006 | Shouldn’t We Still Speak?: Interpretation of Music Performance · Analysis · Works (2018)

Music is abstract. The beauty of music, the meaning of music, is invisible or untouchable, and goes beyond what is definable. Nevertheless, we read and speak music. The music connected by three rings, sheet music, performance, and listener, is both abstract and complex art. Many symbols on the score are reproduced as sounds, and we perceive the sound as music, and interpretation occurs in the process. However, interpreting music does not simply know the pitch, beat, speed, etc., and the score goes beyond the object of simple soundization. Why should music be interpreted, focusing on the various views and attempts on the interpretation of music that have been widely covered so far? How does it translate? Answer to.
 

The book consists of four frameworks: "What is Music Interpretation," "Performance as Interpretation," "Analysis and Interpretation," and "Interpretation of Works." First of all, it begins with a theoretical discussion of "what is music interpretation?" and talks about the meaning and role of interpretation, and various perspectives on music interpretation. In "Performance as Interpretation," the process of performing and interpreting music is discussed from a performer's perspective, and in "Analysis and Interpretation," the relationship between analysis and interpretation, or analysis that delves into the structure of the work, is working as a kind of interpretation. Finally, "Interpretation of Works" deals with examples of concrete interpretations of works such as Berg's opera "Lulu" and Tandun's "Ghost Opera".

Since the concept of performance and composition began to separate after the 16th century, sheet music has become a work of its own, beyond simply means of reproduction. Various questions that arose while music became the subject of interpretation and its possibilities widened also affected fundamental questions about the meaning and beauty of music. Through the 18 articles in the book, I hope that readers will be able to try to approach the fundamental questions and meet various levels of answers to the previous questions.