| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: But to pursue this interesting question would carry us far beyond
our limits. Whatever may be the decision as to the respective
claims of vocal and instrumental music, we have every reason for
welcoming the appearance, in our own country, of an original work
in the highest form of vocal music. It is to be hoped that we
shall often have the opportunity to "hear with our ears" this
interesting work; for as a rule great musical compositions are
peculiarly unfortunate among works of art, in being known at
first hand by comparatively few persons. In this way is rendered
possible that pretentious kind of dilettante criticism which is
so common in musical matters, and which is often positively
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Recruit by Honore de Balzac: she herself was the sole heiress of her own. Human interests and
projects combined, therefore, with the noblest deeds of the soul to
exalt in this mother's heart a sentiment that is always so strong in
the hearts of women. She had brought up this son with the utmost
difficulty, and with infinite pains, which rendered the youth still
dearer to her; a score of times the doctors had predicted his death,
but, confident in her own presentiments, her own unfailing hope, she
had the happiness of seeing him come safely through the perils of
childhood, with a constitution that was ever improving, in spite of
the warnings of the Faculty.
Thanks to her constant care, this son had grown and developed so much,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Options by O. Henry: broker worthy fifty millions. But he's always ready to break into the
king row of any foreign country that sends over their queens and
princesses to try the new plush seats on the Big Four or the B. and
0. There doesn't seem to be any other reason in the book for their
being here.
"Well, this fellow chases the royal chair-warmer home, as I said, and
finds out who she is. He meets here on the corso or the strasse one
evening and gives us ten pages of conversation. She reminds him of
the difference in their stations, and that gives him a chance to ring
in three solid pages about America's uncrowned sovereigns. If you'd
take his remarks and set 'em to music, and then take the music away
Options |
