The Grand Days

would you believe me if i told you that there is a VITAL difference in reading the original, handwriten score of bach for example, and reading the reprinted version? there actually is! i´m not overexaggerating, but maybe i´m overreacting when i see a discussion on a topic where some of the posters do have no clue about what they are talking. dont get me wrong - i´m not calling anyone stupid or anything. nore do i mean to be an ass or playing the guru here.

my initial intention with this thread was to give you an idea of how to improve when playing music (other people´s music that is). you can be sure that i do alot of research before i say something on a public board. i have been asked on a different thread, where i got my information from. i am in the very happy and unique situation to call a few guys my friends who are extremely deep into that matter an who are real capacities - a wellspring of wisdom so to speak - they teach at various universities here in austria, and one of them has actually spent his whole life on researching stuff like that hexachord thing and all that bach-mysticism. of course oyu can say that they might also be wrong, but what they teach and have been tought themselves does not simply come from the crazed imagination of some random guy. what i want is to share that knowledge, for i believe it is too valuable to get lost. since we all are musicians i feel we should care about those things - no matter what sort of music we are into.

after re-reading the thread i see that we are basically talking about the same thing, while it seems that we are not. so before this ends up in a major arguement, it might be a good idea to just.. let the case rest. ;)

A difference between the original works and reprinted? Yes absolutely. What you mean by vital I am not exactly sure but yes. Most of the original handwriting compositions still survive though and then are copied. Yes mistakes are made, but for the most part they are correctly re-written and brought to the world. No matter, we can only do good with what is given to us. And I agree with you; knowing beyond just the music, but maybe the life and time period of the work is extremely beneficial. Trying to think of what the composer was thinking while composing a piece is beyond human capacity though. We’re not telepathic my friend, if we were I would get a lot more chicks. “L” I’m just trying to say, “if you dig too deep, you’ll never be able to see the surface again“. All we truly know about the music is on the paper, and all we will ever need to know.

I’m not trying to be a dick either, just trying to point out one simple fact. It is as painful to me as to you being that we are both very passionate about music but it is a fact. If it’s not written from the words of the composer, we don’t know exactly what he was saying. There are historical documents is some cases, but not all. Even my own entries in my journal at the time of composing, hardly convey the true manner of the music. These musicians spoke in music, often in escape of writing it in words which doesn‘t always do justice to our true feelings.

I also don’t pull information from the crazed imagination of some random guy. And if someone was to directly say that to me, I would laugh hysterically for hours thinking if they only knew. My well for information stays personal to me because I have gave that information before and I didn’t like the personal questions afterwards, especially from the internet. I only want to give the information out as it has been passed to me. Whether I am believed or not will be there decision, and they will have to decide themselves based on the information not my so called “credentials”.

I am very glad you are sharing your knowledge and information here. You and amongst many others. :)