I had a thought again. Apparently a lot has been going on in the sub-conscience in the last 8-months.
My thought is related to compositional process, pragmatism, performing and the audience experience. I think we all face performance situations where we practice something so very hard, but come the performance, it just does not go well. Or, where some aspect of a piece is unnecessarily difficult, and not for much gain. Some pieces sound harder than they are; some pieces sound easier than they are.
The second movement of the Cassado Solo Suite is pretty hard, it's a virtuosic Sardana-dance with lots of fast octaves, jumping around, crazy double stopping, multiple voices etc. I love it - the challenge is well worth the work! The last chord is my least favorite, even thought it's by far not the "most difficult" passage in the piece: a D major chord up on the fingerboard, where you can't really easily block but you have to anyway, to get the fifths. There's plenty of time to get up there, so it should work. I hit it every time in practice. And...so far, whenever I've performed the piece, I've missed it. I hate that one chord to the point where I might not program the piece because of it. I've heard other cellists say the same exact thing. So...it occurred to me...what if, I just took that chord down an octave?
Would changing that one chord influence the audience experience in any way? Probably not for the negative (unless there was a cellist in the audience, who, knowing the piece was either biting their nails from nervousness on my behalf or gleefully waiting for me to fall off the fingerboard). Would it change my performing experience? Ummm, yes, absolutely! For infinitely better. And, in the end, would anybody really care? Would Cassado care?
It's probably obvious what my answers are. BUT - this could, and would be a slippery slope. Once the door has been opened to the idea of changing a passage for convenience, where's the line? I think the answer has to do w a balance, and the composer should always get a veto. The main question for me is the audience experience, and whether or not the creative "edit" would in some way change the essence of the piece. I am a pragmatist - but I don't want to sell out either. So I've tried to do it his way for 15 years. Next time I'm trying it my way - I'm so taking that chord down.
My thought is related to compositional process, pragmatism, performing and the audience experience. I think we all face performance situations where we practice something so very hard, but come the performance, it just does not go well. Or, where some aspect of a piece is unnecessarily difficult, and not for much gain. Some pieces sound harder than they are; some pieces sound easier than they are.
The second movement of the Cassado Solo Suite is pretty hard, it's a virtuosic Sardana-dance with lots of fast octaves, jumping around, crazy double stopping, multiple voices etc. I love it - the challenge is well worth the work! The last chord is my least favorite, even thought it's by far not the "most difficult" passage in the piece: a D major chord up on the fingerboard, where you can't really easily block but you have to anyway, to get the fifths. There's plenty of time to get up there, so it should work. I hit it every time in practice. And...so far, whenever I've performed the piece, I've missed it. I hate that one chord to the point where I might not program the piece because of it. I've heard other cellists say the same exact thing. So...it occurred to me...what if, I just took that chord down an octave?
Would changing that one chord influence the audience experience in any way? Probably not for the negative (unless there was a cellist in the audience, who, knowing the piece was either biting their nails from nervousness on my behalf or gleefully waiting for me to fall off the fingerboard). Would it change my performing experience? Ummm, yes, absolutely! For infinitely better. And, in the end, would anybody really care? Would Cassado care?
It's probably obvious what my answers are. BUT - this could, and would be a slippery slope. Once the door has been opened to the idea of changing a passage for convenience, where's the line? I think the answer has to do w a balance, and the composer should always get a veto. The main question for me is the audience experience, and whether or not the creative "edit" would in some way change the essence of the piece. I am a pragmatist - but I don't want to sell out either. So I've tried to do it his way for 15 years. Next time I'm trying it my way - I'm so taking that chord down.
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