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Originally Posted by Dave Wallbridge
I therfore come back to my start point, why bother to memorise if the reading ability is developed to this level, where sighting a piece at speed is achievable?.........
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Because, even though they can read at such an advanced level, I'll bet that, given the choice, they'd rather play it from memory as it gives more scope for musical expression.
Look at the example of a piano, violin or or gutar concerto, where the solo instrument is contrasted against an orchestra. The orchestra players always play from written music but the soloist never does.
That's because the orchestra just needs to play the notes in front of them and relies on the conductior to bring out the expressiveness of the orchestra as a whole.
But the soloist needs to play with their own musical expressiveness - Reading from music limits that to some extent. Most of us might not even notice the difference, but the soloist obviously feels the performance is more musical when playing from memory.
I remember a classical guitar concert by John Williams, where he apologised for having to play one of the pieces from sheet music. Apparantly there had been a change to the programme a few days previously, and he hadn't had enough time to memorise the new piece.
John Williams, as you may know, has a reputation as a phenomenally accomplished sight reader, yet even he prefers the freedom of expression that comes from memorising.