| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: displaced metric accent which musicians call syncopation, rung on
the notes of the familiar chord formed by piling three minor
thirds on top of one another (technically, the chord of the minor
ninth, ci-devant diminished seventh). One soon picks it up and
identifies it; but it does not get introduced in the
unequivocally clear fashion of the themes described above, or of
that malignant monstrosity, the theme which denotes the curse on
the gold. Consequently it cannot be said that the musical design
of the work is perfectly clear at the first hearing as regards
all the themes; but it is so as regards most of them, the main
lines being laid down as emphatically and intelligibly as the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: g' eu phronousin}.
[13] {paraggelmata}. Cf. Aesch. "Ag." 480, "telegraph"; Lys. 121. 32;
Dem. 569. 1; "words of command"; Dion. H. "De Comp." 248,
"instructions, precepts."
[14] {enthumemata}.
Nor would I have you envy or imitate those either who recklessly
pursue the path of self-aggrandisement,[15] whether in private or in
public life; but consider well[16] that the best of men,[17] the true
nobility, are discovered by their virtues;[18] they are a laborious
upwards-striving race; whilst the base are in evil plight[19] and are
discovered by their demerits.[20] Since in proportion as they rob the
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Door in the Wall, et. al. by H. G. Wells: them.
The woman's heart was cold within her. "I told Mr. Raut it
was just possible you might come back," she said, in a voice that
never quivered.
Horrocks, still silent, sat down abruptly in the chair by her
little work-table. His big hands were clenched; one saw now the
fire of his eyes under the shadow of his brows. He was trying to
get his breath. His eyes went from the woman he had trusted to the
friend he had trusted, and then back to the woman.
By this time and for the moment all three half understood one
another. Yet none dared say a word to ease the pent-up things that
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: some thirty customers were drinking English beer, porter, gin, and brandy;
smoking, the while, long red clay pipes stuffed with little balls of opium
mingled with essence of rose. From time to time one of the smokers,
overcome with the narcotic, would slip under the table, whereupon the waiters,
taking him by the head and feet, carried and laid him upon the bed.
The bed already supported twenty of these stupefied sots.
Fix and Passepartout saw that they were in a smoking-house haunted
by those wretched, cadaverous, idiotic creatures to whom the English
merchants sell every year the miserable drug called opium,
to the amount of one million four hundred thousand pounds--
thousands devoted to one of the most despicable vices
Around the World in 80 Days |
