Franz Schubert's Music in Performance

Book excerpt: In Franz Schubert's Music in Performance David Montgomery challenges many operative myths about the music of this great, but often misunderstood, Viennese master. Chief among them is the lingering notion that Schubert was poorly-trained but still managed to turn out brilliant, if often flawed, scores. Modern adherents of this view believe that Schubert could not notate his own musical wishes accurately, and that he was principally a creature of intuition. Accordingly, musicians might allow themselves wide intuitive leeway in the interpretation of his music. Another myth challenged by Montgomery is that Schubert was a conservative, or perhaps even a chronological throwback. Opposing recent attempts to legitimize performer-generated embellishment of Schubert's music in the style of the eighteenth century, He clarifies Schubert's contributions to the radical intellectualism of nineteenth-century romanticism. The book offers six informative chapters ranging from aesthetics and acoustics to the specifics of tempo and expression, plus an appendix of pertinent Viennese pedagogical sources. In addition to many years of musicological research, Montgomery brings long experience as a concertizing pianist and conductor to this engaging and controversial work.