Internationally acclaimed, multiple-award winner performs beloved concerto and iconic masterpieces to critical praise!” scream the posters in garish hues and fonts.
Admittedly this is a pastiche of some of the most hackneyed phrases in concert advertising. But the declamation is not far from reality. All too often, the language of promoting music becomes befuddled with rhetoric. I am puzzled. If the performer were truly ‘internationally acclaimed,’ does it need to be proclaimed from the rooftops? Would their name not garner instant recognition? And what are these awards? Presumably they are not from The Great Celebrity Bake Off or I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here! Without naming the awards, the claims ring hollow. Alex Ross, the music critic for The New Yorker, recounts seeing a pithy poster advertisement for a concert by fiddler Shoji Tabuchi, popular in Joplin, Texas, which read: “Shoji: Need We Say More?” I rest my case.
The words ‘beloved,’ ‘iconic’ and ‘masterpiece’ are so overused, they have lost much of their essence and impact. And while we’re there, should we make the word ‘masterpiece’ gender neutral? And...
…”Imagine instead, an invitation to share a passion; to enter and delight in the wonders of the art form.” You identify the problem with the first word – imagine – the very ingredient lacking in the minds of the people most often called upon to devise these things.