Abstract
This article discusses the widespread implications to the field of performance studies of attempting modern realizations of previously forgotten artwork for which any traditions of interpretation as might once have existed cannot now be recovered, mindful of the broad range of recent endeavours to expand and diversify artistic canons through rediscovery of the outputs of creators who have historically been marginalized on such grounds as gender or nationality. It takes as its case study the unfinished piano miniature ‘Aus der Jugendzeit!! E. v. H.’ (From the Time of Youth!! E. v. H.) by Ethel Smyth (1858–1944), composed in c.1878–80 but essentially unknown thereafter until it was recorded by the pianist Liana Gavrila-Șerbescu and published in a modern edition at the turn of the twenty-first century.
Comparative analysis focused on tempo and rubato reveals widely divergent interpretations in three recordings of this piece: Șerbescu’s commercial release (1995), and those available on standard Internet streaming platforms by Heloise Ph. Palmer (2017) and Carolyn Enger (2020). These findings suggest that Șerbescu’s inaugural version has done little to inaugurate fresh interpretive traditions for the work, particularly in the differing approaches taken to its inconclusive ending, and given that the absence of tempo, dynamic and expression markings in the original source material does little to promote consistency of performance.
In seeking to mediate between these interpretations through a hypothetical reading (supplied as prose description supplemented by audio realization), I propose that the reimagination of rediscovered artwork across the arts disciplines might be informed not just by conventional sources such as original manuscripts, but by more unconventional ones as well. In this instance, these include relevant passages of Smyth’s much later published memoirs, in which she offers a detailed prose description of the dedicatee, E[lisabeth] v[on] H[erzogenberg], Smyth’s close friend and the wife of her composition teacher, whose character the music seeks to portray.