| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: come in from the beach now and are dressing up-stairs; the cars from
New York are parked five deep in the drive, and already the halls and
salons and verandas are gaudy with primary colors, and hair shorn in
strange new ways, and shawls beyond the dreams of Castile. The
bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the
garden outside, until the air is alive with chatter and laughter, and
casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot, and
enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other's names.
The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and
now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music, and the opera of
voices pitches a key higher. Laughter is easier minute by minute,
The Great Gatsby |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: "You are still fond of the Emperor?" asked Finot.
"He is my god," answered Philippe Bridau.
"You are a Liberal?"
"I shall always belong to the Constitutional Opposition. Oh Foy! oh
Manuel! oh Laffitte! what men they are! They'll rid us of these
others,--these wretches, who came back to France at the heels of the
enemy."
"Well," said Finot coldly, "you ought to make something out of your
misfortunes; for you are the victim of the Liberals, my good fellow.
Stay a Liberal, if you really value your opinions, but threaten the
party with the follies in Texas which you are ready to show up. You
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: orchestra at any moment instantly brings Mimmy to mind, whether
he is on the stage at the time or not.
In truth, dramatic characterization in music cannot be carried
very far by the use of representative themes. Mozart, the
greatest of all masters of this art, never dreamt of employing
them; and, extensively as they are used in The Ring, they do not
enable Wagner to dispense with the Mozartian method. Apart from
the themes, Siegfried and Mimmy are still as sharply
distinguished from one another by the character of their music as
Don Giovanni from Leporello, Wotan from Gutrune as Sarastro from
Papagena. It is true that the themes attached to the characters
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