SOPP606: Why MUST we use articulate legato touch?

Published: Aug. 12, 2020, 1:10 p.m.

b'This question was sent by Laurie, and she writes:\\n\\n\\u201cHi Vidas,\\n\\nBe sure you are sitting down to read this. \\U0001f602 I have no objection to the study of articulate legato touch for early music, but my question is, why MUST we use it? I understand it was the practice in the time of Bach and early music, but wasn\'t that true because the tracker instruments lent themselves to that sort of touch? And the flat pedalboards could be navigated easier with all toes, rather than using heels. But if we have a modern instrument that does not have "tracker touch" and has a concave radiating pedalboard, why not lend new interpretations to these masterworks? It could give new life and new understandings to old music.\\n\\nI\'m sure you have heard Cameron Carpenter play. I\'m not always a fan, but I learn something new about the construction of the music when I listen to his interpretations. For example, here he is playing the Bach B Minor Prelude and Fugue on a modern organ, making full use of colorful registrations and expression pedals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jixCGS_AAG8\\n\\nIsn\'t this improvisation in its own way? What do you say?\\u201d'