Do We Really Know How to Read Urtext Editions or the Case of the Missing Dot

Answer the following questions using information from the following article (uploaded to files) and submit your answers on Canvas: Bilson, Malcolm “Do We Really Know How to Read Urtext Editions or the Case of the Missing Dot”, Piano & Keyboards. (July/Aug. 1995), pp. 24-30

1: What do you think Bilson means when he writes that classical-era notation is "suggestive"--provide 2 examples from pieces mentioned in any of the three articles.

2. For questions A and B, write 2-4 sentences indicating whether you agree or disagree with the following statements. There are no absolute correct or incorrect answers. The idea is that you think through and put into words your thoughts on these topics at this moment in time:

A. Which of the following two statements do you agree with and why?

i: Performers today playing Mozart and Beethoven should hold all notes that do not have a stacatto dot for its full value. There must be a musical reason to hold a note for its full value if the note is not marked with a stacatto dot.

ii: Composers in 18th-C Austria and Germany expected performers to make good judgements based on light and heavy execution about shortening non-slurred notes without necessarily needing to mark them stacatto. But, sometimes classical composers add stacatto notation even when the rules of light and heavy execution make the stacatto notation unnecessary.

B. Bilson makes the point that when a sophisticated composer such as Mozart or Beethoven wants to create an effect that is out of the ordinary, there will most likely be unusual-looking notation (or a lot of notation) in that spot. And when there is nothing out of the ordinary in the notation it may be misguided to come up with 'complicated' interpretation of that spot. Do you agree or disagree with this idea?