Putnam Aldrich

Putnam Aldrich (1904 - 1975) is a American Claveciniste

Born in the Massachusetts in 1904, it belongs to the first generation of the American harpsichordists. It starts with the study of the Piano in Paris in 1929 with Wanda Landowska, which quickly leads it to be put at the Clavecin. He is at the same time his pupil and his assistant during five years. In 1949, It is among the founding members of the " Society for Liberal Music in the College" Arts; , organization of professors of music, which joined soon Karl Geiringer, biographer of Bach and its family. He published many articles of musicology relating to the repertory baroque. As from 1950, he taught with the Stanford University (California) as a specialist in the Baroque music, in particular of the Basse continues.

Anecdote

He had to face a tradition anchored well in the interpreters of the traditional and romantic repertory which consists in nothing tolerating which deviates from the partition. Towards the end of the year forty, Putnam Aldrich played the 5th Brandenburger Concerto under the direction of Pierre Monteux. He told what arrived at the time of a repetition: I started directly by carrying out the low one appeared of the initial tutti. The chief stopped me: What is these agreements which you are playing? Bach did not write agreements here! I tried to explain that the figures under the part of harpsichord represented agreements, but he retorted: If Bach had wanted agreements, he would have written agreements. This must be an authentic interpretation. We will play only what Bach wrote! Then, in aside with the other musicians: you see, the musicologists always have the nose in their books and they forget to look at what Bach wrote. Arrived at the second movement, maestro had to admit that the base line without harmonization was insufficient and gave to Putnam Aldrich the permission to add “some discrete agreements”.

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