junk, standards, what’s new
watching some of hahn-bin’s playing, i am beginning to think about style and what it means to deviate from conventions. my teacher doesn’t seem to like me doing things that are out of the style of the piece. then again, if i cannot put personality into the playing, it becomes just another boring piece. why is it not possible to play pieces in your own way? why do we have to stick to the styles of dead men and their music? why can’t mozart be interpreted differently by different players?
i don’t seem to have much appreciation for standards and their suppositions. i don’t find myself intrigued by things that have been done the same way over and over again. i like what is new, what’s fresh, original. i find that i want to have enough creativity to make my own work, rather than copy, paste or cover.
I suppose one argument is that by putting a whole new meaning of our own to a piece, that particular piece’s particular beauty is destroyed since its meaning has been changed. Another argument is when we play a composition as we please with disregard for the (suggested) directions, we might turn it into pure trash. Could be argued that what is trash to others may be art to us. If that is so, then what is art? What is beauty?
I have to say both arguments are pretty valid to me. To me it is undeniable that sometimes a composition is so powerful precisely because of the emotions that drive them. And you gotta admit: it makes you fuming mad when something so beautiful is ‘reinterpreted’ but it only comes out trashy or kitschy, and the culprit has the Goddamn cheek to call it ‘art’.
But then again, you’re right: you want to play a composition from a completely different angle and let the listeners hear a completely different perspective of the story the composition is trying to tell. And I think that is what makes a player not just a player but a virtuoso: he/she sticks to the conventions but what is produced is something different and unexpected.
In other words, I’m quite torn over this. :S
ps: Listen to Yael Naim’s Toxic if you haven’t already.