Good is NOT the word!

[Bergonzi]

One of the problems I have in recent years is that critics seem to find every performance wonderful - even if it wasn't. They seem to avoid constructive criticism. There was a time when it was very much the other way, even when they couldn't find any fault they would say something like "Mr Heifetz sounded a little tired." (1954 - R Festival Hall recital).

[doversoul1]

Thats something I have wondered for a while. Richard Barrett gave some useful reponses a while back,which I haven’t really followed up.
What dabbling in critical theory can do, ( as you know better than me) is open the eyes to the many possible ways there are to structure a response, and highlight that the kind of criticism that we are used to reading, for instance in the press, really is just one way of approaching a work.

Which doesn’t answer your question, I realise.

Anyway, this might be worth a read over a cuppa.....

( A PhD thesis “ Boulez’s Structuralist Aesthetics of Music”)


https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstr...1/fulltext.pdf

Thank you!! I like this;
the irrational as an essential element of music

Abstract and Introduction are just about enough for me now. It’s been added to Favourite to read over a cuppa later.

[Conchis]

Praising someone as 'very professional' is an insidious way of saying they are 'just about adequate.' Not much different from saying they were 'workmanlike.'

The British excel at this kind of snivelly mean-spiritedness. Churlishness is, and always has been, Britain's principal export.

[teamsaint]

Praising someone as 'very professional' is an insidious way of saying they are 'just about adequate.' Not much different from saying they were 'workmanlike.'

The British excel at this kind of snivelly mean-spiritedness. Churlishness is, and always has been, Britain's principal export.

Nice.

QED

[jayne lee wilson]

Beginning theory has been helping students navigate through the thickets of literary and cultural theory for well over a decade now.

There is quite a lot of overlapping between literary and cultural studies. Is there any cross-reference that can be made between literary criticism and music criticism? I don’t mean reviews.

The most musically applicable literary critical concept would seem to be intertext, for those passages in musical works which refer to, quote, adapt, vary, borrow (or steal ) from other works. Whether you would find a use for the term as opposed to those more mundane expressions is another matter....

I think you could profitably apply deconstructive techniques to critical or review writing, but I'm not sure how much of an audience you'd get...
The Irrational may be a good starting point...

[ardcarp]

Pavel Kolesnikov's Wigmore Hall piano recital just now (Radio 3 In Concert) was BLOODY MARVELLOUS.

[french frank]

I think you could profitably apply deconstructive techniques to critical or review writing, but I'm not sure how much of an audience you'd get...

Yes, in any critical review, it depends who the audience is. Press critics are writing for the general public not a convocation of university professors.

And going back to what Bergonzi said, I would expect a majority of reviews to be broadly positive, even if the performance was less than perfect. And it's more interesting to be told, for example, what fresh insights were offered into a work than that there weren't any. That would give the reader something to take away from the review. I'm not sure what interest there is in just being told a particular performance was awful if one wasn't there not enjoying it.

[doversoul1]

The most musically applicable literary critical concept would seem to be intertext, for those passages in musical works which refer to, quote, adapt, vary, borrow (or steal ) from other works. Whether you would find a use for the term as opposed to those more mundane expressions is another matter....

I think you could profitably apply deconstructive techniques to critical or review writing, but I'm not sure how much of an audience you'd get...
The Irrational may be a good starting point...

What’s The Irrational?

[jayne lee wilson]

What’s The Irrational?

See your own post #17....
(and add some rum or brandy to your cuppa... a spoonful of sugar, etc....)

[doversoul1]

See your own post #17....
(and add some rum or brandy to your cuppa... a spoonful of sugar, etc....)

Oh, I see. I thought you were referring to another critical theory having mentioned intertextuality and deconstruction.

[MrGongGong]

The most musically applicable literary critical concept would seem to be intertext, for those passages in musical works which refer to, quote, adapt, vary, borrow (or steal ) from other works.

See ALW thread

[ahinton]

See ALW thread

Quite - although let's please not confuse ALW with our resident JLW under any circumstances. Why anyone would even think to confuse the former with an actual composer is beyond me.