From The Elements of Typographic Style, my new favorite reference volume:
Most writing and typography … remain contentedly abstract, like a theater script or a musical score. The script of Macbeth does not need to be bloodstained and spattered with tears; it needs to be legible. And the score of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata does not need bolder notes to mark fortissimos nor fractured notes to mark the broken chords. The typeset script or musical score is also a performance in its way — but only of the text. The score is silent so the pianist can play. The script can whisper while the actors roar.
This passage might be good enough to warrant permanent inclusion in my Literary Passage Valhalla, right next to the “Vigorous writing is concise…” passage in The Elements of Style.
I’m a dork. Merry Christmas!