Word: wagnerism
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...saying goes, often seem to have more talent in their little fingers than amateurs have in their entire bodies. Now a German physiology researcher says that is precisely where they do have their talent-in their little fingers, as well as their other fingers and wrists. Dr. Christoph Wagner, 41, a member of the Max Planck Institute of Work Physiology in Dortmund, has conducted tests on 160 violinists and as many pianists over a three-year period. His conclusion: instrumental virtuosity comes foremost from dexterity and pliancy in the joints of the lower arms and fingers...
...Psychological characteristics such as talent, musicality, love or affinity for the world of sound, diligence, patience and perseverance are all undeniably important, maybe even indispensable," says Wagner, "yet not a substitute for these physical characteristics, which simply must be present...
...tests, Wagner used not only such household devices as tape measures but also four viselike instruments of his own invention that vaguely resemble medieval torture machines. Each was designed to measure the flexibility of some part of the hand or lower arm while preventing any movement in the other parts. Though he has not yet completed his studies, Wagner is convinced that the greater dexterity of professional musicians is hereditary and does not come from their years of practice. If it came from practice, he argues, then musicians with the same training would not have such differing degrees of dexterity...
...Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen (assorted soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of the RAI-Radiotelevisione Italiana, Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting; Seraphim, 19 LPs, $53.98). With Beethoven and Brahms, Furtwängler could be infuriatingly eccentric. When he was conducting Wagner, though, his stately, expansive, analytic style produced performances that were ingeniously congruent with the composer's convoluted purpose. Drawn from a 1953 series of radio broadcasts from Rome in mono sound that ranges from only dim to adequate, this is a Ring that every Wagnerian will at least want to hear, and probably own as a low-priced...
...Anna Russell Album (Columbia, 2 LPs, $6.98). In case of a Christmas overdose of Wagner, try this chaser concocted by the crown princess of musical parody. As Miss Russell plays the piano and sings, her hilarious analysis of the Ring is based on the reasonable premise that the way to solve the crime (operatic especially) is to learn the motif. "The scene opens," she chirps, "in the River Rhine. IN IT!" The Rhine Maidens? "A sort of aquatic Andrew Sisters." Wotan? "The head god, and a crashing bore, too." The incestuous relationship between Sigmund and Sieglinde? "That...