Conductor's Notebook
Writings, including academic papers and music criticism, as well as videos, audio, notes, and other content.
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Gunther Schuller
…This is the type of practical analysis that interests me: the kind that aims squarely at enhancing the performer’s ability to consistently perform a desired shape. Tabuteau accomplishes this by first asking the performer to extending her mind - “offloading” musical thoughts onto the score for safekeeping. But it isn’t merely a way to store information; it is also a way to refine our musical thinking in the first place.
“Don't criticize. If a thing is wrong and you don't know exactly how to set it right, say nothing.”
— [George] Bernard Shaw - The Art of Rehearsal
Interpretation is a commonly understood term among musicians, a term denoting the “stylistic representation of a creative work,” (Stevenson 2010).[1] However, interpretation is often wrongly believed to be a self-consistent and complete toolset for preparing the score for performance. Rather than merely augment the accepted definition of interpretation, I argue that a new term must be used to represent the superset of tools valuable to the performer, of which the traditional methods of interpretation are a subset. I argue for the use of the term Performance Design (PD) to indicate the totality of means and methods by which live concert performances are planned and prepared. Included in these means are tools from Neuroscience, Information Theory, and other audience-centric disciplines.
...Bartok, for instance, gives us not only metronome markings, but precise timings for sections as a second check against grossly deforming his works. He believes his music to be more delicate with regards to timing, so one wrong move and snap. Mahler, on the other hand, gives loads of instruction with regard to tempo, some metronome markings, but a degree of sturdy flexibility to his music. It seems that his approach to harmony and orchestration further supports this.
