On Oct 20, 2005, at 3:10 PM, ed440@mindspring.com wrote: > Jeff- > Who is so concerned about such accuracy? Well, Cage (or the publisher) implies it, for one thing. > If the performer is concerned, let him/her find a recording of the > piece performed by a recognized authority, then adjust your piano > to make similar sounds. We don't have recordings of what Beethoven intended, and we typically don't perform it on exactly the same instruments he composed on, nor at the same pitch (though we can) and we can recreate our best interpretation of the music itself, even if we don't exactly duplicate the tonality of the instruments he composed for. But Beethoven could write down on a piece of paper the notations, tempos and dynamics he was hearing in his mind, and scholars of his work will come very close to interpreting his intentions. But if we give Cage any credibility at all beyond being totally stoned, he seems to have had specific sounds in mind that he, ahem, "discovered" that can't be notated in the music. (perhaps thwack!? Thunk!? Thwonk!? Donkt!?) It seems that we are "dumbing down" the music when we have to have a recording to hear what he heard. Am I making sense? (on the other hand, just seeing some of these "Woa! Let's see what happens if we try this!" sounds, I could envision a stoned out composer saying, "Oh groovy, dude! You're getting some tones that's way cooler than what I was thinking of!") :-) Jeff
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