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From:  Naomi Gurt Lind <omigurt@m...>
Naomi Gurt Lind <omigurt@m...>
Date:  Thu May 10, 2001  6:31 pm
Subject:  re: heads buried in books


Karen wrote:

>One of the most bizarre concerts I ever attended was a recital of Schubert
>Lieder by the head of one of my smaller local university voice
>departments. This lady did not just use music on "Der Hirt dem Felsen" -
>which I suppose one could tenuously justify because it's a duet with
>clarinet (???!) - but she used the music (with music stand) on ALL of the
>songs - and we're talking mainly Schubert "chestnuts" here, like
>"Heidenroeslein" and "Ellens Gesang III (Ave Maria)". Oh, she sang the
>songs well enough - but I couldn't help dwelling in my mind on the
>impression she was making on her students by giving her Lieder recital
>with music and music stand. Shame on her!

This is bizarre to me, too. It's certainly well outside the norm of
concert convention. On the other hand, maybe this woman had some kind of
learning disability that precluded her memorizing music. Come to think of
it, I've heard of some highly accomplished singers who use music in
performance, although I've rarely seen it done except in new music.

NGL



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