Will the fun never end? Here’s a ballet review for you.
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There is an article about ballet that greatly praises the art form:
There is no other art form that is so highly evolved, sophisticated, sublime, where absolute discipline of technique is allied with grace, beauty, sensuality and pure emotion.
Okay, okay, okay. So some folks like ballet. No. Some folks love ballet. So maybe I’m just too dense to get it.
Or maybe I hate that we have to make the music fit the dancers’ needs rather than having the dancers stick to composers’ tempi.
Or maybe I’m just jealous because I’m a total klutz!
One man only in this orchestra does not allow himself any such diversion. Wholly intent upon his task, all energy, indefatigable, his eye glued to his notes and his arm in perpetual motion, he would feel dishonored if he were to miss an eighth note or incur censure for his tone quality. By the end of each act he is flushed, perspiring, exhausted; he can hardly breathe, yet he does not dare take advantage of the respite offered by the cessation of musical hostilities to go for a glass of beer at the nearest bar. The fear of missing the first measures of the next act keeps him rooted at his post. Touched by so much zeal, the manager of the opera house once sent him six bottles of wine, “by way of encouragement.” But the artist, “conscious of his responsibilities,” was so far from grateful for the gift that he returned it with the proud words: “I have no need of encouragement.” The reader will have guessed that I am speaking of the man who plays the bass drum.
-Hector Berlioz
(I stole this quote from Byzantium’s Shores.)
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