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Re: The Bach Choral Dilemma



Because the five-line staff notation has been making less and less sense
for contemporary composers, many of them transformed it or invented new
schemes. I am thinking of composers like Xenakis, Stockhausen, Kurtag,
Risset (to name only a very small number of them). The problem with relying
on recordings is that, inevitably and thankfully, the performer will bring
in his/her interpretation which, then, will become inseparable from the
composer's intent. Let music continue to be noted on paper and let the
performers figure out what the composer meant -- it is part of the thrill.
For the musicians among you: I am still discovering new meaning and new
details in pieces I have been playing for 40 years. Looking at the printed
music reveals different things to different people and to the same person
at different times.

Pierre

At 09:45 AM 1/30/2003 +0100, =?X-UNKNOWN?Q?T=F3th_L=E1szl=F3?= wrote:
On Wed, 29 Jan 2003, Leon van Noorden wrote:

> Why is the player not allowed to pause for each bass note?
> Why do you believe in one god in the era of scientific polytheism?
>
I suppose the main goal of music sheets is to preserve music for the
next generations (at least, surely this was before the invention
of sound recording). If this is true, then the notation should be
as unambiguous as possible. If the baroque notation allows for such huge
differences in performance, then it's surely failed this this goal.

               Laszlo Toth