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Music from the East. 59 |
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richly endowed, and is manned by a population so courteous, so different m matters of truth and untruth from other southern folk; and seeing that music has been there so largely called on to take part in its festivals, whether they be priestly or lay, public or private, and that dramatic art has been there exhibited in a fertility and fluency unexampled and unparagoned in any country of Europe—one may well speculate why such a land should have never yielded a single European composer. And this fact is all the more singular, I repeat, since we know their drama not only to be full of varied character, but lyrical also, beyond the drama of any other country. The luxury of its high sentiments and intricate incidents, expressed in verbal rhythms of admirable euphony, without that tiresome sonority which must cloy, cannot be exceeded. My brother, Mr. J. R. Chorley, whose researches into the subject may be relied on,12—since, I am proud to say, they have been accepted and turned to account by the most ingenious and erudite scholars of the country —assured me that an occasional stage-song was probably supported by a guitar; that angels, super-
12 Vide his Catalogo de Comedias y Autos de Frcy Lope Felix da Vega Carpio, written in Castilian and printed in Spain. |
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