Column | The wolf note: why imperfection in music and film can be so powerful

He’s a cellist and he’s a dear friend and he’s a Scot and all of a sudden he’s talking about the wolf note.
What are you saying?

I know his talent for telling curious true stories and am braced for something with wolves. But no, the wolf note is an ailment of his cello, which causes one particular note to sound uncontrollably wobbly. Cellos in particular suffer from this. “Yours too, right?” he says to his wife. Yes, hers too. The trick of squeezing with the knees would the wolf note can reduce, I quote Wikipedia. They know that measure, but they think it’s a bad idea. Something like that is not good for the instrument. Besides, it has a bad influence on the vibration, “they already knew that in the 18th century.”

For professional musicians the wolf note, or wolf tonea well-known concept. Not for me. I listen to the wolf note on the internet and hear many variations, it can purr like an old cat (pprprrr) and buzzing like a sick mosquito (bbzzzbb). It is named after the howling of a wolf – there is also one like that: a wolf in the distance.

But that word.

Isn’t there a movie called that? Yes, a short one Wolf Toneabout a cellist who turns into a werewolf. And the literature? Just search. I find the poetry book Wolf tone by Bernlef from 1983 and Wolf Tonesa novel by Herman Franke from 2003. That’s about it.

What a shame about that beautiful term.

I understand that the phenomenon is a disaster for musicians, but they should forgive me for claiming the word to name an unruly element, a detail in a work of art that simultaneously arouses and conquers resistance. That’s it, I need the wolf note, I’m stuck with the movie La Grazia by Paolo Sorrentino. La Grazia is this filmmaker’s most beautiful film (and that’s saying something, because he also made La grande bellezza). In this film, every character of importance gets wet eyes once, unemphatic, without sobbing. And then a supporting actor sheds a tear; an astronaut. In the absence of gravity, his tear darts towards us, it is a melancholy salty ball that will always remain a tear. Meanwhile, the astronaut’s face turns into a grin. His sadness is overcome by lightness.

Well, that’s not possible. How stupid, this is straight-up sentimental.

Now I’m getting wet eyes myself. Nothing special, my tears are loose, I cried because of all kinds of imposed sentiments. But this is different. This is not empty crying. I think the space tear is ridiculous. And superior and tragic and profound.

That tear is the wolf note by La Grazia. He makes no sense, he’s a piece of posturing. And he’s perfect.

Why? That’s why. Because the absurd is absurd.

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