Shuffle continued: Essay for Musical Communication and Critique Class

I) Notas de La Enciclopedia de New Grove
1) Características de la Autenticidad en la música
a) El uso de instrumentos de la época,
b) Fidelidad a los deseos del componente original
c) Una re-creación del contexto del ejecución original
d) “Attempt to re-create the musical experience of the original audience”(241)
e) El termino, “Historically aware/informed performances” ahora esta mas usado
porque la palabra “autentico” implica verdad objetivo que seria verdad y correcto en cualquier lugar o tiempo. Sin embargo, en los tres décadas pasadas, la idea de un concierto ‘autentico’ ya ha cambiado mucho.

2) Critica negativa
a) Ejecuciones informados “Attempt to re-create the musical experience of the
orignal audience” eso es muy difícil, naive y elite.
b) Elitismo cultural; ¿Otros ejecuciones no son auténticos? ¿Por que?
(¿ejemplo? Bob Dylan quien tome una tipa de música antigua y lo cambio poniéndolo vanguardia y entonces, elite.)
c) Ninguno concierto puede ser exactamente “autentico.”
d) Muchos aspectos de ejecución han cambiado (la idea de una ejecución
autentica es uno!)
e)Es ingenio pensar que los oyentes pueden tener la misma experiencia como
tuvieron en el pasado.
f) Las barreras culturales entre el pasado y ahora son tan grande como cualquier barrera producido por distancia física. Así que un concierto “autentico” pueda perder su componente mas importante; la audiencia.

3) El Postmodernismo sus síntomas
a)El deseo o “craving” por la autenticidad es algo postmoderno. Es una reacción a
la globalización que, con el capitalismo y Mas-media nos ha desconectado de nuestra historia cultural.
b)The influx of media and capitalism weakens our ‘historicity’ “this means that
we are no longer aware of our place within human history and are not so able to appreciate ourselves as historically conditioned beings.”(p.242) nos sentimos perdidos y solos en nuestro tiempo.
c) Por eso, muchos humanos en el mundo postmoderno buscan ordenen
definición y propósito. Fundamentalistas religiosos son un ejemplo; por usando leyes viejos buscan la un-ambigüedad. Quizás la diferencia entre la vida hoy y la vida de antigüedad queda en el sigue de estas tradiciones. La autenticidad en música intenta de revivir una época de música cuando humanos se sentían en su lugar.

TYRRELL, John (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2nd Edition. Volume 2 of 21. London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2001.


It is a very scary thing to live in the postmodern world. We are so isolated from our past and feel lost. Postmodern sentiments in art (like “Authentic” concerts) became popular in the first half of the 20th century with the aftermath of massive wars and the ever-increasing presence of technology and mass communication. Population growth, technology and therein too, art, have expanded exponentially and violently. This leaves us with a feeling of being cut off from the gradual and directional continuance of culture that, until recently, was normal. We are now, more than ever, confused and insecure with our roll in history and the meaning of existance.
One natural reaction to this would be to dive back into our past and try to make it a part of our lives once again. This is a noble idea; our identity is utterly important. But perhaps it is too late. Perhaps we have changed so much in the past 50-90 years that to try to connect ourselves to anything before would be false and a lie.

This is often the case with authentic recreations in music. So much about the musicians, composers and especially the listeners has changed that the music of antiquity (beyond the academic sense) is inapplicable. The best approach to take is to acknowledge that things have changed and try to redefine ourselves based on the present. Communicate with audiences and see what they like. We may be in a completely new era but we are not crippled by anything else but our nostalgia. We need to look forward and see what good we can bring to art. Dwelling on the past will not do anything for us because it is now, in the postmodern era, too far removed.
Recreations of concerts can be of academic value but beyond that I would agree with most of the criticism listed above. For the most part they are done out of nostalgic fantasy for a time that has passed and will never return. Furthermore, there is almost no way to recreate the thing as a whole and so you kind of have to lie to yourself to make it work. And if it is taken out of cultural and historical context, the audience cannot relate to the concert and they become even more lost.
However, in the historically informed film, “Eroica” (2003, Simon Cellan Jones) we saw an interesting example of a recreated concert, where the audience was also recreated. Infused with political and musical commentary, costumes, beer and food of the time, we were able to see the novelty and explosiveness of this symphony in context; a characteristic that many recreations lack. The recreated audience was able to react to the symphony and give us this contextualization.This 1804 concert by Beethoven was submersed in political and musical controversy; Napoleon’s political advances over Europe and the individualistic evolution of composers to the status of artist. Without people there to discus and contextualize these controversies, the significance of the concert would be lost to almost all except the most historically wise of viewers. In this sense, the recreated concert and it’s audience eliminated the elitism often found in other authentic recreations. Anyone who likes music, academically trained to appreciate it or not, could enjoy this film and realize the what led Haydn to say at the end of the film, “From this day, everything is different.”
Beethoven’s struggle to expose himself as an individual and an artist is a theme that still applies today. Young artist still face the stubborn opinions of the older generations who do not appreciate their work. Also, thanks to romanticism, which Beethoven was at the cusp of, the artist has become a small god in our society. With that final line the film was made applicable to current audiences, and it will continue to apply to them in the future. This film achieved something that very few historical recreations ever do; applicability.