Great comment! Thanks Stephen! Arto
On Sat, 27 Mar 2010 18:11:01 -0500, "Stephen Arndt" <[email protected]> wrote: > Without any wish to be contentious, and agreeing with Howard, I would > suggest that the "informed" in "historically informed performance" derives > (at least in idea if not in fact--the coiners of HIP may never have read > Aristotle) from Aristotelian metaphyics, where a "substance" (ousia) is > said > to consist of "matter" (hyle) and "form" (morphe). Thus, a particular > "form" > is said to "inform" prime matter and to make it the kind of thing that it > is, somewhat as a particular shape makes this piece of marble to be a > statue > of Socrates rather than of Plato. In this sense, it seems to me, a > particular historical "form" ( = the style of a particular historical > epoch, > whatever epistemological difficulties may be involved in determining what > it > was) could very well "inform" ( = give form to) the "matter" ( = the > physical act of playing an instrument) of a given performance. > > My two cents (which, with an annual inflation rate of about 2.5% is now > worth only about 1.75 cents). > > Stephen Arndt > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "howard posner" <[email protected]> > To: "lute-cs.dartmouth.edu list" <[email protected]> > Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 5:29 PM > Subject: [LUTE] HIP, was string tension of all things > > > On Mar 27, 2010, at 2:38 PM, David Tayler wrote: > >> The main reason not to use the phrase is that it is excruciatingly bad >> grammar. > * * * >> Performance, of course, is not informed. People are informed. By >> extension, I concede the transfer to the action of the person:one can, of >> >> course, make an informed decision. "Make" takes on the temorary role of a >> >> stative verb. And one can have an informed opinion, again, there is an >> implied reference to the owner of the opinion. >> But can one make an informed performance? > > "inform ...v.t. ...3. to give character to; pervade or permeate with > resulting effect on the character: A love of nature informed informed his > writing" > > From the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged > Edition > (1968) p. 730 > > So writing, or a building, or, yes, performance, can be "informed." This > is > actually the "original" and most intuitive sense of the word "inform," > which > is "to give form to" rather than the now more common "to impart knowledge." > > And in this original sense it is things, not people, that are informed. > >> Performance is also not “historically"--performance can be historic, >> but >> that means something very different. > > Historically modifies "informed," not "performance." > "Informed" is an adjective here: the performance is described as being > informed in some manner. And if you're going to describe that adjective > (in what way is it informed? what informs it?), you need an adverb, such > as, > for example, "historically." > > I don't think "performance to which considerations of historical practice > have given character" would have caught on. "PTWCOHPHGC" makes a lousy > acronym, at least in English. > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
