Musicians and Interpretation

[johannesbrahms]

I have been wondering something for a long time, and I thought your opinions might be helpful. When learning a piece, should the musician follow the score exactly, doing his best to express the composer's idea? Or, should he "make the piece his own", so to speak? Which do you think is correct? Thank you in advance.

[awesom_o]

Both. You need to follow the score and make the piece your own. The more you can do both at the same time, the better the interpretation.

[j_menz]

Consider an actor learning a part. You have to understand the character you are playing - motivations, feelings, physical traits, movements, speech patterns etc, and then you have to embody that on stage.  There have been many great Hamlets. They have all been uniquely themselves, but they have also all been truly Hamlet.

In music, you need to understand the piece inside out - what is the composer saying?, why does (s)he do this here? - truly work out the parameters of the piece, being true to the score. In doing that, you'll find that the end result is uniquely your own. Indeed, you will have such ownership of it that it will be as much your voice as the composers, in unison.