Dear David, Thanks for highlighting some of the problems involved with classical recordings...
Here are some quotes from a Jacob Heringman interview (LSA Quartely) about recording a lute CD... "I would play it safe - I wouldn't take risks musically -just to get it over with. It felt like being at a dentist! And I sometimes think about the CD's that they could have more risk-taking and spontaneity" "Playfulness, which is something I think, is sometimes missing in the recordings" David Tayler says that players are getting better, but at what? Playing perfectly (at least as I expect most classical players today would judge) does not seem to have been a priority on recordings at the start of the last century. So either playing deteriorated immensely at the end of the 19th century or they had a different idea of what playing was all about in previous centuries. I am not saying that they were sloppy, but they were maybe not so predictable. Maybe romantic players were not so very different in many ways to baroque players, it is the rise of recording that has changed the way we think about performing. If David, has to change the way he plays continuo because of the recording situation then something is not right. We may be shocked when someone plays continuo from tablature, but it seems that would probably be best for recording sessions :( This is the reason why we edited our new CD, during the recording sessions, so we could improvise and not find out later that edits are impossible because of strange arpeggios etc... In the end we probably did less editing, because we had the time and freedom to find the best take for the situation. If the edit didn't work we just recorded it again or took a break. We even left in a few "mistakes" we had perfect takes, but in at least one place the wrong bass note on the bass lute just sounded so fantastic we had to leave it in :) See if you can spot it during "Venus and Adonis" you can hear the mp3 on our MySpace page www.myspace.com/pantagruelian All the best Mark -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: David van Ooijen [mailto:davidvanooi...@gmail.com] Gesendet: Dienstag, 3. Februar 2009 10:27 An: lute-cs.dartmouth.edu Betreff: [LUTE] Re: French trill? On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 10:04 AM, David Tayler <vidan...@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > I don't agree with Mr Haynes, but it doesn't matter, I use primary sources. > Why use a secondary source? To point us to the primary sources. ;-) > As for recording changing the way people play, that simply can't be true, I have become better, through recording. Concentration improved, accuracy improved, reliability improved, control improved. But improvisation is held in check during recording. Three takes of a continuo song with my part differently three times, as I would do in three concerts, is a bad idea. The producer will edit with an ear to the singer, leaving ugly scars in my continuo lines. It happened, it is still happening, it will happen again. I try to do single takes these days. For my solo pieces that's ok, accepting the odd imperfection in a flowing musical line and what to me is a more honest approach to music making. But not all my colleagues agree, or dare to trust themselves and their audiences, so in ensemble recordings majority rules and editing is still the norm. But I see a change around me. My latest CD, the Dowland to Purcell one with the singer, is partly recorded for a live audience in concert, single takes! Way to go. On a side note, I am listening to Glenn Gould's recordings of the 2 and 3 part inventions of Bach at the moment. What a recording session saga, nothing spontaneous about that! But beautiful, very beautiful. > As long as we have live concerts, there is a big reality check. Indeed. But many people only listen to recordings, it's their world, touchstone and musical reality. So recordings do change the perception of the audience. Performers are judged against digital perfection, however dead that perfection can be in ears that know how to appreciate a live concert. They are two worlds. YouTube might bring some of that live feeling back to people who would normally only listen to recordings. David - fan of YuoTube within one weekend -- ******************************* David van Ooijen davidvanooi...@gmail.com www.davidvanooijen.nl ******************************* To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
