From: basinski@biosci.arizona.edu (Mark Basinski)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical.guitar
Subject: Performance precedents (was RE: recuerdos)
Date: 23 Jan 93 20:02:29 GMT
Followup-To: rec.music.classical.guitar
Organization: Univ. of Arizona

In article <1993Jan22.175947.7774@cerritos.edu>, radams@cerritos.edu wrote:
>  . . . . That is, a story that the performer
> develops about the music (possibly derived from the composer or influenced
> by the composer) may cause the performer to trash the music, although he/she
> may do so with the best of artistic intentions and even do so with commitment
> and intensity. I do not intend to belabor this discussion of Recuerdos, but
> the concepts that have been covered with just this one piece of music have been
> very interesting. There are not too many pieces like this that everyone 
> plays or has played that can be used as a springboard for discussions of
> musicality, composer's intentions, historical context, performance precedent,
> etc. 
> 
> I once was in a master class in which the teacher indicated that
> performance precedence was much like legal precedence in the law profession
> in that even if an interpretation is not what a composer intended or not
> in line with the musical structure of the piece (as in Recuerdos) that it
> nevertheless becomes an authoritative interpretation if its recorded by
> a famous artist in that way. You then may have to take the pressure of
> bucking the establishment of this precedence, even have people perceive
> your more musically enlightened performance as "incorrect" :-).
> 
  This is a very insightful point. While Segovia is owed vast homage for
his work to revive the guitar and for his beautiful playing, some
unfortunate
parts of his legacy are the "you must do things the way I do them" approach
to teaching and the numerous recordings of various pieces in which "his
way", though beautiful sounding on the guitar, was not at all what the 
composer intended.

   Due to the former, there was a whole generation of students (of Segovia)
who either were totally into everything he did (though at times the attempt
to 
imitate was not the same thing as drawing upon a genuine artistic vision,
and sometimes resulted in performances that utterly lacked Segovia's
brilliance), or there were those who rebelled strongly against Segovia and
though these teachers and performers often were successful in developing
their own artistic and musical vision, they tended to disparage everything
about Segovia, which is a shame. I studied extensively with 2 teachers that
fit into the latter category, Jose Tomas and Abel Carlevaro. I doubt anyone
spent more time with Segovia than either of them, yet they both tended to 
speak of Segovia, when they spoke of him at all, as an example of lack of
concern for the composers intentions; not strictly fair.

	  Still, there were plenty of examples of things Segovia did that "worked"
yet were utterly different from "the composer's intentions". For example,
there
was a TV special shown shortly after Segovia's death (with Hugh Downs of
all
people) - the special had actually been filmed mostly right before Segovia
died, and was in post-production when he died, so they made it into an
homage,
etc. Anyway, they showed a video clip of Segovia performing Villa-Lobos 
Study # 1 on the Ed Sullivan show (from late 50's or early 60's), and 
he played it VERY fast, with the effect being a very fluid and shimmery
wave of sound from his ability to play those arpeggios so very fast and
so very smoothly. Quite impressive. Now, that is not at all what
Villa-Lobos
had in mind -the piece is clearly marked "Allegro Non Troppo" and when the
performer can realize the syncopations that occur in the piece (as opposed
to
playing the arpeggios totally evenly, without inflection), the moderate
groove, the brazilian character of the piece emerges. Which has more
musical
value? Tough question. But! the performer owes it to the composer to at
least
explore "what was the composer's intention" to the fullest degree possible
before he or she decides to do things differently according to his own
artistic vision, and for students and intermediate level players, this is
even more important as a part of the path of developing one's own artistic
personality.
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Mark Basinski      Internet: basinski@biosci.arizona.edu