I read a good book about a… harpsichord player. I found ideas. Here they are.
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The easy question is “What is it?”. Another question is “What does that mean?”, therefore “What does the artist want to say to us?”. This is a totally higher question, right? Instead of the work, you ask about the artist’s mind, and their will. Does art need a meaning, after all?
Where should we, instead of focusing of things in front of us, focus on what the maker wants?
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If you are a Bach (b 1685) specialist and you want to study or play Mozart (b 1762), you have to make a jump in time and music, and Mozart will appear very modern. But if you come from 19th Century, it will feel like a loss.
From where will you come, to study this or that?
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If you’re enthusiastic, do you master your work?
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Does elegance need the existence of another person? What about the idea telling that real elegance consists in not getting noticed. And Balzac says that to reveal some economy of means is inelegant.
It’s from Latin “elegans”: who knows how to choose.
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A pretentious simplicity, does that exist?
Goethe : When an intention is too visible, it irritates
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Who plays – and how – the tango of strength/delicacy?
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Purity of the sensation, or of the landscape?
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When you touch the harpsichord‘s key, the note appears, that simple. There’s no possibilities of ppp or fff. It’s “the note”, always the same intensity, it’s a yes or no thing.
Without any possibity of nuances, of touch, the subtleties must come from elwhere: the phrases.
Where else do we have this?
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“Deep understanding” and at the same time, “spontaneity” (or precision/passion). Both. Same time.
Where? Sex? Conversation? Acting? What kind of skill is this?
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When a rule emerges, its exceptions appear at the same time.
In French: “Déroger à la règle” (The English “to contravene” and “to infringe” sound “to go against”, to fight, but the French one sounds “to take a hidden door”, to depart from, to invent my own path).
An artist who knows enough rules to depart from them: to explore/invent.
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What is a work of art with simultaneity of significations? Sorrow and courage at the same time; violence and sweetness; pride and vanity. What kind of richness is that?
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“To admit” (it’s the same in French, admettre) is a curious verb: to confess, to acknowledge, to allow entry, to accept validity, to place, to permit, to conceide or recognize.
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A style emerges, how?
- Origin.
- Development.
- Blossoming.
- Refinement.
- Saturation.
Where? Examples?
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When can’t we prevent aggravation (or stop worsening)?
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Baudelaire: The restless crowd, whipped on by pleasure
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Do you produce differently (by other means) or something else?
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Is the existence of the past Law, or Force?
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Acknowlegment or recognition? Even gratitude, if you push?
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Which one is the most interesting? Beauty created by nature, or beauty created by men?
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Could you go that far, without the resistance of it?
Thanks for reading!
a french toolbox 