Good points. Musicians who diverge from the originals should have a good reason for doing so, or else should not diverge at all. If they do, it's basically a re-interpretation, and it should be presented as a re-interpretation.
Of course, any musician is free to present any piece as they wish, but for most classical and baroque pieces, they are such magnificent works of art that there's typically no reason to get creative. Leave 'em as they are, and play them as they are.
Then again, if they can make something more beautiful than the original, I'll listen to it!! Gladly
For "In C," apparently there's a short score comprising a number of short melodic fragments, which are meant to be played in order. But any musician can start at any time, play each fragment one or twice or a dozen or a hundred times, before moving on to the next fragment. Or s/he can take a break, but then restart where s/he left off.
The performance continues until the final musician plays the final fragment for the last time.
It creates some very beautiful and hypnotic music. The first time I heard it was when I found a version done by a Chinese orchestra in a used CD shop. It looked very interesting, so I bought it. Only later did I learn about it and hear different versions.
I'd say your bro had some guts. Did his performance go over well with the prof?
Yup, in baroque and classical it's better to play them in they way they were supposed to. Unlike in romantic music where expression is highly encouraged, when it comes to the earlier ones, the composer usually has something specific to convey. Sometimes deviating from the original turns the piece into something different than what was intended in the first place.
But if the performer's intention was to interpret it in the manner they want to, as long they don't completely turn it into something else...
I watched the 'In C' on Youtube after you mentioned it. It's fascinating how the composer managed to create it in a way that musicians stopping and starting anywhere isn't affecting the flow of music. Unlike in works during the baroque, classical, and romantic period, doing so in those works would end up completely destroying a performance. Contemporary composers come up with innovative ideas!
Our teachers were amused. They didn't scold him either, after all, it's a certified piece of music (music being an organization of sound and silence, though more on the silence part than anything else).
That distinction between romantic on the one hand and baroque and classical on the other is interesting. I'd never heard nor realized that.
Yes, "In C" is a fascinating concept. There are many different performances of it, and each one is interesting. Some are truly sublime.
Classical and baroque music relied a lot on following existing music theories of the time, and while expression was encouraged, it was only to a degree. Excessive expression and deviation from theory was frowned upon, which was why Beethoven was also heavily critiqued though also lauded.
The 'In C' that I watched was performed using mostly African instruments, this one
I realized that because of how it was arranged, each is really different from the next, each unique.
Lou Reed once said that writing rock songs was difficult, and that he spent a lot of time on it. He added, as you imply above, that classical composers had it easy, cuz they just had to sit down and follow the rules. Then, everyone would listen to their music.
https://steemit.com/nowplaying/@majes.tytyty/lou-reed-lyrics-22-anyone-who-ever-had-a-heart-from-sweet-jane-now-playing-week-7
I don't know anything about rock, my preferences don't really lean towards it. But I do believe that both genres have their own difficulty in composition :)
Same ensemble, same music, different time and place.
They actually got an authentic African ensemble for it. I thought they just got people from around US for the performance. :)