Le Guin Response

At the outset of this reading it is made clear by the stranger, (who we later find out is Diderot,) that a large portion of the music observed by individuals in the 18th century was observed either at home or in small salons, while Le Guin states that in our generation the majority of performances of classical style music happen with a performing group separated from the audience across a room. In the current day, ensembles not only maintain this separation across a room but they also go through hours of polishing in rehearsal in order to produce a performance as close to technical perfection as possible. They are in the room to perform and then leave with no further discourse. Discourse concerning music in our time is usually separated from live performance of the music being discussed. On the other hand, as we see in the article, discourse and performance not only happened in the same place in the 18th century, but they were intertwined. The music and discourse both taking turns in being subservient to the other, and both free to take place at the same time. We see over the course of the reading that the musicians would begin to play and the other participants in the salon freely discussed over the music. And then at points the musicians would stop to participate in the conversation about what has been played. It also seems, though it does not take place in the reading, that it would be perfectly normal for the musicians to go back and replay certain sections of the piece to further the discourse. This type of interrelation between music and discourse is something that seems to occur rarely in our current musical climate. So my first question is, what do you think caused the shift from the 18th century paradigm of discourse and performance taking place together to the current paradigm of concert halls and academic discussion being separated in most cases.

Le Guin mentions that most audiences these days only vaguely understand what they are listening to during musical performances. Why do you think this has become the case?

Diderot asks Le Guin how a sonata can be better than its performance. How is the opinion implied by Diderot different from our current conceptions of pieces independent of performance and why did such a shift come to pass?

It is stated in the reading that the more familiar the setting is for a discussion, the easier it is to discuss important things. Is there an analogy to be drawn here between conversational settings and musical performance venues?

In the current age, the rehearsal is generally a private event to be participated in by an ensemble and if there is one, the director. It is unusual for guests to be invited to rehearsals and in many cases this privacy is jealously guarded. The performance in the article seems much more like a rehearsal than what I would call a performance, and this seems to be beneficial to all involved because both the audience and the performers are becoming more familiar with the piece from the inside out. The audience is also able to rewind and rehear things that they may have missed the first time. With all of these benefits to be had, why do you think this kind of event has come to happen only rarely in the current day?