Beholden To The Page

Just because we all have to be in agreement doesn’t mean we all have to be beholden to the page.

A rhythmic disagreement between sections tonight offered an opportunity to ignore the sheet music.

Sheet music, of course, only contains a fraction of the musicality – there’s a lot of interpretation that has to be done beyond what’s on the page. That mindset can even apply to such seemingly-straightforward things as rhythms.

There are several reasons why you might interpret a rhythm differently than an arranger or composer put it down on the page.

  • There is room for nuance in how the rhythm should be performed (think about swing interpretation!).
  • A musically authentic rhythm might be too difficult to read if correctly notated-the writer may have simplified for clarity.
  • The arranger/composer made a mistake.
  • Your version is better.

Especially with arrangements of popular songs, I think we can be as free in interpretation for the ensemble as we would be as a solo singer. As long as we freely interpret it in the same way, we as performers should feel fully authorized to make significant interpretive choices.

In the end, we opted for the T1s’ version of the rhythm – different from the page, more complex, and in the end more true to the spirit of the song.