[mgj32]

Hi Mark,
I nearly mentioned Hannon's Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises last night, as an example of pure etudes. I don't think anyone would call this music, and I agree that there are probably few teachers who don't at least inwardly wince when they say, "let's hear what you've done with Hannon this week." I enjoyed them as much as I hated the sounds after a while. The enjoyment came from the gradual ability to relax the wrists and forearms and feel speed increasing through the use of of the fingers. But as music--blah.

Perhaps a clear difference should be made between exercises that build technical ability and etudes, which assume that ability and are more interested in problems with interpretation? This idea leads me back to my suggestion that all music (as distinct from exercises) presents the aspiring performer, ensemble or conductor with an etude, which at some point becomes a coherently interpreted performance, or performance that remains in the etude stage. (Hmmm, might make a nice catch phrase for critics writing unhappy reviews.)

Chopin's A Major Prelude comes to mind. No reason to call something so utterly simple to play an etude. Right? I am sure I never "got" it," never was able zero in on an essence I felt was there and translate it into sound. For me, it always remained an etude. I don't think I've ever heard it out of the etude stage, or I probably would have imitated that performance.

I wasn't saying that an intellectual component is unimportant in either composing or listening--listening as opposed to hearing. It can be simple as an immediate appreciation of Rimsky-Korsakov's use of the orchestra or more complex, as in what was meant by someone who said to me more than a half century ago, that you hear something new every time you listen to a composition. I think she meant that each time you become aware of what you may have heard many times and the new "information" contributes to your feeling for the music. It might be getting your mind wrapped around the overall structure of a movement, or realizing how the movement relates to the whole. Or it might be knowing that what you will hear deals with harmony through the use of intervals and hearing how the idea works out. But I do maintain that any piece probably won't get sufficient listening unless the listener develops a feeling for it.

There is a further point about what we hear and why. But with apologies to St. George, Sinding, and a host of others, I'm going to bed.

all best,
mgj