Fazil Say and His Musical Identity: Musical Embellishments in “Black Earth”

The role of a performer in the twenty-first century has progressed tremendously with regards to performance practices developed from the Renaissance until the present. Many virtuosic performers currently perform similar solo repertoire but with their own interpretation, which may result in score modifications. An important question is: how does the performer modify the scores appropriately? This study examines Fazil Say’s piano work of the Black Earth based on recorded performances. A musical analysis was conducted, where transcriptions of four recorded live performances by Fazil Say were compared with the corresponding music scores. This was to identify the melodic and rhythmic embellishment modifications that he made during his live-recorded performances. These modifications were different in each performance. It is evident that the role of a performer is not limited to interpreting dynamics, articulations, and pedalling, but also modifying the score through melodic fragments and rhythmic patterns that can be considered one’s own interpretation of the composers’ work. However, this may also apply to specific compositional works of contemporary composers such as Fazil Say who is known as a performer, composer and improviser.