At 5:26 PM -0400 9/2/11, Kim Patrick Clow wrote: > >And on a side note: I can't tell you how frustrating the parts are-- the >inconsistencies on everything- dynamic marks, articulations. I don't know >how the musicians >performed the music in really acceptable manner, but I know, performance >standards were much much different back then.
Hi, Kim. You say that as if you think performance standards were LOWER, and I have to question that. For one thing we know perfectly well that they didn't use equal temperament, so their tuning would have been much more accurate and pure than most of ours. For another, and potentially more important thing, they were working within single or just a few well-known and mutually-understood stylistic millieus, and not inventing new styles with every composition, so they wouldn't really have NEEDED to spell out everything in minute detail, and they would have automatically corrected copyist's errors on the fly, by ear, because they knew what it should sound like. In that respect I can only compare them with the finest studio musicians today, who are just as good musically as the composers whose music they're playing, and who KNOW their styles and don't have to guess. There's also the super-simple fact that the composer was most often the leader or a band member, and could explain any new symbols in a few words. 19th century conservatories raised the technical standards of professional musicians hugely, no question. But there IS a question whether they raised musicianship standards to the same extent, compared with players (or singers) who learned their business through years of apprenticeship and on-the-job training. Or maybe I'm wrong! John -- John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music Virginia Tech Department of Music School of Performing Arts & Cinema College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences 290 College Ave., Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[email protected]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html "Machen Sie es, wie Sie wollen, machen Sie es nur schön." (Do it as you like, just make it beautiful!) --Johannes Brahms _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
