Mad Libitum!

Given that the article is only 360 words, can you guess what percentage of those words are adjectives? Go on, give it a try. What’s your guess? Well, the actual answer is... drum roll... 13% or 47 adjectives. I even omitted a few, like dark chocolate. That’s quite a proportion considering that articles, conjunctions, pronouns, nouns, verbs and adverbs, and the like, require a good deal of space. Oh, and don’t forget multiple word proper nouns and numbers and stuff. This proportion, of adjectives to other part of speech, is a difficult thing to do without losing coherence. Congratulations Mark Stryker of the Detroit [Editor-] Free Press for defying the odds, sort of.

In the spirit of defying odds, let’s try something a little new, shall we? Here’s the whole article, partitioned paragraph by paragraph. The same direction applies: arrange the extracted adjectives into their appropriate places. Good luck!

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Forgotten

Conductor dusts off ______ gems

Black
Dark
Gloomy
Mystical
Obscure
Uncommercial

When Gennady Rozhdestvensky last conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2001, he led one of the most brazenly _______ and _______ symphony programs I've heard. The music included _______ Rachmaninoff, _______ Britten, _______ Kancheli and the conductor's arrangement of Schnittke's _______ satire "Suite from Dead Souls."

Beloved
Conventional
Lighter
Unusual
Venerable

This weekend the _______ 76-year-old Russian is exploring more _______ corners of the repertory with the DSO, though the mood is _______ and he also is leading the _______ Schubert's Symphony No. 9. Still, the music was anything but _______ Friday.

High
In-the-moment
Minimal
Quirky
Svengali
Tall
Unique

Rozhdestvensky has a _______ presence. He is _______, preferring to stand on the floor rather than a podium. He favors _______, _______ gestures, though an arm or hand will sometimes shoot out with sudden alacrity. There's a _______ aura about him; he and the orchestra seem to commune on a _______ plane of mystery. Schubert's Ninth had the gravitas of being been delivered from the mountaintop but also _______ spontaneity.

Deliberate
Dynamic
Expressive
Fluid
Glorious
Long
Long
Low
On-the-beat
Slavic
Springy
Verile
Warm
Weighty

Rozhdestvensky drew a _______, _______ tone from the orchestra, the _______ strings and brass as rich as dark chocolate, and the players spoke Schubert's _______ melodies in _______ paragraphs. Paced by _______ and _______ horns, the opening movement unfolded in _______, even _______ tempos, but Rozhdestvensky always had the _______ view in mind. By the finale, the music had grown _______ and _______, the _______ accents evoking the accumulated wisdom of a _______ journey.

Brooding
Giddyap
Rapid
Rousing
Witty

Before intermission, the conductor led two works the DSO hadn't performed in decades. Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1 (1933), also called a Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings, is a _______ burlesque full of _______ mood swings, parody, a _______, _______ conclusion and just enough seriousness to keep it from slipping into slapstick -- a _______ slow-movement waltz is to die for.

Muted
Virtuoso

Pianist Viktoria Postnikova, the conductor's wife, played her _______ part with power and flair, and principal trumpeter Ramon Parcells played with soul, especially in his _______ passages.

Late-romantic
Modernist
Suspense-filled
Twilight-of-tonality

Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1 (1907), heard in its full orchestra version, looks backward and forward at the same time, caught between _______ opulence and _______ angularity. Rozhdestvensky's _______ phrasing and control of color italicized the _______ ambiguity.

Exalted
Ragged
Unsettled

Still, the performance was _______, _______, as if the telepathy between conductor and orchestra had yet to reach its most _______ state.

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Hope you didn’t fry your synapses. Here’s the answer. How’d you fare?

For your troubles, here’s maestro Rozhdestvensky, in his early days, conducting something just for you. I thought this might something good to listen to after an accomplishment.
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