Re: GG: And Historical Performance

["Robert C. Kunath" <kunath@hilltop.ic.edu>]

Dear F-Minors,

	I also urge Mr. Klein not to abandon the group--critical voices are just
what we need to keep the discussion lively (I sure have seen a lot more
f-minor contributions recently!).  Nor is there anything wrong with his
preference for "historically informed performance."  If he likes his music
played that way, he has no further need to justify his taste.

	I'm no musician, but I have read a bit about HIP, particularly the
critiques of the movement by Richard Taruskin.  The older version of HIP
was called "authentic performance" and claimed to be recovering the "true"
style of performance.  Taruskin had an easy time shooting that claim out of
the water, as Mr. Klein acknowledges--we're never going to get to some
ultimate authenticity (if anybody's interested, Taruskin's essays are in
his book _Text and Act_).  But it does seem that Mr. Klein sees some kind
of hierarchy of tastes: he seems to be arguing that a preference for HIP
performances is more valid than a fondness for Gould's performances (in the
old days of "early music," that assumed superiority was called "earlier
than thou").  I can't buy that: I encourage Mr. Klein to listen to
Christopher Hogwood and Colin Tilney and Trevor Pinnock, but those who
happen to prefer Gould's versions have an equally unassailable
taste--chacun a son gout, and all that.

	Finally, while I quite agree that today's HIP musicologists hate Gould, I
think the question is very open as to how Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, etc.
would have reacted if they could have heard Gould play their music. 
Possibly they would have hated it.  But, contrary to Mr. Klein, I am quite
sure that Gould was no charlatan, and I have it on the authority of no less
than the revered (at least by me) George Szell, who said what I can imagine
Beethoven saying as he listened to Gould: "That nut's a genius."  Music is
big enough to encompass a variety of approaches, and Gould had the talent
to justify a highly personal approach.  In a hundred years, I'm not sure
that anyone will be listening to Christopher Hogwood; they'll be listening
to Glenn Gould because there will never be another.

Robert

----------
> From: flavio graf <flavio1graf@hotmail.com>
> To: f_minor@email.rutgers.edu
> Subject: Re: GG
> Date: Monday, October 05, 1998 6:16 PM
> 
> No Mr. Klein, please, don't leave this group.
> Even though I almost adore Glenn I would like to read more comments such 
> as yours. You see... I love biodiversity. 
> To be honest I don't give a damn for HIP. At the light of this century I 
> wonder what would the virtual Bach would've done. I just have an 
> independent appreciation for music and I don't care much about fidelity 
> to composers ORIGINAL intentions (by the way your example with painting 
> is not rigorous). 
> I have this feeling that if Glenn would've met J.S., the latter would've 
> write a blank check, happily.
> Utopias arent dead, they offer some kind of stimuli, without the 
> hangover.
> Flavio
> >
> >
> >Look, I'm coming from a certain aesthetic here. My musical values are 
> those
> >of the historically informed performance ("HIP") movement, for the most
> >part. Although HIP contains ample room for individuality, one tries 
> one's
> >best to interpret a composer and his/her music in its historical and 
> social
> >context. This is seen as a kind of social contract, as Christopher 
> Hogwood
> >put it, between performer and composer. Of course this can't be done 
> with
> >complete certainty, but one makes an honest effort in that direction, 
> within
> >the limits of modern musical scholarship. One doesn't paint a moustache 
> on
> >the Mona Lisa. 
> >
> >I won't speculate further about how Gould got to sound the way he did - 
> but
> >I think it's undeniable that listening to Gould play Bach, Beethoven,
> >Mozart, or whoever, one has a sense of listening to Gould and not the 
> composer. 
> >
> >I've lost the info on the listserver for this mailing list, but I'd be 
> happy
> >to oblige everyone by unsubscribing now. If someone would be so kind as 
> to
> >show me the door ...
> >
> >David Klein
> >
> >
> 
> 
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