Posted by Rick Denney on May 04, 2001 at 13:00:56:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Contra-Octave in band playing posted by Jon Brady on May 04, 2001 at 11:26:40:
I have no problem with transcriptions, or even playing down an octave when it's musically appropriate (okay, no philosophical problem). But Mahler's statement does not support that notion in the way suggested by the person who used it.
When I play a transcription, then the program says, "Bach, Air on the G String, transcribed by Fred Fryburger" and everyone knows that what they are hearing is part Johann and part Fred.
In fact, I'm usually opposed to the traditional approach because it often represents incremental degradation of the composer's instructions. When Roger Norrington came out with his Beethoven recordings about 15 years ago, he performed them within the context of what was written, and without the usual conductorial editorialization. Suddenly, the sforzandos in the Dover score were in the music! But, unlike many more popular "historically informed" conductors and ensembles, he then made music on top of that. Too often, the original-instrument groups think they are ready to record when it's rehearsed enough to be merely together.
But the most instructive part of Norrington's statements about these recordings was something to the effect that by playing them strictly according to the score, he hoped to make them sound new again. He was, in fact, an anti-traditionalist.
Another example is Gould playing Bach. Sure, he played Bach on a piano, which didn't even exist in Bach's day, but unlike many of Gould's contemporaries, he played it as Baroque music, instead of Romanticized Baroque.
Rick "Do not break the rules before learning them" Denney