Beyond mere responsibility, or even reliability, is diligence: the active expression of vigilance. It is a state of constant focus and attention to important details. It is excellence irrespective of ability, in other words, a person may not have the talent to become excellent or even proficient at certain things but through diligence that person will attain the highest level of achievement accessible to him.
The excellent performer is also meticulous. Such a person pays careful attention to ensure that the work product is of the highest possible quality, given the available talents and resources.
Real
True Narratives
Technical and Analytical Readings
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
- William Hjortsberg, Jubilee Hitchhiker: The Life and Times of Richard Brautigan (Counterpoint, 2012): about the author of Trout Fishing in America, “an ambitious perfectionist who knew what he wanted and labored as methodically at his image and book jackets as at his sentences.”
Poetry
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Krystian Zimerman is a classical pianist known for meticulous preparation and attention to detail. Deutsche Gramophone promotes him thus: “Zimerman’s place among today’s greatest artists rests not least on the freshness and originality of his performances, always intensely personal and prepared in meticulous detail.” Various people have commented on it. “Zimerman has a very meticulous attitude to recording and many of his discs have won major prizes . . .” “Purity and clarity are hallmarks of Zimerman’s playing and there was an almost aristocratic composure to his phrasing and a velvet touch …Everything was meticulous, not …a quaver out of place.” “No detail escapes his meticulous approach.” Here is a link to his playlists.
Ernest Ansermet was a conductor known for his “meticulous perfectionism” and detail-oriented conducting. “He was modest, upright, uncompromising, stubborn, opposed to the star system, and yet became one of the greatest conductors of his century. For many years Ansermet divided his time between music and mathematics . . .” Here is a link to his playlists.
Conductor André Cluytens’ “conducting style was characterized by his meticulous attention to detail, his ability to create a balanced and cohesive sound, and his deep understanding of the composer's intentions.” Here are links to his playlists.
Caprice cycles:
- Alfredo Carlo Piatti, 12 Capricci for Cello Solo, Op. 25 (1865) (approx. 41-44’)
- Earl Kim, 12 Caprices for Solo Violin (1980) (approx. 22-23’)
With their meticulous attention to detail and musical color, the Latvian Radio Choir under Sigvards Kļava capture the idea of diligence, more than vigilance, in this recording of Aleksandr Grechaninov’s All-Night Vigil (Vsenoshchnoye bdeniye), Op. 59 (1912) (46’). The performance is also emotionally compelling.
Friedrich Cerha was a contemporary composer whose music sounds like the angst and uncertainty of the twentieth century. Professional musicologists understand that his compositional skills go deeper than that. Of Cerha’s “Spiegel” (a mirror into life) cycle (1961) (approx. 85’), fellow composer Brian Ferneyhough writes: “As I first listened, I was immediately captivated by the meticulous detail of the configuration, captivated by it in accordance with the extent to which the cluster-like quality of the overall structure did not blot out, but rather sharpened and deepened this necessarily up-close impression. Even just inconnection with the title of the cycle, I thought of comparing it to the so-called ‘Claude Glass’, that mirror-like accessory made of black obsidian that was used by 19th-century painters.”
Other compositions:
- Johann Sebastian Bach, Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book), BWV 599-644 (1708-1717) (approx. 70-79’) was written as a tutorial for organ students.
- William Walton, String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor (1947) (approx. 26-27’)
- Grażyna Bacewicz, Piano Sonata No. 1 (1949) (approx. 18’)
- Raga Jait is a Hindustani classical raag for daytime (dawn to dusk) performance. Performances are by Hariprasad Chaurasia, Salamat Ali Khan and Hariprasad Chaurasia.
- Raga Purabi Kalyan is a North Indian raag composed by Nikhil Banerjee, and often called “the hundred-minute raga”. Performances are by Nikhil Banerjee in 1982, Nikhil Banerjee, Ravi Shankar in 1988 and Arti Ankalikar in 2002.
Music: songs and other short pieces
Visual Arts
- Ilya Repin, Portrait of the Physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1912)
- Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, The Diligent Mother (1740)
