KEY NOTES
Historical perspectives on piano technique BY MURRAY MCLACHLAN
FIDELITY TO THE SCORE
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usic competitions in the UK differ from those in other countries in one crucial respect: the use of sheet music. I am not referring to the competitors’ performances (most of which are given by memory) but rather the use of music by judges. It is not uncommon for jury members in UK-based competitions to be seen turning pages of scores while performers play – something which rarely happens in competitions in Italy, Belgium, Australia, the States and elsewhere. This reflects different approaches to listening, and leads to questions about the impact and necessity of following instructions (or guidelines?) in the editions of works we play and study. Just how important is it to be reverential to the composer’s markings in a score? Does following the music during a performance shift the listener’s perspective and alter what they hear? In any case, what is the most important thing to prioritise – literal reproduction of the score, or a subjective ‘opinion’ of what the music means to a particular individual? Should the markings in a score be seen as instructions (rather like directions in a recipe book) or indications of the composer’s aesthetic and feelings? These are all big questions way beyond the scope of a modest article such as this, but for the beginnings of answers it is interesting to compare and contrast music from different historical periods, and fascinating to note ways in which performers from different eras and schools have tackled these issues.
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Pianists today are fortunate to be working in a culture that has benefitted from the laudable work of the historical performance movement. We are used to excellent editions and revelatory performances from artists who have researched and studied source material and writings. Thanks to the scholarship of musicians of the calibre of Robert Levin and Paul Badura-Skoda, there are many fantastic examples of good practice to inspire us. This column has frequently mentioned the necessity of reading CPE Bach’s Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments, but there are other texts which can similarly help to enhance our understanding, including Howard Ferguson’s Keyboard Interpretation from the 14th to the 19th Century and Thurston Dart’s The Interpretation of Music. Editions of keyboard music published prior to 1800 cannot be considered to present more than 50 per cent of the musical material necessary for realisation, exploration and exposition. The 18th-century aesthetic demanded executants to contribute significantly to the music they performed. The interpreter was expected to add a tremendous amount to the printed page in terms of ornamentation, improvised cadenzas, links and decorations at cadences, fermatas and bridge sections. Arpeggiation, ‘filling in’ textures (so that single notes or pairs of notes become chords) as well as the employment of rubato is expected not only in JS Bach, Handel and Scarlatti, but also the French harpsichord masters ‘Les Clavicinists’, CPE Bach, JC Bach
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and – in totally different ways – Mozart, Clementi and early Haydn. If an 18th-century score itself does not provide all the information we need, perhaps performers should also consider other available source material as ‘the score’. Writings on performance practice, research, recordings, alternative editions, manuscript facsimiles and accounts from letters of the period are invaluable. So too is the experience of listening to and playing harpsichords and fortepianos. We are being parochial and stuck in our own time if we think we can use the score as a ‘road map’ to navigate our way through compositions of this era. In fact, we owe it to ourselves to venture much further as we gather evidence, data and inspiration for study and consideration. Of course, total authenticity in performances of music written over 250 years ago is neither possible nor desirable. We can never ascertain exactly how Bach would have performed his Fugue in D major from book one of The Well-Tempered Clavier (Example 1, below), and we have no way of exactly replicating the lighting, heating, or acoustical qualities of rooms where music was performed during 18th-century court spectaculars. In any case, do we really want to do this? Pianists are not in the business of cloning interpretations. The art of interpretation is a subtle combination, a synthesis that involves channelling source material via the sweat and perspiration of hours and hours of practising. Eventually, 3
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Example 1 ••• Bach Fugue in D major BWV 850, bars 1-3
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