quasi-notation

Updated: May 1, 2025

How much finer, to my idea, are Berlioz's recitatives, with their long and winding rhythms, than Wagner's declamations, which apart from the climax of a subject, where the air breaks into bold and vigorous phrases, whose influence elsewhere is often weak limit themselves to the quasi-notation of spoken inflections, and jar noisily against the fine harmonies of the orchestra.

Romain Rolland - Musicians of To-Day