Music Chat: The 5 Most Annoying Critical Affectations

The 5 Most Annoying Critical Affectations: Bewared of the...
Intonation Imbeciles
Diction Dodos
Nationalist Ninnies
Score Suckers
“Old Boy” Blowhards

[leestamm]

Entertaining chat. Should one also be on guard for "Alliteration Addicts?" ;)

[jdistler]

Excellent talk, Dave. Perhaps I've mentioned "pianos that don't hold their tuning" one too many times in my reviews. It's a problem that can be solved in studio recordings, if one has a tuner on call. Sadly, that's not always the case.

[stephenbreslin]

Brilliant witty insightful refreshing analysis.

[debbie]

Great topic, Dave! I studied for a while with the lead tenor of the SF Symphony Orchestra Choir. He mentioned that Joan Sutherland's "poor" pronunciation was often intentional, as she was always trying to emphasize open vowels as much as possible, to the detriment of consonant sounds at times.

[isqueirus]

I had a teacher that claimed he could ear people out of tune for a few cents. Like " oh, that note was 5 cents sharper" The most incredible thing many people believed him

[petermarksteiner]

Let me add a sixth affectation: insulting the reader/listener if they don't live up to their standards. "In no other recording of Joe Bloggs's 77. symphony have I heard the surprising enharmonic transition from F sharp minor to E flat major played with such clarity by the trombones: if you don't get the deeper meaning of this transition, you miss the whole point of the work." No, I probably miss many fine points of many classical works, but I am still allowed to listen to them and enjoy them.

[vinylarchaeologist]

I am one of those people that are put off by accents that are way off: Lisa della Casa's singing in Mahler 4 spoils it for me. But you are absolutely right: that is 100% _my_ problem, and I would never assume that other people feel or _should_ feel the same. Thank you, Dave, these are all enlightening videos. Cristian

[Bezart]

Dave, thanks for a super-illuminating and fascinating presentation. Utterly absorbing. Regarding operatic singing; I can't even understand it (save for the occasional word) when it's sung in English, regardless of the accent! Therefore, regarding opera as a whole, I don't care about plot, storyline, acting etc. To me it's purely solely an audio experience and if I like the sound of it, that's what matters to me. After all, opera is one of the most quaintly bizaare musical genres!

[WesSmith-mi]

Wow, what a terrific, thought-provoking video. I'm recovering from surgery, catching up on your videos, and this is the perfect antidote to all my pain. (I hope my enjoyment of the video is not merely drug induced!). Absolutely loved this, Dave. Wesley

[daigreatcoat]

I used to hate "Gramophone" magazine's reviews for their arrogance. I learned from the magazine that certain recordings had been issued, but learned quite quickly to disregard much of the criticism. I also grew to hate their recourse to certain phrases: that an earlier recording was "beginning to show its age", or that a particular rendering of a work had "set the standard by which other performances must be judged". Incidentally, the first of these was applied to a recording which had been issued, to great acclaim, ONE YEAR EARLIER.

[tassobear]

OMG, I have learned so much about music and musicians from you, just by listening. Nothing to do but open my mind and listen! Holy moly

[steveschwartz]

My issue with Sutherland's diction was not that she didn't understand what she was singing about, but that *I* didn't understand what she was singing about. That said, she was a beautiful singer.

[DvdAndrsn]

One of your best videos. I've found that certain singer types (I would say sopranos with very big voices, but someone would undoubtedly jump down my throat) tend to have "less clear" diction. But in most cases they're going for line and beauty of tone over spitting out every word (and in most opera, who cares what the words are). And as you said, when they want to spit out the words, they can. I've done a couple recitals with a soprano with a very big voice, and when I point out places where I can't understand her, she fixes them. There's a story about Richard Strauss listening to a rehearsal of Salome, and Maria Jeritza was rewriting the vocal line to suit her, and people sitting near Strauss were saying, Oh, Herr Dr Strauss, isn't that horrible vat she ist doing? And Strauss just waved his hand and said, She knows vat's she's doing. Composers usually don't care about a performer changing things if it's an intelligent performer (I guess I sequed from diction snobs to score snobs there; I won't tell my Desmond Shaw-Taylor story to segue to the Brit critics snobs.)

[MarauderOSU]

I have another one for you, Dave: Period Psychos. I'm referring to the people who think anything that's not on instruments of the period or in the "style" of the period in which it was written is somehow wrong. (Looking at you, Roger Norrington!)

[mauricegiacche]

Never had any great desire to meet my musical icons. I prefer instead to maintain a respectful distance.. Their art exists and is a product of what the ancient Greeks called the “Temenos”, a sacred space adjacent the temple.

[ThreadBomb]

Regarding national 'idioms', I think such concerns ARE valid, to the extent that British musician might play an Elgar symphony a couple of times a year, whereas most American musicians will be lucky to play an Elgar symphony a couple of times in their lifetime. Living with a score for a long time does affect one's performance.

[robertdandre]

Hello Mr. would seem rather interesting to me that you have a discussion, namely, what to do to be the ideal music lover...? ...should we appear to be a connoisseur in the eyes of others...? or simply appreciate...? how many people who listen to classical music, who have a tight-knit neck, can drop sentences like....: Bach, he is the type of all musical forms'' or if the work is complicated, he says with an amused air, "" what a science of polyphonic writing....! or he calls Beethoven "the old man" or if a work seems "atonal" to them he says "it's the chromaticism of "TRISTAN" or instead of saying "movement" he says "tempo", or "rhythm" he says "pulsation", or instead of saying "air" he says "melodic line" or instead of saying "beginning" he says "exposition" etc etc etc....and if we really love music....should we be like them....?

[bbailey]

These would make great Earl Stanley Garner alliterative Perry Mason crime titles. The Case of the Intonation Imbecile, etc.
One of my bugaboos is critics who would knock Birgit Nilsson for singing sharp. For me when she did it, likely deliberately IMO, it added to the thrills.

[ОлександрКрестін]

I agree with Mr.Hurwitz, that 'Enigma variations' conducted by Monteux is much better than the most British interpretations.

[BenjaminCherkassky]

For me, intonation and diction only matters if it's very very good or very very bad. Otherwise, it's contributes basically net zero to the quality of a performance, because it really does not matter much once you get to a professional level.