexander Blyth   Thu  4/19/2001   3 KB

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