Word: aural
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...jazz fan, the Society would have been unbearably boring were it not for the aural relief provided by the Modern Jazz Quartet. Or, considering the concert's stuffy slant, was it be the other way around? The difference was barely perceptible...
...crossover potential of the new aural hybrids is obvious on Mickey Hart's Planet Drum, a dazzling display of rhythmic virtuosity performed by the Grateful Dead drummer and a super group of percussionists from Nigeria, Brazil and India. Planet Drum, which has been No. 1 on the Billboard World Music chart for the past nine weeks, is a rollicking time machine, at once archaic and up-to-the-second, primal and technologically smart. In songs like Udu Chant, Temple Caves and Dance of the Hunter's Fire, the players coax a torrent of tattoos and flowing rhythms from a battery...
Loquacious is too impoverished a word to describe Paglia's speaking style. She talks at triple speed, rarely even using contractions, hurtling along in a grating pitch that comes perilously close to a cackle. Her aural punctuation is hilarious. A recent SRO lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was typical. Yuh? Yuh? O.K.? O.K.? peppered her speech, and the audience answered right back...
Musically, heavy metal has evolved somewhat, from a monotonous barrage of frenetic tempos and slashing guitars toward richer aural textures and even an occasional ballad. Metallica is typical of the metal bands that have renounced their raunchy roots and polished their music, if not their image. Gone are the crude lyrics and blaring wah-wah guitars that marked its sound in the mid-' 80s. Many of the tunes on Metallica could almost be called reflective, like Holier Than Thou: "Gossip is burning on the tip of your tongue/ You lie so much you believe yourself/ Judge not lest...
Each voice is as unique as a fingerprint, and the whole aural setup is not exactly fair. An artist like Freni yearns to play grand heroines like Norma or La Gioconda but must obey the dictates of her two vocal cords. Yet Birgit Nilsson could prevail over waves of punishing orchestration for hours. Her explanation: "I was a healthy girl with a healthy voice...