A downward cupped hand called for a sustained line.
He also intoned, in pealing sustained lines, a Sufi poem by his father.
Enea Scala, looking dashingly Byronic, was the superb Salvini, all grand passions, elegantly sustained lines and ringing high notes.
Listen to the melancholy 15th Variation, a model of tonal shading and long, forward-moving, sustained lines.
Her improvisations still have a traditional flavor -- twangy melodies, shimmering sustained lines, nervous tremolos -- but transplanted to a far less solemn climate.
In a deeply instinctive interpretation, Skride brought to the high sustained lines a searing beauty and a brilliant vitality to the three testing cadenzas.
This one does seem unfinished, though: it draws heavily on Mr. Boulez's sense of sonority and on the contrast between rapid bursts of sound and sustained lines, but the completed sections don't have the dynamism of the Second Sonata.
The effect in live performance of the sudden shift to flowing, sustained lines in the solo voices, in rich counterpoint with the trio of low wind soloists, is cathartic.
He had Sting as vocalist for "People Get Ready," but for most of his set, the guitar did the singing: crooning long melodic phrases in "Cause We've Ended as Lovers" and the Ray Charles hit "Drown in My Own Tears," spiraling toward a frenzy in "Freeway Boogie," using bent notes and distortion to make sustained lines seethe with tension in "A Day in the Life".
Finding a way into it can be an effort for some listeners; easy handles — a sustained melody line, a steady beat — are rare.
