In the culture of Western art music, governed largely by a tradition built upon the sound of orchestral instruments, the sounds of traffic, industrial machines, and other non-pitched sound sources from the world around us existed on the edge of the divide between the musical and non-musical world; once adopted, they prompted a colossal change. 

Audio example 7. Svetlana Maraš, 5 String Sculpture (2024).

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep:
No more; and, by a sleep, to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished, to die, to sleep—
To sleep, perchance to dream, ay, there’s the rub.
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil
Must give us pause.

Scarborough Spa’s architecture epitomises the Victorian synthesis of engineering ambition and seaside leisure culture. The complex, substantially rebuilt after the 1876 fire, integrates Italianate and Classical Revival motifs, expressed through arcaded facades, restrained ornamentation, and an emphasis on axial symmetry. The Grand Hall, designed by Verity and Hunt, exemplifies advanced iron-and-glass construction, enabling expansive interior volumes suited to concerts and assemblies. Terraced elevations respond sensitively to the site’s dramatic cliffside topography, mediating between the built environment and the North Sea panorama. Collectively, the architectural vocabulary articulates a civic aspiration toward refinement, therapeutic recreation, and modernity during Britain’s late-nineteenth-century resort boom.

Figure 14a–d. Scarborough Spa, 1858–: A, steps down to the promenade; B, the early twentieth-century Sun Court; C, late twentieth-century buildings adjacent to the Sun Court; D, steps down to the sea.

Now, from what I understood from your presentation, you focused on the pragmatics of archaeology, the methodological aspects, and you gave us a lot of interesting advice and many useful categories to think within. But what I found particularly intriguing were your illustrations of these methodological points, which to me you could use to approach a few traditional distinctions. One is between science and art—and further between the natural sciences, hard sciences, social sciences, and soft sciences—with an eye towards how these categories can be revised. Another is between the historical and the contemporary—how can your artistic examples within the archaeological method help us revise the difference between contemporary and historical music-making?

Looking beyond the long-dominant, score-serving view of the musician in performance, Auslander posits that “what musicians perform first and foremost is not music, but their own identities as musicians, their musical personae.” ¹ Such personae exist on a spectrum from the “strongly mandated” ² established personae of symphony orchestra musicians to those of performers who are free to construct their own personae themselves. Crucially, Auslander describes this process as “always negotiated between musicians and their audiences” ³ reflecting a push and pull between audience expectation and the performer’s expression of self. Auslander’s example provides an apt description of how Grillo constructed his own persona:

Auslander outlines the complex network of relationships between performer and audience that influence the various aspects of an artist’s performance persona. In the case of Grillo, my—or any other performer’s—presence as an interpreter of his music emerges as a crucial complicating element within this fragile network. Grillo’s own performance practice generated new techniques (such as left-hand pizzicato innovations and bowed spectral harmonic sweeps) that then found expression in his written compositions. Because of this, his “persona” becomes splintered, diffused among and between his scores, performances, and other documentation. When I perform his works, I am not the performer-composer, as he was when he played them. Yet, within this dense flow of representation and reception, I also take on a dual responsibility: First, I must form as comprehensive an understanding of Grillo’s “performer-composer persona” as possible, given how much information it contains that is of relevance for his works; and second, I must carefully consider the most effective way to express this persona to an audience. To achieve this, my interpretations of both work and persona must be accurate and comprehensive.

Auslander outlines the complex network of relationships between performer and audience that influence the various aspects of an artist’s performance persona. In the case of Grillo, my—or any other performer’s—presence as an interpreter of his music emerges as a crucial complicating element within this fragile network. Grillo’s own performance practice generated new techniques (such as left-hand pizzicato innovations and bowed spectral harmonic sweeps) that then found expression in his written compositions. Because of this, his “persona” becomes splintered, diffused among and between his scores, performances, and other documentation. When I perform his works, I am not the performer-composer, as he was when he played them. Yet, within this dense flow of representation and reception, I also take on a dual responsibility: First, I must form as comprehensive an understanding of Grillo’s “performer-composer persona” as possible, given how much information it contains that is of relevance for his works; and second, I must carefully consider the most effective way to express this persona to an audience. To achieve this, my interpretations of both work and persona must be accurate and comprehensive.

An embellished fermata appears in the second movement (Andante con variazioni) as well, in bar 196. While Beethoven merely writes a short upward arpeggio on the dominant seventh chord, followed by a brief transitional figure for the violin (see figure 5.7), Czerny again offers different alternatives. In the four-hand version he considerably lengthens the embellishment, assigning it to the primo piano only (figure 5.8). In the solo transcriptions of 1823 and of 1837, Czerny only slightly extends the original passage (figure 5.9). However, in both the four-hand and the solo versions, he expands the keyboard range from five octaves to six.

The fact that Czerny’s embellishments appeared during Beethoven’s lifetime suggests that he felt sure of the composer’s approval. Since this was also the period in which he was teaching the young Liszt, his additions raise intriguing questions about the kind of Beethoven performance practice he actually imparted to the child. Czerny’s most widely known verdict on the matter appeared later: “In the performance of [Beethoven’s] works (and generally those by all classical authors) the player must by no means allow himself to alter the composition, nor to make any addition or abbreviation” ⁵