Sunday, February 19, 2012

Artistic nuances


Last night in the car, my husband was listening to the new Megadeth album. He said, "I can tell when Dave Mustaine is playing the guitar solo and when Chris Broderick is playing the guitar solo." Well, goody for you, was my initial thought. My second thought was, what a nerd! To me, a guitar solo is a guitar solo--I would never be able to tell who was playing it. But then I thought more about distinguishing artistic nuances such as voice and style. If you put two pieces of writing side by side from authors I knew, and removed the names, I would be able to tell you who wrote it. My husband would not be able to tell the difference, and he thinks I'M a nerd for being able to do so. But I like the idea of style and voice making its imprint on so many artistic disciplines, and those of us who are ardent followers of art--music, visual, literary--get to know the style and voice of our favorite artists so well we can easily tell them apart when others cannot.