ABSTRACT
There has been a general tendency in Western music to restrict the performer’s options ever more closely, and at the same time an increasing dedication to honoring the composer’s intentions at the expense of the performer’s interpretive freedom. Compare Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (1722, 1742), which lacks any indications of tempo, dynamics, or articulation, with Debussy’s Preludes (1910, 1913), which are full of detailed and descriptive instructions, and compare them both with the examples of integral serialism in which every note has its own dynamic marking and articulation. Though elements of chance are present in any live musical performance (after all, there is always the possibility of a mistake), the emphasis has usually been on more control, not on improvisation.
