re variety is the spice of life

quote:

Anyway is it necessary to have more than 30 versions of the same piece of music. You classical guys sure like to buy lots of the same.

I equate this to buying lots of different bands who all play the Beatles White Album.

Probably true, this.

I wonder if they'll be listening to the White Album in 300 years, or will they have better things to do?

Regards

BB

Fredrik & Tam could have a lot of fun with this!

Interpretations of written compositions vary tremendously, no two versions of, say, Beethoven's ninth will be the same.

This can happen to extremes with fast or slow tempi, different phrasings or emphasis. It's possible to have many versions sounding and feeling quite different to each other.

The lack of a definitive version (like a Beatles album) means benchmarks are against other interpretations - there being no "standard" as such.

Scholars and musicians can then argue long onto the night and consume vast quantities of alcohol, while debating what a composer may have intended. Which all sounds good fun to me.

For myself, I do keep more than one interpretations of a core work because they can be so different. For example, Brahms 3 (Cantelli, Walter & Toscannini). I tend to compare any new interpretations on radio or CD with those.

Beethoven's famous ninth is an entirely different work in the hands of, say, Gardiner compared to those of Klemperer. Those who like the former may find Klemperer's impossibly slow and grandiose.

It isn't the same for albums in pop, rock, blues or jazz, where the emphasis is on originality, but it does come in to it for covers of individual songs or tracks.

Regards,

Steve.

As a matter of interest, do there tend to be proportionately as many recordings for composers who may, themselves, have been able to supervise/oversee in some sense a recording, so that it becomes a 'definitive' recording?

Is owning 30 interpretations of the same thing a bit of an exaggeration? I inherited my late uncle's record collection, with perhaps 3-4 clearly contrasting readings of his favourite works.

I think I would regard them almost as classical 'cover versions', except with those composers who predate the wonder of recording there is no 'original'.

James

quote:

Originally posted by JWM:
As a matter of interest, do there tend to be proportionately as many recordings for composers who may, themselves, have been able to supervise/oversee in some sense a recording, so that it becomes a 'definitive' recording?



James

Yes. Because generally the composers' version was recorded in 1919 and has been heard by all of three people.

Unless you mean current works, which most "star" conductors have little or no interest in, irrespective of a composer led performance on the market or not.


BB

PS. Stravinsky recorded most of his well known stuff in good stereo sound. Despite those who say he was no conductor, his performances are close to definitive and he *was* a great conductor. Yet there is no dearth of Rite of Spring recordings on the shelves at your local CD store.

It is not just a case of different readings or interpretations of the work but of different styles/quality of recording that cause me to have multiple versions of the same piece. Plus if I have heard the piece played live it then becomes my "definitive" version and I would then seek out a version that was close to the version I first heard live.

One piece I have three copies is Poulenc's Concerto for Organ Strings and Timpani, I first heard the recording made under Poulenc's supervision as an LP - this became my definitive version, I eventually bought a CD version of the original recording but also wanted a modern recording so bought the Telarc version by Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony - it was very unsatisfactory - no pace or excitement that the Poulenc version had, eventually the BBC Philharmonic recored a version in Liverpool Cathedral - it was great, same pace and excitement as the original, but with a better overall sound quality apart from a slightly excessive echo from the Cathedral - however it adds to the atmosphere.

These are some of reasons why classical appreciators have multiple copies of a piece.

I still can't get my head round this "interpretation" business.Music is written in music language, it has time signatures, it has the "value" of the notes what's to interpret? You don't add commas,fullstops etc to Shakespeare do you?You don't enter form the other side of the stage. So why change the music?
I've done the comparisons of some works and I can't really tell that much difference if truth were told. Maybe that says more about my view of classical music.

quote:

I wonder if they'll be listening to the White Album in 300 years, or will they have better things to do?

For the same reasons people are listening to 300 year old music now I expect.Your better reasons being they will only be listening to 600 year old music?

Howard

In music time is not an absolute - the Poulenc performances I mentioned earlier have a variation in performance length of 2minutes 28 seconds on a 22 minute 47 second elapsed time.

Different recordings are in different halls and with different mixes and quantities of instruments, some organ and orchestral work are recorded with the organ in a separate building to the orchestra - so the atmosphere is different.

quote:

Originally posted by BigH47:
I still can't get my head round this "interpretation" business.Music is written in music language, it has time signatures, it has the "value" of the notes what's to interpret? You don't add commas,fullstops etc to Shakespeare do you?You don't enter form the other side of the stage. So why change the music?
I've done the comparisons of some works and I can't really tell that much difference if truth were told. Maybe that says more about my view of classical music.

By way of a comparison with non-classical (but classic!) music - it is written down, but I can hear Rory Gallagher play the same piece of music a dozen different ways, even passages that he is playing 'straight'.

Olivier playing Henry V is different from Branagh, who is different from the local rep or school production.

Some music is written down, but does not have strict time signatures or note values - eg the earliest notated western music like Plainsong - the monks of Solesmes will sing the same piece slightly differently from the monks of Farnborough.

It's not just early music, there are different manuscripts/editions of the same work - not all are finished by the composer who started them - e.g. Mozart's Requiem (do you have it with or without the non-Mozart sections?)

And though he tries to make it the same (but can add nothing to it with his cover version) Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'Voodoo Chile' is different from Jimi Hendrix's.

And try listening to the 'Three Tenors' singing the same piece of music (not at one of the big concerts, but a serious recording of the same work) - it is quite obvious that, obeying the composer's instructions, they yet interpret it slightly differently, because even music with quite strict instructions has some leeway.

And organ music - the same piece, even with the same organist, on a similarly specified but different organ will sound different, because it is a unique instrument in a unique venue.

This is the sort of reason why different readings/interpretations are valid (though, possibly, there can come a time when there is no longer anything significantly new to say?).

James

Hi David;

Glad to hear that you're making some contacts with good systems.

Did your kit arrive in good order, and do you have something up and running yet?

E-mail me some photos when you can.

John.

Dear John,

Still not unpacked all the hifi.

Have a system in my bedroom using my modified Orelle cd player into the Kelvin Labs 18w se int amp and into the 1959 Ge'Go Orthophase OR3 W4 . Sounds mighty fine to me. Will get the horn system up and running soon i hope.

I have sold some of my stuff. the projector and screen have gone. The 2 24" subs have a buyer so will be gone soon. Other bits will hopefully go soon as i cant fit 6 complete systems into a 2 bed flat. Dang It and Blast it.

Have the HiFi club meeting this sunday . A speaker manufacturur from Perth is bringing his new speakers so should be interesting.

Still no email at this time.

regards David