In music scholarship, there tends to be tension when discussing the origin of knowledge and expertise. The issues arise when the historical object of discussion is a musical score; the score itself has a specific composer, who often says certain things about the music and his/her own intentions surrounding it, and then there are often centuries of scholarly discussion and argument surrounding the score that are also needed to be considered. For example, in an article about Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, the author discusses the disagreement surrounding the tempos of different movements, and how opinions about the tempos have changed over time. In this discussion, the first opinion that he cites is Beethoven himself, but after proving the legitimacy of sources describing Beethoven’s opinion, he quickly moves to describe the validity of other opinions in the centuries following. This shows that a post-modern view of art is being taken in the scholarly music world today: it is no longer only the composer’s opinion of his music that matters, but anyone’s interpretation is potentially just as legitimate. For more on the use of evidence to prove argument in music scholarship, seeEvidence and Argument: I’ll Let These Letters Speak for Themselves. Expertise is granted to those in a field who have studied the most; in many music circles, the expert Beethoven scholars would not consider Beethoven himself an expert in his own music. (Morante)
to Evidence and Argument: I’ll Let These Letters Speak for Themselves
to Drop the Beet(hoven): Audience
The Treehouse - Schirmer 