[quote name='bilbo230763' post='257911' date='Aug 8 2008, 11:08 AM'][i]‘In music…pure tone, true pitch, exact intonation, perfect harmony, rigid rhythm, even touch and precise time play a relatively small role. They are mainly points of orientation for art… The unlimited resources for vocal and instrumental expression lie in artistic deviation from the pure, the true, the exact, the perfect, the rigid, the even and the precise. This deviation from the exact is, on the whole, the medium for the creation of the beautiful – for the conveying of emotion’[/i] – Carl E. Seashore.
It’s a good point: is that why players like Alain Caron, Jeff Berlin etc aren’t as successful as their astonishing techniques would lead you expect? Their playing is too perfect, too clinical. Or is this an argument against excessive attention to technique at the expense of musicality?
For those who are interested, Carl Emil Seashore (1866-1949) was a prominent American psychologist who was particularly interested in audiology, the psychology of music, the psychology of speech and stuttering, the psychology of the graphic arts and measuring motivation and scholastic aptitude. He devised the Seashore Tests of Musical Ability in 1919, a version of which is still used in schools in the United States.
Any thoughts anyone?[/quote] The pursuit of perfection is often at the expense of progress .
I like Jeff Berlins playing , but don't much like his music .