American wit and humor; Newspapers -- Sections, columns, etc. -- Excerpts
At the close of the lecture Miss Ellenborough gave us a surprise in the
way of raised doughnuts made in the form of a G clef. Mrs.
Gottem-Allbeat poured.
III.
There was an ominous flash in Dr. Dubbe's eye when he arose to address
the class. "We have this week," he began, "a program barbarous enough to
suit the lovers of ultra-modern music. There is Saint-Saëns' overture,
'Les Barbares,' to begin with. This is as barbaric as a Frenchman can
get, and is interesting chiefly as a study of how not to use the
trumpets. But for sheer barbarity commend me to Hausegger's
'Barbarossa.' Here we find the apotheosis of modern exaggeration.
Hausegger strove to make up for inimportant themes by a profuse use of
instruments. Only one theme, which occurs in the third movement, is of
any account, and that is an imitation of an old German chorale. In this
most monotonously muted of tone-poems the composer forgot to mute one
instrument--his pen."
"My! but Dr. Dubbe is knocking to-day," whispered Miss Sara Band.
"The thing is in C major and opens with a C major chord," continued Dr.
Dubbe. "That is the end of the C major; it never returns to that key.
This is modern music. Take the third movement. It opens with a
screeching barbershop chord. A little later ensues a prize fight
between two themes, which continues until one of them is knocked out. In
this edifying composition, also, snare drum sticks are used on the
kettle drums. More modern music. Bah!"
I have never seen Dr. Dubbe so irritated.
"Let us turn to something more cheerful," resumed Dr. Dubbe; and seating
himself at the piano he played the Schubert C minor impromptu. "On the
second page," he said, "where the key becomes A flat major, occurs a
harmony which looks and sounds like a foreign chord. Treated
harmonically it is a second dominant formation, and should read C flat,
D natural, A flat, diminished seventh of the key of the dominant.
Schubert does not, however, use it harmonically, otherwise the B natural
would read C flat. These notes are enharmonic because, though different,
they sound the same."
"How clear!" exclaimed Miss Gay Votte.
"But Schubert, instead of progressing harmonically, goes directly back
into the tonic of A flat major."
"How careless of him!" said Mrs. Givu A. Payne.
"Schubert uses it in its natural position. If the enharmonic C flat were
used the chord would then be in its third inversion. Each diminished
seventh harmony may resolve in sixteen different ways."
"Mercy!" murmured Mrs. Fuller-Prunes. "How much there is to know."
Dr. Dubbe passed his hand across his brow as if wearied. "I shall never
cease to regret," he said, "that Schubert did not write C flat. It would
have been so much clearer."
After the lecture Miss Ellenborough gave us another surprise--doughnuts
made in the shape of flats. Dr. Dubbe ate five, saying that D flat major
was his favorite key.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account