| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: lovely baroque pearl--" he protested, with the half-apologetic
tone of the rich man embarrassed by too costly a gift from an
impecunious friend.
"Oh, hadn't I? Why? Because it's too good for Clarissa, or too
expensive for me? Of course you daren't imply the first; and as
for me--I've had a windfall, and am blowing it in on the
ladies."
Strefford, Lansing had noticed, always used American slang when
he was slightly at a loss, and wished to divert attention from
the main point. But why was he embarrassed, whose attention did
he wish to divert, It was plain that Vanderlyn's protest had
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: dramatic motives in a Shakespearean play. As to the coyer
subtleties of the score, their discovery provides fresh interest
for repeated hearings, giving The Ring a Beethovenian
inexhaustibility and toughness of wear.
The themes associated with the individual characters get stamped
on the memory easily by the simple association of the sound of
the theme with the appearance of the person indicated. Its
appropriateness is generally pretty obvious. Thus, the entry of
the giants Is made to a vigorous stumping, tramping measure.
Mimmy, being a quaint, weird old creature, has a quaint, weird
theme of two thin chords that creep down eerily one to the other.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Exiles by Honore de Balzac: the stranger, and the ferry-boat pushed off.
At the moment when the boat was afloat on the wide river,
communicating its motion to the soul, the sun pierced the clouds like
a conflagration blazing up on the horizon, and poured forth a flood of
light, coloring slate roof-tops and humbler thatch with a ruddy glow
and tawny reflections, fringed Philippe Auguste's towers with fire,
flooded the sky, dyed the waters, gilded the plants, and aroused the
half-sleeping insects. The immense shaft of light set the clouds on
fire. It was like the last verse of the daily hymn. Every heart was
thrilled; nature in such a moment is sublime.
As he gazed at the spectacle, the stranger's eyes moistened with the
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