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Often appears with: theatre and performance · fate, destiny, and necessity · language, naming, and meaning · the passions and the emotions · religious persecution and toleration · education and the training of the young · justice as a virtue · rhetoric and persuasion · myth and the gods of the nations · marriage and betrothal · poetry and the poets · mourning and grief
Usually: argument (21) · wonder (21) · curiosity (20) · narrative (18) · reflection (12) · detachment (11) · censure (10) · praise (8) · exhortation (7) · commentary or gloss (6)
“And therefore, I said, Glaucon, musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful;” Plato, The Republic · insight
“Mortals, remain contented at the ‘Quia;’ For if ye had been able to see all, No need there were for Mary to give birth;” Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Purgatory · insight
“Farewell, queen,” said he, “henceforward and for ever, till age and death, the common lot of mankind, lay their hands upon you.” Homer, The Odyssey · precept
“This condition continued for seven days; his animals, however, did not leave him day nor night, except that the eagle flew forth to fetch food.” Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None · observation
“So with a most piteous sigh ended Elisa her song, whereat all wondered exceedingly, nor might any conjecture wherefore she so sang.” Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron, Volume II · observation
“So, when the keys, touched by the hand, drive the sliders forward and draw them back regularly, alternately stopping and opening the holes, they produce resonant sounds in a great variety of melodies conforming to the laws of music.” Vitruvius Pollio, The Ten Books on Architecture · observation
“The question, what is the essence of musical ‘expression’ involves a number of obscure points, which, so far as I am aware, are as yet unsolved enigmas.” Charles Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals · observation
“Wagner did this by discovering a connection between two objects which seemed to exist apart from each other as though in separate spheres--that between music and life, and similarly between music and the drama.” Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thoughts out of Season, Part I · insight
“Just as, during the decline of every art, a point is reached when the morbid accumulation of its means and forms attains to such tyrannical proportions that it oppresses the tender souls of artists and converts these into slaves, so now, in the period of the decline of language, men have become the slaves of words.” Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thoughts out of Season, Part I · observation
“O that ye yourselves could learn to become natural again, and then suffer yourselves to be transformed through nature, and into her, by the charm of my ardour and love!” Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thoughts out of Season, Part I · precept
“Wagner's music is a reflex of the world as it was understood by the great Ephesian poet--that is to say, a harmony resulting from strife, as the union of justice and enmity.” Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thoughts out of Season, Part I · insight
“Lost in the swamp and welter of the pit, He flounders off the duck-boards; only he knows Each flash, and spouting crash,--each instant lit When gloom reveals the streaming rain.” Siegfried Sassoon, Counter-Attack and Other Poems · vivid
Pepys reports plague deaths near his acquaintances, talks with scientists about sound and music theories with Robert Hooke, visits court and social gatherings, and notes confirmations that the plague is raging in nearby districts.
to be tried the seventh of August; and that the hangman was sent from Flushing to assist the Council of Warr. How much of this is true, time will show. August 1, 1666. Walked over the Park with Sir W. Coventry, who I clearly see is not thoroughly pleased with the late management of the fight, nor with any thing that the Generalls do; only is glad to hear that De Ruyter is out of favour, and that this fight hath cos…
At “The Maid’s Tragedy,” Pepys enjoys witty masked conversation and later hears court talk about the King’s musicians and French influence; he also hears the French may block Hague peace talks.
men; which I was amazed at to see on a Sunday, having not believed it, but contrarily, flatly denied the same a little while since to my cosen Roger Pepys. 18th. To the King's house to "The Mayd's Tragedy;" but vexed all the while with two talking ladies and Sir Charles Sedley; yet pleased to hear their discourse, he being a stranger. And one of the ladies would and did sit with her mask on all the play; and being…
In Scheria, Alcinous and the Phaeacians give Ulysses gifts and a send-off, feast with Demodocus’s singing, and Ulysses departs after prayer offerings, placing a double cup in Arete’s hands before saying farewell.
ULYSSES LEAVES SCHERIA AND RETURNS TO ITHACA. Thus did he speak, and they all held their peace throughout the covered cloister, enthralled by the charm of his story, till presently Alcinous began to speak. “Ulysses,” said he, “now that you have reached my house I doubt not you will get home without further misadventure no matter how much you have suffered in the past. To you others, however, who come here night aft…
Du Bois narrates a dark Sunday night encounter with a Southern Negro revival near a small village, depicting intense emotion, the distinctive roles of the preacher, music, and shouting frenzy.
FIONA MACLEOD. It was out in the country, far from home, far from my foster home, on a dark Sunday night. The road wandered from our rambling log-house up the stony bed of a creek, past wheat and corn, until we could hear dimly across the fields a rhythmic cadence of song,—soft, thrilling, powerful, that swelled and died sorrowfully in our ears. I was a country schoolteacher then, fresh from the East, and had never …
He characterizes Negro religion after Emancipation as a vital part of social and psychological development, arguing that studying it also explains broader American religious and musical influences from slavery.
a hold did it have on the Negro, that many generations firmly believed that without this visible manifestation of the God there could be no true communion with the Invisible. These were the characteristics of Negro religious life as developed up to the time of Emancipation. Since under the peculiar circumstances of the black man’s environment they were the one expression of his higher life, they are of deep interest…
Du Bois begins a chapter on the Sorrow Songs, quoting a churchyard hymn and explaining that slave spirituals echo the soul of enslaved Black people and shaped his understanding from childhood.
He looked out where the North Star glistened pale above the waters, and said, “Yes, mammy, I’m going—North.” Then, without another word, he went out into the narrow lane, up by the straight pines, to the same winding path, and seated himself on the great black stump, looking at the blood where the body had lain. Yonder in the gray past he had played with that dead boy, romping together under the solemn trees. The ni…
Du Bois explains the meaning of the slave songs, calling them the articulate message of the slave, expressing joy and also sorrow, exile, death, and longing across centuries of improvised music.
know from the real. But the true Negro folk-song still lives in the hearts of those who have heard them truly sung and in the hearts of the Negro people. What are these songs, and what do they mean? I know little of music and can say nothing in technical phrase, but I know something of men, and knowing them, I know that these songs are the articulate message of the slave to the world. They tell us in these eager day…
Du Bois traces the slave songs through types and examples, describing development from African to Afro-American to blended forms, while also warning about debased imitations like minstrel songs and coon songs.
the song of this chapter—“Wrestlin’ Jacob, the day is a-breaking,”—a paean of hopeful strife. The last master song is the song of songs—“Steal away,”—sprung from “The Faith of the Fathers.” There are many others of the Negro folk-songs as striking and characteristic as these, as, for instance, the three strains in the third, eighth, and ninth chapters; and others I am sure could easily make a selection on more scien…
After Syracuse’s fall, Marcellus transports Grecian artworks to Rome, prompting admiration that later backfires on Roman temples; meanwhile in Sicily, conflicts at Agrigentum involve Generals Epicydes, Hanno, and Mutines sent by Hannibal.
continued for a considerable time in a tranquil state in Spain, as both parties, after giving and receiving such important defeats, hesitated to run the hazard of a general battle. 40. During these transactions in Spain, Marcellus, after the capture of Syracuse, having settled the other affairs in Sicily with so much honour and integrity as not only to add to his own renown, but also to the majesty of the Roman peop…
Du Bois recalls his London meetings with composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and narrates how, despite poverty and race-linked barriers, his talent was nurtured through music training and flourishing creative work.
a master of understanding mind who recognized genius when he saw it; and finally his beautiful child's treble brought him to the notice of the choirmaster of St. George's, Croyden. So by happy accident his way was clear. Within his soul was no hesitation. He was one of those fortunate beings who are not called to *Wander-Jahre*, but are born with sails set and seas charted. Already the baby of four little years was …
Du Bois recounts how, after encouragement from Paul Laurence Dunbar, Coleridge-Taylor ran music festivals and pursued German plans, but returned and died at thirty-seven; he was buried on September 5, 1912, with major public acclaim.
"Wince and cry aloud." Rather the hint here and there of color discrimination in England aroused in him deeper and more poignant sympathy with his people throughout the world. He was one with that great company of mixed-blooded men: Pushkin and Dumas, Hamilton and Douglass, Browning and many others; but he more than most of these men knew the call of the blood when it came and listened and answered. He came to Ameri…
Don Quixote tells the inn’s women that he was served by ladies like legendary poems, explains his horse and name, then argues about troutlet vs fish while a reed-pipe musician convinces him the inn is magical.
there knight So served by hand of dame, As served was he, Don Quixote hight, When from his town he came; With maidens waiting on himself, Princesses on his hack— —or Rocinante, for that, ladies mine, is my horse’s name, and Don Quixote of La Mancha is my own; for though I had no intention of declaring myself until my achievements in your service and honour had made me known, the necessity of adapting that old ballad…
Vicente de la Roca captivates the town with flashy outfits, guitar playing, poetry, and exaggerated battle stories, claims his arm is his pedigree, and intrigues the rival suitors by dazzling the community.
may know the names of the personages that figure in this tragedy, the end of which is still in suspense, though it is plain to see it must be disastrous. About this time there arrived in our town one Vicente de la Roca, the son of a poor peasant of the same town, the said Vicente having returned from service as a soldier in Italy and divers other parts. A captain who chanced to pass that way with his company had car…
While Sancho searches the cavern, Cervantes shifts to Don Quixote, who hears Sancho’s voice from a pit during practice for his duel over Doña Rodriguez’s daughter’s honor.
that looked like daylight and found its way in on one side, showing that this road, which appeared to him the road to the other world, led to some opening. Here Cide Hamete leaves him, and returns to Don Quixote, who in high spirits and satisfaction was looking forward to the day fixed for the battle he was to fight with him who had robbed Doña Rodriguez’s daughter of her honour, for whom he hoped to obtain satisfac…
After returning to his cave, Zarathustra suffers a seven-day collapse, lies among fruit and berries, and then rises refreshed while his animals urge him to prepare new music for his fate of eternal return.
2. Hardly, however, had Zarathustra spoken these words, when he fell down as one dead, and remained long as one dead. When however he again came to himself, then was he pale and trembling, and remained lying; and for long he would neither eat nor drink. This condition continued for seven days; his animals, however, did not leave him day nor night, except that the eagle flew forth to fetch food. And what it fetched a…
Nestor arranges an embassy to Achilles with Phoenix, Ajax, and Ulysses, and they reach the Myrmidons’ ships where Achilles plays his lyre, receives them, and prepares shared food after sacrifice.
Atreus; and Nestor, looking first to one and then to another, but most especially at Ulysses, was instant with them that they should prevail with the noble son of Peleus. They went their way by the shore of the sounding sea, and prayed earnestly to earth-encircling Neptune that the high spirit of the son of Aeacus might incline favourably towards them. When they reached the ships and tents of the M…
Vitruvius outlines a water organ system with cylinders pumping air, a wind regulator, windchest channels for different modes, sliders controlled by keys, and valves feeding pipes to produce melodies.
THE WATER ORGAN 1. With regard to water organs, however, I shall not fail with all possible brevity and precision to touch upon their principles, and to give a sufficient description of them. A wooden base is constructed, and on it is set an altar-shaped box made of bronze. Uprights, fastened together like ladders, are set up on the base, to the right and to the left (of the altar). They hold the bronze pump-cylinde…
“Joy-Bells” condemns church bells as instruments turned to war, while “Remorse,” “Dead Musicians,” and “The Dream” show soldiers’ terror, moral horror, and haunting memories of music and wartime smells.
JOY-BELLS Ring your sweet bells; but let them be farewells To the green-vista'd gladness of the past That changed us into soldiers; swing your bells To a joyful chime; but let it be the last. What means this metal in windy belfries hung When guns are all our need? Dissolve these bells Whose tones are tuned for peace: with martial tongue Let them cry doom and storm the sun with shells. Bells are like fierce…
John Adams, dated 7 July 1776 (continuation), argues for early training in style through composition exercises, music, and grammar/rhetoric practice, and frames his own imperfect education as a reason to tutor his children.
composition, and as a genuine model of the epistolary style. There is a book, which I wish you owned,--I mean Rollin's "Belles Lettres,"--in which the variations of style are explained. Early youth is the time to learn the arts and sciences, and especially to correct the ear and the imagination, by forming a style. I wish you would think of forming the taste and judgment of your children now, before any unchaste sou…
Mill turns to poetry, art, and especially music as instruments of human culture, discusses finding relief through Weber’s Oberon, and worries about the exhaustion of musical pleasure.
of the cardinal points in my ethical and philosophical creed. And my thoughts and inclinations turned in an increasing degree towards whatever seemed capable of being instrumental to that object. I now began to find meaning in the things, which I had read or heard about the importance of poetry and art as instruments of human culture. But it was some time longer before I began to know this by personal experience. Th…
Boswell inserts Johnson’s sayings and teaching views, including remarks about epitaph writers, school flogging and learning, education versus precocity, music and harpsichord play, and further comic observations, followed by Boswell’s move to Johnson in London in March 1776.
to one centre. Though few boys make their own exercises, yet if a good exercise is given up, out of a great number of boys, it is made by somebody.' 'I hate by-roads in education. Education is as well known, and has long been as well known, as ever it can be. Endeavouring to make children prematurely wise is useless labour. Suppose they have more knowledge at five or six years old than other children, what use can b…
Darwin reviews Herbert Spencer’s ideas about emotional speech, describes early childhood vocal modulation, compares singing and emotional voice, and argues musical tones likely preceded articulate speech in human ancestors.
of the *Canis latrans* of North America, which is said to bark. Some breeds, also, of the domestic pigeon have learnt to coo in a new and quite peculiar manner. The character of the human voice, under the influence of various emotions, has been discussed by Mr. Herbert Spencer[402] in his interesting essay on Music. He clearly shows that the voice alters much under different conditions, in loudness and in quality, t…
Darwin quotes Mr. Litchfield on musical “expression,” arguing it depends on how sounds are produced by muscular action and on relative pitch relations, while leaving the melodic essence largely unsolved.
of *E* and *I*; and these latter vowel-sounds naturally have, as Helmholtz has shown, a higher pitch than the former; yet both tones of laughter equally express enjoyment or amusement. In considering the mode in which vocal utterances express emotion, we are naturally led to inquire into the cause of what is called “expression” in music. Upon this point Mr. Litchfield, who has long attended to the subject of music, …
The passage explains Chiron the centaur and his reputation in medicine, music, and astronomy, then begins Fable XII as Mercury courts Herse and pressures Aglauros for access through a bribe.
EXPLANATION. The Centaurs, fabulous monsters, half men and half horses, were perhaps the first horsemen in Thessaly and its neighborhood. It is also probable that Chiron, who was one of these, acquired great fame by the knowledge he had acquired at a time and in a country where learning was little cultivated. The ancients regarded him as the first promulgator of the utility of medicines, in which he was sa…
Calliope rises and sings with the strings, and footnotes identify Polydectes as king of Seriphus, describe Minerva and Perseus family links, and explain islands, fountains, and Muse epithets used in the Muses’ performances.
Calliope rises, and, having her long hair gathered up with ivy, tunes with her thumb the sounding chords; and {then} sings these lines in concert with the strings when struck.” [Footnote 23: *Polydectes.*--Ver. 242. Polydectes was king of the little island of Seriphus, one of the Cyclades. His brother Dictys had removed Perseus, with his mother Danaë, to the kingdom of Polydectes. The latter became smitt…
Orpheus, on Mount Rhodope, draws creatures and trees with music, bringing a grove to shade a bare hill; the passage links a new pine tree to the transformation of Attis.
by the charms of his music, attracts to himself all kinds of creatures, rocks, and trees; among the latter is the pine tree, only known since the transformation of Attis. There was a hill, and upon the hill a most level space of a plain, which the blades of grass made green: {all} shade was wanting in the spot. After the bard, sprung from the Gods, had seated himself in this place, and touched his tuneful strings, a…
Within Fame’s Hall the narrator surveys musicians, harpers and pipers, trumpet players, and performers of magic and illusion, including Medea, Circe, Calypsa, and Simon Magus, warning he cannot name them all.
all without, Full the castle all about, Of all manner of minstrales And gestiours,<23> that telle tales Both of weeping and of game,* *mirth Of all that longeth unto Fame. There heard I play upon a harp, That sounded bothe well and sharp, Him, Orpheus, full craftily; And on this side faste by Satte the harper Arion,<24> And eke Aeacides Chiron <25> And other harpers many a one, And the great Glasgerion; <26> And sma…
Socrates and Adeimantus explain why the “pantomimic” style is unsuitable for a state of specialized roles, then move from story-myth control to rules for song and melody.
I do not deny it. But I suppose you would argue that such a style is unsuitable to our State, in which human nature is not twofold or manifold, for one man plays one part only? Yes; quite unsuitable. And this is the reason why in our State, and in our State only, we shall find a shoemaker to be a shoemaker and not a pilot also, and a husbandman to be a husbandman and not a dicast also, and a soldier a soldier and …
They select musical harmonies by political-moral purpose: ban sorrowful and indulgent modes, keep only the Dorian and Phrygian harmonies for courage and temperance, and reject complex instruments like flutes.
Quite the reverse, he replied; and if so the Dorian and the Phrygian are the only ones which you have left. I answered: Of the harmonies I know nothing, but I want to have one warlike, to sound the note or accent which a brave man utters in the hour of danger and stern resolve, or when his cause is failing, and he is going to wounds or death or is overtaken by some other evil, and at every such crisis meets the blo…
Rhythm and harmony should mirror the words and the soul’s temper, so good education aims at true simplicity of character; music training trains youths to recognize artistic and natural beauty and moral error.
which all the harmonies are composed; that is an observation which I have made. But of what sort of lives they are severally the imitations I am unable to say. Then, I said, we must take Damon into our counsels; and he will tell us what rhythms are expressive of meanness, or insolence, or fury, or other unworthiness, and what are to be reserved for the expression of opposite feelings. And I think that I have an ind…
Socrates extends artistic control beyond poets to all visual and creative arts, arguing music forms the inner soul and prepares youths to judge beauty and reason; he then links true love with temperance.
That is quite true, he said. But shall our superintendence go no further, and are the poets only to be required by us to express the image of the good in their works, on pain, if they do anything else, of expulsion from our State? Or is the same control to be extended to other artists, and are they also to be prohibited from exhibiting the opposite forms of vice and intemperance and meanness and indecency in sculpt…
Plato contrasts exclusive music and exclusive gymnastic: each can over-soften or over-harden a man, whereas proper mixing harmonizes the spirited and philosophical parts, producing balanced guardians.
Very true. If the element of spirit is naturally weak in him the change is speedily accomplished, but if he have a good deal, then the power of music weakening the spirit renders him excitable;--on the least provocation he flames up at once, and is speedily extinguished; instead of having spirit he grows irritable and passionate and is quite impracticable. Exactly. And so in gymnastics, if a man takes violent exer…
The writer criticizes Plato for confusing state with individual, failing to distinguish ethics from politics, and arguing from analogies, while conceding that such moves can still enlarge ideas about virtue, arts, and moral law.
to madness; they grow upon him, and he becomes possessed by them; no judgement of others is ever admitted by him to be weighed in the balance against his own. (d) Plato, labouring under what, to modern readers, appears to have been a confusion of ideas, assimilates the state to the individual, and fails to distinguish Ethics from Politics. He thinks that to be most of a state which is most like one man, and in which…
It explains Plato’s two-stage education by pairing music with early character formation, then gymnastic for bodily growth, stressing that exercise and music should serve the mind.
the body and mind develope in equal proportions. The first principle which runs through all art and nature is simplicity; this also is to be the rule of human life. The second stage of education is gymnastic, which answers to the period of muscular growth and development. The simplicity which is enforced in music is extended to gymnastic; Plato is aware that the training of the body may be inconsistent with the trai…
Socrates connects rhythm, style, and moral character, saying good rhythm leads to grace and good education, and proposes consulting Damon for which rhythms express insolence or virtue, since analysis is hard.
which all the harmonies are composed; that is an observation which I have made. But of what sort of lives they are severally the imitations I am unable to say. Then, I said, we must take Damon into our counsels; and he will tell us what rhythms are expressive of meanness, or insolence, or fury, or other unworthiness, and what are to be reserved for the expression of opposite feelings. And I think that I have an indi…
He proposes harmony as a parallel study to astronomy, then criticizes practitioners who chase heard sounds instead of mathematical problems, arguing studies become valuable only when unified and directed toward the good.
And what may that be? The second, I said, would seem relatively to the ears to be what the first is to the eyes; for I conceive that as the eyes are designed to look up at the stars, so are the ears to hear harmonious motions; and these are sister sciences—as the Pythagoreans say, and we, Glaucon, agree with them? Yes, he replied. But this, I said, is a laborious study, and therefore we had better go and learn of …
The passage explains how nineteenth-century romantic dramatists and composers revisited the Nibelungen saga, focusing on Hebbel’s Die Nibelungen and Wagner’s Ring, and then turns to modern English translation history.
is given in marriage. The three brothers are jealous of the might and fame of Seyfrid, and after eight years Hagen slays him beside a cool spring in the Ottenwald. The poem *Biterolf*, written soon after the Nibelungenlied, and *Rosengarten* of perhaps a half-century later, represent Dietrich in conflict with Siegfried at Worms. The famous shoemaker-poet Hans Sachs of Nuremberg in 1557 constructed a tragedy, *Der ho…
He continues the bean-field narrative with observations of birds and natural sounds, mentions town gunfire on gala days, and imagines patriotic martial music as distant crusader spectacle while he keeps hoeing.
a bad sense, a half-cultivated field. They were beans cheerfully returning to their wild and primitive state that I cultivated, and my hoe played the *Ranz des Vaches* for them. Near at hand, upon the topmost spray of a birch, sings the brown-thrasher—or red mavis, as some love to call him—all the morning, glad of your society, that would find out another farmer’s field if yours were not here. While you are planting…
It supplies parallels and literary sources for “farewell” and applause, identifies Aemilianus Strabo’s consulship, and notes provincial priesthood context and Vergil references.
*'farewell' and 'applaud'.* Cp. the well-known epitaph:--'iam mea peracta, mox vestra agetur fabula: valete et plaudite.' *Aemilianus Strabo* was *consul suffectus* in 156 A.D. See Prosopographia imp. Rom. part 3. nr. 674, p. 275. *while breath still*, &c., from Vergil, Aeneid iv. 336. *priesthood* of the province of Africa. See Introduction, p. 12. Prosopographia imp. Rom. part 1, nr. 1184, p. 464. *Orpheus to …
Pampinea’s love song credits Love as the source of joy and lasting hope, followed by more music, dancing, torches, and the company’s movement to chambers, ending the day and building toward Sunday.
all gay and festal cheer. When they were risen from the table, Emilia, at the queen's command, led the dance, while Pampinea, the other ladies responding, sang the ensuing song. Shall any lady sing, if I not sing, I to whom Love did full contentment bring? Come hither, Love, thou cause of all my joy, Of all my hope, and all its sequel blest, And with me tune the lay, No more to sighs and bitter past annoy, That now…
In Florence, Tedaldo loves Monna Ermellina (wife of Aldobrandino Palermini) but is rejected, so he leaves for Ancona, works in Cyprus under a new name, and returns to Florence after hearing a love song.
So ceased Fiammetta; and, when all had bestowed on her their meed of praise, the queen--to lose no time--forthwith bade Emilia resume the narration. So thus Emilia began:-- I am minded to return to our city, whence my two last predecessors saw fit to depart, and to shew you how one of our citizens recovered the lady he had lost. Know then that there was in Florence a young noble, his name Tedaldo Elisei, who being b…
Elisa sings a lamenting song as her coronation-to-night, in which she compares Love to a harpy and asks for help to bind or loosen her “captive,” after which the group rests and the sixth day ends.
I laid, Yielding myself to thee with trustful mind: Thou, harpy-tyrant, whom no faith may bind, Eftsoons didst swoop on me, And with thy cruel claws mad'st me thy prey. Then thy poor captive, bound with many a chain, Thou tookst, and gav'st to him, whom fate did call Hither my death to be; for that in pain And bitter tears I waste away, his thrall: Nor heave I e'er a sigh, or tear let fall, So harsh a lord…
Anichino confides his love to Madonna Beatrice during chess, and she agrees to admit him at midnight by leaving the door open; she wakes Egano by turning toward his sleeping when Anichino touches her.
but are ever inclinable to prayers, and ready to yield to the solicitations of Love. Had I but words apt to praise them as they deserve, my eloquence were inexhaustible. The gentlewoman's gaze was fixed on Anichino as he spoke; she made no doubt that all he said was true, and yielding to his appeal, she entertained his love within her heart in such measure that she too began to sigh, and after a sigh or two made ans…
During supper and afterward, Bruno and the others stage distractions so Calandrino can court Niccolosa, who sends him encouraging notes while Calandrino daydreams, sings love songs with a rebeck, and grows increasingly obsessive.
thousand bushels of the good seed of generation, and then that I am her servant, and if she is fain of--aught--thou tak'st me?" "Ay," quoth Bruno, "leave it to me." Supper-time came; and, the day's work done, they went down into the courtyard, Filippo and Niccolosa being there, and there they tarried a while to advance Calandrino's suit. Calandrino's gaze was soon riveted on Niccolosa, and such and so strange and st…
Casella appears to comfort Dante by singing, Virgil rebukes negligent spirits, and the group hurries up toward the mountain, prompting Dante to notice time and movement anew.
Inasmuch as the instantaneous flight Had scattered them asunder o’er the plain, Turned to the mountain whither reason spurs us, I pressed me close unto my faithful comrade, And how without him had I kept my course? Who would have led me up along the mountain? He seemed to me within himself remorseful; O noble conscience, and without a stain, How sharp a sting is trivial fault to thee! After his fee…
Napoleon’s 1800 movements culminate in a letter dated Ivrea (May 29) and a June arrival at Milan, with accounts of improvised concerts, portraits, and the risks and interests of Josephine’s court life.
No. 1. The date is doubtless 27 *Messidor* (July 16), and the fête alluded to that of July 14. The following day Napoleon signed the Concordat with the Pope, which paved the way for the restoration of the Roman Catholic religion in France (September 11). *The blister.*--On July 7 he quaintly writes Talleyrand: "They have put a second blister on my arm, which prevented me giving audience yesterday. Time of sickness …
Hegel details painting as visibility in color on a plane, music as idealized sound via temporal negation and lawful succession, and poetry as the sign-word of ideas, culminating in thought-prose.
of art, whose mode of plasticity they are most adequately adapted to express. And they constitute a *totality* of arts, because the romantic type is the most concrete in itself.[172] i. The articulation of this *third sphere* of the individual arts may be determined as follows. The *first* art in it, which comes next to sculpture, is painting. It employs as a medium for its content and for the plastic embodiment of …
He summarizes the classification: architecture fits symbolic art, sculpture fits the classical type, painting and music fit the romantic type, and poetry runs through all types because imagination frees mind in inner space and time.
the antithesis to emotion and inwardness; and has also as its basis a solid conformity to law on the part of the tones, of their conjunction, and of their succession. iii. most spiritual mode of representation of the romantic art-type, we must look for it in *poetry*. Its characteristic peculiarity lies in the power with which it subjects to the mind and to its ideas the sensuous element from which music and paintin…
Through anecdotes about philistines drinking, Nietzsche quotes Friedrich Vischer doubting Holderlin could endure war and arguing that Holderlin lacked the “weapon humour” needed to accept being a Philistine.
in regard to the philosophies which men of his stamp produce, he is conscious of a frequent lack of intellectuality, although of course they are always thoroughly healthy and profitable. Now and again, the Philistines, provided they are by themselves, indulge in a bottle of wine, and then they grow reminiscent, and speak of the great deeds of the war, honestly and ingenuously. On such occasions it often happens that…
Nietzsche shifts from poets to musicians, arguing Strauss’s remarks about Haydn and Beethoven rely on mistaken identifications, which he dramatizes as Strauss worshipping “Sweetmeat-Beethoven” rather than the real composer.
aesthetic kingdom of heaven, when the young tiger, whose restless strength will be visible in his every distended muscle and his every glance, shall sally forth to seek his prey!" V. How clever it was of my friend to read no further, once he had been enlightened (thanks to that chimerical vision) concerning the Straussian Lessing and Strauss himself. We, however, read on further, and even craved admission of the Do…
He invents Strauss’s “Sweetmeat-Beethoven” as a double monster behind Strauss’s evaluation of Beethoven’s symphonies, then condemns Strauss’s practice of burning “problematic” works to purify his idols.
most unpretentious amateurs can do justice to that music--a further proof that he was referring to some other artist and some other work, possibly to Riehl's music for the home. But whoever can this Sweetmeat-Beethoven of Strauss's be? He is said to have composed nine symphonies, of which the Pastoral is "the least remarkable"; we are told that "each time in composing the third, he seemed impelled to exceed his boun…
He says Wagner simplifies the universe by connecting music with life and drama, and he treats music’s modern significance as a necessity rather than mere accident, posed as a riddle Wagner answers.
instant; and the greater becomes the tension between each man's general knowledge of things and his moral and spiritual faculties. Art is with us to prevent the bow from snapping. The individual must be consecrated to something impersonal--that is the aim of tragedy: he must forget the terrible anxiety which death and time tend to create in him; for at any moment of his life, at any fraction of time in the whole of …
Nietzsche claims Wagner identifies a widespread evil: diseased language, which drives people into convention and discord, and he interprets Wagner’s music as a return to nature through true feeling.
sort leads one to think that perhaps necessity rather than accident is at the root of the whole phenomenon. The meaning of this necessity is the riddle which Wagner answers. He was the first to recognise an evil which is as widespread as civilisation itself among men; language is everywhere diseased, and the burden of this terrible disease weighs heavily upon the whole of man's development. Inasmuch as language has …
He portrays modern humanity as appearance and dissimulation, then asks what purpose music serves within this world of empty forms, setting up an argument about music’s role.
for the need of such a return took shape in the souls of the most loving of men, and, through their art, nature transformed into love makes its voice heard. Let us regard this as one of Wagner's answers to the question, What does music mean in our time? for he has a second. The relation between music and life is not merely that existing between one kind of language and another; it is, besides, the relation between t…
Nietzsche argues that Wagner’s view of music as a force shaping culture and the State builds on a Greek ideal of “music” joined to gymnastics, while modern education lacks this soul and produces art “out of season.”
more than personal; they glow with the mighty and peaceful fire of music, which wells up to the light of day from their unexhausted depths--and all this to what purpose? By means of these souls music gives expression to the longing that it feels for the company of its natural ally, gymnastics--that is to say, its necessary form in the order of visible phenomena. In its search and craving for this ally, it becomes th…
Nietzsche presents Wagner’s art as a “messenger of light” demanding purification through its mysteries, insists Wagner’s appearance was necessary not accidental, and praises the way struggle and suffering strengthen artistic destiny.
O that ye yourselves could learn to become natural again, and then suffer yourselves to be transformed through nature, and into her, by the charm of my ardour and love!" It is the voice of Wagner's art which thus appeals to men. And that we, the children of a wretched age, should be the first to hear it, shows how deserving of pity this age must be: it shows, moreover, that real music is of a piece with fate and pri…
He compares Plato’s ideal gaze to modern society’s need for art, arguing that art relieves the tension of knowing the gap between duties and capabilities and returns spectators to life “transformed into tragic men.”
we, however, who live in a very different community, long for, and earnestly desire, the charmer to come to us, although we may fear him already,--and we only desire his presence in order that our society and the mischievous reason and might of which it is the incarnation may be confuted. A state of human civilisation, of human society, morality, order, and general organisation which would be able to dispense with th…
He explains tragedy’s birth as an outflow of rhythmic movement, intoxicated speech, melody, and dream-like images where nature’s contradictions emerge through sound and visible forms.
the dithyrambic quality of his movements speaks just as eloquently of quivering comprehension and of powerful penetration as of the approach of love and self-renunciation. Intoxicated speech follows the course of this rhythm; melody resounds coupled with speech, and in its turn melody projects its sparks into the realm of images and ideas. A dream-apparition, like and unlike the image of Nature and her wooer, hovers …
Nietzsche contrasts earlier music’s limited focus on the Greek ethos (moods) with Beethoven’s shift toward pathos and dramatic passion, while criticizing the ethical fear of passion and monotony.
the philosopher says it is will that struggles for existence in animate and inanimate nature, the musician adds: And this will wherever it manifests itself, yearns for a melodious existence. Before Wagner's time, music for the most part moved in narrow limits: it concerned itself with the permanent states of man, or with what the Greeks call ethos. And only with Beethoven did it begin to find the language of pathos,…
He argues that Wagner advances music by finding means for unmistakably clear expression, freeing it from mood-music prejudices, and unifying storms of competing passions into serene symphonic concord.
and that this must be done as distinctly as possible, becomes ever more and more essential, the higher, more difficult, and more exacting the class of work happens to be. That is why all Wagner's efforts were concentrated upon the one object of discovering those means which best served the purpose of distinctness, and to this end it was above all necessary for him to emancipate himself from all the prejudices and cl…