Good point and I agree Az. But I don’t think that's what the author meant by thinking musically. Knowing about the composer’s state of mind, lifestyle and time period is more like thinking historically or telepathic. Yes beneficial to the musician if he/she is playing a piece, knowing will undoubtively improve the interpretation of how to play the piece. But thinking musically is being able to look at a piece of written music and understand how to play it. I think the author is trying to say that musicians after the invention of pre-recorded music don’t have to think “musically”. All we have to do now is pop in a CD and listen to how it is played, and we rely on that and maybe too much. The skill most have lost is being able to just look at a piece of music and understand it, thinking musically. Back then terms like Presto and Affannato "to play stressful" meant a lot to the musician because it told how to play the music. Of course every musician will have a different idea of how fast presto is, maybe it’s 160 to one guy and 172 to another. The idea is you play the part quickly. Thinking on how Chopin would have played it is good, but an obsessive look at it this will probably only stress the mind. Because we just don't know exactly how he played it, what his mood was (we have a good idea because oif the manner of the music), or even what it was truly like living in his lifetime. We don't have any recording vinyl of Chopin, although that would be sweet. :)

[Edited by noticingthemistake on 08-20-2003 at 11:28 AM]