170 performance as art
not reflect the conception of the latter that is partly constitutive of the work
they seek to perform. The classical paradigm is a model for thinking about
what goes on in the performing arts in general. It is a limited model, and it is
important to see this, but there is no reason to think that it is only in music
that we have performances that accord with that paradigm.
Notes
- For an interesting discussion of what he terms the “improvised feel,” see
A. Hamilton 2007, 198–207. - See, for example, S. Davies 1987.
- This view is also defended in Young and Matheson 2000.
- See S. Davies 2001, 16–19.
- S. Davies (2001, 13) seems to misread Alperson as at least implying that
improvisers can compose repeatable musical works. He identifies Alperson’s
view with that of Kivy, to be discussed below. But Alperson, while defend-
ing the idea of improvisations as works of art in their own right, explicitly
rejects the idea of improvisational composition in our sense, and does so for
the same kinds of reasons as Davies. See Alperson 1984, 26. - See S. Davies 2001, 13.
- See Cochrane 2000 on how we should think about such pure improvisational
works. - As Andrew Kania (private communication) has pointed out, a contemporary
performance of The Musical Offering may help us to appreciate Bach’s achieve-
ment. For, in attending to that performance, we can imagine that it is an
improvisation, and thereby better appreciate what it would be to improvise
such a piece. - This passage is cited in Gracyk 1996, 54; Brown 2000, 113; and S. Davies
2001, 305. - See Brown 2000.
- See Brown 2000, 113–114; S. Davies 2001, 305.
- S. Davies (2003, 307–313) makes a related point about the implications of
recording for the interpretation and appreciation of works intended for live
performance. The values sought in an interpretation of such a work when that
work is performed for a live audience differ from the values sought in an
interpretation when the work is performed in a studio for the purposes of
issuing a recording. - I am grateful to Andrew Kania for raising these issues.
- I focus here on theater rather than dance because, as we saw in Chapter 6,
different issues bear upon the scope of the classical paradigm in the two
performing arts. - See the examples cited from Stern 2000, 5–8 in Chapter 6.
- See, again, Stern 2000, 3–4.