Page 16 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2025. Glasbena interpretacija: med umetniškim in znanstvenim┊Music Interpretation: Between the Artistic and the Scientific. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 8

glasbena interpretacija ... | music interpretation ...
into the actual musical life of past periods has led to the discovery of more
and more details of the sound worlds of the past and to the concept of his-
torically correct, historically authentic interpretation. Research of this kind
mainly focuses on specific details of interpretation. These include the acous-
tics of historical performance venues, the composition of ensembles, ques-
tions of tuning, playing and singing techniques, and more specific ques-
tions of performance, for example the characteristics of bowing, phrasing
2
and ornamentation in a given environment. The aim of all this primari-
ly music-historiographical research, the findings of which enable the read-
ing of musical scores in their original sound and performance contexts, is
to achieve a reconstruction of music as it actually sounded in the past in a
manner that is as historically authentic as possible.
Performances based on such premises can today be heard in the case
of individual conductors, performers and ensembles specialising in the his-
torical repertoire. In today’s predominantly digital environment, where in
just a few clicks one can access the music of the most diverse historical peri-
ods, environments, types and genres, awareness of the diversity of interpre-
tative approaches is greater than ever before. On the other hand, it is pos-
sible to find individual more or less influential “celebrity” conductors and
soloists who are followed by many others around the world who adopt sim-
ilar interpretative solutions. It is worth pointing out some of the pitfalls of
such models, which can lead to often utterly unrealistic comparisons of live
concerts with technically faultless studio recordings or performances.
Unquestionably one of the most significant changes in the interpreta-
tive field has occurred with the reinforcement of the image of the performer
as a supernaturally skilful, almost demonic interpreter capable of thrilling
the audience (one need only remember the famous depictions of Tartini’s
3
Devil’s Trill Sonata or the image of Paganini as a demonic virtuoso). In
Musikalische Interpretation, a survey of interpretative practices in different
periods, Siegfried Mauser attributes the most important role in the develop-
4
ment of this type of artistic approach to pianists. The latter greatly popular-
ised individual symphonic and operatic works through their paraphrases
or reductions, something that according to Carl Dahlhaus forever changed
2 Jurij Snoj, “Glasbeno delo in njegove interpretacije,” Muzikološki zbornik 38 (2002): 8.
3 Mai Kawabata, Paganini: The “Demonic” Virtuoso (Woodbridge: Boydell Press,
2013).
4 Siegfried Mauser, “Virtuosen versus Interpreten,” in Musikalische Interpretation,
Neues Handbuch der Musikwissenschaft, Band 11, ed. Herman Danuser (Ljubljana:
Laaber-Verlag, 1992), 394–400.

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