Description
‘Four men wihtout qualities’
A title in the form of a humble nod to Robert Musil’s novel, but also the beginning of a short reflection on the facets of the qualities of the quartet player.
In the beginning was the 4.
In the beginning of our lives as musicians, at any rate.
Have you ever had occasion to think about number symbolism?
I must admit that I wasn’t much interested in it myself.
But for thirty years I lived in such unusual circumstances that I did sometimes think about the matter and associate in my mind the various forms that what I will call ‘Quaternity’ can take:
LThe four elements, the four points of the compass, the four evangelists, and so on.
But above all that, the supreme mystery:
‘The string quartet’
It was at the heart of this esoteric formation that I lived my daily life. Yes, I lived my everyday existence as one of four, and I sometimes had the amusing idea that when you think you’re looking at a whole human being, you’re really facing only a quarter of a voice.
Four voices, then, but in the end just one song.
Qualities and one quality.
To achieve this, how many silences slipped between the notes, how many tempi were effaced, how many accents were erased!
The rebels learned to channel their agitation, the placid to quicken their pace, the elegant to strip off their finery.
To blend into the ensemble, you had to force yourself to be a musician without qualities.
Miguel da Silva