Comments on: Yet Another Ill-Advised, Egregious Post

By: vegaroo! » Blog Archive » Vegans and the Quest for Sanity

vegaroo! » Blog Archive » Vegans and the Quest for Sanity — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 01:31:05 +0000

[...] shy about making inflexible, demanding, black-and-white rants on topics he clearly knows little about. This is just a new one to add to his repertoire. It does show, though, how far veganism has [...]

By: chopin prelude score

chopin prelude score — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:31:05 +0000

[...] Suddenly, as always seems to happen, the alarm went off. It cruelly punctured the most vulnerable sphttp://jeremydenk.net/blog/2008/03/07/yet-another-ill-advised-egregious-post/Chopin Prelude – MelodyWhile listening to this sequence, look at the piano score and follow [...]

By: Jose

Jose — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:52:21 +0000

I had a professor in college who would regularly perform The Goldberg Variations in recital on/with/through the harpsichord and piano. There was one time where she performed them on harpsichord one weekend,and then on piano the following weekend. It was quite interesting to see how some of her musical choices – her “expression”, I guess – were determined/influenced by the instrument she was playing. I still remember her response during a Q&A session when she was asked what was the hardest thing about performing The Goldbergs on either instrument: “It’s a long piece. I get very thirsty.”

By: Goose

Goose — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:48:42 +0000

Have you ever read Paul Micou’s The Death of David Debrizzi? I started reading your piece and was swept along with your eloquent debunking. And it just went on. And on. I thought you were going to need chapter headings. Sir, you are a Pierre la Valoise for our times! Amazed you have time to practise, but don’t stop the blogging.

By: Laurel

Laurel — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:12:24 +0000

Yayyy!!! It turns out I haven’t visited your blog in at least a year (my “favorites” pointed me to your May, 2007 introduction of this new site). And lo, here you are writing with great wit (as usual) about my most heartfelt peeve in the world of music. As a flute player, I have often thought about how tickled Bach would have been if his players had a modern flute at their disposal. It’s true that Bach’s genius allows his music to shine even where dynamics aren’t available, but hey! Like you say, should the cantatas be sung like Gregorian chant?

What brought me to your blog was to report that once again, your music stood out for me in a way that says it’s jut not personal acquaintance. This time I was comparing your (and your quartet companions’ – Concertante) performance of the Dvorak piano quintet, Op 81 with the Julliard string quartet. It so happened that struggles with my setup to switch back and forth between two CDs, combined with the sun on LED displays meant I wasn’t really sure which CD player had which performance. What I was sure of was that the one on the right was way more energetic (dare I say expressive???) and interesting. Some VERY interesting phrasing and (here I go again) expression. Then! Yes! It was you on the right-hand CD player.

Don’t forget that Maya would love to see you on May 11.

By: Janet

Janet — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:49:02 +0000

Wow. Ionarts linked me here, and I think I’m in love. This is one of the funniest, wittiest, and most intelligent things I’ve read in ages. It makes me want to rush right out and listen to you play Bach. And then in the midst of all that cutting intelligence, I was literally stopped cold by “the lines that the notes seem to draw amongst themselves, the beautiful patterns they create, their diversions, their turnarounds, and their intersections… all Bach’s magnificent, humane geometry … full of whorls, lines, fractals, parabolas … geometry with no whiff of blackboard and always proving eternity”–a description that is both lovely and deeply thought-provoking.

Thank you.

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:03:26 +0000

1. I am concerned about your diet. Also coffee.
2. What does “clausular” mean? This is arcane to the point of hermiticism. It’s like you were seized by the ghost of Ezra Pound. I mean I even went to the (physical) O.E.D. and it’s not there.
3 How is Wolff’s book?
4. Have you ever read Auden’s “The Sea and the Mirror”?

By: Jack Bross

Jack Bross — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 13:26:52 +0000

I don’t have anything strongly against Bach on the harpsichord, but what really annoys me is artists who insist on playing it on the piano as THOUGH it were a harpsichord. A couple of the crucial defining characteristics of the piano are that you can play individual notes with different loudness and that there’s a sustain pedal. If you insist on playing with a neutral touch, you cut off a lot of the phrasing and subtlety of voicing that the piano can accomplish. It’s not any better to overemphasize every occurrence of the main theme in a fugue by playing it louder than everything else, but as long as you’re bringing out details tastefully it’s communicative, expressive, and effective. Meanwhile, avoiding the sustain pedal is really a bad idea. Sure pedaling can muddy the counterpoint, but it’s also how the piano achieves a singing line and a warmth of tone. Sometimes Bach is about spiky contrapuntal bounce, and sometimes its about songfulness and warmth — you just have to decide what the priorities of the music are.

My other pet peeve about Bach performance (including keyboard performance) is that it is crucial that the music DANCE. I don’t care if you accomplish it on a harpsichord, a piano, or an organ — it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:45:29 +0000

A) I am glad I am not Harold Fromm
B) If I were Harold Fromm, I would probably find myself laughing along with the rest of your readers at your support of your egregious piano playing.

My absolute favorite part was “the chapel became a larder” – too funny. Thank you!

By: Kristin

Kristin — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:25:58 +0000

“Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than treason
To go with the drift of things
To yield with a grace to reason
To bow and accept….”

Robert Frost