You Can Tweet but you can't Compete

Sorry Mozart, there are two many notes.

Why this dismissal of length in presentation?  We seem to live in a time of Tweety and Silvester.  That is, we seek to “score” with a short jab or punch—a tweet.  Much like a cartoon.  Like a bird, a short burst of sound, and, like a cat, a hopeful pounce.

It is, I believe, a well-deserved rebuke of empty phrasing, but at the cost of rejecting complexity and suspecting art.  One of our Gods is “simplicity.” A mistaken Deity.  An imposter.  The real value is “clarity.”  And the other interloper, not a useless but a tiresome companion, is prose. 

Remember the scene from Amadeus.  The King felt there were two many notes.  Mozart replied.

EMPEROR: Well, Herr Mozart! A good effort. Decidedly that. An excellent effort! You've shown us something quite new today.

[Mozart bows frantically: he is over-excited.]

MOZART: It is new, it is, isn't it, Sire?

EMPEROR: Yes, indeed.

MOZART: So then you like it? You really like it, Your Majesty?

EMPEROR: Of course I do. It's very good. Of course now and then - just now and then - it gets a touch elaborate.

MOZART: What do you mean, Sire?

EMPEROR: Well, I mean occasionally it seems to have, how shall one say? [he stops in difficulty; turning to Orsini-Rosenberg] How shall one say, Director?

ORSINI-ROSENBERG: Too many notes, Your Majesty?

EMPEROR: Exactly. Very well put. Too many notes.

MOZART: I don't understand. There are just as many notes, Majesty, as are required. Neither more nor less.

EMPEROR: My dear fellow, there are in fact only so many notes the ear can hear in the course of an evening. I think I'm right in saying that, aren't I, Court Composer?

SALIERI: Yes! yes! er, on the whole, yes, Majesty.

MOZART: But this is absurd!

EMPEROR: My dear, young man, don't take it too hard. Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Cut a few and it will be perfect.

MOZART: Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?

EMPEROR: Well. There it is.

Yes, there it is.  A well-developed argument extends our understanding.  And Art occupies that space beyond the foreseen.