| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Poems by Oscar Wilde: Is it not said that many years ago,
In a far Eastern town, some soldiers ran
With torches through the midnight, and began
To wrangle for mean raiment, and to throw
Dice for the garments of a wretched man,
Not knowing the God's wonder, or His woe?
Poem: The New Remorse
The sin was mine; I did not understand.
So now is music prisoned in her cave,
Save where some ebbing desultory wave
Frets with its restless whirls this meagre strand.
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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 Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: work; the fisherman had once praised her voice when she hummed a
barcarole on the sands, and he had insisted that there was power
in its rich notes. Though the fisherman had showed no cause why
he should be accepted as a musical critic, Annette had somehow
respected his judgment and been accordingly elated.
It was the night of the opening of the opera. There was the
usual crush, the glitter and confusing radiance of the brilliant
audience. Annette, with papa, Aunt Nina, and Philip, was late
reaching her box. The curtain was up, and "La Juive" was pouring
forth defiance at her angry persecutors. Annette listened
breathlessly. In fancy, she too was ringing her voice out to an
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
