The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
History
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
Two other lateral compartments, filled with pipes, and still more
suggestive of the harp in their form, lead to the square lateral towers.
Over these compartments, close to the round tower, sits on each side a
harper, a man on the right, a woman on the left, with their harps, all
apparently of natural size. The square towers, holding pipes in their
open interior, are lower than the round towers, and fall somewhat back
from the front. Below, three colossal _hermae_ of Sibyl-like women
perform for them the office which the giants and the lion-shapes perform
for the round towers. The four pillars which rise from the base are
square, and the dome which surmounts them is square also. Above the dome
is a vase-like support, upon which are disposed figures of the lyre and
other musical symbols.
The whole base of the instrument, in the intervals of the figures
described, is covered with elaborate carvings. Groups of musical
instruments, standing out almost detached from the background, occupy
the panels. Ancient and modern, clustered with careless grace and quaint
variety, from the violin down to a string of sleigh-bells, they call up
all the echoes of forgotten music, such as the thousand-tongued organ
blends together in one grand harmony.
The instrument is placed upon a low platform, the outlines of which are
in accordance with its own. Its whole height is about sixty feet, its
breadth forty-eight feet, and its average depth twenty-four feet. Some
idea of its magnitude may be got from the fact that the wind-machinery
and the swell-organ alone fill up the whole recess occupied by the
former organ, which was not a small one. All the other portions of the
great instrument come forward into the hall.
In front of its centre stands Crawford's noble bronze statue of
Beethoven, the gift of our townsman, Mr. Charles C. Perkins. It might be
suggested that so fine a work of Art should have a platform wholly to
itself; but the eye soon reconciles itself to the position of the
statue, and the tremulous atmosphere which surrounds the vibrating organ
is that which the almost breathing figure would seem to delight in, as
our imagination invests it with momentary consciousness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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