# Music reviews - Sentence of the Week



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Every once in a while I run across a real gem of a sentence in a review. Sometimes it causes me a smile, more often it is disbelief that either someone could write something so poorly or so pretentiously. So here is this week's sentence from a review of Joly Braga Santos' _Crossroads_ on Musicweb-international.com:

_"However the music emerges unscathed by rebarbative 'modernity' yet far from anodyne."_ - Rob Barnett


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Becca said:


> Every once in a while I run across a real gem of a sentence in a review. Sometimes it causes me a smile, more often it is disbelief that either someone could write something so poorly or so pretentiously. So here is this week's sentence from a review of Joly Braga Santos' _Crossroads_ on Musicweb-international.com:
> 
> _"However the music emerges unscathed by rebarbative 'modernity' yet far from anodyne."_ - Rob Barnett


Poorly pretentious and appears to be a conflict in terms.

Translation: However the music emerged unaffected by objectionable 'modernity' yet far from being offensive. Huh?


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

Becca said:


> _"However the music emerges unscathed by rebarbative 'modernity' yet far from anodyne."_ - Rob Barnett


Bravo! So bad it's good.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

I admit that I had to do a quick lookup to see if there was some subordinate definition for anodyne that I have not previously encountered. What WAS fascinating was to see the ad that came up on that Google search page ... Anodyne Professional Development ... :lol:


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

MusicWeb's Rob Barnett has no technical musical training, but he is a voracious consumer and inexhaustible reviewer of recorded music. Here are a few more risible entries from his voluminous catalogue of reviews:

"The feathery-poetry of Berlioz puts in guest appearances amid ideas that flow like honey and sweep by in mercurial parturition."
~Asger Hamerik's Symphony No. 6 

"The music and the words saturate each other in the crepuscular and the valedictory." 
~Judith Bailey's Visions of Hildegard

"The final section of the Chant is like some muffled clock, desperate and at the same time threatened and empyreumatic."
~Paul Creston's Chant of 1942


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## Marinera (May 13, 2016)

^
Dumbing down his reviews isn't his way, is it?

On the bright side I've learned some new words.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

...and how not to use them!


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## Janspe (Nov 10, 2012)

If this site operated in Finnish, or had a substantial amount of Finnish users, I would dig up a few dozen _incredibly_ clumsy reviews that completely collapse due to their overly complex and pseudo-artistic language. Sometimes I just can't believe my eyes when reading reviews from concerts that I've gone to.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

RICK RIEKERT said:


> MusicWeb's Rob Barnett has no technical musical training, but he is a voracious consumer and inexhaustible reviewer of recorded music. Here are a few more risible entries from his voluminous catalogue of reviews:
> 
> "The feathery-poetry of Berlioz puts in guest appearances amid ideas that flow like honey and sweep by in mercurial parturition."
> ~Asger Hamerik's Symphony No. 6
> ...


I don't have a floccinaucinihilipilification for the use of these particular English words, but it seems like these critics are perseverating in using a circuitous way of offering their opinions.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Undoubtedly the redoutable William F. Buckley, esconsed in Elysium, is casting an approbative simper.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Ran across this today, and though it’s a bit OT I found it interesting. From a review of a concert in Paris in 1932 conducted by the composer and including the premiere of his Piano Concerto in G. The reviewer liked the music but…

“Once again, I wish to protest against the habit, more and more frequently indulged in, of attempting at all costs to bring a composer before the public in a part which he is incapable of filling. Monsieur Ravel is continually brought out as a pianist or as a conductor, whilst he cannot shine in either of these two specialties... His Pavane was unutterably slow, his Bolero dry and badly timed, and the accompaniment of the concerto lacked clarity and elasticity...”


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

RICK RIEKERT said:


> MusicWeb's Rob Barnett has no technical musical training, but he is a voracious consumer and inexhaustible reviewer of recorded music. Here are a few more risible entries from his voluminous catalogue of reviews:
> 
> "The feathery-poetry of Berlioz puts in guest appearances amid ideas that flow like honey and sweep by in mercurial parturition."
> ~Asger Hamerik's Symphony No. 6
> ...


That is typical music criticism like in Rock: throw in a bunch of allusions, metaphors, metaphysical references. That is how they can keep their jobs, and elevate above Amazon.com reviews. Create an illusion they are listening to the music on a different plane, by throwing in the kitchen sink, and deter others from seeing what actually sticks.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Perhaps we should start the TC Pretentious Review of the Month contest. At the end of each month we start a poll for members to vote on the most risible review. There will be no prize other than the pleasure of knowing that you the most 'over the top' member for that month.


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## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

I don’t think it should be too much of a surprise that music reviews have undergone an evolution similar to that of music itself; it’s just another symptom of the same disease.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Improbus said:


> I don't think it should be too much of a surprise that music reviews have undergone an evolution similar to that of music itself; it's just another symptom of the same disease.


Like jazz once the eggheads got ahold of it... (ducking)


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Becca said:


> Every once in a while I run across a real gem of a sentence in a review. Sometimes it causes me a smile, more often it is disbelief that either someone could write something so poorly or so pretentiously. So here is this week's sentence from a review of Joly Braga Santos' _Crossroads_ on Musicweb-international.com:
> 
> _"However the music emerges unscathed by rebarbative 'modernity' yet far from anodyne."_ - Rob Barnett


Have you not read anything I've written on this forum at all Becca?


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

It's not really the 'eggheads' who neutered jazz, but the 'serious' composers with their 'blue notes' and 'jazz divertimentos'.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

It seems just another example of the worrying trend 'got to be noticed' with the pressure to come up with ever finer nonsensical prose to keep the readers happy
Gobbledygook for the gullible


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

William Mann reviewing Parsifal said, "Karajan's recording has beauty but Solti's has truth." He probably didn't know what he meant either.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

DavidA said:


> William Mann reviewing Parsifal said, "Karajan's recording has beauty but Solti's has truth." He probably didn't know what he meant either.


I take a safer approach: using a very moderate, everyday adjective to describe the first thing in my list so I still have a stock of regular adjectives for whatever follows.

Ex. 'Karajan's was nice, but Solti's was nicer'. It pleases the general public and the enemies of literary jargon alike.


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## Pyotr (Feb 26, 2013)

David Patrick Stearns, the Philadelphia classical music critic, made a statement once about a Philly Orchestra violin concerto performance that made me smile, and he almost never pans a performance too badly. As I recall it went something like this:
* "We never found out how the soloist felt about the work?"*

In Philly this is known as being passive aggressive.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

DavidA said:


> William Mann reviewing Parsifal said, "Karajan's recording has beauty but Solti's has truth." He probably didn't know what he meant either.


Well Keats thought that both were interchangeable - 'beauty is truth, truth beauty,' - that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know".


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Barbebleu said:


> Well Keats thought that both were interchangeable - 'beauty is truth, truth beauty,' - that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know".


Keats was interpreting the urn's silent message, but as we know, urns make notoriously bad critics.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

What's a Greek urn? About £20 a week! I'll get my coat!:lol:


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

Becca said:


> Every once in a while I run across a real gem of a sentence in a review. Sometimes it causes me a smile, more often it is disbelief that either someone could write something so poorly or so pretentiously. So here is this week's sentence from a review of Joly Braga Santos' _Crossroads_ on Musicweb-international.com:
> 
> _"However the music emerges unscathed by rebarbative 'modernity' yet far from anodyne."_ - Rob Barnett





DaveM said:


> Poorly pretentious and appears to be a conflict in terms.
> 
> Translation: However the music emerged unaffected by objectionable 'modernity' yet far from being offensive. Huh?


Um, no. "Anodyne" means dull, bland or inoffensive. So the 'translation' would be:

"However the music emerged unaffected by objectionable 'modernity' yet is far from being bland." Which isn't so bad, is it?


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Anodyne is a synonym of bland , actually .


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