#65: Unevenness enhances uniqueness

Section 7: Antonin Dvořák – String Quartet Op.51, ii: Dumka

The implications of unevenness for character, impulse and momentum are significantly affected by whether one imagines it as lengthening the first note, or clipping the second. This is very powerful for the player. It also suggests that the special power of inégale lies in its function as a kind of ‘gateway to uniqueness’. We found this to be most effective when it came out of quite indirect, intuitive thought: that is, modes which exist ‘a layer above’ the domain of (separate) parameters.

This idea became even more important later, when we had developed a better understanding of how the Czech Quartet’s unevenness shaded imperceptibly into larger-scale changes in tempo.