At 01:55 AM 2/3/03 +0000, Jack Campin wrote:
I think that was the problem with what we studied in college. We suspected that the equipment was NOT adjusted properly, because it was too darned fast. Joplin states over and over in his music that it is to be played, "slow" and "not fast".assuming the equipment was adjusted right for both recording and playback, they will be *exactly* what he meant.
Jack might still be right, though. It could be *exactly* what he meant, maybe people liked a "clunky, overpowering" left hand in Joplin's day. I don't recall what Joplin's training was off the top of my head, but my piano professor (Dr. Noel Lester) is formally trained as a classical concert pianist, he holds a doctorate in piano performance from Peabody Conservatory. It could well be that Noel is playing better than Joplin did, by Joplin's own standards!
Friendly plug: if you like ragtime, you really must listen to Dr. Lester's recordings. He's just amazing, though sometimes the tempo is a tad fast. :-)
This all brings to mind the other thread (which spawned this one, I think): even if we could establish exactly how the ancient musicians played their music, it is possible that either our modern tastes would render it distasteful, like Joplin's clunky left hand, or that modern musical training is such that the old cats would have been green with envy.
And boy, oh boy, am I treading on thin ice with that one! I'm *not* saying I believe that musical training is better today than in, say, the 14th century, but just that it is within the realm of possibility.
--Cynthia Cathcart
http://www.cynthiacathcart.net/
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