Comments on On An Overgrown Path: Is classical music too fast?

With hindsight I should have called this post Dr S...

2005-09-27T22:40:00.000+01:00

With hindsight I should have called this post Dr Subsonic

I recall a performance by pianist Grete Sultan, wh...

2005-09-27T17:50:00.000+01:00

I recall a performance by pianist Grete Sultan, who died about three or four months ago at the age of 99, of John Cage's Études Australes, which Cage wrote for her [1975]. It was the most beautiful performance of a Cage work that I have ever experienced. (The German-born Ms Sultan also promoted music by other contemporary American composers such as Earle Brown, Stefan Wolpe, Alan Hovhaness, Ben Weber, and Christian Wolff. She was also known for her performances of Bach and Schubert.)

Here is a quote from Andrew Clement's 2002 review of Steffen Schleiermacher's CDs of the work:

"In the 1970s Cage abandoned the collages and mixed-media pieces he had constructed in the previous decade and returned to solo instrumental music, sequences that he grouped in books of technically demanding etudes. The Etudes Australes consist of 32 pieces. Cage obtained his material from star charts of the southern hemisphere that he traced and manipulated to obtain the parameters of the piano writing, though rhythms and durations are not specified. Each hand is treated utterly independently, and sets of silently depressed notes in the bass resonate through each study, providing a halo to the figuration above, which thickens from pointillist textures in the earlier pieces to dense chordal aggregates as the sequence goes on."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayreview/story/0,12102,767391,00.html

I agree with your latter thesis that the tempo of ...

2005-09-27T16:34:00.000+01:00

I agree with your latter thesis that the tempo of classical music in newer recordings and performances is indeed a symptom of our expectations based on our hurried lives. Quite simply, our internal clocks are tuned faster than they used to be. This goes for listeners as well as performers.
My husband frequently makes a concerted effort to perform ballads slowly, as intended, and the difference can be felt by listeners, even if they don't know why it *feels* different. The art of the pause, the hestitation, and the prolonging is lost in many of today's performances of all kinds of music, not just classical.
I cannot imagine passing a day without constant input, from radio, TV, the computer or the phone. 300 years ago, the day must have felt very long indeed.

Re. the previous comment. Here is a link to a use...

2005-09-27T14:43:00.000+01:00

Re. the previous comment. Here is a link to a useful article on Sofia Gubaidulina.

I have received an appreciative email from a reade...

2005-09-27T12:48:00.000+01:00

I have received an appreciative email from a reader who is relatively new to these overgrown paths.

He writes…

I have no formal musical training but a real hunger for great music. As well as being currently obsessed by Britten, I have become very keen on Part and especially Sofia Gubaidulina - but not being a Russian or German speaker am finding it hard to get beyond the one-page biographies on web pages such as BBC Music. Any help?
Any pointers? Much appreciated if you can.

I will send him suggestions for paths to follow, but any other pointers, and recommendations, added as comments here would be much appreciated.

Thanks

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