Memories and Commentaries

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

117

text excerpt

Renard  was inspired by the guzla, the extraordinary instrument carried by the goat in the last part of the play, and imitated in the orchestra with good but less than perfect success by the cimbalom. The guzla, a museum piece now, was rare even in my childhood in St Petersburg. A kind of metal-stringed balalaika, it is strapped over the player’s head like the tray of a cigarette girl in a night-club. The sound produced is deliciously live and bright, but it is preciously tiny, too, and who now played the guzla? ‘Guzli’ means ‘string music played by human touch’. Part of the fun in Renard is that this extremely nimble-fingered instrument should be played by the cloven-hoofed goat. Incidentally, the guzla music- ‘plink, plink…’ – was the first part of Renard composed.

Renard  was inspired by the guzla, the extraordinary instrument carried by the goat in the last part of the play, and imitated in the orchestra with good but less than perfect success by the cimbalom. The guzla, a museum piece now, was rare even in my childhood in St Petersburg. A kind of metal-stringed balalaika, it is strapped over the player’s head like the tray of a cigarette girl in a night-club. The sound produced is deliciously live and bright, but it is preciously tiny, too, and who now played the guzla? ‘Guzli’ means ‘string music played by human touch’. Part of the fun in Renard is that this extremely nimble-fingered instrument should be played by the cloven-hoofed goat. Incidentally, the guzla music- ‘plink, plink…’ – was the first part of Renard composed.

excerpt from 'Memories and Commentaries' pp. 117 (142 words)

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