Re: How to get rid of *GNU Emacs* buffer on start-up?

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> writes:

> I'm sorry about that (the day job).  Do you want one?  A danger of
> learning Lisp is becoming aware of the shortcomings of lesser
> languages (nearly all others).

Strike "lesser", "all" and "others".  You become aware of the
shortcomings of greater languages as well, and of Lisp itself.

If I take a look at the Allegro Assai in Sonata III for violin solo from
J.S.Bach, it is completely unnecessary to put fingerings in the score.
There is just one sane way to play it.

The score is, in a way, an instrument-neutral way of describing music.
And you can play this particular score on the piano, for example.  And
it will be perfectly recognizable.  You can't play most piano scores on
the violin, in contrast.  The violin is a lesser instrument with fewer
possibilities.  It takes a good craftsman to create music where the
violin appears like a perfect instrument, unrestricted.  It takes Bach
to turn the restriction into a benefit and create music where the
various counterpoints sit on different strings and thus get a different
color.

This is one of the reasons why the famous organ "Toccata and Fugue in D
minor" which does not exercise quite a few of the possibilities of an
organ is nowadays believed to be an adaption from a lost piece for solo
violin.  When transposed into A minor (hm, on a viola you would not even
need to transpose), you get something where even all the "dazzling"
passages and styles have a playable rendition on the violin, something
which is far from likely.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum