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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: "Then the Desert rises to overrun the world (back to C major). The
whole strength of the orchestra comes in again, collected in a
tremendous quintet grounded on the fundamental bass--and he is dying!
Mahomet is world-weary; he has exhausted everything. Now he craves to
die a god. Arabia, in fact, worships and prays to him, and we return
to the first melancholy strain (C minor) to which the curtain rose.
"Now, do you not discern," said Gambara, ceasing to play, and turning
to the Count, "in this picturesque and vivid music--abrupt, grotesque,
or melancholy, but always grand--the complete expression of the life
of an epileptic, mad for enjoyment, unable to read or write, using all
his defects as stepping-stones, turning every blunder and disaster
Gambara |
