G.R. Crona wrote: > Hi gang, > > I'm playing some "golden age" and Milano at the moment, and suddenly > realize, that (for me) much of the music actually gains in "stature" by not > being played too fast (cf. La compagna).
For me, playing music is quite like speaking. When speaking, I can just iterate the words, without paying attention, as when reading aloud from an uninteresting book. If I really desire to convey something important, my speach becomes filled with an intention, and possesses a new quality that was absent in the other type. When practicing lute music, I can catch myself going through the motions of the piece without paying attention to the "words" of the melody. When this happens, the tempo tends to creep. When I take the time to undestand the goals of the melodies, I tend to savor suspensions, and cadences, and the tempo relaxes. As I gain experience, I find that the tempo can raise again while I maintain the integrity of the musical intention. This can make the music more interesting in that more beautiful events transpire each second. So, for me at this point, I choose the highest tempo that I feel I can perform without sacrificing any of the quality of the expression. This is usually a little slower than many of the recordings that I have heard.
