Musical Representation and the Evaluation of Musical Performances

Abstract

This paper explores the issue of musical performance evaluation, which has received very little attention in contemporary philosophy of music. I first develop a view of performative interpretation of music that builds on recent accounts of musical meaning and representation. As an alternative to the conception of musical performances underlying pluralist views of musical performance evaluation that have been popular lately, I shall offer a view which sees the articulation of understanding of the work performed as an important element of musical performances. Theories of musical meaning and representation I discuss in the article are intended to illuminate what articulating an understanding of a musical piece through a musical performance means, and how musical performances can be evaluated on the basis of the view they afford of the work performed. After discussing an extensive example, I examine the effect of the account of performance evaluation I offer in the article on the question regarding the relevance of the composer's performing intentions for performance evaluation. In the last section, I compare the alternative view sketched in the article with recent pluralistic conceptions of evaluation in more detail. My view is that the two are in no way incompatible. Rather, the view of performance evaluation I develop in the article manages to supplement the pluralist conception of musical performance evaluation in some important respects.