Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA21112 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 31 Jan 2001 15:33:52 GMT User-Agent: Microsoft Outlook Express Macintosh Edition - 5.0 (1513) Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 10:31:36 -0500 Subject: Re: Labels for memes From: William Benzon <bbenzon@mindspring.com> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Message-ID: <B69D9A07.6F66%bbenzon@mindspring.com> In-Reply-To: <20010131133849.AAA29871@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Content-type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
on 1/31/01 8:40 AM, Wade T.Smith at wade_smith@harvard.edu wrote:
> On 01/31/01 04:53, Robin Faichney said this-
>
>> But Mozart wrote {\em an\/} opera called The Marriage of Figaro, no matter
>> how many productions of it have subsequently taken place. Though every
>> production is probably slightly different, these are considered versions
>> of the same opera, rather than different operas, due to what they have
>> in common: the information they share. A particular performance of it
>> remains just that---a particular performance---even if it was recorded,
>> and thousands of CD's made.
>
> (What is {\em an\/}...?)
>
> There are schools of philosophy and aesthetics that quite bluntly and
> explainedly deny that a work, like Mozart's Figaro, has an original and
> separate entity from its performance.
Yes. For a recent statement of this position see Christopher Small,
Musicking.
The score is just material a musician, or group of musicians, use as the
basis of a performance. Composers serve performers, not vice versa.
Though, of course, that's not how composers think about nor, for that
matter, do performers.
Note that most of the world's musical cultures do not perform from notated
scores. That's a Western invention, and it evolved gradually over several
centuries starting in the 9th century with the first, crude, notation for
plainsong (chant) melodies.
We can use Mozart as a turning point. He was a superb improvisor and his
proud pappa toured him through Europe when he was a kid. As an adult he
wrote some 20 or 30 piano concertos. Where he intended to perform the
concerto himself he often wrote a very sketchy solo part, knowing that he
could fill it out during performance. Where the concerto was intended for
another performer, he wrote a fully-notated solo part, not trusting anyone
else to improvise a proper realization. (See Frederick Neumann,
Ornamentation and Improvisation in Mozart.)
--Music gives us ontological messages which non-musical criticism is unable to contradict, though it may laugh at our foolishness in minding them. ‹William James
William Benzon 708 Jersey Avenue, Apt. 2A Jersey City, NJ 07302 201 217-1010
===============================This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 31 2001 - 15:35:49 GMT