A Musical Biography: Or, Sketches of the Lives and Writings of Eminent Musical Characters

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Stone & Fovell, 1825 - 250 páginas
 

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Página 83 - What time do you require ?" "A month." " Very well; in a month's time I shall return—what price do you set on your work ?" "A hundred ducats."* The stranger counted them on the table, and disappeared. . / Mozart remained lost in thought for some time: he then suddenly called for pen, ink, and paper, and, in spite of his -wife's entreaties, began to write. This rage for composition continued several days; he wrote day and night with an ardour which seemed continually to increase ; but his constitution,...
Página 27 - But soon, ah soon, rebellion will commence, If music meanly borrows aid from sense : Strong in new arms, lo ! giant Handel stands, Like bold Briareus, with a hundred hands ; To stir, to rouse, to shake the soul he comes, And Jove's own thunders follow Mars's drums, Arrest him, empress ; or you sleep no more...
Página 226 - ... of the whole congregation, who, instead of- vacating their seats as usual, remained for a considerable space of time, fixed in silent admiration. The Organist began to be impatient, (perhaps his wife was waiting dinner,) and at length addressing the Performer, told him...
Página 27 - But soon, ah soon rebellion will commence, If music meanly borrows aid from sense: Strong in new arms, lo! giant Handel stands, Like bold Briareus, with a hundred hands; To stir, to rouse, to shake the soul he comes, And Jove's own thunders follow Mars's drums. Arrest him, Empress; or you sleep no more'— She heard, and drove him to th
Página 88 - ... with instruments to enrich the harmony and enforce the melody and meaning of the words, he manifested equal abilities and resources. In compositions for the theatre, though the colouring and effects of an orchestra were then but little known, yet, as he employed them more than his...
Página 17 - ... the effort. Without waiting to replace it, he advanced bareheaded to the front of the orchestra, breathing vengeance, but so much choked with passion that utterance was denied him.
Página 21 - If persons who are now living, and who were present at that performance, may be credited, the applause it received was almost as extravagant as his Agrippina had excited ; the crowds and tumults of the house at Venice were hardly equal to those at London. In so splendid and fashionable an assembly of ladies (to the excellence of their taste we must impute it), there was no shadow of form or ceremony, scarce indeed any appearance of order or regularity, politeness or decency. Many, who had forced...
Página 110 - ... that he first attempted to play a tune himself: for, the same evening after her departure, the child cried, and was so peevish that his mother was wholly unable to appease him. At length, passing through the dining room, he screamed and struggled violently to go to the organ, in which, when he was indulged, he eagerly beat down the keys with his little fists, as other children usually...
Página 86 - ... of their productions. And so much of our great musician's celebrity is already consigned to tradition, that it will soon be as difficult to find his songs, or at least to hear them, as those of his predecessors Orpheus and Amphion, with which Cerberus was lulled to sleep, or the city of Thebes constructed.
Página 84 - I have found it impossible,' said Mozart, ' to keep my word ; the work has interested me more than I expected, and I have extended it beyond my first design. I shall require another month to finish it.

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