Performance Analysis: A bridge between theory and interpretation
A BILATERAL INTERATIONAL COONFERENCE PORTUGAL/ITALY
Interpretation can be found everywhere whenever associated with a sign or a group of signs may that be a sacred, philosophical, literary, musical, pictorial or any other kind of text. The assignment of an interpretation always presents itself, to the recipient of the sign, under the form of an interpretative decision. Hermeneutics is the discipline which studies the meanings transmitted by signs, especially in the case of works of art. There are in fact contents which are more immediately evident, in contrast with others which demand a more meaningful interpretation. For example, concerning the works of the past hermeneutics must deepen the meaning of signs and present very different competences - impossible to be limited - in such a way that the work of art stays alive in the present and, potentially, in the future.
That is just the case of music that from the very moment that embraces an essentially interpretative moment -through which we may have access to the musical message- faces complex interpretative problems. Hermeneutics doesn’t refer just to the performance itself, which includes a virtually infinitive spectre of readings of the same text, but coexists with that same text. Hermeneutics in music plays its role on three different plans: theory, composition and performance. Musical theory - that is the bulk of information based, structured and shared by a community at a certain moment - is the only way to have access to history and to question the past. But theory must be also constantly questioned and put into perspective in order to keep its functionality; the composition is precisely an attempt to give an adequate answer to the technical-expressive questions mentioned by the theory, to formulate a musical thought that is simultaneously a synthesis of the past and a projection into the future. The performance is ultimately the transmission of the musical meaning/content embodied in that thought.
So, this conference has a double goal: to promote a critical discussion founded in philosophical assertions and facing strictly theoretical problems and further on to enlarge the discussion to the the problems concerning musical theory, composition, performance and critic and all that from the point of view of its relationship with the semiotic universes – stratification of languages, forms, performances styles, criteria of judgement, listening habits - which are more and more diversified and complex.
Our purpose is to know what the concept of interpretation means today – in theory and in praxis. This discussion will allow us to evaluate the pertinence of this notion in the traditional hermeneutical performative field and on the other hand to reflect on the essence and the limits of this field in the musical landscape of the XXI century. Together with these questions there will be 2 concerts inspired by these present perspectives of performing.
That is just the case of music that from the very moment that embraces an essentially interpretative moment -through which we may have access to the musical message- faces complex interpretative problems. Hermeneutics doesn’t refer just to the performance itself, which includes a virtually infinitive spectre of readings of the same text, but coexists with that same text. Hermeneutics in music plays its role on three different plans: theory, composition and performance. Musical theory - that is the bulk of information based, structured and shared by a community at a certain moment - is the only way to have access to history and to question the past. But theory must be also constantly questioned and put into perspective in order to keep its functionality; the composition is precisely an attempt to give an adequate answer to the technical-expressive questions mentioned by the theory, to formulate a musical thought that is simultaneously a synthesis of the past and a projection into the future. The performance is ultimately the transmission of the musical meaning/content embodied in that thought.
So, this conference has a double goal: to promote a critical discussion founded in philosophical assertions and facing strictly theoretical problems and further on to enlarge the discussion to the the problems concerning musical theory, composition, performance and critic and all that from the point of view of its relationship with the semiotic universes – stratification of languages, forms, performances styles, criteria of judgement, listening habits - which are more and more diversified and complex.
Our purpose is to know what the concept of interpretation means today – in theory and in praxis. This discussion will allow us to evaluate the pertinence of this notion in the traditional hermeneutical performative field and on the other hand to reflect on the essence and the limits of this field in the musical landscape of the XXI century. Together with these questions there will be 2 concerts inspired by these present perspectives of performing.