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Eliot Fisk

Classical Forum
Interpreter's Notes

HIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT musical interpreters and their music, 11 measures, while the bass ascends to the dominant seventh

T It;s about the complex reaction that occurs when a performer's, chord (B7), Within that crescendo I may freely improvise subtle
?

imagination encounters that inert substrate of dots and dashes gradations of dynamics o ifferent pitches as t ey strik my
otherwise known as "the score," I will try to show that even in the fancy; but I am aware that It IS only one of the possIble solutIons,
most clear-cut example the performer must resolve (consciously
An unusual and important hint to performance is provided by
or unconsciously) a sur risingly large number of questions about \ what is evidently the composer's own right-hand fingering: p-i-p-i-p
\ m-i-a-m-a-i-m-p-i-p-i. This articulation inevitably producs a continwhich the printed page is practically mute,
My "clear-cut" example is Villa-Lobos"'Etude #1." By choosing ual shimmer that results from the slight variations in tone quality
this piece I avoid a phalanx of problems that assault me when I produced by the thumb and each finger. Villa-Lobos does not tell
approach music of the more distant past - problems that are us whether we are to strive toward homogenizing the slight timbral
caused by the absence of composer's directions for such things as differences between the fingers, or whether we should highlight
ornamentation, tempo, and dynamics, In choosing the Villa-Lobos different implied voices with variously sparkling colors_
piece, I also have the assurance that the music was intended for an
In regard to timbre, Villa-Lobos gives us no directions whatsoever for the use of ponticello and tasto, As critical as these
instrument that resembles mine,
No n e t h e l e s s , c a r e f u l s c r u t i n y shows t h a t V i l l a - L o b o s ' choices are, they are left to the interpreter's conscience_ I favor a
twentieth-century score is imprecise with respect to practically gradual migration from tasto to ponticello to achieve my long
every parameter of music. That imprecision is not necessarily crescendo to the B7 chord in measure 11. However, I am not ruling
undesirable, because it allows the performer a certain amount of out other possibilities,
creative space_ I will discuss how, parameter by parameter, the
And speaking of color - what about vibrato? Do we use finger
performer is compelled to fill out some of the thoughts that the and/or arm vibrato, and if so, where? I occasionally use both types
composer has only sketched,
of vibrato here to show intensity (quiet or menacing), and to
I turn first to the category of instrumentation. The "Etude #1" convey sweetness (especially in the penultimate chord of the
was composed in Paris in 1929, and is scored pour guitare_ But in I piece), However, the score does not even admit the existence of
1929 the guitar had gut strings, not the nylon strings we use today, vibrato_ To those who question my right to introduce this (or any
Of course, by the time the piece was published, Andres Segovia (to other) unnotiited element, I return the challenge: By what author
whom the piece was dedicated) had switched to nylon strings, 'ity do they omit - through lack of imagination and education Villa-Lobos probably accepted the new strings, but does the score elements that have always been quintessential in the playing of
tell us this?
string instruments?
Villa-Lobos marks the etude allegro non troppo (fast but not
The performer must even make decisions in the realm of pitch,
too fast), By avoiding a metronome marking, he leaves the per- In the chord shown in Ex,I, if the third-string E is left to its own
former considerable latitude, Allegro non troppo is a relative term devices, it sounds sharp to the open E.
that is somewhat dependent on the, Performer's metabolism: The third string so that it is perfectly in tune with the open Efor that
allegro non troppo of a 20-year-old fireball may be quicker than chord, we are then destined to produce an opening chord (see
that of an 80-year-old savant
Ex_2) in which the G is lamentably flat As is often the case, the
, Proceedin further, we notice that the allegro non troppo con- guitarist must find a tolerable compromise,
sists of continuous sixteenth-notes organized in 4/4 time, As gui- Ex, 1
' Ex, 2
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tarists, we may not stop to think that the score does not reflect what
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we actually play, in that all the notes of the chord are held down as
long as possible, Accurate notation of that would require a cumber
some array of ties, rests, and voices, so it's easy to understand why
--T
But what if Villa-Lobos was alive today and we could pose all
Villa-Lobos' score shows just the sixteenth-notes, He probably felt
that the extra sustain was implicit in the words pour guitare, and these questions to him, or better still, if we could hear him play his
Villa-Lobos never expected to have the piece rendered with each "Etude #1," First of all, it is likely that Villa-Lobos' own conception
of the piece would change slightly from day to day, and from year to
note getting only the exact time value of a sixteenth-note,
Thus, my authority for letting the notes ring comes from infor year, So we would get a variety of answers to our questions_ As for
mation that is independent from the score, Exactly how long Villa-Lobos' own performance of the work, we have the testimony
should each note last? The score does not tell us, and the point is of Segovia that although VilIa-Lobos was bursting with tempera
infinitely arguable (as is often the case when playing the music of ment, he was not a polished performer. So not even the compos
er's performance could serve as a complete model (any more than
Bach, Scarlatti, Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven),
A similar imprecision exists in the parameter of dynamics, In Leonard Bernstein's singing in the role of Tony in West Side Stc;>Yy
measure 1, Villa-Lobos gives us the marking piano_ Thereafter, he could be taken as definitive)_
Finally, there are the famous engraving errors of the Max
tells us nothing, So how long does the piano last? One measure?
Five? Ten? The score gives us no answers, Within the piano Eschig edition, Those errors, which are still uncorrected in recent
marking, should every note be played at exactly the same decibel printings, have forced generations of guitarists to guess (unneces
level, or should each note be subtly varied? Again, the score does sarily) about the composer's intentions_
Then how should we approach Villa-Lobos' "Etude #1?" How
not answer these questions, I favor a long crescendo over the first
can the performer make critical decisions about instrumentation,
Eliot Fisk has gained an international reputation/or his technical tempo, rhythm, dynamics, color, pitch, and the text itself, and still
mastery and bold interpretations on the classical guitar_ A student somehow retain the composer's spirit? It is in search of answers to
0/ Andres Segouia and other great artists, Fisk also earned his such questions - never answerable in their entirety and too vast
M.A degree from Yale Uniuersity, where he was selected as for any one answer - that we interpreters repeatedly set out with
"the little bark of our wit" as we give each performance,
am
chairman 0/ the guitar department in 1976_

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SEPTEMBER 1981/FRETS MAGAZINE

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