The art of interpretation.

 




The art of interpretation 

Richard Wyce

February 25, 2022



On interpreting interpretation.


Interpretation is the act of explaining, reframing, or otherwise showing your own understanding of something. A person who translates one language into another is called an interpreter because they are explaining what a person is saying to someone who doesn't understand.

  A composer attempts to express himself/herself with notation that will then be conveyed to an audience by a musician or musicians. This presents challenges to the performers depending on how much detail has been included in the original composition. There are many factors that have to be taken into account, such as tempo, rhythm, phrasing, volume of each passage and the understanding of the piece as a whole.

In other words: musicians have to “translate” the notes the composer has written into music so that the audience can understand what the composer is trying to say. If the composer is still living, this process can be facilitated to a certain extent as the composer can either perform directly for us or collaborate with musicians to make sure his/her intentions have been properly understood. 

However, if the composer is no longer living this starts to become much more subjective as we can no longer verify misprints or anything else that may be unclear in the text; we can only surmise what particular effect a composer may have been looking for from whatever has been written in the original score. This becomes even more complicated when the original score is not available and we have to rely on copies that may have been created by others, such as in the case of the J.S.Bach unaccompanied cello suites. 

A good analogy would be an actor reading a script that has to find the right inflections, tone of voice and expression to portray what the writer is trying to say: This applies to musicians also, as the objective is the same.

Today technique has improved so much that musicians can play almost anything. Unfortunately, in my opinion, this can lead to rather clinical performances that don’t pay enough attention to what emotions the composer was trying to convey. Conversely, other performers allow themselves too much poetic license and don’t follow the score closely enough.

To summarize: interpretation has to be subjective to mean anything, as the performer’s understanding of the music and how that is conveyed is the end result.

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