Matt Viola Theo Chandler MHST 275 Music after 1914 Claudia Macdonald Assignment 1 Stravinsky in his Poetics

of Music (1947), lecture 6 (The Performance of Music) sets a very particular tone for how music should be performed. Two examples from the era are La Creation du monde by Milhaud and Bachianas Brasileiras by Villa Lobos. Stravinksy discusses the most important aspects in comparison to what performers typically do. That most important aspect is serving the music. Virtuosos who live up to Stravinskys standards are very rare and he seems to have a bias on serving the composers intent as opposed to being open to the performers own interpretations. These views only work in the neo-classical style of the 1920s where musical gestures are all scrupulously notated. Stravinsky believes that too many musicians simply do what they need to get by with a career and do not serve the music with faith. When one serves the music instead of giving more importance to themselves instead of the most important person, the composer, they begin to let perfecting useless nuances get in the way of delivering the music to their full extent. Stravinsky digresses about how much work is put into a composition that the audience doesnt realize. The work is a gift to the public and regardless of what it means to them it is always something that represents the composers creativity. This ties back to the performer who must do their homework and selflessly become the composer and play the piece the way the composer intends it to be played.

One nuance that can never been over exaggerated to Stravinsky is rhythm. In his Histoire du Soldat(1918) he wrote in the rhythmic style of jazz as he saw from sheet music. It seems hypocritical to talk so much about the necessity of knowing music so well to never have heard the music before or know anything about it and just throw it into his new piece for experimentation. Not knowing how its performed but just how it appears on page, curiously enough Alex Ross states that the piece is a dream of jazz rather than a reflection of the real thing. In such a situation its hard to know for the performer how to play it, in a jazz style or this quasi jazz for more accustomed performers. Landowska and Kozinn agree that attempts to adhere too strictly to the rules of performance practice can be dangerous to a performance. Kozinn directed most of his points at performance practice of twentieth century music, citing examples of twentieth century composers preferring performances which defy their expression markings. He urged interpretive championing of works by performers, suggesting that the composers themselves often wish to have their works played differently than what they notated in the score. Kozinn also points out that the varying opinions about correctness among historical performance musicians displays the triviality of a search for the objectively perfect performance in early music, and suggests a similar sentiment should be applied to music of the twentieth century. Landowska comments exclusively on older music, mostly of Bach and other Baroque-era composers. She warns against the two poles of interpretation: exaggeration on a personal level and a dedication to sobriety and objectivism. Landowska leans towards a personal performance, criticizing those who believe in servitude to every detail that is specified by music historians. The article suggests that performance expectation creates a less thoughtful performer. As an

example, Landowska suggests that a student performing a new piece will decide how to interpret it, while a student learning a piece by Beethoven or Chopin will do as others have done before. Although neither writer directly stated it, twentieth century music is perhaps the most hazardous with regard to their opinions of performance practice. Kozinn mentioned the differences between Boulez and Barenboims conducting of Schoenbergs orchestral works, but mentioned nothing about the scrupulous detail with which Schoenberg annotated his scores. When playing the piano music by Schoenberg, one could easily lose a sense of individual interpretation at the sight of the page, covered in expressive markings. Each phrase has a new dynamic indication and accompanying expression indication in German. This differs entirely from Kozinn and Landowskas comments about performance practice of Baroque-era works, Uxtext editions of which essentially present a page of nothing but pitches and rhythms. Landowskas points about personal interpretation are more difficult to apply when each gesture is specified with timing, articulation, and dynamic markings. Adherence to the will of the composer in earlier music means being taught the general trends of the era, whereas adherence in twentieth century music means reading the exact instructions made by the composer. Kozinn and Landowska differ from Stravinsky with regard to interpretation. Stravinsky seems almost to attempt to veer the performer away from freedom and personal decisions. Of course Kozinn and Landowska do not claim that the composers interest should not be considered, but, as opposed to Stravinsky, they say that the livelihood of a piece of music rests with its performance. Kozinn believes that more varying performances of contemporary pieces are necessary to have it played in concert halls. Landowska considers laws of strict performance practice a hindrance to musicianship. Stravinsky seems to appreciate less the relationship between composition and performer than Kozinn or Landowska, seeing many performers as too

concerned with smaller details of nuance rather than of the technical and concrete aspects of the music. Both Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras and Stravinskys Histoire du soldat display a similar sense of transformation of older music. Villa Lobos, in his Bachianas Brasileiras, brought elements of Bachs music into the Brazilian folk music idiom, most notably in the use of older structures such as the toccata, prelude, and fugue. Histoire du soldat appears during Stravinskys neoclassical period, in which he used classical forms and lighter textures to merge his compositional technique with the trends of the classical era. Although composing is certainly different than performing, with regard to consideration of the trends of the past, the concern for balance between the personal and the objective that Landowska writes about applies. When performing neoclassical works, Landowska would most likely apply the same sense of freedom, even with the more extensive expressive markings that appear in twentieth century music.