|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: of the emotional associations which are grouped about the
peculiar timbre of the human voice.[64] At first the suggestion
seems plausible; but on analogous grounds we might set the piano
above the orchestra, because the piano gives us pure harmony and
counterpoint, without the adventitious aid of variety in timbre.
And it is indeed true that, for some such reason as this,
musicians delight in piano-sonatas, which are above all things
tedious and unintelligible to the mind untrained in music.
Nevertheless, in spite of its great and peculiar prerogatives, it
would be absurd to prefer the piano to the orchestra; and there
is a kindred absurdity involved in setting the orchestra above
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
