Richard Beaudoin's book, Sounds as they Are, opens up a new way to listen to and analyze recorded performances. Beaudoin's argument urges us to accept recorded performances as texts unto themselves, and not just those parts that correspond to the score. He encourages listeners to remove the aesthetic filters that “tune out” those sounds that don't traditionally fit our more conservative notion of “music.” Rather, he presents novel analytical and contextual methods for interpreting these “sounds” in relationship to the “music,” blurring the distinction between them.

I propose a different re-imagining of recorded performances "as they are." Using recorded performances, from both the studio and concert stage, I examine interpretations that present what critics might deem as “mistakes.” These include moments that stem from memory slips, fingers slips, or failing technique. Like Beaudoin, I suggest that we would do well to consider how these moments, these deviations from a score, can be analyzed as part of the performance as well as in conversation with the composition. I ask what new analytical or aesthetic insights or possibilities might be gleaned by embracing these “errors” within the larger context of the recording performance rather than merely dismissing them as elements to be overlooked.

I argue that our assessment of recorded performances is often shaped by our predetermined focus of study. Whereas a composition or score-centric focus highlights these performed moments as “mistakes,” a reorientation toward either the singular performance (as a recoded moment in time and place) or the performer (as a protagonist) reimagines these “mistakes” as an integral part of the performer's intentions or as part of the way audiences perceive them. Moreover, using the theoretical framework of disabilities studies by Bailey Anderson, Joseph Straus, and others, this paper proposes that there is much to be gained by embracing, centering, and integrating those performed aberrations, rather than brushing them under the rug. Instead of adhering to the score as a normative representation of a compositional ideal, we can adjust our aesthetic expectations and resist the expectations of “perfection” that so often burden or cause duress for performers. 

Working from recorded performances by Alfred Cortot, Artur Rubinstein, Ginette Neveu, and Percy Grainger, I demonstrate how their errors unearth new ways of perceiving meter and texture in Chopin and Grieg, as well as harmonic tension in Ravel. Many of these performers exploit their technical slips or failures in improvisational or performative ways that can amplify compositional structures and emotional drama. Some errors even challenge us to grapple with the relationship between what performers play and what audiences perceive.

Anderson, Bailey. “Overcoming and Denial: Disability and Modern Dance in the United States.” Dance Research Journal 52.3 (2020): 58–75.

Beaudoin, Richard. Sounds as They Are : The Unwritten Music in Classical Recordings. Oxford University Press, 2024.

Leech-Wilkinson, Daniel. Challenging Performance: Classical Music Performance Norms and How to Escape Them. Version 2.2.4 (November 17, 2024). At https://challengingperformance.com/the-book/.

Straus, Joseph Nathan. Extraordinary Measures : Disability in Music. Oxford University Press, 2011.