Annotations and All That
[F you really want to enjoy a piece of music thoroughly, it is a help to know something about it. Anything that the announcer or performer can tell you, therefore, is to be encoyraged-up to a point; the point where you are able to concentrate on the essence of the music and are not confused by too many details or side issués. Dohnanyi’s "Variations on a Nursery Tune" ate good fun. The work isa fine example of thusical wit. Introduced by a pompous cavorting from the orchestra, the tune "Ah vous dirai-je maman" (or "Baa, baa black sheep" to you) is announced by-the piano in an absurd five-finger exercise manner. The variations are concerned with contrasting the simplicity of the theme with divers musical devices of varied complexity. It is humour by incongruity. Did the annotation tell us this? No. Any light-hearted approach the listener may have contemplated was effectively dampened by a dissertation on Dohnanyi’s classical-romantic antecedents and a most erudite analysis of each variation. This might be very well as part of a lecture, but rather chilling to an armchair at 9.40 in the evening.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19450907.2.17.1.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 324, 7 September 1945, Page 8
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191Annotations and All That New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 324, 7 September 1945, Page 8
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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