United States or Azerbaijan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
With respect to the relative position of Japhet and Ham perhaps I should say Ham and Japhet ultra-philanthropy has granted all the aspirations of the Ethiopian melodist: wish de legislator would set dis darkie free; Oh, what a happy place den de darkie world would be! We'd have a darkie parliament, An' darkie code of law, An' darkie judges on de bench, Darkie barristers and aw.
Every volume there is an instrument which some melodist of the mind created and set vibrating with music, as a flower shakes out its perfume or a star shakes out its light. Only listen, and they soothe all care, as though the silken-soft leaves of poppies had been made vocal and poured into the ear.
It was the fault of the times on the piano, not of the composers. It was not till long afterward that the color capacities of the piano were developed. As Foster was no pianist, but rather a pure melodist, he could not be expected to surpass his times in the management of the piano, the only 'orchestra' he had. It will not do to regard Foster as a crude musician.
"Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed Your leaves, nor ever bid the spring adieu; And, happy melodist, unwearied, For ever piping songs for ever new; More happy love! more happy, happy love!
Among other important compositions of his are a symphonic cantata, "The Auditorium Festival Ode," sung at the dedication of the Chicago Auditorium by a chorus of five hundred; sketches for orchestra, a piano concerto, organ music, and songs. As is shown by the two or three vocal works of his that I have seen, Gleason is less successful as a melodist than as a harmonist.
Strauss received a sound musical education; he could handle the old symphonic form, absolute music, before he began writing in the vein modern; his evolution has been orderly and consistent. He looked before he leaped. His songs prove him to be a melodist, the most original since Brahms in this form. Otherwise, originality is conditioned.
It was the fault of the times on the piano, not of the composers. It was not till long afterward that the color capacities of the piano were developed. As Foster was no pianist, but rather a pure melodist, he could not be expected to surpass his times in the management of the piano, the only 'orchestra' he had. It will not do to regard Foster as a crude musician.
No one, not even Wagner, o'ertops him in this respect, though Wagner and Berlioz and Liszt showed him the way. Why, then, does he lean so heavily on Wagner, not alone on his themes for Strauss is, above all, a melodist but on his moods; in a word, the Wagnerian atmosphere?
Of the second group of eight songs for low voice, "O Jugendlust" is athrill with young ecstasy; "Einsame Thräne" has superb coloring, all sombre, and a tremendous climax; "Seeligkeit" is big with emotion and ravishing in harmony, "Ein Schäferlied" is exquisite, "Von schön Sicilien war mein Traum" begins in the style of Lassen, but ends with a strength and vigor far beyond that tender melodist.
It has been reported that he is at work upon a new opera, "Othello," the words by Arrigo Boito, the composer of "Mephistopheles;" but nothing more than the report has been heard from it during the past three or four years. The great melodist now spends a very quiet life as a country gentleman upon his estates near Busseto.
Word Of The Day