In an idealized form any performative act is of its nature without fault. If that is so, why do so many have performance anxiety. Every such individual makes mistakes viv-a-vis the source material. In my estimation, the only real error is one that removes the performer from the current context fixating on the previous perceived "mistake". This condition in my estimnation is not a performance but is instead part of the required preparation of skills and study of the source materials. The performer who has not completed his preparation is attempting study and preparation during a time when others are actually trying to perform.
Hence, I regard this as two entirely different acts/mental states: study first, performance when and only when one has completed the study. Yes that part is an ongoing process.
CROSS POSTED WITH ACADEMIA.EDU
Here follows a description in poetic form (derived from a description of Bhakti Yoga) of my view of the necessary mental state for ideal performance, together with the necessary disavowal of self interest:
NON NOBIS DOMINE, SED NOMINI TUO DA GLORIAM
To be able to live and act within performance,
to be able to give yourself to it
and do what you do without second thoughts or doubts.
all acts are as they are
all gestures are allowed
conforming to your own deepest way of perceiving things
conforming to the whole,
both performer and audience,
of which you yourself are a part.
To feel secure with your place in the temporal texture
to be absorbed into the existing, living, gesture.
Every device is executed without any judgement,
so that everything you do, you do
because it is your way of expressing devotion.
I think you can imagine that in such a mind, there can be no such thing as "failure": "no second thoughts". In fact all verbal activity especially mental analysis is completely absent.
Another manner of considering this suggests a mental state totally in the present without recourse to memory. I call it my "time machine" to now, the only time machine that will ever work.
I apologize for my way of seeing trhings as I seem to follow different logic paths than others in this discussion. I hope some will find value in my words nevertheless.
Karl
Next I offer the perspective of one of a great deal of authority (recently appointed head of the Bach Gesselschaft in Leipzig) none other than John Eliot Gardiner.
"Performance, on the other hand, removes the last possibility of sitting on the fence: you are obliged to present it with full belief and conviction. I try to convey what it feels like to be in the middle of it - connected to the motor(!) and dance rhythms of the music, caught up in the sequential harmony and the intricate contrapuntal web of sounds, their spatial relations, the kaleidoscope colour changes of voices and inatruments (singly and severally as well as in their collisions)."
from John Eliot Gardiner "Bach, Music in the Castle of Heaven" Alfred Knopf ©2013
The opening sentence I interpret as being similar to the statement "no second thoughts".
Thank you so much for your observations, Anne. As you can tell, my opinion is that the only failure of performance is the failure to engage the audience. That seems utterly obvious to me.
Gathering in, engaging the audience is of the first part of rhetorical discourse. It is defined by Quintillion as consisting of an introduction of the performer(s), establishing their authority and emotionally "gathering in the audience".
We all know there are boo-boos. There is no such thing as perfection in performance. The power of musical gesture is such that imperfections actually serve the purpose of blunting a gesture's impact, not always undesirable. Boo-boos partake of failure only when they create enough interference in the tonal/rhythmic texture to distract an audience. The little ones are seldom noticed, are they?
Well, all except for us fussy types who always feel we could be doing a much better job than the performers one is listening to. When one starts thinking like that, your role in the audience is lost.
He would have been appalled, indeed.
My most dogmatic emphasis I save for the expression of music as participation. All performance is participation.
Your use of the adjective "perfect" in relationship is judgemental. Remember "no second thoughts". Forget trying for perfection and just be there with the audience.
More later - thanks you for your very useful comments.
K
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