Reading a Score, and Beethoven's Mind By ALLAN KOZINN

[Chris]

Originally posted by urtextmeister:
Good point, Chris, about string players, though I would like to know how you get a vibrato on the lowest open string. Shake your head back and forth while you play?

Heh, no. Let's take the violin as an example. The lowest open string is G. The next highest G is on the next string over, and if you are in first position, you will play that G with the third finger. If you finger that note, and use vibrato, but bow the open G string, you will get a vibrato on it. It's not bad, but I hardly ever use it myself. My vibrato is rather crappy anyway, so I mostly leave it out altogether or use it sparingly.

And I knew you played the guitar Rod - that comment was not directed at you.

[Peter]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Grillparzer:
B.) However, he also said "that is the tempo, but just to start out" (this quote is from Thayer, and if pressed unduly, I will find it. 1200 pages is a lot to reread for such a simple purpose!). The way I understand this is that he not only understands the need for variety in tempo, but he advocates it.

Well yes this is true - Beethoven wasn't suggesting people play rigidly an mechanically - he is known to have adopted quite a range of tempi fluctuations in his own playing that aren't necessarily marked in the score. He also made far greater use of the pedal than is indicated, however we have to approach that with caution on modern instruments.

I personally do not feel that adding unindicated dynamics, as long as they are complementary to the passage, has nearly the negative effect as the adding and subtracting of actual NOTES that is committed by some "musicians".


With Bach of course we have little choice but to do this, but with Beethoven his markings, particularly in the later works are quite specific.

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'Man know thyself'

[Grillparzer]

[quote]Originally posted by Peter:

I personally do not feel that adding unindicated dynamics, as long as they are complementary to the passage, has nearly the negative effect as the adding and subtracting of actual NOTES that is committed by some "musicians".


With Bach of course we have little choice but to do this, but with Beethoven his markings, particularly in the later works are quite specific.

Mr. Peter,
Yes, I understand this, but I have read many times that dynamic markings in scores, even "urtext", are simply missing or wrong, as dictated by the whim of the publisher. This seems to be one of the most frequent textual mistakes that B attempted to repair in hi lifetime, and complained about it constantly. Also, were not interpretations of dynamic markings and tempi different in performance practice then than now? As I understand the period instrument movement, this is one of the most researched issues.



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Adieu,
Franz

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