When asked if she did not care for
harmony at all, she replied: "Oh, yes! I know a chord which is _simply
divine_!" Then she played--what do you fancy?--the _simple major
triad_--A flat in the bass, and A flat, C, E flat an octave
higher--which is the most elementary of all chords, the very alphabet
of music. If she found this commonplace chord "simply divine," what
would she have said could she have been made to realize that the
modulations I had played were as superior to her chord in poetic charm
as a line of Shakspere is to the letters A B C? And she _could_ have
been made to realize this truth in a few months, under proper
instruction.
I have dwelt so long on this matter because I have come to the
conclusion, as already stated, that the greatest problem in connection
with German opera is to enlarge the patronage, and induce persons to
reserve their judgment of a "heavy" opera until they have heard it two
or three times. They will soon find that the word "heavy" is a very
relative and changeable term in music. To one who really admires
Shakspere and Homer, a fashionable novel is tedious beyond endurance;
just so, to one who can appreciate "Tristan" or "Euryanthe," Verdi's
"Ernani" and Bellini's "Norma" are heavy as lead, soporific as opium.
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