It's the most slippery of modifiers: a compliment when applied to Nabokov's technical mastery — "his pacing, his modulations, his stage management, his ever-alerting shifts of perspective" — but elsewhere an insult, something to be paired with "facile" and deployed with the back of the hand.
But in the 20th century there was a reevaluation of Haydn's work, and his outstanding thematic elaborations, his dependably engaging wit, the originality of his modulations, and the artistry and superb craftsmanship of his orchestration were again appreciated in full measure.
For one thing, Verdi took longer than Puccini to achieve his aesthetic modulation; more important still, Verdi all his life had contrived to put into his music from time to time a healthy virility which kept him from the gushy sentiment of the worst parts of Puccini.
His brushwork became freer, his compositions less constricted, his subtler modulations of tans and blacks and fathomless greens sometimes gave way to his banner-bright blacks and whites.
The results suggest a model of the color-discriminating dual-signaling mechanism in which phototaxis responses (his-kinase modulation) result from the photointerconversion of the two oppositely connected SRI−HtrI conformers by one-photon and two-photon activation.
One day, sooner or later, he will no doubt describe for us - with his impeccable modulation and appropriate gravitas - the coronation of the Prince of Wales as King Charles III.
But there was not much new here: Mr. Glass's signature fluttering arpeggiation was plentiful, as were his characteristic modulations from major to minor, with their abidingly melancholy undercurrents.
His voice modulations blew my mind.
so, without the aid of the former, the musician affects the ears of his audience by modulations upon his instrument.
