| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: charms of the one and only woman give him the impulse to multiplied
loves which strikes us in /Don Giovanni/. Now, as you hear these
themes, do you not catch a glimpse of Mahomet's Paradise?
"And next we have a /cantabile/ (A flat major, six-eight time), that
might expand the soul that is least susceptible to music. Kadijah has
understood Mahomet! Then Kadijah announces to the populace the
Prophet's interviews with the Angel Gabriel (/maestoso sostenuto/ in F
Major). The magistrates and priests, power and religion, feeling
themselves attacked by the innovator, as Christ and Socrates also
attacked effete or worn-out powers and religions, persecute Mahomet
and drive him out of Mecca (/stretto/ in C major). Then comes my
 Gambara |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Call of the Canyon by Zane Grey: At every step she slipped back a few inches, a very annoying feature of
climbing. When her legs seemed to grow dead Carley paused for a little
rest. The last of the ascent, over a few hundred yards of looser cinders,
taxed her remaining strength to the limit. She grew hot and wet and out of
breath. Her heart labored. An unreasonable antipathy seemed to attend her
efforts. Only her ridiculous vanity held her to this task. She wanted to
please Glenn, but not so earnestly that she would have kept on plodding up
this ghastly bare mound of cinders. Carley did not mind being a tenderfoot,
but she hated the thought of these Westerners considering her a weakling.
So she bore the pain of raw blisters and the miserable sensation of
staggering on under a leaden weight.
 The Call of the Canyon |