DOCSLIB.ORG

Digitalconcerts

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Digitalconcerts DIGITAL CONCERTS BEETHOVEN: 250 YEARS YOUNG This concert was filmed at CBSO Centre, Birmingham on Friday 4 December 2020 Beethoven String Quintet in C, Op.29, ‘The Storm’ 35’ Widmann 180 Beats per minute 6’ Beethoven Sextet in E flat for two horns and strings, Op.81b 17’ Happy birthday, Ludwig van B! Yes, today’s the day, and as Beethoven hits the big 2-5-0 he’s as lively, as irreverent, as challenging and OUR CAMPAIGN FOR MUSICAL (of course) as passionate as ever. But don’t picture a grey-haired maestro with a fearsome frown: today we celebrate the young genius LIFE IN THE WEST MIDLANDS – wild-eyed, tousle-haired, and creating music to delight, astonish Your support of the CBSO’s The Sound of the and entertain. Handpicked teams of CBSO players perform two of his Future campaign will raise £12.5m over five joyous early chamber works – a playful, rarely-heard sextet, and his years to: sweeping Romantic landscape of a string quintet. Plus a real little Accelerate our recovery from the zinger by Jörg Widmann – a good friend of the CBSO and a composer Covid-19 crisis so that we can get back to who’s definitely on Beethoven’s wavelength. Come and join the enriching people’s lives through music as party: this is going to be fun! quickly as possible Renew the way we work for our second This concert is available to view online only from 6pm on century, opening up the power of music to an even broader cross-section Thursday 17 December until Friday 15 January 2021 of society whilst securing our tradition of artistic excellence. The CBSO’s digital work has been made possible thanks to generous support from Support your CBSO at cbso.co.uk/donate David and Sandra Burbidge, Jamie and Alison Justham, Chris and Jane Loughran, John Osborn, and Arts Council England’s Culture Recovery Fund. facebook.com/thecbso twitter.com/thecbso instagram.com/thecbso Supported by Supported by 1 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) But listen to the flowing, expansive opening bars of the Quintet Op.29 and there can be little doubt that Mozart (not for the first time String Quintet in C, Op.29, in Beethoven’s career) was a potent inspiration – his C major Quintet ‘The Storm’ K.515 (1787) begins by creating the same sense of breadth and limitless scale. And there’s no mistaking the spirit of freedom and Allegro moderato play as Beethoven explores what he can do with his top and bottom Adagio molto espressivo instruments once they’ve been liberated by that second viola. The first violin enters, chirruping like a bird (or, if you prefer, winking like Scherzo (Allegro) a soubrette) high above the unfolding musical landscape, before Presto getting down to vigorous and high-spirited business. Musical evenings at the house of Count Moritz von Fries in The Adagio unfurls its sensuous, lyrical melody over a gentle Vienna could be lively affairs. At one such occasion in May 1800, cello pizzicato: if Beethoven was cribbing from Mozart, there the visiting piano virtuoso Daniel Steibelt sat yawning through can be little doubt that when Schubert wrote the corresponding Beethoven’s new clarinet trio Op.11, before, a week later, movement of his own C major Quintet in 1828, he was thinking ostentatiously improvising a set of flashy variations on one of of Beethoven. The Scherzo almost seems float, before the first Beethoven’s melodies. Beethoven, furious, grabbed the cello part viola takes the lead in a lilting central trio section. But in the finale: of Steibelt’s own quintet, barged his way to the keyboard and, what’s happening? Beethoven unleashes a driving tremolando placing Steibelt’s music upside down on the desk, launched into rainstorm, with violin and cello whirling like leaves caught in a his own thunderous improvisation. Steibelt stormed out. summer squall (in German-speaking countries, the Quintet is even nicknamed The Storm). Beethoven, however, felt no enmity towards Count von Fries, who was a skilled amateur violinist and something of a fan. In And then, just as Beethoven starts to flex his muscles, there’s a September 1801 Beethoven dedicated his Spring sonata to sudden halt, a change of speed, and he’s suddenly exchanging Fries. And around the same time, he also wrote a string quintet, formal courtesies in a stately (if suspiciously irreverent) mock- dedicated to the Count and allocated to him, for his exclusive baroque manner. It’s pure comic opera. A joke at the expense of private enjoyment, for a period of six months – after which his salon rivals (Steibelt reportedly liked to dress up classical cliches Beethoven had arranged to have it published by Breitkopf and with flashy, pseudo-romantic devices such as tremolando)? Or Härtel of Leipzig. At the age of 31, Beethoven was a shrewd is this a glimpse of Beethoven, amongst friends and in a playful businessman: he knew exactly what sort of chamber music was mood, getting as close as he ever did to Mozart’s ideal of chamber popular, and what would sell. music that was lyrical, playful and unashamedly dramatic – in short, a kind of opera without words? Unfortunately, the Count doesn’t seem to have been quite so canny. At some point during his six-month stewardship of the Programme note © Richard Bratby quintet, the publisher Artaria of Vienna obtained the Count’s copy and released an unauthorised edition. Beethoven hit the roof: a letter to Breitkopf in November 1802 hints at his outrage: When I was away in the country for the good of my health, the arch-swindler Artaria begged for the Quintet from Count Fries, claiming that it was already in print here, and that they merely wished to delight the public. Poor Count Fries fell for it, never suspecting any foul play…the whole matter is the greatest fraud in the world. Clearly, the Quintet was a property worth fighting for. And yet Beethoven never wrote another: this was to remain his only full- scale, wholly original work for the combination of instruments – string quartet plus a second viola – for which Mozart wrote some of his most personal chamber music. Mozart found that the Quintet form allowed him to open out the musical texture – to sing, and to express emotion in its own space. Beethoven was on a very different creative path. 2 Jörg Widmann (1809-47) a thorough rummage around his famously chaotic apartment. “Sextet of mine” he scribbled on the manuscript first horn part. 180 Beats per minute “God knows where the rest of it is”. 180 Beats per minute was composed in 1993 shortly after I Yet there’s no better illustration of Beethoven’s position at the had left school. My inspiration for this piece was the then highly turning-point of two musical eras than this exuberant Sextet popular, fast “techno beats”. A rhythmic drive and permanent for a pair of horns and a string quartet. The 19th century called change of pulse whizzes past at maximum speed (180 beats this piece a Sextet, labeling it forever as chamber music (with all per minute). The structure becomes condensed into a study its domestic connotations). In form and spirit, however, this is on a one single chord which in principle is varied throughout outdoor music – as close as Beethoven ever got to the classical the entire piece while remaining constant from the aspect of its Divertimento à la Mozart. Try to imagine those two horns in full tonal material. Ultimately, the music fuses into a six-voice canon, cry in an elegant Viennese drawing room! But then again, it’s hard wandering through all instruments from the first violin to the third to imagine horn playing as virtuosic and flamboyant as this being cello and oscillating between a major and minor third. The work relegated to background music – or the average Viennese street makes no claims to be more than the sum of its parts – the sheer band having players of the necessary calibre. enjoyment of rhythm. No, this Sextet is yet another example (like the String Trio Op.3 Programme note © Jörg Widmann and the Piano and Wind Quintet Op.16) of Beethoven’s youthful creative energy and love of Mozart looking for a form and not quite finding it. If there’s any direct model for the Sextet, it’s surely Mozart’s horn concertos (particularly in the galloping finale). But having decided to write something for the horn-playing Bonn publisher Nicolaus Simrock (a boyhood acquaintance) Beethoven went one better, and composed what’s effectively a double Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) horn concerto, with horn parts even more tongue-twisting than anything in Mozart’s chamber music – and then tried to make the Sextet in E flat for two horns and whole thing a chamber work. strings, Op.81b No wonder the older Beethoven was so relaxed about the Sextet’s Allegro con brio fate. Commentators often write of Beethoven’s early music “straining the bounds of classical form”, and while that’s not really Adagio true here – the Sextet’s three short movements are deftly and Rondo: Allegro stylishly proportioned – it’s definitely the case that the Sextet Beethoven didn’t think much of this piece – in fact, he didn’t even requires some seriously good players. The result gives us a spirited think very much about it. Take its opus number. Chronologically, and entertaining portrait of a young composer paying his dues, it seems to place the Sextet at the peak of Beethoven’s “second and gives horn players then and now an irresistible work-out.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Ludwig Van Beethoven Hdt What? Index
    LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN HDT WHAT? INDEX LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 1756 December 8, Wednesday: The Emperor’s son Maximilian Franz, the Archduke who in 1784 would become the patron of the young Ludwig van Beethoven, was born on the Emperor’s own birthday. Christoph Willibald Gluck’s dramma per musica Il rè pastore to words of Metastasio was being performed for the initial time, in the Burgtheater, Vienna, in celebration of the Emperor’s birthday. ONE COULD BE ELSEWHERE, AS ELSEWHERE DOES EXIST. ONE CANNOT BE ELSEWHEN SINCE ELSEWHEN DOES NOT. Ludwig van Beethoven “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 1770 December 16, Sunday: This is the day on which we presume that Ludwig van Beethoven was born.1 December 17, Monday: Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized at the Parish of St. Remigius in Bonn, Germany, the 2d and eldest surviving of 7 children born to Johann van Beethoven, tenor and music teacher, and Maria Magdalena Keverich (widow of M. Leym), daughter of the chief kitchen overseer for the Elector of Trier. Given the practices of the day, it is presumed that the infant had been born on the previous day. NEVER READ AHEAD! TO APPRECIATE DECEMBER 17TH, 1770 AT ALL ONE MUST APPRECIATE IT AS A TODAY (THE FOLLOWING DAY, TOMORROW, IS BUT A PORTION OF THE UNREALIZED FUTURE AND IFFY AT BEST). 1. Q: How come Austrians have the rep of being so smart? A: They’ve managed somehow to create the impression that Beethoven, born in Germany, was Austrian, while Hitler, born in Austria, was German! HDT WHAT? INDEX LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 1778 March 26, Thursday: In the Academy Room on the Sternengasse of Cologne, Ludwig van Beethoven appeared in concert for the initial time, with his father and another child-student of his father.
    [Show full text]
  • Immersive Experiences I Monday, July 27, 2020 Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater Lecture by James Keller 11Am Concert 12Pm Post Concert
    IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES I MONDAY, JULY 27, 2020 GERALD R. FORD AMPHITHEATER LECTURE BY JAMES KELLER 11AM CONCERT 12PM POST CONCERT TALK WITH JAMES KELLER Ida Kavafian, violin Anne-Marie McDermott, piano BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major, Op. 12, No. 1 (22 minutes) Allegro con brio Theme and Variations: Andante con moto Rondo: Allegro BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 12, No. 2 (19 minutes) Allegro vivace Andante, più tosto Allegretto Allegro piacevole Intermission BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Op. 23 (16 minutes) Presto Andante scherzoso, più Allegretto Allegro molto BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 12, No. 3 (21 minutes) Allegro con spirito Adagio con molto espressione Rondo: Allegro molt Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major, Op. 12, No. 1 (1798) Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 12, No. 2 (1798) Violin Sonata No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 12, No. 3 (1798) Beethoven took some care during his first years after arriving in Vienna from his native Bonn in November 1792 to present himself as a composer in the day’s more fashionable genres, one of which was the sonata for piano and violin. The Op. 12 Sonatas of 1798 are products of Beethoven’s own practical experience as both pianist and violinist, an instrument he had learned while still in Bonn and on which he took lessons shortly after settling in Vienna. An abundance of themes shared by the participants opens the D major Sonata: a heroic unison motive; quietly flowing scales in the piano supporting a striding phrase in the violin; and several related ideas in quicker rhythms.
    [Show full text]
  • Symphony Hall, Boston Huntington and Massachusetts Avenues
    . SYMPHONY HALL, BOSTON HUNTINGTON AND MASSACHUSETTS AVENUES Branch Exchange Telephones, Ticket and Administration Offices, Back Bay 1492 PIERRE MONTEUX, Conduuctor FORTY-THIRD SEASON, 1923-1924 roEramm^ WITH HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY PHILIP HALE n COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, INC. -rr——-T^^nr- T'- THE OFFICERS AND TRUSTEES OF THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc^. FREDERICK P. CABOT • P/esident GALEN L. STONE Vice-President ERNEST B. DAI$E Treasurer ALFRED L. Alt ARTHUR LYMAN , .\i / FREDERICK P. CA lOT HENRY E. SAWYER ^x v, / ERNEST B. DANE GALEN L. STONE / ^ M. A. DE WOLFE HOWE BENTLEY W. WARREN JOHN ELLERTON LODGE E. SOHIER WELCH W. H. BRENNAN, Manager G. E. JUDD, Assistant Manager MUSIC is an essential of every well-regulated home. It is a factor of vital importance in the education of the children, an unending source of inspiration and recreation for the growing generation, a refining, cultivat- ing influence touching every member of the family. It is the common speech that is understood by all, that appeals to everybody, that enlists the sympathies of man, woman and child, of high and low, of young and old in every walk of life. The PIANO is the universal musical instrument of the home, the instrument that should be in every house- hold. And the greatest among pianos is the STEINWAY^ prized and cherished throughout the wide world by all lovers of good music. Or, in the words of a well-known American writer: "Wherever human hearts are sad or glad, and songs are sung, and strings vibrate, and keys respond to love's caress, there is known, respected, revered — loved — the name and fame of STEINWAY." :*;.'*•' : .
    [Show full text]
  • November 13Th – Veterans'
    The Medina Community Band Marcus Neiman, conductor John Connors, associate conductor & Matthew Hastings, assistant conductor Lu Ann Gresh, Marcia Kline, and Lorna Lindsley, trumpet trio Veterans Day Concert Monday Evening, November 13th, 2019 Saint Francis Xavier Church – Medina Ohio 7:00 p.m. Prelude, Allegretto from Symphony No. 7 in a minor, Op 92 (1812/2011) .................................. Ludwig von Beethoven John Philip Sousa Robert Longfield Anthem, Star Spangled Banner (1889/1917) .......................................................................................... Francis Scott Key John Philip Sousa March, March of the Resistance (from Star Wars the Force Awakens) (2015/2015) ................................. John Williams Paul Lavender Selection, Hymn to the Fallen (from Saving Private Ryan) (1998) .............................................................. John Williams Paul Lavender John Connors, conducting March, Captain America (2011) .................................................................................................................... Alan Silvestri Michael Brown Matthew Hastings, conducting Trumpet Trio, Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree (1941/2019) ............................................................................. Les Brown David Seiberling Lu Ann Gresh, Marcia Kline, and Lorna Lindsley, trumpet soloists March, Eagle Squadron (1942) ............................................................................................................... Kenneth J. Alford Folksong, Shenandoah (1883/1999)
    [Show full text]
  • 1. Title Page
    MUSIC IN PUBLIC LIFE: VIENNESE REPORTS FROM THE ALLGEMEINE MUSIKALISCHE ZEITUNG, 1798-1804 A dissertation submitted to the College of the Arts of Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Carol Padgham Albrecht May 2008 Dissertation by Carol Padgham Albrecht B.A., North Texas State University, 1974 M.M., North Texas State University, 1980 Ph.D., Kent State University, 2008 Approved by _______________________________ , Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee _______________________________ , Members, Doctoral Dissertation Committee _______________________________ , _______________________________ , _______________________________ , Accepted by _______________________________ , Director, Hugh A. Glauser School of Music _______________________________ , Dean, College of the Arts ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page APPROVAL PAGE . ii TABLE OF CONTENTS . iii PREFACE . iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . xiv CHAPTER I. VOLUME I: OCTOBER 3, 1798-SEPTEMBER 25, 1799 . 1 II. VOLUME II: OCTOBER 1, 1799-SEPTEMBER 24, 1800 . 28 III. VOLUME III: OCTOBER 1, 1800-SEPTEMBER 23, 1801 . 41 IV. VOLUME IV: OCTOBER 1, 1801–SEPTEMBER 22, 1802 . 103 V. VOLUME V: OCTOBER 1, 1802-SEPTEMBER 21, 1803 . 116 VI. VOLUME VI: OCTOBER 1, 1803-SEPTEMBER 26, 1804 . 170 APPENDIXES A. VIENNA HOFTHEATER SALARY LISTINGS, COMBINED CASTS . 231 B. GERMAN OPERAS GIVEN IN THE COURT THEATER, 1798-1800 . 233 C. ITALIAN OPERAS GIVEN IN THE COURT THEATER, 1798-1800 . 234 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 236 iii PREFACE The Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (General
    [Show full text]
  • BEETHOVEN TRIO FESTIVAL February 25 – 28, 2016
    BEETHOVEN TRIO FESTIVAL february 25 – 28, 2016 national gallery of art Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks, and invents. — Ludwig van Beethoven 2 • National Gallery of Art WELCOME Beethoven Trio Festival Sponsored by the Billy Rose Foundation Why do we love Beethoven? Maybe you took piano lessons and played Für Elise at your first spring recital — or maybe you grew up hearing Schroeder from Peanuts playing it. Certainly everyone can hum the Moonlight Sonata; many have discoed to Walter Murphy’s “A Fifth of Beethoven,” sung “Ode to Joy” in school choir, or watched the 1994 movie Immortal Beloved. Beethoven has been a part of our culture — popular and otherwise — whether or not we were aware of it. What set Beethoven apart from those who came before and after him is the bridge he spanned between the old and the new, and the boundaries he pushed to get there. He is canonized for his revolutionary approach and his devil-may-care attitude towards the establishment. Beethoven’s nine symphonies transformed the universe of orchestral composition as it was known in the late eighteenth century and paved the way for composers such as Brahms and Mahler. Similarly, his sixteen string quartets and thirty-two piano sonatas remain unrivaled in their respective genres. In past years, the National Gallery’s concert series has featured Beethoven’s complete string quartets over a period of six months, the complete piano sonatas performed by pianist Till Fellner, and the complete sonatas for cello and piano.
    [Show full text]
  • 2020 Samf Program Notes
    www.SAMFestival.org •• A VIRTUAL CELEBRATION OF WORLD-CLASS MUSIC•• “REVISITING TIMELESS CLASSICS” Thursday, June 18, 2020 Felix Mendelssohn, (1809-1847) was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic peri- od. He was a child prodigy who performed publicly beginning at nine years old. Mendelssohn’s compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano and chamber music. His best-known works include his overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Italian symphony and oratorio Elijah; he also wrote the melody for Hark, The Herald Angels Sing. He studied classical literature and at only sixteen he published his own translation of a Roman comedy (Andria) into German. Mendelssohn wrote twelve string symphonies when he was between 12 and 14 years old. They were tributes to early Classical symphonies by Joseph Haydn, Johann Christian Bach, Carl Philip Emanuel Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mo- zart. He respected and honored older composers more than he did modern radicals like, Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Hector Berlioz. He founded the Leipzig Conservatory in attempt to gain artistic renown for the town and to honor the great past masters. In 1822, at 13, Mendelssohn wrote his String Symphony No. 8 in D major, it is a four-movement symphony originally written for strings alone, later the winds were added. The work is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani in D and A, and strings. Frédéric François Chopin (1810-1849) was only 39 when he died. He was a Polish composer, a child prodigy and virtu- oso pianist of the Romantic era who wrote primarily for solo piano.
    [Show full text]
  • Ludwig Van Beethoven
    Ludwig van Beethoven Seventh Symphony Op. 92 for two oboes, two clarinets, two horns, two bassons and double basson edited in Vienna - 1816 Pierluigi Destro Between February and May, 1814, Ludwig van Beethoven composed the third version of Fidelio op. 72b, with the help of librettist Georg Friedrich Treitschke for the poetic text; the first performance took place on May 23rd, 1815 at the Kanter-Thortheater in Vienna, and Viennese Artaria Editions were the first to publish a transcription for voice and piano in 1814, followed, in 1816, by the Parisian editor Farrenc, who published the score with a French version of the text. On January 27th, 1815, the newspaper Wiener Zeitung reported the publication of Fidelio 1 transcribed for two oboes, two clarinets, two horns, two bassoons and a double bassoon; this version had been specifically commissioned to clarinettist-composer Wenzel Sedlak by Artaria 2. Transcriptions of instrumental works for wind ensemble were very fashionable at the time, and were conceived with a view to publicity and profit; therefore, such transcriptions were often more famous than the originals themselves, which fact is proven by the great number of extant original manuscripts and first editions in archives and libraries throughout Europe 3. W. Sedlak was born on August 4th, 1776 in Jesborzitz (Bohemia); from 1805 he served Principe Auesperger as clarinettist; in 1808 he was Prince Liechtenstein’s Harmonie Kapellmeister at Felsperger in Moravia; starting in 1821 he collaborated with the first Wind quintet in Vienna; he died, probably in Vienna, on November 20th, 1851. It is thought that Sedlak succeeded oboist-composer Joseph Triebensee (Wittingau, 1772 - Prague, 1846), who had served Liechtenstein until 1809 and had composed some notable works for wind ensemble (two oboes, two clarinets, two horns, two bassoons), among which the transcriptions of two operas by W.
    [Show full text]
  • Into the Open« Beethoven·S Chamber Music with Piano
    Into the open… Beethoven’s chamber music with piano Success in Vienna – the piano trios op. 1 With the help of written recommendations from Bonn and assisted by his teachers, Beethoven had quickly succeeded in being accepted into Viennese music circles. He made himself a name as a piano virtuoso and was acclaimed as a exceptionally gifted improviser. With his self- confidence thus boosted he ventured to have the first of his works which he considered worthy of being given an opus number printed in Vienna: the three piano trios op.1. The way in which these first substantial works were published was unusual. According to the terms of the contract the composer paid the music publishing house Artaria 212 guilders for printing the trios. In return the publishers undertook to provide Beethoven with 400 copies for 400 guilders and to buy back the printing plates for 90 guilders. Beethoven secured for two months the sole rights of sale for Vienna at 1 ducat (4½ guilders) per copy. Only then were the publishers allowed to sell the work on their own account. Beethoven issued an invitation to the public in the “Wiener Zeitung” newspaper for advance orders – and with success, as can be seen from the list of subscribers which precede the notes. 123 persons, (many of them notable personalities) ordered a total of 241 copies and we can assume that Beethoven made a handsome profit. Prince Karl von Lichnowsky (1756-1814) Beethoven dedicated the trios to his most important patron at the time, Prince Karl von Lichnowsky, in whose residence he lived for a period (circa 1793-1795).
    [Show full text]
  • Roma, and Thoreau's “New Rome in the West”
    ROMA, AND THOREAU’S “NEW ROME IN THE WEST” And yet — in fact you need only draw a single thread at any point you choose out of the fabric of life and the run will make a pathway across the whole, and down that wider pathway each of the other threads will become successively visible, one by one. — Heimito von Doderer, DIE DÂIMONEN “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Roma and the “new Rome in the West” HDT WHAT? INDEX ROME ROMA “WALKING”: The West of which I speak is but another name for the Wild; and what I have been preparing to say is, that in Wildness is the preservation of the world. Every tree sends its fibres forth in search of the Wild. The cities import it at any price. Men plow and sail for it. From the forest and wilderness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind. Our ancestors were savages. The story of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf is not a meaningless fable. The founders of every state which has risen to eminence, have drawn their nourishment and vigor from a similar wild source. It is because the children of the empire were not suckled by the wolf that they were conquered and displaced by the children of the northern forests who were. I believe in the forest, and in the meadow, and in the night in which the corn grows. We require an infusion of hemlock spruce or arbor-vitae in our tea.
    [Show full text]