Major and Minor Scales

[Euan Mackinnon]

Euan, just a note; I haven't forgotten this concept of "reducing" compositions to mathematical formulas, as it's been on my mind for a bit. When I get a little time I want to investigate this a bit; your idea of fingerprints in the formulas is intriguing to me.

Sorrano

I very much look forward to reading your ideas.

Euan

PS: a lot of traffic in this thread has been on the meaning of words. I don't want to add to that but I prefer to think of 'transforming' or, better, 'mapping' music into 'mathematical entities' (an n-dimensional vector, for example) rather than 'reducing' it to 'mathematical formulas'. However, I accept entirely that 'reducing' it is also perfectly valid.

[Sorrano]

I understand. "Reducing" is rather a cold way to put it. Maybe that comes from my limited math background and dislike of it when I was younger and stupid. Now I'm just older and stupid.

[Peter]

I'm sorry, there is some clausal confusion, which means I haven't understood what you have said. You agree that Beethoven is better than Haydn and that Bach is better than Palestrina?

No that's not what I meant - each of these composers reached a pinnacle in art.

[Ed C]

Ed C 05-04-11 @ 14:05

One of my favorite living pianists is Hyun-Jung Lim - she plays the Hammerklavier at the manuscript tempo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzttpRoVnoc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=055zq2IyqRQ

[My emphasis]

Thanks for the ref Ed.

First a question, is the tempo she uses really what was on the original manuscript?

To my ears, Hyun-Jung Lim has assumed a marking of 'Fast and Unremittingly Furious' as Beethoven's intention. While she exhibits impressive technical ability and while at 23 (?) she can be excused for pyrotechnics, I wasn't in any way moved by the performance.

To my entirely untrained ear, the later Beethoven sonatas have a great profundity and Hyun-Jung Lim, with the exception of a few passages (which I did enjoy), seems to be almost completely uninterested is exploring the Hammerklavier's depth.

Give her a few more years and my betting is that she will see, and play, the piece in an entirely different way.

Euan

Her bio seems to put forth the adherence to metronome tempos as a selling point so I assume it's something like manuscript tempo...
Since I just happened to do a blog post on B.'s tempos here's what they should be:
M1 (allegro) - 138
M4 (allegro risoluto) - 144
I'm not sure if she plays at those tempos but I'd be curious to know the answer...

In her defense of the "fast and furious" stuff, these are just a couple clips from the whole work (in fact she did a cycle of all 32 sonatas over 9 days I think). It's possible the adagio movement was deep and reverential...but probably not.

I agree, she'll "season" as the years go by - but it's quite exciting to have a young player blaze through Op.106 like that. She has plenty of years to turn into Daniel Barenboim.

(I was just kidding about her being the greatest living pianist. In all seriousness my choice would be Martha Argerich.)

4/7 The 5th Symphony (Color Analysis)