Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in [life] there are no constant conditions. - Sun Tzu
2005, April 21
Melody - Notes and Silence
Thoughts on melody from Glenn Gould and Ralph Kirkpatrick
…the mental imagery involved with pianistic tactilia is not related to the striking of individual keys but rather to the rites of passage between notes.—Glenn Gould
The vocal sense…is…probably the most important factor in the hearing of polyphony. One hears counterpoint far less in terms of its component notes than in terms of the transitions between these notes.—Ralph Kirkpatrick
It is not the notes themselves but the intervals between them that constitute a melody.—Ralph Kirkpatrick
It is the measurement of an interval that creates its significance, not its component notes.—Ralph Kirkpatrick
…the greatest playing is done as much between as on the notes.—Ralph Kirkpatrick
Great playing plays the right notes, but it also plays what connects those notes, what gives those notes meaning.—Ralph Kirkpatrick
