General statement to performers

As with most scores, my scores are best thought of as indicating both a piece of music and elements of one particular interpretation of that music. While difficult to disentangle which is which for any given notation, it is never the intention to exclude alternative interpretations of the piece. Accordingly, I encourage performers to develop an independent interpretation they believe in, with the score as a starting point - and in the case that some notations in the score conflict with that interpretation, ignore those notations.

Any thoughtful interpretation of the piece is “correct”. That is, the performer should always feel free to deviate from the score, really in any non-arbitrary way. What’s more, exactly that occurring would be an encouraging sign that our musical practice is in good health. I mean to refer to  more than just subtle, expressive changes to tempo and dynamics, but really changes to what could be thought of as the structure of the music itself. I invite the performer to consider what is written as trying to describe one possible version of the music, rather than the music itself.