Philosophy of the Performing Arts

challenges to the classical paradigm in music 99
rather than interpreting the recording, would not count as a performance of the
recording, as we have defined this notion. And recordings, because they are
so thick in terms of their constitutive properties, are not the kinds of things
that allow of interpretive performance in the first place. Gracyk does, how-
ever, leave a place for performed works in rock music:
Recordings are the primary link between the rock artist and the audience,
and the primary object of critical attention. These musical works are played on
appropriate machines, not performed ... The relevant work (the recording)
frequently manifests another work, usually a song, without being a perform-
ance of that song. (Gracyk 1996, 18)
As Davies points out in responding to Gracyk, it is not immediately clear
how we should mediate between these two views, each of which points to
the same general features of the production of rock recordings. Both Davies
and Gracyk hold their accounts answerable to the same criteria, namely, our
musical and critical practice (see S. Davies 2001, 9–10). Furthermore, on
both accounts works require the electronic manipulation of raw sonic mate-
rials for their realization, and are issued as discs for playback – although,
for Davies, the work is not to be identified with an individual recording
resulting from such manipulations but with a work for studio performance
that allows of different studio realizations. Davies nonetheless marshals a
number of considerations in support of his view (2001, 31–34). First, he
questions the notion of “manifestation” to which Gracyk appeals. How is it
possible, he asks, for a recording to “manifest” a song without thereby being
a performance of that song?^4 Second, he points to two features of our musi-
cal practice that he thinks fit better with his account than with Gracyk’s.
First, one of the things that is valued in rock works is the musicians’ skill in
playing their instruments, the same skill that is central to the appreciation
of live performances. This suggests that recordings are viewed as continuous
with live performances in their values and traditions, something captured
in the idea that rock works are still works for performance, but for per-
formance augmented by the resources of the studio. Second, rerecordings
and “covers” are treated as performances or interpretations of the original
work. For example, Joe Cocker’s recording of Lennon and McCartney’s
“With a Little Help from My Friends” is regarded as a new interpretation
of the Beatles’ work. But if rock works were purely electronic, then we
should treat the Cocker recording as an autonomous and independent, if
derivative, work. Davies stresses that the work for studio performance is
not to be identified with what is specified in the sheet music, for the latter
is typically far too thin to accurately represent the work. Rather, it is under-
stood, in the case of such works, that the performance is to be “thickened