This blog post explores the evolution of performance and its changing role in music, exploring how performers reinvent works and connect with audiences.
The concept of ‘performance’ in music really began to take on meaning in the 18th century, when it was thought that music must have ‘content’ according to the ‘affect aesthetic’ that was popular at the time, where content meant an objective emotion that anyone could feel, and performance was understood as accurately conveying that emotion to the audience. Therefore, composers put those emotions into their music, and performers were expected to accurately convey the emotions of the piece to the audience, rather than expressing their own thoughts or opinions. In other words, performance meant that the performer objectively expressed the score through sound, and the audience at the time appreciated the emotions presented by the composer through the performance.
However, this notion of performance changed dramatically in the 19th century, with the shift from affect aesthetics to work aesthetics. With the influence of work aesthetics, which is concerned with the meaning and value of the work itself, composers no longer needed to direct or express a specific content, and “absolute music” was born, where the music had its own inherent value. In this new trend, composers sought formal beauty through the harmonious organization of motives, phrases, passages, and the development and repetition of themes, instead of expressing specific emotions. In this music, stripped of emotional content or narrative elements, the performer was no longer a mere conduit of emotion, but rather took on the important role of interpreting and reconstructing the structural beauty of the work. For example, performances by Wagner, Mahler, and others who varied the orchestral arrangements of Beethoven’s symphonies were meant to convey to the audience a new meaning of the work as interpreted by the performer.
This trend became more pronounced and crystallized in the 20th century. This period saw a dramatic increase in the number of people enjoying music, as well as in the number of people working in music, which led to the specialization of music: the roles of composer and performer became sharply separated, and even among performers, there was a fine line between specializing in a particular genre, period, or composer. With dozens of recordings of a single piece of music available, performers needed to emphasize their uniqueness and distinguish themselves from other performers through their own interpretations. This led to more varied and subjective interpretations of works, where the performer’s personality and emotions now play an important role in the performance, as well as a faithful interpretation of the work itself.
This change has also affected the way audiences listen: instead of simply experiencing the musical emotions intended by the composer, audiences now hear the musical expression as reinterpreted and reinvented by the performer. When a piece is performed, it no longer has a fixed meaning, but is reinvented by the performer, and this gives the audience a double meaning. In other words, while the audience understands the composer’s intentions, they are also experiencing music that has been reborn through the performer’s interpretation.
As the meaning of performance changed, music became a more complex and multilayered art form in its own right, with the performer becoming more of a creator who breathes new life into the piece rather than a mere technical transmitter. This has added to the depth and diversity of music, and in modern music, the performer’s interpretation and expression has come to be seen as the music itself.
