The bassoon belongs to the first solo-instruments of the world. The tone of the instrument is so companionable, so delightfully talkative, so attuned for every pure soul, that until the Day of Judgment the bassoon can never be dispensed with. It assumes all roles: it accompanies martial music with manly dignity; it is heard majestically in church; it sustains the opera; it reasons with wisdom in the concert hall, gives a swing to the dance and fulfills every requirement.CDF Shubart. (H/T Teresa.)
"So attuned for every pure soul..." -- I love it. I don't know much about Shubart. The quote is from 1809, and googling him I find a few facts (court keyboardist), and other examples of grandiloquent prose: of the Mannheim orchestra, he wrote "Its forte is like thunder, its crescendo a cataract, its diminuendo a clear brook babbling in the distance, its piano a spring breeze." He also spent ten years in jail: imagine anyone caring that much about classical music these days, to imprison a musician who thwarted their wishes.
Technically he was jailed for insulting the Jesuits (and maybe got a little introspective: “Want and sorrow are the wages that folly earns for itself, and they are generally paid.”)
ReplyDeleteHey! Why no updates? You have devoted readers to please :)
ReplyDelete