David Love wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Stephen Birkett" <birketts@wright.aps.uoguelph.ca> > > > It was patently not intended for the modern > > piano, simply because that instrument didn't exist until after > > Beethoven was dead. > > I didn't say intended, I was arguing against those who say that his work > cannot be legitimately played on modern instruments. I dont believe anyone did say that. Getting to Beethovens, or anyone elses musical heart simply means looking at his life and music in as much the same context as he did. In this sense it is "correct" or "proper" to play his music on instruments of his time, and using tuning schemes familiar to him. That says in itself nothing about whether or not any particular music can be legitimately played on modern instruments. These periods of music we are talking about really are quite different musical contexts. That means that before any talk of musical interpretation of origional (authored) intent can be realized, a process of musical translation must first be accomplished. To translate... you simply need to understand the origional language and all its nuances as best as possible. To underestimate the difficulty in this, or to believe that it is a simple matter of a common notation that hasnt changed significantly in some hundreds of years is a mistake. If one does not take the effort to fully understand the origional contexts, then one enters a world of a more free interpretation of music... ala the Keith Jarrett example given. Which is ok too. As long as we keep our peas seperated from our queues definitionwise as it were. It seems to me that there is far more resistance on the part of those advocating the use of modern instruments to the "legitimacy" of playing period music on period instruments and temperaments... then the other way around. No where do I see advocates of the historical perspective saying anything else then to underline the importance of maintaining this exact perspective. I see nothing exclusive in their commentary whatsoever. -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
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