Mathias Roesel:
> "Whoever performs on the lute, will necessarily focus on their audience."
why would he (or she) not rather focus on the music? Especially playing
a repertoire which was primarily chamber music and not meant to have "an effect
on people", ignorant ones in particular.
Why would you tell lies to children? Why would you confuse their budding sense
of history?
I know that you are trying to be provocative and that you exaggerate the
vulgarity of the populist approach in order to draw sour replies like mine, but
I am still inclined to answer seriously. I don't see the point of moving people
at all. On saturday I played some late 16th century hardcore contrapuntal duets
to a group of winegrowers with fingers so worn and callous they could not dream
of playing a musical instrument. Yet the most serious, abstract, undramatic
pieces, played softly (no microphones) and completely without any show moved
them most. They seemed spell bound. I did not tell them fancy stories or
technicolour fairy tales. On the contrary, I told them that this music was
something in between astronomy and geometry. No effort to focus on the audience
whatsoever. We concentrated utterly on the music and our instruments, almost
hermetically. Musica reservata. They were simple, serious and quiet people and
they loved it.
I'd rather move the audience — towards a more profound understanding of history
and music in it.
best wishes
danyel
Am 03.07.2011 um 20:24 schrieb Mathias Roesel:
> Dear Stewart,
>
> Whoever performs on the lute, will necessarily focus on their audience.
>
> Tonight I introduced the lute to very young students of a music school.
> Since children under, say, eleven years of age usually can't distinguish
> eras of the past, I told them that the lute belongs to that era when there
> were kings and knights and dragons, and that it would be played on castles
> when the king wished to dance. I played the Pavana Bray (Byrd / Cutting) and
> the Coranto Confesse. Then I added that sometimes the queen wished to sing,
> and I accompanied an adult singer with Come Again (by You Know Who).
>
> The children and their parents were deeply impressed both by the
> instrument's sight and by the music.
>
> You just have to focus on your audience. And if our only goal is to move the
> audience, then why not use microphones? I did so tonight, as we were
> performing in a huge church building. I wouldn't mind some artificial fog as
> well (like E. K. did in his Forlorn Hope video), if that improves the effect
> on the audience. What I did avoid, though, was to strum heavily or to bend
> or to crush the lute on one of the amplifiers because I figured that the
> kids aren't familiar with Jimi Hendrix or Rory Gallagher.
>
> Mathias
>
>> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
>> Von: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Im
>> Auftrag von Stewart McCoy
>> Gesendet: Sonntag, 3. Juli 2011 13:04
>> An: Lute Net
>> Betreff: [LUTE] What's the point to 'historical sound'
>>
>> Dear Mathias,
>>
>> As a man of the cloth, you will know that music has long been able to have
> a
>> powerful effect on the listener:
>>
>> "And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that
> David
>> took an harp, and played with his hand; so Saul was refreshed. And was
> well, and
>> the evil spirit departed from him." [1, Samuel, 16, 23]
>>
>> One can speculate about the extent of David's self-expression through
> music,
>> and whether or not this was possible for someone living before the 19th
>> century. The important thing for me, which transcends HIP/ non-HIP
>> considerations, is the effect of the music we play on the listener. After
> hearing
>> me play the lute in a primary school some years ago, the most disruptive
> pupil in
>> the class wrote, "When I heard the lute, I felt I wanted to cry." Therein
> lies the
>> point of what we do.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Stewart.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
>> Behalf Of Mathias Roesel
>> Sent: 02 July 2011 22:38
>> To: 'lutelist Net'
>> Subject: [LUTE] Re: What's the point to 'historical sound'
>>
>>> Would you consider Lachrimae as a personal artistic expression of
>> Dowland
>> or
>>> as an example of more general craftsmanship?
>>
>> An expression of his sublime art, certainly. I do resist the notion,
> however, that
>> Dowland had personally fallen in love with queen Elizabeth. On the other
> hand, I
>> had the opportunity to attend a recital where an American soprano sang
> this
>> song and moved me to tears. I happened to make her acquaintance and came
> to
>> know that she was endlessly sad because her husband had to live in the US
> while
>> she was trying to settle in Europe. I won't go more into the details,
> think you'll
>> get the idea.
>>
>>> Maybe Francesco,
>>> Dowland or Weiss didn't feel about their art as we today imagine
>> Beethoven
>> felt
>>> about his art, but does that make their art less of a personal
>> expression?
>>
>>
>> Okay, probably I have misunderstood what to you is a personal expression.
> To
>> me it is expressing your own true emotions and feelings towards others.
>> That
>> is difficult business if there is no appropriate musical language for
> doing that.
>> Composers from Beethoven to Wagner and Strauss (to name a few
>> Europeans) invented a musical language so as to express personal feelings
>> explicitly.
>>
>>> in essence there was no difference between Beethoven and earlier
>> composers
>>> like Weiss, Dowland or Francesco. There was a difference in their
>> social
>> role and
>>> stature, the value and regard of their works, but perhaps not in their
>> own
>>> attitude to what must have been their children: ther compositions.
>>
>> We'll never know for sure as they didn't elaborate on this topic (as far
> as I
>> know). There is an anecdote about Chopin that I read somewhere. When
> Chopin
>> came to Paris, he heard a local pianist playing music by Chopin.
>> Chopin is said to have been startled as that pianist was playing the music
> so
>> emotionally ....
>>
>>>> But taking pieces of lute music as
>>>> expressing personal emotions of their composers
>>>
>>> That could never be the basis of an interpretation. Only as a starting
>> point of
>>> how we would feel what we imagine the composer would have felt.
>> Today's
>>> interpreter is the translator of these feelings.
>>
>> Yes. Take e. g. the Tombeaux for Logy and for Cajetan by Weiss. Very
> expressive
>> pieces, full of dark minor chords and remote keys. Perhaps we like to take
> them
>> as personal expressions of grief. Weiss would not have dared, I suppose.
>>
>>>> settings that the music probably was performed in (like royal
>>>> festivities with dances, civic parties etc.)
>>>
>>> How boring: music without emotions but historical setting only.
>>
>> I'm sorry? Festivities and parties without emotions? Without expression of
> true
>> personal emotions, possibly, but certainly not without emotions!
>> Every
>> little musical phrase expresses gestures which are connected to emotions.
>> That's the thing with any kind of code: If only you're trained to
> appreciate, you'll
>> be able to enjoy.
>>
>>> For sure, the
>>> programmes I play are full of historical references, I play early
>> music
>> after all,
>>> but to make it into sounding music, the stuff that makes people cry or
>> laugh, I
>>> have to bring in emotions ...
>>
>> . of your own.
>>
>>>> rather than on possible personal
>>>> expressions of the composers.
>>>
>>> .. and what better source of emotions, in a historical setting, can I
>> draw
>> on than
>>> the emotions that the composer is conveying to me through his
>> composition?
>>
>> The composer is conveying? The opposite is true, I think, in that we carry
> our
>> emotions into what we hear because we always search for meaning.
>>
>>> 'Flow my tears' - what more do I need for inspiration?
>>
>> And that's what makes you an accomplished artist. I'm sure, though, you
> will
>> perform it differently from E. Karamazov who didn't need more for
> inspiration as
>> well.
>>
>>> That's the beauty of it: convince yourself and you'll convince your
>> audience. And
>>> if it doesn't work, find another job. ;-) People who are making music
>> for
>> their
>>> audiences only, are entertainers. A good job, and we can learn much
>> from
>> them,
>>> but it needs a different kind of personality. The kind that doesn't
>> mind
>> wearing
>>> feathers' in their caps. Which I don't mind doing when occasion
>> demands,
>> by the
>>> way.
>>
>> Couldn't agree more.
>>
>> Mathias
>>
>>
>>
>> To get on or off this list see list information at
>> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
