Chapter 5 - Notational Nuance in the Twentieth Century and the Motives for Notational Innovation

Summary

Over the last century, composers have exercised increasing control over every aspect of performance. They have adopted several strategies, including Stravinsky’s program of recording performances of every piece he composed with himself as pianist or conductor in order to provide templates for all other performances. The principal means for achieving this control, however, lay in the density and specificity of notational instructions. Composers were already using notation to assume control over aspects of performance before the end of the sixteenth century, perhaps beginning with the dynamic marks Giovanni Gabrieli introduced in his Sacrae symphoniae of 1597. A significant increase in the specificity of notation occurs in the works of Beethoven, who, because of the physical infirmity of his deafness, was the first major composer unable to participate effectively in performances of his own compositions.