At 7:44 PM -0400 5/29/06, Christopher Smith wrote:
On May 29, 2006, at 6:36 PM, David W. Fenton wrote:
In short, there is no hard and fast rule about whether repeats are
obligatory just because they are found in the score, even if it's the
composer's autograph.
Wow. Really? I would have thought that something like a repeat in
the composer's hand would be a sure sign that he intended it.
Wrong notes and other mistakes, of course, might be subject to
scholarly dissection, but a repeat is hard to put in by accident, I
would think.
If I may presume to refine David's statement, the graphic that WE
interpret as a "repeat sign" was not necessarily always meant to be
interpreted as a repeat sign. In some cases it was just a fancy
double bar line. In others it was a repeat sign. And in others it
may have been intended to indicate a performer's choice. (This is
going from about 1550-1800, a period of, umm, about 250 years during
which notation was undergoing many kinds of changes.)
We tend to approach questions like this from an industrialized
viewpoint. Things are "standardized." They are interpreted in one
and only one way. A violin bow is a certain length and no other
length. Etc. But we're talking about a rather long period of time
during which, when you went to a tailor, a cobbler, or a bow maker,
they would measure you and make you a shirt, a pair of shoes, or a
bow to fit YOU. Non-industrial. Non-standard. Open to
interpretation. Like jazz. In fact, VERY much like jazz.
I can't quote chapter and verse as i sit here, but for a first
approximation try Robert Donnington's book, "The Interpretation of
Early Music," in which he quotes primary sources, draws his
conclusions, and carefully differentiates between the two.
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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