"No, but a cello is the perfect string bass for an accordion. Works with it beautifully"
About this Quote
A practical note about instrumentation slips into something like a manifesto: taste isn’t abstract, it’s engineered. Elizabeth Moon’s line has the offhand confidence of someone who’s done the work, tried the combinations, and isn’t interested in mystical talk about “feel.” The blunt opener - “No” - reads like a quick correction in conversation, the kind that punctures a half-baked assumption about what “should” pair with an accordion. Then comes the decisive pivot: not just any bass, but “the perfect string bass,” a phrase that elevates a niche choice into an aesthetic principle.
The intent is deceptively modest: she’s recommending a cello as the lower anchor under accordion. But the subtext is about compatibility across perceived boundaries. Accordion carries baggage in a lot of Anglophone culture: folk kitsch, wedding bands, old-world nostalgia. Cello, by contrast, signals concert-hall seriousness and emotional gravitas. Putting them together is a quiet act of cultural remixing: take the instrument people dismiss and give it a partner that forces listeners to hear it differently. “Works with it beautifully” is plain speech, yet it’s also an argument against snobbery; beauty here is the result of craft, not prestige.
Contextually, this feels like Moon-the-storyteller talking through a real-world detail the way she builds worlds: by getting the mechanics right and letting meaning accrete. In one sentence, she models an artist’s ethic: don’t chase “proper,” chase what actually supports the voice you’re trying to bring forward.
The intent is deceptively modest: she’s recommending a cello as the lower anchor under accordion. But the subtext is about compatibility across perceived boundaries. Accordion carries baggage in a lot of Anglophone culture: folk kitsch, wedding bands, old-world nostalgia. Cello, by contrast, signals concert-hall seriousness and emotional gravitas. Putting them together is a quiet act of cultural remixing: take the instrument people dismiss and give it a partner that forces listeners to hear it differently. “Works with it beautifully” is plain speech, yet it’s also an argument against snobbery; beauty here is the result of craft, not prestige.
Contextually, this feels like Moon-the-storyteller talking through a real-world detail the way she builds worlds: by getting the mechanics right and letting meaning accrete. In one sentence, she models an artist’s ethic: don’t chase “proper,” chase what actually supports the voice you’re trying to bring forward.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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