Comments on: Wake Up and Smell the Music http://www.fragmentaryevidence.com/2009/02/03/wake-up-and-smell-the-music/ Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:18:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: dc http://www.fragmentaryevidence.com/2009/02/03/wake-up-and-smell-the-music/#comment-152 dc Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:57:25 +0000 http://www.fragmentaryevidence.com/?p=262#comment-152 ruth: Thanks. As far as a journal goes, this is it. ruth: Thanks. As far as a journal goes, this is it.

]]> By: ruth gutmann http://www.fragmentaryevidence.com/2009/02/03/wake-up-and-smell-the-music/#comment-151 ruth gutmann Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:19:00 +0000 http://www.fragmentaryevidence.com/?p=262#comment-151 A beautiful post about a favorite subject of mine. You made us aware of what we are often too distracted to see or hear. I hope you are keeping a journal: this blog and the recent one Park Blvd deserve longevity. This art, reminding the passerby to notice his environment, is easier to sympathize with than some of the vaunted but mostly colorless minimalist creations. A beautiful post about a favorite subject of mine. You made us aware of what we are often too distracted to see or hear. I hope you are keeping a journal: this blog and the recent one Park Blvd deserve longevity.

This art, reminding the passerby to notice his environment, is easier to sympathize with than some of the vaunted but mostly colorless minimalist creations.

]]> By: wordnerd http://www.fragmentaryevidence.com/2009/02/03/wake-up-and-smell-the-music/#comment-149 wordnerd Thu, 05 Feb 2009 03:09:09 +0000 http://www.fragmentaryevidence.com/?p=262#comment-149 Presumably there's human musical competance--universal--and then musician's musical competance, a bit of which is common, though an immense amount is rare. Did Nabokov let his lack of the second ruin his pleasure in the first? Presumably there’s human musical competance–universal–and then musician’s musical competance, a bit of which is common, though an immense amount is rare. Did Nabokov let his lack of the second ruin his pleasure in the first?

]]> By: eric http://www.fragmentaryevidence.com/2009/02/03/wake-up-and-smell-the-music/#comment-148 eric Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:14:31 +0000 http://www.fragmentaryevidence.com/?p=262#comment-148 I enjoyed the post, by the way. I enjoyed the post, by the way.

]]> By: eric http://www.fragmentaryevidence.com/2009/02/03/wake-up-and-smell-the-music/#comment-147 eric Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:13:48 +0000 http://www.fragmentaryevidence.com/?p=262#comment-147 VN was trying to joke, but the joke falls flat (or turns sour, depending on which nerdy metaphor you prefer); what flays him is clearly not the irritating sounds but his own inadequacy. Funny for such a supremely gifted guy to be defensive about the one area in which he was slightly below par. VN was trying to joke, but the joke falls flat (or turns sour, depending on which nerdy metaphor you prefer); what flays him is clearly not the irritating sounds but his own inadequacy. Funny for such a supremely gifted guy to be defensive about the one area in which he was slightly below par.

]]> By: dc http://www.fragmentaryevidence.com/2009/02/03/wake-up-and-smell-the-music/#comment-145 dc Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:16:24 +0000 http://www.fragmentaryevidence.com/?p=262#comment-145 I always wondered if VN was exaggerating his amusicality for dramatic or literary effect, but who knows. I always wondered if VN was exaggerating his amusicality for dramatic or literary effect, but who knows.

]]> By: nnyhav http://www.fragmentaryevidence.com/2009/02/03/wake-up-and-smell-the-music/#comment-144 nnyhav Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:54:27 +0000 http://www.fragmentaryevidence.com/?p=262#comment-144 Funny, I just finished reading Manuel Puig's <i>Heartbreak Tango</i> and started Dumitru Tsepeneag's <i>Vain Art of the Fugue</i>. Which reminds me, <a href="http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/document.html?id=1052" rel="nofollow">Gerard de Vries, "Nabokov's Pale Fire, its structure and the last works of J.S. Bach"</a> takes up the contrapuntal theme in <i>Pale Fire</i>, perhaps a compensation; the irony extends to the linguistic musical effects, especially poetics, evident even in his full quotes on amusicality: "I have no ear for music, a shortcoming I deplore bitterly. When I attend a concert--which happens about once in five years--I endeavor gamely to follow the sequence and relationship of sounds but cannot keep it up for more than a few minutes. Visual impressions, reflections of hands in lacquered wood, a diligent bald spot over a fiddle, these take over, and soon I am bored beyond measure by the motions of the musicians." [from Strong Opinions] "Although both my parents had absolute pitch, music, I regret to say, affects me merely as an arbitrary succession of more or less irritating sounds. Under certain emotional circumstances I can stand the spasms of a rich violin, but the concert piano and all wind instruments bore me in small doses and flay me in larger ones." [from Speak, Memory, discussing his synesthesia] so maybe it skips generations ... Funny, I just finished reading Manuel Puig’s Heartbreak Tango and started Dumitru Tsepeneag’s Vain Art of the Fugue. Which reminds me, Gerard de Vries, “Nabokov’s Pale Fire, its structure and the last works of J.S. Bach” takes up the contrapuntal theme in Pale Fire, perhaps a compensation; the irony extends to the linguistic musical effects, especially poetics, evident even in his full quotes on amusicality:

“I have no ear for music, a shortcoming I deplore bitterly. When I attend a concert–which happens about once in five years–I endeavor gamely to follow the sequence and relationship of sounds but cannot keep it up for more than a few minutes. Visual impressions, reflections of hands in lacquered wood, a diligent bald spot over a fiddle, these take over, and soon I am bored beyond measure by the motions of the musicians.” [from Strong Opinions]

“Although both my parents had absolute pitch, music, I regret to say, affects me merely as an arbitrary succession of more or less irritating sounds. Under certain emotional circumstances I can stand the spasms of a rich violin, but the concert piano and all wind instruments bore me in small doses and flay me in larger ones.” [from Speak, Memory, discussing his synesthesia] so maybe it skips generations …

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