Many performers refer to scores as ‘the music’. This is wrong, of course. Scores set down musical information, some of it exact, some of it approximate, together with indications of how this information may be interpreted. But the music itself is something imagined, first by the composer, then in partnership wth the performer, and ultimately communicated in sound.

The moment when music as sound is born, along with the attendant joys and frustrations, has been beautifully described by the great accompanist Gerald Moore. In the passage that follows, Moore subjects to microscopic analysis the introductory bars, or Vorspiel, of Schubert's ‘Wandrers Nachtlied’ (see Example 9.1). Moore's choice of such an ‘easy’ song is revealing, emphasising that technique is not simply a matter of accurately reproducing the score – in this instance the notes are simple enough to read at sight – but one of bringing the score to life in sound. Moore takes a delight in showing how elusive this can be: