Playing Mozart's Piano Pieces As Mozart Did

[Mike Wilkins]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/21/science/playing-mozart-piano-piec...

Interesting article about a pianist's study of early 19th century piano tutors and how using these techiniques changes the sound of the songs compared to modern playing technique.

[Tim Twiss]

That is a great find, and so pertinent to our banjo situation. I would love to engage in a conversation about this here if we can keep an even keel to the passion of our opinions and observations. This is such a great topic, and one I spend a lot of time on with regards to extracting technique from written treatise. We do spend a lot of time developing our constructs of early banjo playing from our present experience, working backwards to the music. She makes great points about how the physicality effects the music.

[Leonidas (Lee) Jones]

Hm.... Interesting concept, studying period specific pedagogical works in order to recreate a style amd technique of playing of an isntrument that was, itdelf, rather different in construction. I wonder how we might apply this? ;)

[Tim Twiss]

This is largely what I did. I had ZERO banjo experience and learned it all from the written page. While of course, My vantage point was having none.

I still believe that applying the carefully described techniques, combined with a reasonable period reproduction instrument, music as written down from that time, and a careful study of general pop culture can result in something unique.

Most people approach this music from now go backwards. This supports the living tradition argument. What we may miss are other things, as she describes general posture, finger movements, angle of the arms and hands. Today's players do the same...in the hand movement...brushing, flick, bum ditty stuff. It DOES play the music, but it is different. Also, most people that do this music ( early banjo ) are hobbyists with no need or interest to go deep. 
 
Leonidas (Lee) Jones said:

Hm.... Interesting concept, studying period specific pedagogical works in order to recreate a style amd technique of playing of an isntrument that was, itdelf, rather different in construction. I wonder how we might apply this? ;)