Writing Assignment

1) Read Richard Taruskin, “The Modern Sound of Early Music,” from Text and Act: Essays on Music and Performance

2) Write a concise and precise 1-page critical summary (in your own words) of Taruskin’s main argument. You may consider some of the following questions:

• What are Taruskin’s critiques of the “Early Music” movement?
• Where does he think “Early Musickers” get their philosophical and stylistic values from?
• What are some of these philosophical/stylistic values?
• What evidence does he use for his claims?
• Does he conclude that the Early Music enterprise is without any value?
• Do you find Taruskin’s argument convincing? If not, why not?
• Do you believe that performers should strive for historically authentic performances?
• What does—or should—an “authentic” performance actually mean?

Questions concerning authenticity and performance practice do not only apply to seventeenth and eighteenth-century music. Consider the case of Franz Liszt. While by all accounts Liszt was a masterful pianist, he was also something of a rock star 100 years before rock—that is to say, his audiences adored him to the point of idol worship and in all likelihood many attended his concerts for reasons having very little to do with his music. The Wikipedia entry for “Lisztomania” is instructive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisztomania.

3) Write 2 pages addressing the following: what does a truly “authentic” performance of a piece by Liszt entail? Is it just in the playing of the notes or also in the gestures, wardrobe, concert setting, audience behavior etc.? Watch the following three performances of Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2; which of the three would you consider most authentic and why? Include details—musical and otherwise—from at least two of the performances.

1) Marc-André Hamelin https://youtu.be/pIMzL2-4bjg
2) Lang Lang https://youtu.be/6oGEN7oS2z4
3) Serbian “crossover” pianist Maksim Mrvica https://youtu.be/byGI1mDi3no

Formatting

Times New Roman, size 12
Double spaced
No extra spaces between paragraphs
1-inch margins (left, right, top, bottom)

Writing Assignment 1) Read Richard Taruskin, “The Modern Sound o...