The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-10


they would acquire a new and potent attraction.
AS for the dentists chair, dare not speak with
certainty But as regards music lessons, ven
ture to assert that they would become immense
ly popular, if they could be stealthily INDUCED
in, under circumstances necessitating risk,
and danger, and ingenious receptions OF
course, Catharine Van Tassell would never
have admitted the correctness of this theory;
and she would have Indignantly secuted the
idea that her own pleasure was heightened by
the delightful furtiveness and romantic Sc
crecy of her musical communings with Mr..
Greifenstett. And yet she came on tiptoe,
though there was no earthly necessity for it;
she spoke in whispers, as they do when plotting
murders on the stage, and she touched the piano,
as she sat down. softly, caressingly. and made
brief pianisslmo runs, like little bursts of re-
pressed but irrepressible felicity. Everything
she did and said expressed a keen relish Of the
situation. Greifenstett, in the meanwhile, who
only saw through his ears, sat calmly intent
upon her performance and calmly oblivious Of
herself. If he had been musical automaton,
wound up with keys, he could not have been
more beautifully unconscious of the fact that
Miss Van Tassell was in love with him. He
praised her now occasionally and clapped
his hands softly when she rendered a diff
cult passage with precision and feeling.
But he did not observe that she blushed
even to the tips of her pretty ears when
ever she had earned his approval. He
stopped over her and struck with splendid Sc
curity complex chord, which she had missed.
His beard, for moment, almost grazed her
cheek; her breast seemed too narrow for the
sigh that strove to escape, but he raised himself
again without the faintest acceleration of his
Teutonic pulses and resumed his measured
promenade on the floor.
''Now, Mr.. Greifenstett," she sad wheeling
about On the piano stool, as the hour was at an
end. Il insist upon your keeping your promise,
l want to hear some portions of your sym
phony."
He paused in front of her, and gazed at her
with strange intentness.
do you mean data" he said solemnly.
Eyes, of course, mean it,"
but you must not be astonished if you don't
understand"
s'You must remember I I'm an American.
There is nothing l cannot understand"
1--WE shall see"
He seated himself on the piano-stool, gazed at
his long white fingers, pushed back his cuffs,
and struck few tentative chords.
II am in tune," he said sending her another
searching gaze. $50 is the piano. and so, be-
lieve, are you. Have you ever tried to realize
in thought the idea of infinite space?' he went
on, letting his hands rest upon his knees ut is
shuddering, sublime, terrific idea. Those
hf1p of ,bah rod o1c,b
which the great globes roll in long, luminous
Spheres but silently, silently, with such faint
resonance as the thin ether is able to carry.
This is what have endeavored to express in the
opening allegro"
He broke into a swift, strange piano move
ment, the theme Of which, recurring with sol
emn monotony suggested realms opening be-
yond realms, shuddering voids disclosing shud
dering voids, vaster and more terrible. Then
there stole an icy suggestion, as Of madness
into the wild, whirling monotony. The spirit,
aspiring to comprehend the incomprehensible,
gradually lost its grasp; all defniteness of con-
ception ceased and the vast, empty chasms of
insanity yawned before the presumptuous soul.
A vague confusion of imagery, dying away grad
ually into sort of faint cosmc wall, closed
the performance. For long while
not a word was uttered. Catharine
sat with half-closed eyes; now and then shud-
der ran through her frame. Max was scribbling
away with great ra pidity on the back of
music sheet; he had got an idea which he was
jotting down while it was yet throbbing with
warm vitality.
1.-The allegro is the universal void, he said,
finging the sheet triumphantly on the piano.
II think shall call it DE Concourse of de Infin-
tiles Now comes de andante, DE Song of New.
born Planets Here is fiery nebula flung
forth from the sun, straying yet ia erratic
ellipses through space. Then comes de slow
cooling and de birth of land, and water, and air
Den l hat borrowed from de Bible de spirit of
God lowering over de waters. For, of course,
de spirit of God was dere and has been dere
ever since And as musical motif, how glori-
Gus is dat spirit of God All! it is sublime-de
spirit of God lowering over de steaming new
born waters"
He flung back his head with impulsive enthu-
siasm, gazed toward the ceiling with look of de-
vout rapture, and struck two great elemental
chords, which vibrated through the room like or
gan tones There was a sublime serenity and
exhaustless energy slowly unfolding itself in
chords, solemnly dissolved, and their elements
recombining with greater complexity into more
elaborate harmonies. This fundamental thought
of creative evolution was most nobly repeated
and varied by the same device. through changing
keys and bold transitions. There was, amid the
peaceful solemnity, lovely smiling repose, ex-
pressing the slow organic unfolding of tremen-
dous forces.
He played on for a good while. like Lowell's
"musing organist," ''that buildsa bridge from
Dreamland for his lay" His face expressed
complete abandonment to the creative delight.
He rocked to and fro, occasionally shook his
head in repressed ecstasy, chuckled, gave vent
to expressive German interjections and heaved
great signs, as if taking deep draughts of hap
piness. Then suddenly he sprang up, looked at