| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: any rate, you have got the elements of color, drawing, and sentiment,
--the three essential parts of art."
"But the saint is sublime, good sir!" cried the young man in a loud
voice, waking from a deep reverie. "These figures, the saint and the
boatman, have a subtile meaning which the Italian painters cannot
give. I do not know one of them who could have invented that
hesitation of the boatman."
"Does the young fellow belong to you?" asked Porbus of the old man.
"Alas, maitre, forgive my boldness," said the neophyte, blushing. "I
am all unknown; only a dauber by instinct. I have just come to Paris,
that fountain of art and science."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: him on to the terrible pitfalls that ended in destruction.
So the very next day, while Santa Claus was busily at work, surrounded
by his little band of assistants, the Daemon of Selfishness came to
him and said:
"These toys are wonderfully bright and pretty. Why do you not keep
them for yourself? It's a pity to give them to those noisy boys and
fretful girls, who break and destroy them so quickly."
"Nonsense!" cried the old graybeard, his bright eyes twinkling merrily
as he turned toward the tempting Daemon. "The boys and girls are
never so noisy and fretful after receiving my presents, and if I can
make them happy for one day in the year I am quite content."
A Kidnapped Santa Claus |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: time.
"The music of this oratorio contains a whole world of great and sacred
things. A work which begins with that introduction and ends with that
prayer is immortal--as immortal as the Easter hymn, /O filii et
filioe/, as the /Dies iroe/ of the dead, as all the songs which in
every land have outlived its splendor, its happiness, and its ruined
prosperity."
The tears the Duchess wiped away as she quitted her box showed plainly
that she was thinking of the Venice that is no more; and Vendramin
kissed her hand.
The performance ended with the most extraordinary chaos of noises:
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