Apparently I have underjudged the readability of my blog, as I think (though it is subject to doubt) the very person who I rather unpleasantly depicted in my last post seems to have written me a rather clever comment… and I suppose I should take into account that the target demographic of my blog would tend to include people who regularly go to Carnegie Hall (and ranges, perhaps, not far beyond). Though too little too late, I should stress the unfairness of depicting someone on the basis of a few words uttered in a concert hall (which he, if it is he, suggests to be misquoted), and my own painful eagerness to rant on occasion, and also (most importantly) the irony and hypocrisy of my ranting about disliking musicological discussions when my own doctoral document, shamefully, was entitled “Studies in Musical Continuity: Towards An Alternative View of Analysis and Form.” Mea culpa. Let he who is without annoying concert-hall comments cast the first stone. Particularly I apologize for the snarky comment about “minutes immersed in music appreciation textbooks,” which was a selfish, peevish gratification and little else.
However, there is a silver lining to my shame. He signed his comment “Structure Man,” which gives me a whole new wonderful idea, sort of Musicology as a comic strip, with battling, macho superheroes: Structure Man vs. Moment Man!!!! How many delightful aspects of music could be covered in their battles!! More later, perhaps I will find a friend to illustrate a strip for me on Beethoven Op. 111…
My friend D. insists that I am an “unreliable narrator,” (i.e. liar) in that really I’m a structure man–perhaps “wishing” I were a moment man? Perhaps I’m compensating? People often say to me after performances that my playing revealed the big structure, etc., was “all of a piece,” or whatever, and I can’t help wondering on these occasions if that’s actually a good thing. Wait! Didn’t you like the details? (Ah, the endless ingenuity of a performer’s insecurities!) D. however does not dispute the likelihood of moldy dishes in my sink.
2 Comments
No, it wasn’t I whom you overheard. I quite agree with you about fulfillment – it’s nonsense. To me, the g minor concerto is fascinating because it shows how much – and no more – Beethoven could absorb from Mozart. I can’t think of two more different toilers in the vineyard of sonata form.
To eliminate lingering doubt, let me say that I was sitting in seat T1, in the parterre.
Actually, your blog is one of the more readable ones out there. (Or is that “in here”?) I make sure to visit you daily.