feathers

S'pose for a moment that we could excise Weight-Lifting from the events of the Vocal Olympics -- and substitute Musical Feathers.

S'pose the gold medal were given not for kilograms of decibels, but rather to the team which could keep afloat the greatest number of Musical Feathers. S'pose those feathers could pilot themselves lightly through Time and Tonal Space in the most exacting, elaborate and labyrinthine of contrapuntal maneuvers, never at less than the full speed of sound, and never obstructing, obscuring or deflecting other feathered rights of flight, until they finally floated to common rest in a scarcely audible millisecond of mutual fulfillment.

S'pose what this world really needs is a still small voice?

-- Robert Shaw, on rehearsing Bach The Robert Shaw Reader (ed. Robert Blocker)