National, Patriotic And Typical Airs Of All Lands

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 edition. Excerpt: ...heart, his poetry, and his music. They executed the first of his ideas hardly developed, confidantes of the earliest flights of his genius. It was in the winter of 1792, and there was a scarcity in Strasburg. The house of Dietrick was poor, and the table humble; but there was always a welcome for Rouget de Lisle. This young officer was there from morning to night, like a son or brother of the family. One day, when there was only some coarse bread and slices of ham on the table, Dietrick, looking with calm sadness at De Lisle, said to him, " Plenty is not seen at our feasts; but what matter if enthusiasm is not wanting at our civic Rtes, and courage in our soldiers' hearts. I have still a bottle of wiue left in my cellar. Bring it," be added, addressing one of his daughters," and we will drink to liberty and our country. Strasburg is shortly to have a patriotic ceremony, and De Lisle must be Inspired by these last drops to produce one of those hymns which convey to the soul of the people the enthusiasm which suggested it." The young girls applauded, fetched the wine, filled the glasses of their old father and the young officer until the wine was exhausted. It was midnight, and very cold. De Lisle was a dreamer: his heart was moved, his head was heated. The cold seized on him, and he went staggering to his lonely chamber, endeavoring, by degrees, to find Inspiration in tbe palpitations of his citizen heart; and on his small clavicord, now composing the air before the words, and now the words before the air, combined them so intimately in his mind, that he could never tell which was first produced, the air or the words, so impossible did he find it to separate the poetry from the music, and the feeling from the impression. He...