Strrunk and White
Who would have thought there were so many people heavy into hyphenation? The Penguin illustrated edition of Strunk and White’s "Elements of Style" featuring artwork by Maira Kalman with accompanying song cycle by Nico Mulhy was unveiled tonight in the New York Public Library.
At a rehearsal last week, the tenor Matt Hensrud stood on the
of punctuation and orthography. "Do not use a hyphen between words that
elevated catwalk of the library’s reading room and sang mellifluously
can better be written as one word: ‘water-fowl, waterfowl,’ " he
intoned, his voice echoing in the churchlike acoustics. He was joined
by the soprano Abby Fischer for some tenderly turned philology: "The
steady evolution of the language seems to favor union: two words
eventually become one."The word "eventually" in this line
soared with a long, attractive melisma of the sort Mr. Muhly grew to
love during his years singing in a boys’ choir in Providence, R.I. His
devotion to the Anglican choral tradition is everywhere apparent in
these settings, but so is his fondness for American Minimalism, as
churning viola figures cushion many of the passages, often bringing a
somber, plaintive tone to the music.
Who knew that tickets were required? Beth and I were numbers nine and ten in the standby line, but alas, we got not in… can you say that? At least one ticketed blogger, Ms. Hodder, was there however, so hopefully there will be a report on what must have been a lovely evening in a lovely venue, the Rose reading room… all those long tables with lamps and heavy chairs, high ceilings, books lining the walls.