Its formal variety resisted ready packaging.
Beyond that, though, formal variety is what's most striking.
Prince's songwriting heyday, which stretched from 1979 to 1988, is rivalled only by the Beatles' in generosity, formal variety, and intensity.
Of the three, Ms. Robinson offers the most striking formal variety, evident in two witty self-portraits.
The psychological and formal variety achieved by Bill Brandt's four images make him one of the show's standouts.
Nor is the sense of sameness relieved by formal variety, as Gilbert works a few simple techniques nearly to death.
For me, one of the main responsibilities of a critic now is to reflect theatre's diversity: regional variation, formal variety and disparity of subject matter.
The formal variety reflects an eclectic array of aesthetic inspirations, including Art Nouveau, Japanese woodcuts, Paul Klee, Op Art and psychedelic posters.
But today Hardy's poetry is beloved for precisely the qualities that once made it unfashionable: its profusion and formal variety, its homely, surprising diction, its interest in narrative, and, above all, its unchallengeable sincerity.
It serves the book well, for much of Negroland has the experimental and experiential quality of jazz – albeit the formal variety found in the concert hall rather than the freestyle, down and dirty jamming of the backstreet club.
