Flow from another angle
Today's quote is again from The Art of Possibility, about why it's sometimes better to have heart than precision:
Stravinsky, a composer whom we tend to think of as rather objective and "cool," once turned down a bassoon player because he was too good to render the perilous opening to The Rite of Spring. This heart-stopping moment, conveying the first crack in the cold grip of the Russian winter, can only be truly represented if the player has to strain every fiber of his technical resources to accomplish it. A bassoon player for whom it was easy would miss the expressive point. And when told by a violinist that a difficult passage in the violin concerto was virtually unplayable, Stravinsky is supposed to have said: "I don't want the sound of someone playing the passage, I want the sound of someone trying to play it."
Comments
This is a great anecdote, BTW. I read it before and should have posted that.
Posted by: TM(tm) | October 26, 2002 09:16 AM
I used to have a discussion with one of my roommates in college about the phrase: if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well.
She said, if you don't think you can do well, you shouldn't do it. I said, if it was worth doing, it was worth doing. Not that you shouldn't practice and strive, but that you should try things, even if they were out of your range, even if you know you're never going to be 'good.'
I don't actually manage to live by this advice very often, but I still think it's a good idea.
Posted by: debco | October 27, 2002 08:16 PM