A few years ago, I had the pleasure of attending an
holiday season concert featuring music for
combinations of harpsichord, violin, and voice -- all
fine players of early music and well-known in that
region. The violinist accompanied by the
harpsichordist had a very strong presence and produced
a very musical and memorable performance. This
included a bit of swaying and even some hair flipping.
:) The singer, by surprising contrast, stood
perfectly still -- quite like a statue -- and
delivered some beautiful singing, but failed to
communicate anything but pretty sounds even though she
was singing words right to us.
It was the oddest experience to observe the diva
holding the violin and the straightforward musician
singing with nary a gesture or dramatic head shake or
raised eyebrow. This singer even had (has) long,
beautiful hair and lovely face waiting to add a bit of
visual drama...but even so!
I came to know this singer personally a bit better
later on and learned that she is *very* uncomfortable
with any sort of non-vocal phenomena in her
performing. Even to the point of rejecting the church
singer's ONE gesture -- raising your arm to signal the
congregation in. Her singing and musicianship,
however, reamin top-notch.
This thread was talking about actual words (as mike
iterates below) so I'm a bit off the point, but it
caused me to think of this interesting concert
experience, the like of which I haven't observed
since.
-Jen
--- Greypins@a... wrote:
> by 'expression', i meant the conveyance of a
> thought. though music may
> evoke a variety of reactions, it cannot convey an
> idea. even a simple
> thought like 'the book is red", an idea so clearly
> conveyed verbally, cannot
> be conveyed through music, no matter how expressive
> the instrumentalist.
> though armstrong and elton john and a multitude of
> elborately gestured
> pianists may indicate that there is something going
> on through their
> gesturing, they are at a loss to identify what that
> something is.
>
> mike, a chronic sufferer of 'guitar face'
>
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