#79: Initial misconception in pitting detail against specificity

Section 9: Josef Suk – Meditation on an Old Czech Hymn ‘St Wenceslas’ Op.35a

We usually felt better equipped to record immediately after doing detailed ‘detective work’ on particular passages. I had expected the opposite. In retrospect, that expectation was derived from the faulty assumption that detailed work would likely be somewhat ‘left hemisphere’ in character. (See thesis Chapter 1). In fact, because we were encountering such unique sounds, and because our manner of relating to them had to be so direct — if often heavily metaphorical — we found it relatively easy to go from that exploration into committed takes of our own. Surprisingly, we found that deliberately attempting ‘a more synthesised version’ often resulted in playing that seemed to be ‘about’ generalities rather than specifics. Gestures were ironed out and made too similar, and our interaction sometimes lacked intensity.

The balance was fine: we had to live in the discoveries for long enough to believe in them, but we also could not allow those findings too much time to ‘sit’, such that they became overly generic, or took on the character of executed categories when we came to play in this way ourselves.