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From:  Naomi Gurt Lind <naomi@n...>
Date:  Tue Nov 5, 2002  3:41 pm
Subject:  open score/closed score

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




  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date  
20769 Re: open score/closed scoreElizabeth Finkler   Tue  11/5/2002  
20773 Re: open score/closed scoreLloyd W. Hanson lwh1 Wed  11/6/2002  
20774 Why am I tense for my high notes?Dolphin aura Dolphin_Aura Thu  11/7/2002  
20775 Re: Why am I tense for my high notes?Naomi Gurt Lind   Thu  11/7/2002  
20776 Re: Why am I tense for my high notes?Karen Mercedes   Thu  11/7/2002  
20778 Re: Why am I tense for my high notes?James bandbau Thu  11/7/2002  
20785 Re: Why am I tense for my high notes?dramcol71 dramcol71 Fri  11/8/2002  
20780 Re: open score/closed scoreIsabelle Bracamonte ibracamonte Fri  11/8/2002  

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