Grammar of “Digging Deeper” Article by Arnold Essay (Article)

Introduction

In the article “Digging Deeper: Singing the Music of Elliott Carter,” Tony Arnold talks about the power of music and how it is created. Arnold makes use of imagery and grammatical structures throughout the article to create an almost romantic atmosphere for the reader. The author uses a variety of appropriate grammar in order to convey the theme and context of the article. The verbs, tenses, and nouns, as well as the syntactic choices, are effectively adopted in the text by Arnold, creating an experience for the reader similar to the music that is being discussed. The attitude of the author to the music of Elliott Carter is of almost religious adoration, as she applauds his manipulation of sound and time.

Sentence Structures

Firstly, Arnold uses different sentence structures to convey her points and meanings. For example, she sometimes puts the verbs at the end of the sentence, starting with the object or subject, which highlights the importance of the noun. Furthermore, she uses rhetorical questions, such as “.. isn’t bel canto a style?”, engaging the reader in a conversation (Arnold 162). This is effective as the audience is intrigued in the story and feels like a part of it, feeling closer to the almost religious concept of music as described by Arnold.

Use of the Passive Voice

Secondly, Tony Arnold uses the passive voice in a number of her sentences throughout the article, creating a sense of music as a separate concept. She mentions that “acoustic balance is achieved” and positions the name of the composer as far in the sentence as possible (Arnold 164). This implies the importance of music as a concept over the composer, idolizing it. As previously studied in this course, the changing of the voice to the passive from the active changes the focus of the sentence to the object. In this case, it is the music that is central to the article, even though Carter, the composer, acts as a vessel that allows others to hear it in the way that he does. This is similar to the way God’s words are put on paper, and yet it is not the author of the Bible that should be praised, as he is solely a messenger.

Grammatical Weaknesses

Although the article is overall very engaging, there are some grammatical weaknesses that can be noted. For example, Arnold uses parentheses repeatedly throughout the text, which breaks up the narrative and is not the best aesthetic choice. Furthermore, she uses numerous words from a professional lexicon, which might make the text difficult to comprehend for uninformed readers, such as “acoustic balance,” “vocal lines,” or “tuplet” (Arnold 164). Nevertheless, these weaknesses do not ruin the article as a whole but add a touch of humanity that is sometimes necessary for the readers to feel connected.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Arnold’s article about music and the composer Elliott Carter is an inspired piece, which presents numerous challenges for the reader, but overall creates an experience. The article is almost worshipping the concept of music, and Elliott Carter as a composer, expressing the endless love in the choice of words and sentences. Arnold conveys the adoration for the techniques of the composer to her readers, generally making good use of grammatical and syntactic structures. The article is an engaging and thought-provoking piece, and the author skillfully incorporates the English language rules and structures.

Works Cited

Arnold, Tony. “Digging Deeper: Singing the Music of Elliott Carter”. Chicago Review, vol. 58, no. 3/4, 2014, pp. 161-171.