102 performance and the classical paradigm
2007).^6 Although notation is now sometimes used in the teaching of gamelan
musicians, Davies stresses that the notated pieces were until recently trans-
mitted orally. In such cases, a musician is taught a given part in a composition
by personal instruction either from the composer or from another musician
who has acquired the ability to play the part by these means (S. Davies 2001,
21, 289). Given that both composers and performers in this tradition have
a clear sense of what a given composition requires and of the interpretive
freedom available to musicians (285–286, 22), and that performances are
treated as being of something composed (88), the requirements of the clas-
sical paradigm are clearly met. Balinese gamelan, Davies argues, “shows
how works can be introduced and preserved over extended periods within
an oral tradition, which, nevertheless, is never static or backward looking”
(22). In the same way, the classical paradigm can accommodate orally pre-
served works in more conservative early Western traditions, such as Greek
and Coptic chant.
Notes
- See Kania, forthcoming.
- See the notes for RCA Victor GD87965, issued 1988.
- An interesting documentation of the process whereby a rock track is recorded
can be found in Jean-Luc Godard’s film One Plus One (sometimes titled Sympathy
for the Devil ). While Godard intends the film to function as a radical Marxist
commentary on capitalism and imperialism, he takes as a central metaphor the
process whereby the Rolling Stones transform the initial inchoate ideas for the
song “Sympathy for the Devil ” into the finished track released on the album
Beggars Banquet. The film contains extensive live recordings of this process as it
unfolded in the studio. - One model for the notion of “manifestation” might be the “ingredients” model
of theatrical performance to be examined in Chapter 6. - Indeed, we need to think of artistic regard in this way if we are to accommodate,
as art, many Renaissance paintings produced to serve a primarily religious
devotional function. - See also Alperson et al. 2007.