Jon Houston's Notebook

Authentic Musical Performances

Authentic Musical Performances

Maximally Authentic Musical Performances Are Both Possible and Necessarily Value-Conferring

Stephen Davies

A performance which aims to realize the composer’s score faithfully in sound may be judged for authenticity. A performance of X is more rather than less authentic the more faithful it is to the intentions publicly expressed in the score by the composer, where those intentions are determinative and not merely recommendatory of performance practice.

Because the composer’s score underdetermines the sound of a faithful performance, the authenticity of any particular performance is judged against the appropriate member or members of a set of ideally faithful performances.

As a commendatory term, “authentic” is used to acknowledge the creative role of the performer in realizing faithfully the composer’s specifications.

Maximally Authentic Musical Performances Are Neither Possible Nor Necessarily Value-Conferring

James O. Young

Assume we have an omniscient musicologist who can answer questions regarding the score, instrumentation, tuning, and performance techniques.

1. Authenticity as Historical Sound

An authentic performance is a performance that reproduces music as it was heard at the time of its composition.

Possible objections:

  • Moral objection: castrati
  • Bad instruments
  • Bad musicians

2. Authenticity as Composer’s Intention

An authentic performance is one in which a composition sounds the way the composer intended it to sound.

Possible objection:

  • Knowledge of how to perform a piece cannot be fully put into propositions. It is more like riding a bike than constructing a mathematical proof.

3. Authenticity as Ideal Historical Sound

An authentic performance makes a piece sound as it would have sounded during the period of its composition, had conditions been ideal.

Possible objections:

  • Hearing is active, not passive. For example, consider the duck-rabbit image.
  • Our beliefs play a role in how we interpret what we hear.

4. Authenticity as Historical Air Vibrations

An authentic performance is one that causes the air to vibrate as it would have vibrated at the time of the composition, under ideal conditions.

Possible objection:

  • Synthesizers could then do the work.

4’. Authenticity as Historical Air Vibrations by Authentic Instruments

An authentic performance is one that, by means of authentic instruments, causes the air to vibrate as it would have vibrated at the time of the composition, under ideal conditions.

Possible objections:

  • To make the air vibrate in the same way, performers would need to have the same beliefs as earlier musicians.
  • Even if this is possible, the goal of music is to attain a musical goal, not merely to make the air vibrate.
  • The music was meant to be played and heard by contemporary performers and audiences.

Questions

  1. Do we really care that much about authentic performances? Is this just a niche group of elites arguing about something unimportant, or is there more to it?

  2. How might these arguments apply to other sorts of music, such as jazz, rock and roll, or folk music? Do we apply authenticity to these sorts of performances? What about cover bands?

    Another way to think about this: Paul Simon wrote “Bridge Over Troubled Water” with the intention that Art Garfunkel sing it. Is a performance less authentic if someone else sings it? Does it matter?

  3. Shakespeare’s plays are usually performed very differently than they would have been performed when he was alive. Does this make any difference? Sometimes directors use his plays to make political or social statements that he clearly would not have intended. Does this matter? Is the play less a Shakespeare play because it is being used in this way?

  4. We often use the word “authentic” to describe food. For instance, someone might say they want authentic Mexican food, not the Tex-Mex version they get in the United States. What do you think these philosophers might say about this? When we say a food is authentic, we often mean it in a value-conferring way: this is real Thai food, not the phony American version.

  5. We often describe a person as “authentic.” What do you think we mean by that? Are we talking about something different from what we are talking about here? Are there any connections at all? Is it possible to be an authentic person? Is it good to be authentic?