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Monday, July 24, 2006

Shavian


Today's the 150th anniversary of George Bernard Shaw's birth in 1856.

He was as much a music critic as essayist and playwright, and one musical thing he said is: "It was from Handel that I learned that style consists in force of assertion."

The problem with the failed eulogy for William Lash that I looked at a few posts down is its lack of assertion -- its willingness to remain in a timid clinch with cliche.

But verbal and musical boldness is risky, because if you don't work very hard at it, it'll become bombast.
Posted at: 7/24/2006 02:35:00 PM