prevailing

Mis à jour: 5 mai 2025

Commonplace is instinctively avoided in all the works of Chopin; a stale cadence or a trite progression, a hum-drum subject or a hackneyed sequence, a vulgar twist of the melody or a worn out passage, a meagre harmony or an unskilful counterpoint, may in vain be looked for throughout the entire range of his compositions, the prevailing characteristics of which are, a feeling as uncommon as beautiful, a treatment as original as felicitous, a melody and a harmony as new, fresh, vigorous and striking, as they are utterly unexpected and out of the ordinary track.

Franz Liszt - F. Chopin

Daudet's is a microscopic, notebook realism quite different from the universal verity of Balzac, but there are many pages prompted by an exquisite sympathy or a violent passion in which the indomitable personality of the author breaks through the impassiveness imposed by the accepted masters of the craft. Sadness is the prevailing tone in his work, the sort of sadness that proceeds from pity.

Alphonse Daudet - Tartarin de Tarascon