Performance and 'Authenticity'

Author(s): Lewis Lockwood

Source: Early Music, Vol. 19, No. 4, Performing Mozart's Music I (Nov., 1991), pp. 501-
506+508
Published by: Oxford University Press
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PERFORMERS, SOURCES AND EDITIONS

Lewis Lockwood

Performance and 'authenticity'

1 A Mozart performance? Drawing attributed to Johann Joseph Zoffany (private collection), from the exhibition Mozart
Bilder und Kliinge, Schloss Klessheim, Salzburg 1991

If there is a red flag in musicology these days, it is have

the formed.' In the latter group, uniting scholars and
word 'authenticity'. Wars have raged over the term for
commentators who can probably agree on very little else,
this consensus stands for the belief that the quest for so-
ten years now, and show no sign of abating. On one side
are many of those professionally engaged in the study
called 'authenticity' is about as likely to succeed as that of
Jason for the Golden Fleece, or Diogenes with his lantern
and performance of early music in all its forms, striving
lit in broad daylight looking for an honest man.'
to reconstruct as nearly as possible the soundscape of the
past. Their names are legion, and need no introduction'Do we really want to talk about "authenticity" any
more?' asks Taruskin in his most recent essay. He
here. On the other side, armed with articles by Richard
answers in no uncertain terms: the word has lost all
Taruskin and Laurence Dreyfus from the early 1980s and
meaning except that of 'commercial propaganda', pos-
occupying a substantial part of the 1988 volume Authen-
ticity and Early Music, a different consensus seems sessing
to no other function nowadays than that of its

EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 1991 501

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barely concealed 'moral and ethical overtones ... being tively, then that alone justifies the use of these instru-
used to privilege one philosophy of performance over all ments; and when it turns out, if it does, that many shades
others'. Against the pretensions of those who claim to be of nuance and expression emerge more effectively when
seeking this unseekable end, Taruskin defends the poor we try to replicate the sound-world in which the music
performers of early music who are needlessly terrorized was written-then, and only then, we are extending our
by the seeming authority of tough-minded positivistic musical perceptions effectively towards the elusive goal
scholars (the word is his) whose arsenal is ready to of 'authenticity'. But the question of which instruments
supply every possible element of historical and the- are being used is secondary when compared with the
oretical knowledge at our disposal. In Taruskin's portrait performer's ability to translate for his listeners not
performers facing such strictures seemingly have no merely the outer shell of sonority of a given work but its
option than to bow or be quiet. Standing up for another inner structure, its deeper qualities-in short, not only
and less stringent viewpoint, Taruskin offers solace to its text but the complexities of musical thought and
performers who seek to re-create music of the past not expression that the composer built into it.
from knowledge of rules and treatises but from a sense of All of this does not disagree with the viewpoints
the capacity of well played old instruments 'in freeing expressed by Dreyfus and Taruskin, but it sets up the
minds and hands to experience old music newly'.4 problem from a somewhat different viewpoint. Rather
In the light of all this, and much, much more, what than hurl polemics at the performers who approach
can be left to say? The answer is, I hope, something quite older music by mastering, if they can, the instruments
different. So let me come out and claim forthrightly that and procedures native to the time, I would simply insist
I believe the discussion should be moved to another part that these instruments and procedures themselves can
of the forest; that a search for musical values within the never be sufficient, but must also be accompanied by
purview of a revised understanding of the word 'authen- deep insight into the aesthetic aims and purposes that
tic' is still valid and meaningful. I will argue that the gave rise to the compositions they endeavour to
word represents a goal that is, on the one hand, a his- communicate.

torical improbability, but which is also, and equally a What I am advocating, then, is a revised historicism,
philosophical necessity. At the same time there are in which early instruments and reconstructed perfor-
severe problems of usage and meaning attached to the ming forces-if they are well attested by evidence-play
word in the present context, and I have no intention of as strong a role as they can in the pluralistic musical
accepting the dullness of many performances that offer environment in which we live and in which future gen-
nothing more than supposedly 'authentic' instruments erations are bound to live as well. But what is needed as a
and thereby claim, more or less automatically, to repre- corrective to the 'commercial' side of the early music
sent the snmusic 'as the composer intended it to sound'. movement is the constant engagement of performers
Along with this I will also agree that the entire enterprise not simply with singing and playing techniques and with
of 'early music performance' runs a permanent risk of historically appropriate theoretical sources, but at least
being dead on arrival in the concert hall in the hands of an equal engagement with the creative background of
performers who have thought about the music in no the music that they are performing. By this we mean the
other terms than those they may have derived abstractly ability to evaluate good performing texts; to know and
and literally from ornamentation treatises and the like study the authentic sources of the works (here there can
without having deepened their grasp of the individuality certainly be no quarrel about the word 'authentic'); and
of the work being presented-its structure, genre and to think of the music not only as an expressive entity to
artistic shape, the presumed intricacy and subtlety of its be interpreted, but as a complex structure to be articula-
form and expression; in short, all the ramifications that ted. All of this should be done not as if there can be only
modern musicians have learned to value in music of any one right way to do it, but as a special realization of a
period, not simply the remote past. particular set of relationships which the text of the com-
On the other hand, I am well aware that the best per- position permits us to infer, and which on this occasion
formers on any instruments, old or modern, do indeed we should like to hear and think about. The best possible
place value on the kinds of issues that I am raising. And statement of this quasi-improvisatory approach comes
if, indeed, it turns out that the use of certain combi- from a reasonably unimpeachable source and it reads as
nations of instruments enables that performer to render follows:

certain subtleties of shape and expression more effec- and in what consists the art of playing prima vista? In this: to

502 EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 1991

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play the composition in the proper tempo; to give expression that are playing down source studies. Some people are
to every note and ornament, tastefully and as they are writ- growing tired of watermarks and folio numbers, and are
ten-so that one may believe that the performer himself com- anxious to hunt for bigger game: for example, new
posed the piece.
approaches to analysis, especially via hermeneutics and
The writer is of course Mozart himself, in a famous gender studies; to study the role of music as discourse,
letter of 17 January 1778 to his father, in which he had just whether semiotic or narrative; or music as symbolic
gone to great lengths to castigate Vogler for his miserable expression within cultural frameworks. The viewpoints
sight-reading of a Mozart sonata with tempi that were are many, but one at least is well expressed by Gary Tom-
much too fast, including frequent use of a 'different bass linson in his article in Authenticity and Early Music-the
than the one I had written' and occasional changes in the meaning of a work is not 'the meaning that its creators
harmony and melody as well.' All who know the Mozart and first audiences invested in it' but rather 'the mean-
letters know that they are replete with references to the ing that we, in the course of interpretive historical acts of
words 'taste', 'expression' and 'feeling' (Ausdruck, Emp- various sorts, come to believe its creators and first audi-
findung and Gefiihl); it is clear from all his positive state- ence invested in it'.8 Tomlinson realizes, of course, that
ments and from negative remarks about others (for whether we are asserting our beliefs with confidence or
example Clementi) that Mozart's personal view on per- diffidence, we still are attributing some role to the
formance entails a strong belief in the conveyance of author of the work, therefore the 'text' is not yet for him
affect in performance.6 His complaint about Clementi in a disembodied entity detached from history and floating
a famous letter is precisely this: Clementi has a solid key- in uncharted time and space-but certainly the strong
board technique but 'otherwise he hasn't a kreuzer of pull of his line of thinking is towards the opening up of
feeling or taste-in one word, he is a completely mech- multivalent meanings for music, created by its auditors
anical player [ein blosser Mechanicus]'.7 and recipients, out of the multiple cultural premises that
Now there are strong trends in musicology these days they bring to the musical experience.
2 Symphony in C, K551, ii, opening.

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EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 1991 503

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 In the midst of this, what should the average listener composer; but they are a great deal better than impas-
understand about performance and interpretation? And sioned guesswork on the part of performers who wish to
along with the listener, what about the conscientious know as little as possible about them. And they can cer-
performer, looking for the right way to project such old- tainly provide us with a secure basis for determining
fashioned elements as structure and expression and to many vital aspects of a text-its note-text, articulation,
communicate these to audiences? My own view is that, dynamics, placement and grouping of ideas, and the
long before the more abstract and entangled issues that like. All this is ancient wisdom, the long familiar view-
may emerge from a vast widening of viewpoints about point espoused by textual scholars from time immemo-
musical meaning, the performer has a basic obligation to rial and by musicologists since Schenker, who was the
remember that there is a body of material that seems to first to insist on the study of the sources as basis for the
retain, for most of us, a sort of 'privileged status'. But its texts to be analysed.9 Beyond all the familiar reasons why
privileges stem from our realization that it authentically performers need to know sources, there is another: the
represents the composer's conception of his piece (at sources, especially if they contain evidence of the com-
least, prior to the age of sound recording). I mean, of positional genesis of the work, force the performer to
course, the autograph sources of a given work, along think of the composition not as fixed in amber but as a
with whatever specific other evidence we may possess work that was once in progress, that was brought into
about its origins-sketches, corrected copies, supervisedbeing by an agency of intelligence and artistic vision-
or otherwise reliable editions, relevant letters and so and was in fact composed, in the true meaning of the
forth-the basic historical and textual source materials word. Knowing whatever we can know about its true ori-
on which scholars and performers have always relied. gins is not a bad thing, and the autographs of Beethoven
and other composers bear witness to what can be
Not that these are 'definitive' in helping us to under-
stand the celebrated and elusive 'intentions' of the learned. For Mozart such transformations at the auto-

3 Symphony in C, K551, ii, ending. f.26 is a new insertion between f.25r and f.25v.

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504 EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 1991

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graph stage may or may not be as plentiful, but there are those of simply putting the notes before the public; their
sufficient numbers of them already known to show what role is too important to be construed as that of mechan-
value they may have. ical transcribers. The more a performer-in this case a
To close, let me briefly comment on one such change conductor-sees and perceives the varied ways in which
at the autograph stage, in one of Mozart's most famous this return of the theme rounds out, fills out, and ampli-
works-the C major 'Jupiter' Symphony, in the second fies the inner relationships of the movement, the more
movement. Everyone knows that at the end of this mar- focused his rendition of the movement will be; the more
vellous Andante cantabile in 3/4 the first theme (illus.2) he will value the creativity that went into this long fam-
appears as the closing theme of the movement (illus.3), iliar but truly remarkable work. The more, in Mozart's
as it was at the beginning, in the first violins, intensified words, he will give his audiences the sense that a stream
by running demisemiquaver phrases in the winds to fill of fresh thinking has gone into his preparation for per-
out the rests that had marked the opening two bars; all forming the movement and the symphony altogether. In
this leading at the end to the wonderful cadential phra- fact, if he can find a way, it might even create the illusion
ses that bring the movement to a close. But what can be that he and the orchestra were composing it as they pro-
learned only from the autograph is that the idea of duce it. This may or may not be possible, but if it were,
bringing back the opening theme at the end was an after- the spirit behind it would convey the sense that what is
thought. Mozart had originally written a short near- being accomplished is truly Mozart's-and therefore is
closing phrase of three bars with scalar triplets, perfectly truly authentic.
satisfactory but lacking melodic profile and certainly
lacking any reference to the opening of the movement.
With the change, he brings about a whole series of revel-
Lewis Lockwood is Professor of Music at Harvard Univer-
ations: first, that opening and closing thematic functions
sity, where his main areas of research are Renaissance
can be fulfilled by the same material, a feature that we
associate with some of his most mature movements and music and Beethoven. He is the author of Music in Renais-
sance Ferrara, 1400-1505.
especially first movements of later chamber music;
second, that the thematic idea that had originally filled
bars 1-4 could now lead to what had originally followed
in bars 7-8 without the intervention of the original bars Discussion
5-6-therefore bringing a condensed and conflated RICHARD TARUSKIN YOU started with the ritual gen-
linear flow that intensifies the reference back to the uflections towards the camp that supposedly includes
me, but what you went on to say is something with
opening while it reinforces it; third, Mozart manages by
which I have no problem whatever. I do need to clear up
this means to bring back the opening theme, for the last
possible time, once again in the first violins, which had
one misperception: I have never hurled polemics against
not had it with this continuation since the opening-the use of old instruments. At the time I wrote that
thus pointing up in the strongest the way his avoidance article I was playing one. I've always upheld the use of
of a literal thematic recapitulation for the movement asold
a instruments, though not perhaps in the same terms
whole. That this moment and its sudden emergence asasa other people have upheld it. What I have taken pot-
change in the autograph manuscript can have a strong shots at is the idea of basing a career on playing prima
impact on any first-rate musical mind is sufficiently vista, though not in the sense that Mozart used the term.
shown by Mendelssohn's delighted response to it in 1845,
ROBERT LEVIN What you've just said about the 'Jupiter'
when he described the change in minute detail in a letter
to Ignaz Moscheles.'o Symphony is marvellous, and it points to an important
In what way can the performer benefit from evidence aspect of Mozart's revisions which I'd like to take
like this? The answers are indirect with respect to the further; it's one which we encounter also in the Piano
Concerto in B flat, K595, when he adds in seven bars at
'physics' of performance; most conductors will let the
the end of the opening tutti in order to provide an ante-
return of the theme at the end speak for itself, and per-
cedent for later appearances of the same material. In the
haps only a modest special emphasis, shift in tempo, or
nuance can be suggested here. But on a broader and second movement of the 'Jupiter' the material unfolds in
more significant front, what is important is that per-
a fascinating way: after the first violins have played the
tune it appears in the cellos and basses, accompanied by
formers have opportunities and obligations wider than

506 EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 1991

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pulsating quaver chords in bassoons and horns, punc- in Notes, xlvii (1991), pp.986-7
3R. Taruskin, 'The Pastness of the Present, and the Presence of the
tuated by a demisemiquaver response in the violins. It is
Past', Authenticity and Early Music ed. N. Kenyon (Oxford, 1988), p.137.
this second, more elaborate version that appears at the Among the other important articles in this volume I must particularly
recapitulation (bar 60), with a transfer of materials: the mention those by Howard Mayer Brown, Robert Morgan and Gary
Tomlinson.
tune is in the first violins, as in bar 1, the quaver figure of
4Taruskin, 'The Pastness of the Present', pp.203-4
bar 11 is given to the second violins and violas, and the 5Bauer-Deutsch, Mozart Briefe, no. 405 (Mannheim, 17 January
1778)
demisemiquaver figure appears, at least initially, in the
'For a recent survey of this aspect of Mozart's views on perform-
cellos and basses. Now if you look at illus.3 (f.26) of your ance, and new interpretations of articulation markings in his auto-
paper, you will see from Mozart's manuscript that his graphs, see R. Riggs, Articulation in Mozart's and Beethoven's Sonatas
first version of the revision quotes the opening bars in for Piano and Violin: Source-Critical and Analytical Studies (PhD diss.,
Harvard U., 1987).
terms of the bass line, but the recapitulation does so in 7Bauer-Deutsch, no. 657 (Vienna, 12 January 1782)
terms of the second violins and violas, which have the 8G. Tomlinson, 'The Historian, the Performer, and Authentic
quaver chords. Mozart seems to have been after a syn- meaning in Music' Authenticity and Early Music, ed. Kenyon, p.115
90n this aspect of Schenker's work see, among other writings, his
thesis of the textures of exposition and recapitulation monographs on the Beethoven Ninth and Fifth Symphonies; his Erlau-
(with a new twist-the demisemiquaver response is terungsausgaben of the late Beethoven Piano Sonatas; and various
transferred from the strings to flute and bassoon). He essays on individual works in his periodical Der Tonwille and in the
yearbook Das Meisterwerk in der Musik.
then immediately deleted the quavers with a character- "'See letter of 7 March 1845, published in Letters of Felix Mendelssohn
istic flick of his thumb over the still wet ink, showing to Ignaz and Charlotte Moscheles, trans. and ed. Felix Moscheles (Bos-
here, as so often, his tendency to revise by simplifying, ton, 1888), p.247. Mendelssohn writes: 'Andre has just sent the original
score of Mozart's C Major Symphony ("Jupiter") for my perusal. I
not elaborating. must write out something from it for you that will amuse you. Eleven
bars before the end, it formerly stood thus:-[Mendelssohn writes out
[FROM THE FLOOR] I'm a little confused by the impli- the suppressed passage]. The whole repetition of the theme he has
cation of your remark that there are inner musical ele- written on an inserted leaf: the above passage is struck out, and only
comes in three bars before the end. Isn't it a happy alteration? The rep-
ments which have nothing to do with the choice of etition of the seven bars is one of the passages in that Symphony I love
instruments. Surely it has a lot to do with that: I've just best . .

been singing Schubert songs with a fortepiano rather

than a Steinway, and a lot of those inner musical ele- 7TH INTERNATIONAL HANDEL
ments were easier to communicate in those circum- ACADEMY KARLSRUHE 1992
stances. I don't think you can disregard the tone and in collaboration with the State Music High School
Karlsruhe
colour of instruments which have a direct relationship and the Baden State Theatre Karlsruhe
to musical content.
17th-29th February, 1992
Artistic Director:
LEWIS LOCKWOOD I have absolutely no quarrel with that; Generalintendant GOnter K6nemann
perhaps I did not stress the point enough. First, I am COURSES
advocating an acceptance of a much more pluralistic Bob van Asperan Harpsichord/Figured Bass
Realisation
view of performance than the previous controversies
Ingrid Bjoner Singing Masterclass
seem to have been allowing for, and second, I'm per- Gerhart Darmstadt Baroque Cello
fectly prepared to accept that the nature of the instru- Louis Devos Baroque Singing
Paul Esswood Countertenor
ment and its touch, feeling and sound-world can be
Reinhard Goebel Baroque Violin
enormously revealing. But that is not the only way in Helmut Hucke Baroque Oboe/Oboe
which the masterpieces of music can be revealed. Michael Laird Natural Trumpet/Trumpet
Walter Stiftner Baroque Bassoon
'R. Taruskin, 'On Letting the Music Speak for Itself: Some Reflec- Han Tol Recorder
tions on Musicology and Performance', Journal of Musicology, i (1982), SYMPOSIUMS
pp.338-49; also Taruskin, 'The Musicologist and Performer', Musicol- I. HANDEL'S OPERA LIBRETTOS AND THE
ogy in the 1980's: Methods, Goals, Opportunities, ed. D. Kern Holoman TRADITION OF THE BAROQUE THEATRE
and C. V. Palisca (New York, 1982), pp.101-17; and L. Dreyfus, 'Early
on 21st February, 1992
Music Defended Against its Devotees: A Theory of Historical Perform- II. HANDEL'S OPERA LIBRETTO IN TODAY'S
ance in the Twentieth Century', MQ, lxix (1983), pp.297-322
UNDERSTANDING on 22nd February, 1992
2A wonderful modern parallel would be Sullivan's organist looking
for the 'lost chord', followed about 75 years later by Jimmy Durante's
-Subject to changes-
marvellous parody skit on it. Durante's number was recently brought For further particulars please contact: INTERNATIONALE
HANDELAKADEMIE, Geschaftsf0hrer Wolfgang Sieber, Bau-
sharply to the attention of the world of music and even musicology by
meisterstr. 11, D-7500 Karlsruhe 1, Germany, Tel. 721 376557.
Michael Ochs, editor of Notes, who published the entire Durante text

508 EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 1991

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