BERLIOZ AND THE SLUR

Abstract

THE nineteenth century is likely to be last period in musical history to pose problems of authentic style in performance. For twentieth century there will always be recordings to settle issue. We have an unbroken tradition of performance for most types of nineteenth-century music; but this may be a snare. For we may rely on intuition to guide us, in belief that our intuition is same as a nineteenth-century performer's, whereas in fact tradition has altered considerably. Nothing illustrates this more vividly than use of slur. Hugh Macdonald's articlel is probably first thorough discussion of this problem in print. As such it is welcome and overdue, and I only hope that it will be beginning of a development which will eventually lead to a full theory of interpretation of nineteenthcentury Dr. Macdonald has brought to his subject a performing experience that is almost as impressive as his knowledge about Berlioz and his For this very reason he has been vulnerable to danger I have mentioned-that of equating our own musical sensibilities with those of Berlioz and his contemporaries. It is very important, in what is really pioneering work on this subject, not to make this assumption. One should proceed, with greatest caution, to set down what one really knows about Berlioz's meanings. Anything beyond that is a matter of taste. Dr. Macdonald agrees with this in his introductory remarks, but he then proceeds to make a categorical statement about five meanings that slur can bear in Berlioz. The fourth of these meanings is the length of a phrase or group of notes, where (he says later) slur simply marks off beginnings and ends of phrases, commonly made audible by detaching of last note from next phrase by shortening or by a break in music. No authority is given for this statement. Elsewhere, indeed, he says: general I would doubt that unelided slurs imply a break. In fast music it is likely to be impracticable; in slow music too much articulation may break flow. Yet in three examples (on p. 28) he interprets slurs in just this way. This is all very confusing. In first place, what does