| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: child, thou hast conquered me."
The mother rose as if to fetch her daughter. At that instant the door
opened noisily, and a man, whose face no longer bore the semblance of
humanity, stood suddenly before them.
"Dead! Our two families were doomed to exterminate each other. Here is
all that remains of her," he said, laying Ginevra's long black hair
upon the table.
The old people shook and quivered as if a stroke of lightning had
blasted them.
Luigi no longer stood before them.
"He has spared me a shot, for he is dead," said Bartolomeo, slowly,
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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 Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: richest absolute music, especially in his chamber compositions,
without rejoicing in his amazing gift. A reaction to absolute
music, starting partly from Brahms, and partly from such revivals
of medieval music as those of De Lange in Holland and Mr. Arnold
Dolmetsch in England, is both likely and promising; whereas there
is no more hope in attempts to out-Wagner Wagner in music drama
than there was in the old attempts--or for the matter of that,
the new ones--to make Handel the starting point of a great school
of oratorio.
BAYREUTH
When the Bayreuth Festival Playhouse was at last completed, and
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