I had an odd experience the other night. I sat down to rehearse a
Bach Sonata for violin and obbligato harpsichord with a friend, and
as usualk asked for his copy of the hpschd part to play from so we
would have the rehearsal letters, and it torned out I couldn't stand
to use it. He had played the Sonata recently at a church with a
harpsichordist who had written big pencilled fingerings in over
practically every note -- and had quite proudly pointed the fact out
to the violinist with the comment that they were 'authentic Baroque
fingerings'. As if that excused the defacing. Maybe they were good
fingerings, I don't know, but I couldn't stand playing from it, I
used my clean Dover edition. When something is in front of me to read
I feel compelled to read it, and playing glorious Bach (it's the
fourth, in c minor) with finger numbers taking over important parts
of your brain is such a waste of ecstasy time. The person who did it
was not a student, by the way.  Maybe there is a school of pedagogy
that commands you to write all that out  when you are first lwearning
to shed your Czerny fingerings but by the time you are giving
professional performances? Shouldn't your fingers be able to work
this out for themselves?

Which reminds me that I gave a concert not too long ago where a
partially educated-to-HIP person came up afterwards and asked me what
school of fingering I was using. Apparently I had played some of the
passagework quite rapidly and he was sure that would have been
impossible with authentic fingering. Oh Phooey.

Judy
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