| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: him. He could hold his own in the court circle, provided no one talked
to him of "Moses in Egypt," nor of the drama, or romanticism, or local
color, nor of railways. He himself had never got beyond Monsieur de
Voltaire, Monsieur le Comte de Buffon, Payronnet, and the Chevalier
Gluck, the Queen's favorite musician.
"Madame," he said to the Marquise de Listomere, who was on his arm as
they entered Madame Firmiani's salons, "if this woman is my nephew's
mistress, I pity him. How can she live in the midst of this luxury,
and know that he is in a garret? Hasn't she any soul? Octave is a fool
to have given up such an estate as Villaines for a--"
Monsieur de Bourbonne belonged to the species Fossil, and used 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 Gambara by Honore de Balzac: hopes of the man are mocked at by the hopes of hell in the tremendous
cry: '/A toi, Robert de Normandie/!'
"And are not you struck by the gloom and horror of those long-held
notes, to which the words are set: '/Dans la foret prochaine/'? We
find here all the sinister spells of /Jerusalem Delivered/, just as we
find all chivalry in the chorus with the Spanish lilt, and in the
march tune. How original is the /alegro/ with the modulations of the
four cymbals (tuned to C, D, C, G)! How elegant is the call to the
lists! The whole movement of the heroic life of the period is there:
the mind enters into it; I read in it a romance, a poem of chivalry.
The /exposition/ is now finished; the resources of music would seem to
Gambara |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: offered your services to my husband," said she; "his commands and
my commands are that you march to the palace and cast out him who
hath no right there."
"It shall be done," said the captain of the guards.
All the troops were up in arms, and the town was full of tumult
and confusion. About midnight they brought the false king before
King Beppo and the queen. The false king stood there trembling
like a leaf. The queen stood gazing at him steadily. "Behold,
this is the husband that thou gavest me," said she. "It is as I
said; he is greater than thou. For, lo, he is king! What art
thou?"
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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 The Golden Threshold by Sarojini Naidu: and for their practice of Yoga. He took his degree of Doctor of
Science at the University of Edinburgh in 1877, and afterwards
studied brilliantly at Bonn. On his return to India he founded
the Nizam College at Hyderabad, and has since laboured
incessantly, and at great personal sacrifice, in the cause of
education.
Sarojini was the eldest of a large family, all of whom were
taught English at an early age. "I," she writes, "was stubborn
and refused to speak it. So one day when I was nine years old my
father punished me--the only time I was ever punished--by
shutting me in a room alone for a whole day. I came out of it a
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