2/20/09

Detritus Brothers Triumphant Return

My absence is due to laziness. Deal with it.

[Augustin] Hadelich and [Peter] Stumpf gave the most exciting performance of the evening in Kodaly’s 1914 Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7.

Well hello, Herman. Nice to see you.

This music studies the relationship between the...

Bwanh! For the sixty-millionth time, I strongly dislike the personification of music. A composer writes it. Okay? A performer plays it. Got it? And a listener listens to it. That’s it. Pieces. Don’t. Do. Anything.

Only Disney can make that kind of shit happen.

This music studies the relationship between the flowing lyricism and the rich, warm stridency of the strings.

Even if this were somehow possible, it would be an awfully generic thing to study: the relationship between characteristics and different characteristics.

Language just isn’t useful anymore.

There was no question artists were right on top of its passion and drama...

Again, what possesses the passion and drama? It? They? Him? Neuter? Kodaly? An inanimate series of symbols?

...deftly exchanging difficult pizzicato exchanges...

How fractal.

...and applying captivating phrasing to its many Hungarian folk tunes and rhythms.

There you have it.
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That Kodaly duo is a fantastic piece, but I always saw it more as exploring the relationship between prawns and shrimp. The branching gill structure of the prawn is clearly articulated in the sweeping scalar figures in the cello taken under a single bow, while the lamella of the shrimp is contrasted by the successive articulated leaps in the violin. Brilliant. And totally obvious too.

Anonymous said...

"exchanging... exchanges"

Really, who would have thought?

CM

Anonymous said...

Ha! Nice catch, CM. If only we could have also questioned questions, broadcast broadcasts, designed designs, and marched marches.

Empiricus said...

...or criticized critics.

Empiricus said...

...or criticized critics.

Empiricus said...

...or mistake mistakes.