Quality

August 7, 2009 at 12:06 AM

I once had a very amusing violin teacher who went on and on about "quality". The Russian word for it is "kachestvo", and she'd jokingly refer to it as "kak-chestvo", which combines the word for "how" in Russian with the word for quality. I also remember my first impression of Oistrakh-"wow, what quality!". I haven't given this word, or its meaning much thought until recently. Quality isn't merely playing the notes with a pretty sound-but what is it? Why is its presence or absence so glaring?

From Stephen Brivati
Posted on August 8, 2009 at 10:31 AM

Greetings,

you might be interested in an essay Roland Herrera has up on his web site called (maybe, gotta check) `tonus.`

Cheers,

Buri

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