Sunday, 20 January 2019

Melody (January)

[For Lenore Stephens] Glenn Gould plays the same Bach like a freight train or odd raindrops, and it works each time. How does he do that? Thelonious Monk reduces his tune to remote quotes, improvisation rendering the melody invisible. But every change is audible. John Lennon engulfs the space like Ben E. King as his Buddy Holly riff laughs with glee. They never learnt scales. Claude Debussy makes a second into a minute, the melody turning into a force of nature, peaceful as January days. Everything’s happening, now. Claudio Monteverdi, voice and fabulous instrument gliding like a skiff over water.

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