Todd McComb wrote:
>Richard Wexler suggests questioning the factual basis for any
>assumptions:
>>This, it seems to me, is nothing other than good musicology.
>I think there is no question that disputing all aspects and
>questioning every assumption is good musicology. But is it good
>for performance? The answer is "sometimes" and we must ask, given
>that the two are separate endeavors, whether performance is at the
>service of musicology or the other way around, or indeed whether
>either is at the service of either.
I'd say that both are in the service of the music. The musicologist
learns what can be known and then makes it available to the performer
by way of publication. The performer then reads those findings and
makes a decision concerning whether or not to take them into account.
The music is only well served when the performer in fact reads what
the musicologist has to say. Isn't that what's meant by "historically
informed performance"?
>I suggest that, although the goals of these two disciplines have
>aligned closely for some time, this is becoming less true. At
>such a point, cooperation is achieved by understanding what is
>being attempted in each case, and the onus is on the musicologist
>to do that understanding. It is not up to the performer, because
>insisting that the performer be able to explain himself is
>counter-productive to art.
How is it becoming less true that the two disciplines are aligned?
I just don't see it happening. In my opinion, the onus is on the
performer to know what it is he or she is doing. What's counter-
productive to art is ignorance, and witless performance results in
inherently inferior art.
As for Harnoncourt, I don't have a great deal of sympathy for him.
Surely he knew that the forum where he would be speaking at Columbia
was to be musicological in some way. If Arthur Mendel then showed up
and asked him some difficult questions, perhaps he ought to have been
prepared enough to do more than "splutter."
Richard Wexler +------+ 1-301-405-5538 (w); 1-301-779-6906 (h) +-------+
| Musicology Division | University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 |
| Department of Music | E-mail: [log in to unmask] |
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