Word: instrumentality
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American composers, it seems, have rediscovered a few simple principles that their European counterparts, still symbolically poking their fingers in the eye of audiences while happily enjoying their government subsidies, have forgotten. The human voice is attached to a living being; it is not a mechanical instrument. It has a well-defined range within which it (and the listener) is most comfortable; and it is best suited to singing stepwise melodies rather than tunes that leap crazily all over the scale, except for dramatic effect. Honoring these principles is not pandering; it is professionalism, and The Dangerous Liaisons...
...ambassador. But when the military began to move against him, he reverted to type and gave a speech he has come to regret. He seemed to give the nod to mob justice when he called the "necklace" -- a burning tire placed around a victim's neck -- a "beautiful instrument" that "smells sweet...
...last movement, Kremer's articulations gained still more grace than in the previous two. His strong rendering of the famous passage on the E string reflected true mastery of the instrument. The balance between the soloist and orchestra towards the end of the piece was impeccable; Haitink and Kremer returned to the stage for numerous standing ovations...
...York City, the world's jazz oasis. But when he arrived, it was more like a desert. He couldn't afford the $500 to buy his own horn. "There weren't too many gigs coming my way," he remembers. To practice, he had to borrow an old instrument a friend was using to hold flowers. At night he slept in the backseat...
...Peter Masseurs supplying the trumpet solo work. The piece resembles Shostakovich's other concertos for violin and cello in that conventional devices of the Germanic school are used for delirious swells and placid falls, with the addition of unexpected minor chord modulations that open up new possibilities for the instrument. Those who see Shostakovich as a throwback to the Romantics should not underestimate the importance of his original variations on timetested themes...