The aim of this emulation process was not to play exactly like Reinecke but rather to expand the possibilities for flexibility in my own performance. Ultimately, I want to follow my
intuition and instinct in the performance; therefore, I wanted to experience Reinecke's performance with my own hands, as it is one of the oldest records preserved on the piano roll
that has inherited the traditions of the 19th century as well as those that preceded them. By emulating it repeatedly and embodying the patterns and nuances, they eventually
became integrated into my expression and came out naturally as my language in my performance. While similar experiments had already been done by others, my aim was a personal,
physical, and sensory integration into my own performance, and thus, it was a process that I had to go through myself, and I could not rely on the work of others.
Richard Taruskin wrote, “If we truly wanted to perform historically, we would begin by imitating early-twentieth-century recordings of late-nineteenth-century music and
extrapolate back from there.”1
This section attempts to describe the process of emulating Reinecke's performance. For this experiment, I used bars 1-8 and 17-27 from his arrangement of Mozart’s Larghetto
K.537, according to his recording, since he skipped the orchestra tutti part in bars 9-16. The fortepiano on which I played is the original 1874 Streicher housed at the Royal
Conservatoire The Hague. The general process I followed is the same as in my presentation two years ago (see Introduction), but this time, I have approached it following the elements
that create flexibility outlined in Chapter 2.
First, I tried to play it exactly as it was written. I recalled when I was studying modern piano and never heard
Reinecke's performance and consciously and thoroughly excluded the historical performance practices of Chapter 2: my
left and right hands and chords are played completely simultaneously, no rhythmic changes are made, and tempo
changes are also kept to a minimum. However, the style is, of course, not mechanical or unmusical, so I have tried to play
beautifully with a maximum of natural nuance.
Secondly, I tried to extract the elements outlined in Chapter 2 from Reinecke's performance and play them myself in
order to understand which elements were used where and what effect they had. I tried to focus on each individual
element and exclude the others as much as possible. As a result, the performance in this second trial is quite different
from Reinecke's, as he uses a sophisticated combination of these elements. However, as mentioned in Chapter 2.1, it was
quite difficult to separate these elements completely, and some parts were left without a strict distinction.
Unnotated arpeggios: I played only the left
hand in bars 1-8 and tried to imitate how
much Reinecke broke each chord.
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Dislocation: It was almost impossible to
analyze dislocation in isolation from the earlier type of rubato. Here, in bars 1-8,
I tried to listen to and replicated the amount
of delay of the right hand from the bass in
Reinecke's performance.
Next, these elements are integrated to emulate Reinecke's performance. I recorded my emulations, compared them
with Reinecke's and tried to correct them, and repeated this process 6-7 times. Throughout this step, I felt, that
although I was trying to get closer to Reinecke's playing, I was actually also gradually getting closer to “my” playing.
Through repetition, those elements of Reinecke's performance were embodied and integrated into my own
performance, especially since it was impossible to perfectly imitate Reinecke's playing completely.
Finally, instead of trying to imitate, I tried to play the piece in my own way, using these elements.
Earlier type of rubato and rhythmic alteration:
I played the alternating E-A-C-#D melodies in
the left and right hands from bars 2 and 3 in
such a way that both hands were dislocated as
a result of playing each in independent singing;
the right hand E on the third beat of bar 3 is
extended considerably, shortening the following
A by the same amount. I also tried to imitate
the right hand accelerando in the 16th note
running passages in bars 18 and 22, and the
inégale rhythmic unevenness in bars 19 and
from 23.
