| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
Music from the North. 151
of Spain, of the harpers of Ireland, of the gipsy-folk from Bohemia, and of those who in the far North set the young people dancing, bear a strange family likeness one to the other. The same characteristics are apparent in the Danish airs, combined into a march by Arthur Sullivan, which were played before a Danish lady, our Princess, on the day when by storm—no, by charm—she entered our city, and conquered London.
And next—since, in a subject so wide, grouping becomes indispensable—let me call attention to the fact that all mountain pastoral music has a character of its own, as clearly defined as the Sicilian style lately considered. In the herdsmen's songs of Norway, in the foresters' tunes of the Tyrol, in the melodies of Switzerland, the hill echo and the simple mountain horn are to be heard without fail. How charmingly these fall on the ear, need not be told; whether they be met in their primitive simplicity in some delicious summer evening scene, of pass or lake, or quaint wooden village, or inspiring some jolly German part-song, or when wrought into such an exquisite tissue as Signor Rossini's 'Guil-laume Tell.'
These mountain tunes have been more largely |
||