tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post6052024983921766313..comments2024-02-27T10:20:42.208-05:00Comments on Signifying Sound and Fury: Do we have to keeping singing in German, even in America?Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-4372533045595794892013-03-17T22:07:58.996-04:002013-03-17T22:07:58.996-04:00Thanks, Tristan. Maybe I'm wrong about modern ...Thanks, Tristan. Maybe I'm wrong about modern audiences and program notes. One note: I don't think that museums are bad; some classical musicians don't like that label because they think that it cheapens or makes what they do stuffy and doesn't describe music (since it's always an interpretation), but I think musicians should embrace and enjoy the term. I also think that music can touch you even if you don't understand the words (and I hope that was clear from the post), but I was suggesting that our understanding will be different than St. John Passion's original audience's understanding.Peter Shirtshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-39159410540420344502013-03-17T21:54:04.478-04:002013-03-17T21:54:04.478-04:00Thanks for the post, Peter, but I disagree. I enjo...Thanks for the post, Peter, but I disagree. I enjoy hearing the poetry (whether understood or not) of other languages and their attendant sounds. Yes, most Americans don't have great pronunciation, but at least they're trying and this helps us get outside the echo box of living in a huge homogenized country. As a young boy in rural New York, the only way I could even hear other languages was by listening to music and trying to pick up some German, Russian, Latin, or French helped keep me awake and actively following along. Furthermore, I don't think audiences are as clueless as you'd suggest. Learning to read program notes and then recognize words in the sounds emanating from the stage isn't really a hard skill to pick up. It used to be standard education for everyone to learn a little German, Latin, French, etc. Now we lean on our amazing technology like Google and it's making us paradoxically less educated. <br /><br />Secondly, as you point out, the timing of the music is often inextricably connected to the syllables of the text-- would you add and delete notes so they mirror an English translation? I would not; I think there's value in museums and not just classrooms. <br /><br />I think that good music can reach out and touch people even if they don't understand the exact words. There are parts of Wagner, or Verdi, or Beethoven, or Mozart that give me goosebumps even if I don't have a clue what they're saying (or if no one is singing at the time!) <br /><br />I agree that we're often missing out on the composer's intended shared religious experience, but that's not something translation would help. You could translate the words of something as basic as the sermon on the mount and half the people in an American audience would miss the point. The only way to fix that will be to improve religious education and spirituality.Tristan Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13423519500396496533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-87030113838732399342013-03-17T21:48:47.768-04:002013-03-17T21:48:47.768-04:00Ich verstehe es. Ich weiss nicht warum du damit ei...Ich verstehe es. Ich weiss nicht warum du damit einen Problem hast.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15501228857238675695noreply@blogger.com