bonsai

bonsai
 n.— «The chamber-music arrangement of “Das Lied,” begun by Arnold Schoenberg early in the last century, presents the blueprint of the piece but sounds harsh without the cushioning of more than one musician on each of the string parts. The program notes refer to it as a “bonsai” version, but there’s nothing miniature about it except the numbers: 14 players.» —“Orchestra brings vigor to a dynamic pairing” by Richard Dyer Boston Globe Apr. 26, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Further reading

Word-Peckers

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a word-pecker is “a person who trifles or plays with, or quibbles over, words.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Word-Peckers” I always love it when I’m looking through the dictionary and...

Buttons on Ice Cream (episode #1678)

How do dictionaries define colors? And why are some of those definitions so confusing, like “stronger than carmine” and “bluer than fiesta”? Dictionary editor Kory Stamper explains it all in her new book. Plus, the story behind the expression more...

Recent posts