Re: Eine Kleine Digression

[Raffaele Volante <vlr@dns.unife.it>]

>I agree with the above points and I think that further, it seems ludicrous
>to steal away from the performer the right to interpret the music as he or
>she sees fit. 
>
I remember another debate, few months ago, about HIP. I didn't took part in
that, because my poor english knolewdge didn't make me able to express the
difference beetween two italian terms: "Eseguire" (to do something
following someone's instructions, e.g. to play a music written by Bach) and
"Interpretare" (to do something assuming the instructions as a starting
point to show a personal point of view). The best example for that are, in
my opinion, Gould's performances. 
Assuming that the only duty for the "Interprete" is to show the way that
conducted him to some extents, no doubt GG was always "logical" in his
playings.
I think the words of Jacques Hétu
(http://www.gould.nlc-bnc.ca/phase3/ehetu.htm) are a good introduction to
the Gould-interpretation-problem:
"...what was the intrinsic value of a musical text, a text he frequently
tackled as a "pre-text" to a formidable sound production in which his own
musical universe, nourished by that of the composer, is displayed and
asserts itself on the listener with an irrefutable logic?"

Probably a no-answer question, but surely a problem one have to afford,
before any judgement about Gould's work.

Raffaele




Dott. Raffaele Volante
Ricercatore in Storia del diritto italiano
Università degli Studi di Ferrara
Dipartimento di Scienze Giuridiche
Corso Ercole I d'Este, 37
44100   Ferrara