Part one of the Cremona violin in Weird Tales, Volume 1 by E.T. A. Hoffman, translated by J.T. Billby. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recording by Thomas Copeland. Weird Tales, Volume 1 by E.T. A. Hoffman, translated by J.T. Billby, Part 1 of the Cremona violin. Councilor Crespo was one of the strangest, oddest men I ever met within my life. When I went to live in H. Blank for a time, the whole town was full of talk about him, as he happened to be just then in the midst of one of the very craziest of his schemes. Crespo had the reputation of being both a clever, learned lawyer and a skillful diplomatist. One of the reigning princes of Germany, not however one of the most powerful, had appealed to him for assistance in drawing up a memorial, which he was desirous of presenting at the Imperial Court, with the view of furthering his legitimate claims upon a certain strip of territory. The project was crowned with the happiest success, and as Crespo had once complained that he could never find a dwelling sufficiently comfortable to suit him, the prince, to reward him for the memorial, undertook to defray the cost of building a house, which Crespo might erect just as he pleased. Moreover, the prince was willing to purchase any site that he should fancy. This offer, however, the counselor would not accept. He insisted that the house should be built in his garden, situated in a very beautiful neighborhood outside the town walls. So he bought all kinds of materials and had them carted out. Then he might have been seen day after day attired in his curious garments, which he had made himself, according to certain fixed rules of his own, slacking the lime, riddling the sand, packing up the bricks and stones in regular heaps, and so on. All this he did without once consulting an architect or thinking about a plan. One fine day, however, he went to an experienced builder of the town and requested him to be in his garden at daybreak the next morning, with all his journeymen and apprentices, and a large body of laborers, etc., to build him his house. Naturally, the builder asked for the architect's plan and was not a little astonished when Crespo replied that none was needed and that things would turn out all right in the end just as he wanted them. Next morning, when the builder and his men came to the place, they found a trench drawn out in the shape of an exact square, and Crespo said, Here's where you must lay the foundations. Then carry up the walls until I say they are high enough. Without windows and doors and without partitioned walls, broken the builder, as if alarmed at Crespo's nat folly, Do what I tell you, my dear sir," replied the counselor, quite calmly, Leave the rest to me, it will be all right. It was only the promise of high pay that could induce the builder to proceed with the ridiculous building, but none has ever been erected under various circumstances. As there was an abundant supply of food and drink, the workmen never left their work and amidst their continuous laughter the four walls were run up with incredible quickness until one day Crespo quite stopped. Then the workmen, laying down the trowel and hammer, came down from the scaffoldings and gathered round Crespo in a circle whilst every laughing face was asking, Well, what now? Make way, quite Crespo, and then running to one end of the garden he strode slowly towards the square of Brickworth. When he came close to the wall, he shook his head in a dissatisfied manner, ran to the other end of the garden, again strode slowly towards the Brickworth square and proceeded to act as before. These tactics he pursued several times until at length running his sharp nose hard against the wall he cried, Come here, come here men, break me a door in here, here's where I want a doormate. He gave the exact dimensions in feet and inches and they did as he bid them. Then he stepped inside the structure and smiled with satisfaction as the builder remarked that the walls were just the height of a good two-storied house. Crespo walked thoughtfully backwards and forwards across the space within, the bricklayers behind him with hammers and picks, and wherever he cried, make a window here six feet high by four feet broad, there a little window, three feet by a two, a hole was made in a trice. It was at this stage of the proceedings that I came to age-blank and it was amusing to see how hundreds of people stood round about the garden and raised a loud shout whenever the stones flew out in a new window appeared where nobody had for a moment expected it. And in the same manner Crespo proceeded with the buildings and fittings of the rest of the house and with all the work necessary to that end. Everything had to be done on the spot in accordance with the instructions which the counselor gave from time to time. However, the absurdity of the whole business, the growing conviction that things would in the end turn out better than might have been expected, but above all Crespo's generosity, which indeed cost him nothing, kept them all in good humor. Thus were the difficulties overcome, which necessarily arose out of this eccentric way of building and in a short time there was a completely finished house, its outside indeed presenting a most extraordinary appearance, no two windows, etc., being white, but on the other hand the interior arrangement suggested a peculiar feeling of comfort. All who entered the house bore witness to the truth of this, and I too experienced it myself when I was taken in by Crespo after I had become more intimate with him. For hither too I had not exchanged a word with this eccentric man. His building had occupied him so much that he had not even once been to Professor M. Blanks to dinner, as he was in the habit of going on Tuesdays. Indeed, in reply to a special invitation, he sent word that he should not set foot over the threshold before the housewarming of his new building took place. All his friends and acquaintances therefore confidently looked forward to a great banquet, but Crespo invited nobody except the masters, journeymen, apprentices and laborers who had built the house. He entertained them with the choicest vials. Bricklayers, apprentices devoured partridge pies regardless of consequences. Young joiners polished off roast pheasants with the greatest success, whilst hungry laborers helped themselves for once to the choicest morsels of Tuf-Fricasse. In the evening their wives and daughters came and there was a great ball. After waltzing a short while with the wives of the masters, Crespo sat down amongst the town musicians, took a violin in his hand and directed the orchestra until daylight. On the Tuesday after this festival, which exhibited Councilor Crespo in the character of a friend of the people, I at length saw him appear, to my no little joy, at Professor M. Blanks. Anything more strange and fantastic than Crespo's behaviour, it would be impossible to find. He was so stiff and awkward in his movements that he looked every moment as if he would run up against something or do some damage. But he did not, and the lady of the house seemed to be well aware that he would not, for she did not go a shade paler when he rushed with heavy steps round a table crowded with beautiful cups, or when he manoeuvred near a large mirror that reached down to the floor, or even when he seized a flower pot of beautifully painted porcelain and swung it round in the air as if desirous of making its colours play. Moreover, before dinner, he subjected everything in the professor's room to a most minute examination. He also joked down a picture from the wall and hung it up again, standing on one of the cushioned chairs to do so. At the same time, he talked a good deal, and vehemently. At one time, his thoughts kept leaping as it were from one subject to another. This was most conspicuous during dinner. At another, he was unable to have done with an idea. Seizing upon it again and again, he gave it all sorts of wonderful twists and turns and couldn't get back into the ordinary track until something else took hold of his fancy. Sometimes his voice was rough and harsh and screeching, and sometimes it was low and drawing and singing. But at no time did it harmonise with what he was talking about. Music was the subject to conversation. The praises of a new composer were being sung when Cressful, smiling, said in his low singing tones, I wish that devil with his pitchfork would hurl that atrocious garble of music millions of fathoms down to the bottomless pit of hell. Then he burst out passionately and wildly, she is an angel of heaven, nothing but pure God-given music, the paragon and queen of song, and tear stood in his eyes. To understand this, we had to go back to a celebrated aftiste who had been the subject of conversation an hour before. Just at this time, a roast hare was on the table. I noticed that Cressful carefully removed every particle of meat from the bones on his plate and was most particular in his inquiries after the hare's feet. These, the professor's little five-year-old daughter, now brought to him with a very pretty smile. Besides, the children had cast many friendly glances towards Cressful during dinner. Now, they rose and drew nearer to him, but not without signs of timours all. What's the meaning of that? Thought I to myself. Dessert was brought in. Then the counselor took a little box in his pocket in which he had a miniature lathe of steel. He immediately screwed fast to the table and, turning the bones with incredible skill and rapidity, he made all sorts of little fancy boxes and balls, which the children received with prize of delight. Just as we were rising from the table, the professor's niece asked, and what is our Antonia doing? Cressful's face was like that of one who has bitten of a sour orange and wants to look as if it were a sweet one. This expression soon changed into the likeness of hideous mass, whilst he laughed behind it with downright bitter, fierce, and, as it seemed to me, satanic scorn. Our Antonia! Our dear Antonia! he asked in his drawing disagreeable singing way. The professor hastened to intervene. In the reproving glance which he gave his niece, I read that she had touched a point likely to stir up unpleasant memories in Cressful's heart. How are you getting on with the Robialins? He deposed the professor in a jovial manner, taking the counselor by both hands. Then Cressful's countenance cleared up, and with a firm voice he replied, Capital day professor, you recollect my telling you of the lucky chance which threw that splendid amati into my hands. Note, the amati were a celebrated family of violin makers of the 16th and 17th centuries, belonging to Cremona in Italy. They formed the connecting link between the Greshan school of makers and the greatest of all makers, Straduarius and Guarnarius. Return to text. Well, I've only cut it open today, not before today. I hope Antonia has carefully taken the rest of it to pieces. Antonia is a good child, remarked the professor. Yes, indeed she is, cried the counselor, whisking himself round, then ceasing his hat and stick, he hastily rushed out of the room. I saw in the mirror how the tears were standing in his eyes. As soon as the counselor was gone, I had once urged the professor to explain to me what Cressful had to do with violins, and particularly with Antonia. Well, replied the professor, not only is the counselor a remarkably eccentric fellow altogether, but he practices violin making in his own crack-brained way. Violin making, I explained perfectly astonished. Yes, continued the professor, according to the judgment of men who understand the thing, Cressful makes the very best violins that can be found nowadays. Formerly, he would frequently let other people play on those in which he had been especially successful, but that's been all over and done with now for a long time. In addition to violin, he plays on it himself for one or two hours with very remarkable power and with the most exquisite expression. Then he hangs it up beside the rest and never touches it again or suffers anybody else to touch it. If a violin by any of the eminent old masters is hunted up anywhere, the counselor buys it immediately, no matter what the price put upon it, but he plays it as he does his own violins only once. Then he takes it to pieces in order to examine closely its inner structure. And should he fancy he hasn't found exactly what he sought for, he in a pet throws the pieces into a big chest, which is already full of the remains of broken violins. But who and what he is Antonia, I inquired hastily antipetuously. Well, now that, continued the professor, that is a thing which might very well make me conceive a little aversion to the counselor, for I am not convinced that there is some peculiar secret behind it, for he is such a good natured fellow at bottom as to be sometimes guilty of weakness. When he came to age blank several years ago, he led the life of an anchor guard along with an old housekeeper in blank street. Soon, by his oddities, he excited the curiosity of his neighbors and immediately he became aware of this he sought and made his acquaintances. Not only in my house, but everywhere, we became so accustomed to him that he grew to be indispensable. In spite of his rude exterior, even the children liked him without ever proving nuisance to him. For notwithstanding all their friendly passages together, they always retained a certain timorous awe of him which secured him against all over familiarity. You have today had an example of which he wins their hearts by his great skill in various things. We all took him at first for a pristine old bachelor and he never contradicted us. After he had been living here some time, he went away, nobody knew where, and returned at the end of some months. The evening following his return, his windows were lit up to an unusual extent. This alone was sufficient to arouse his neighbors' attention and they soon heard the surpassing of a female singing to the accompaniment of a piano. Then the music of a violin was heard chiming in and entering upon a keen ardent contest with the voice. They knew at once that the player was the counselor. I myself mixed in the large crowd which had gathered in front of his house to listen to this extraordinary concert, and I must confess that beside this voice and the peculiar deep soul-stirring impression which the execution made upon me, the singing of the most celebrated artists whom I had ever heard seemed to me feeble and void of expression. Until then I had had no conception of such long sustained notes of such nightingale trills of such undulations of musical sound, of such swelling up to the strength of organ notes, of such dying away to the faintest whisper. There was not one whom sweet witchery did not enthrall, and when the singer ceased nothing but soft sighs broke the impressive silence. Somewhere about midnight the counselor was heard talking violently and another male voice seemed to judge from the tones to be reproaching him, whilst at intervals the broken words of a sobbing girl could be detected. The counselor continued to shout with increasing violence until he fell into that drawing singing way that you know. He was interrupted by a loud scream from the girl and then all was as still as death. Suddenly a loud racket was heard on the stairs. A young man rushed out sobbing threw himself into a post chess which stood below and drove rapidly away. The next day the counselor was very cheerful and nobody had the courage to question him about the events of the previous night. But on inquiring of the housekeeper we gathered that the counselor had brought home with him an extraordinarily pretty young lady whom he called Antonia and she it was who had sung so beautifully. A young man also had come along with them. He had treated Antonia very tenderly and must evidently have been her betrothed. But he, since the counselor peremptorily insisted on it had had to go away in a hurry. What the relations between Antonia and the counselor are has remained until now a secret. But this much is certain that he tyrannizes over the poor girl in the most hateful fashion. He watches her as Dr. Bartolo watches his ward in the Barbara of Seville. She hardly dares show herself at the window and if yielding known then to her earnest entreaties he takes her into society he follows her with arbus eyes and will on no count suffer a musical note resounded far less let Antonia sing. Indeed she is not permitted to sing in his own house. Antonia's singing on that memorable night has therefore come to be regarded by the townspeople in the light of a tradition of some marvelous wonder that suffices to stir the heart and the fancy and even those who did not hear it often exclaim whenever any other singer attempts to display her powers in the place what sort of a wretched squeaking do you call that? Nobody but Antonia knows how to sing. Having a singular weakness for such like fantastic histories I found it necessary as may easily be imagined to make Antonia's acquaintance. I had myself often enough heard the popular sayings about her singing but had never imagined that that exquisite artist was living in the place held a captive in the bonds of this eccentric crespo like the victim of a tyrannous slur. Naturally enough I heard in my dreams on the following night Antonia's marvelous voice and as she besought me in the most touching manner in a glorious adagio movement, a very ridiculously it seemed to me as if I had composed it myself to save her. I soon resolved by the second Astolfo note, a reference to Ariosto's Orlando Furioso Astolfo in English Cousin of Orlando was a great poster but generous, courteous, gay and remarkably handsome he was carried to Alcina's island on the back of a whale. Return to text I soon resolved like a second Astolfo to penetrate into Caspol's house as if into another Alcina's magic castle and deliver the queen of song from her ignominious letters. It all came about in a different way from what I had expected. I had seen the counselor scarcely more than two or three times and eagerly discussed with him the best method of constructing violins when he invited me to call and see him. I did so, and he showed me his treasures of violins. There were fully thirty of them hanging up in a closet, one amongst them bore conspicuously all the marks of great antiquity a cocked lion's head, etc. and hung up higher than the rest and surmounted by a crown of flowers it seemed to exercise a queenly supremacy over them. This violin set Crespo on my making some inquiry relative to it this violin is a very remarkable and curious specimen of the work of some unknown master probably of Tartini's age Note, Giuseppe Tartini born in 1692 died in 1770 was one of the most celebrated violinists of the 18th century and the discoverer in 1714 of resultant tones or Tartini's tones as they are frequently called most of his life was spent at Padua he did much to advance the art of the violinist both by his compositions with that instrument as well as by his treatise on his capabilities returned to text I am perfectly convinced that there is something especially exceptional in its inner construction and that if I took it to pieces a secret would be revealed to me which I have long been seeking to discover but laugh at me if you like this senseless thing which only gives signs of life and sound as I make it often speaks to me in a strange way of itself the first time I played upon it I somehow fancy that I was only the magnetizer who has the power of moving his subject to reveal of his own accord in words the visions of his inner nature don't go away with the belief that I am such a coolest to attach you from the slightest importance to such fantastic notions and yet it's certainly strange that I could never prevail upon myself to cut open that dumb likeless thing there I am very pleased now that I have not cut it open for since Antonia has been with me I sometimes play to her upon this violin or Antonia is fond of it very fond of it as the counsellor uttered these words with visible signs of emotion I felt encouraged to hazard the question will you not play it to me counsellor Crespo made a rye face and falling into his drawing singing way said no my good sir and that was the end of the matter then I had to look at all sorts of rare curiosities the greater part of them childish trifles at last thrusting his arm into a chest he brought out a folded piece of paper which he pressed into my hand adding solemnly you are a lover of art take this present as a priceless memento which you may value at all times above everything else therewith he took me by the shoulders and gently pushed me towards the door embracing me on the threshold that is to say I was in a symbolical manner virtually kicked out of doors unfolding the paper I found a piece of a first string of a violin about an eighth of an inch in length and the words a piece of the treble string with which the deceased Stamets strung his violin for the last concert at which he ever played note Stamets this was the name of a well-known musical family from Carl Stamets is the one here possibly meant since he died about 18 or 20 years previous to the publication of this tale return to text this summary dismissal of mention of Antonia's name led me to infer that I should never see her but I was mistaken for on my second visit to the councillors I found her in his room assisting him to put a violin together at first sight Antonia did not make a strong impression but soon I found it impossible to tear myself away from her blue eyes her sweet rosy lips her uncommonly graceful lovely form she was very pale but a shrewd remark or a Mary Sally would call up a winning smile on her face and suffuse her cheeks with a deep burning flush which however soon faded away to a faint rosy glow my conversation with her was kind and strained and yet I saw nothing whatever of the argus like watching's unpressible part which the professor had imputed to it on the contrary his behaviour moved along the customary lives may he even seem to approve of my conversation with Antonia so I often stepped in to see the councillor and as we became accustomed to each other's society a singular feeling of homeliness taking possession of our little circle of three filled our hearts with inward happiness I still continued to derive exquisite enjoyment from the councillor's strange crotchets and oddities but it was of course Antonia's irresistible charms alone which attracted me and led me to put up with a good deal which I should otherwise in the frame of mind at which I then was have impatiently shunned where it only too often happened that in the councillor's characteristic extravagance there was mingled much that was dull and tiresome and was in a special degree irritating to me that as often as I turned the conversation upon music and particularly upon singing he was sure to interrupt me with that sardonic smile on his face and those repulsive singing tones of his by some remark of a quite opposite tendency very often of a commonplace character from the great distress which at such times Antonia's glances betrayed I perceived that he only did it to deprive me of a pretext for calling upon her for a song but I didn't relinquish my design the hindrances which the councillor threw in my way only strengthened my resolution to overcome them I must hear Antonia sing if I was not to pine away in reveries and dim aspirations for wanted hearing her one evening Crespo was in an uncommonly good humor he had been taking an old criminal violin to pieces and had discovered that the sound post was fixed half a line more obliquely than usual an important discovery one of incalculable advantage in the practical work of making violin I succeeded in setting him off at full speed on his hobby of the true art of violin playing mention of the way in which the old masters picked up their dexterity in execution from really great singers which was what Crespo happened just then to be expatiating upon naturally paved the way for the remark that now the practice was the exact opposite of this the vocal score erroneously following the affected and abrupt transitions and rapid scaling of the instrumentalists what is more nonsensical I cry leaping from my chair running to the piano and opening it quickly what is more nonsensical than such an excruple style as this which far from being music is much more like the noise of peas rolling across the floor at the same time I sang several of the modern fermatas which rush up and down and hum like a well-spun peg-top striking a few villainous chords by way of accompaniment Crespo laughed outrageously and screamed ha ha me thinks I hear our German Italians or our Italian Germans struggling with an aria in Porto Gallo or some other maestro di cappella or rather ciavo d'un primo uomo note Vincento Puccitta 1778-1861 was an Italian opera composer whose music quote shows great facility but no invention he also wrote several songs Il Porto Gallo was the Italian sobriquet Fughi's musician named Marc Antoni Schumau 1763-1829 he lived alternately in Italy and Portugal and wrote several operas the Italian translates literally as the slave of a primo uomo primo uomo being the masculine form corresponding to prima donna that is a singer of heroes parts in operatic music at one time also female parts were sung and acted by men or boys returned to text now now's the time so turning to Antonia I remarked Antonia knows nothing of such a singer as that I believe at the same time I struck up one of old Leonardo Laos beautiful soul-stirring songs note Leonardo Laos the chief Neapolitan representative of Italian music in the first part of the 18th century the author of more than 40 operas and nearly 100 compositions for the church returned to text then Antonia's cheeks glowed heavenly radiance sparkled in her eyes which grew full of reawakened inspiration she hastened to the piano she opened her lips but at that very moment Crespo pushed her away grabbed me by the shoulders and with a shriek that rose up to the tenor pitch cried my son, my son and then he immediately went on singing very softly and grasping my hand with a bow that was the thinker for likeness in very truth I esteemed an honorable student friend in very truth it would be a violation of the codes of social intercourse as well as of all good manners were I to express aloud and in a stirring way my wish that here on this very spot Crespo from hell would softly break your neck with his burning claws and so in a sense make short work of you but setting that aside you must acknowledge my dearest friend that it is rapidly growing dark and that there are no lamps burning tonight so that even though I did not kick you downstairs at once your darling limbs might still run a risk of suffering damage go home by means and cherish a kind remembrance of your faithful friend that may happen that you never pray understand me if you should never see him in his own house again therewith he embraced me and still keeping fast hold of me turned me slowly towards the door so that I could not get another single look at Antonia of course it is plain enough that in my position I couldn't thrash the counselor though that is what he really deserved the professor enjoyed a good laugh and assured me that I had ruined forever all hopes of retaining the counselor's friendship Antonia was too dear to me I might say too holy for me to go and play the part of the languishing lover and stand gazing up at a window or feel the role of the lovesick adventurer completely upset I went away from age black but as is usual in such cases the brilliant colors of the picture of my fancy faded and the recollection of Antonia as well as Antonia's singing which I had never heard often fell upon my heart like a soft faint trembling light comforting me two years afterwards I received an appointment in B blank and set out on a journey to the south of Germany the towers of M black rose before me in the red vaporous glow of the evening the nearer I came the more I was oppressed by an indescribable feeling agonizing distress it lay upon me like a heavy burden I could not breathe I was obliged to get out of my carriage into the open air but my anguish continued to increase until it became actual physical pain soon I seemed to hear the strains of a solemn corral floating in the air the sounds continued to go more distinct I realized the fact that they were men's voices chanting a church corral what's that? I cried a burning stab darting as it worked through my breast don't you see reply the coachman who is driving along beside me why don't you see they're burying somebody up yonder a non-churchyard and indeed we were near the churchyard I saw a circle of men clothed in black standing down to grave which was on the point of being closed tears started to my eyes I somehow fancied they were burying there all the joy and all the happiness of life moving on rapidly down the hill I was no longer able to see into the churchyard the corral came to an end and I perceived not far distant from the gate some of the mourners returning from the funeral the professor with his niece on his arm both in deep mourning went close past me without noticing me the young lady at her handkerchief pressed close to her eyes in the frame of mind in which I then was I could not possibly go into the town so I sent on my servant with the carriage to the hotel where I usually put up whilst I took a turn in the familiar neighborhood to get rid of a mood that was possibly only due to physical causes such as heating on the journey etc on arriving at a well-known avenue which leads to a pleasure resort I came upon a most extraordinary spectacle Councillor Crespo was being conducted by two mourners from whom he appeared to be endeavouring to make his escape by all sorts of strange twists and turns as usual he was dressed in his own curious homemade grey coat but from his little cock-tap which he wore perched over one year in military fashion a long narrow ribbon of black creak fluttered backwards and forwards in the wind around his waist he had buckled a black sword belt but instead of a sword he had stuck a long fiddle-bow into it a creepy shudder ran through my limbs he's insane, thought I as I slowly followed the consular's companions led him as far as the house where he embraced them laughing loudly they laughed him and then his glance fell upon me or I now stood near him he stared at me fixately for some time then he cried in a hollow voice welcome my student friend you also understand it therewith he took me by the arm and pulled me into the house up the steps into the room where the violins hung they were all draped in black creak the violin of the old master was missing in his place was a cypress wreath I knew what had happened Antonia Antonia I cried in inconsolable grief the consular with his arms crossed in his breast stood beside me as it turned to stone I pointed to the cypress wreath when she died said he in a very hoarse solemn voice when she died the sound post of that violin broke into pieces with a ringing crack when the sound board was split again the faithful instrument could only live with her and in her it lies beside her in the coffin it has been buried with her deeply agitated I sank down upon a chair whilst the consular began to sing a gay song in a husky voice it was truly horrible seeing him hopping about on one foot and the creaked strings he still had his hat on flying about the room in the halls indeed I could not repress a loud cry that rose to my lips when on the consular making an abrupt turn the creake came all over me I fancied he wanted to envelop me in it and drag me down into the horrible dark depths of insanity suddenly he stood still and addressed me in a singing way my son, my son why do you call out have you aspired the angel of death that always precedes the ceremony stepping into the middle of the room he took the violin bow out of his sword belt and holding it over his head with both hands broke it into a thousand pieces then with a loud laugh he cried now you imagine my sentences pronounced don't you my son but it's nothing of the kind not at all, not at all now I'm free free hurrah I'm free now I shall make no more violins no more violins hurrah no more violins this he sang to a horrible mirthful tune again spinning round on one foot perfectly aghast I was making the best of my way to the door when he held me fast saying quite calmly stay my student friend pray don't think from this outbreak of grief which is torturing me as if with the agonies of death again I only do it because a short time ago I made myself a dressing gown in which I wanted to look like faint or like God the counselor then went on with a medley of silly and awful rubbish until he fell down utterly exhausted I called up the old housekeeper and was very pleased to find myself in the open air again I never doubted for a moment that Crespo had become insane the professor however asserted the contrary there are men he remarked from whom nature or a special destiny has taken away the cover behind which the mad folly of the rest of us runs its course unobserved they're like thin-skinned insects which as we watch the restless play of their muscles seem to be misshapen while nevertheless everything soon comes back into its proper form again all that with us remains thought passes over with Crespo into action that bitter scorn which the spirit that is wrapped up in the doings and dealings of the earth often has at hand Crespo gives vent to in outrageous gestures and agile caprios but these are his lightning conductor what comes up out of the earth he gives again to the earth but what is divine that he keeps and so I believe that his inner consciousness the apparent madness which brings from it to the surface is as right as a trivet to be sure Antonia's sudden death greaves him sore but I warrant that tomorrow we'll see him going along his old job trot way as usual and the professor's prediction was almost literally filled next day the counselor appeared to be just as he formally was only he had heard that he would never make another violin play on another and as I learned later he kept his word hence which the professor let fall confirmed my own private conviction that the so carefully guarded secret of the counselor's relations to Antonia nay, that even her death was a crime which must weigh heavily upon him a crime that could not be atone for I determined that I would not leave H. Blank without taxing him with the offence I conceived him to be guilty of I determined to shake his heart down to its very roots and so compelling to make open confession of the terrible deed the more I reflected upon the matter the clearer it grew in my own mind that Crespo must be a villain and in the same proportion did my intended reproach which assumed of itself the form of a real rhetorical masterpiece wax more fiery and more impressive thus equipped and mightily incensed I hurried to his house I found him with a calm smiling countenance making play things how can peace I burst out how can peace find lodgement even for a single moment in your breast so long as the memory of your horrible deed prays like a serpent upon you he gazed at me in amazement and laid his chisel down what do you mean my dear sir pray take a seat but my indignation chafing me more and more I went on to accuse him directly of having murdered Antonia and to threaten him with the vengeance of the eternal further as a newly full-fledged lawyer full of my profession I went so far as to give him to understand that I would leave no stone unturned to get a clue to the business and so deliver him here in this world into the hands of an earthly judge I must confess that I was considerably disconcerted when at the conclusion of my violent and pompous harangue the counselor without answering so much as a single word calmly fixed his eyes upon me as though expecting me to go on again and this I did indeed attempt to do but it sounded so ill-founded and so stupid as well that I soon proved silent again Crespo gloated over my embarrassment whilst a malicious ironical smile fit across his face then he grew very grave and addressed me in solemn tones young man no doubt you think I am foolish insane that I can pardon you since we are both confined in the same madhouse and you only blame me for deluding myself with the idea that I am God the Father because you imagine yourself to be God the Son but how do you dare desire to insinuate yourself into the secrets and lay bare the hidden motives of a life that is strange to you and that must continue so she has gone and the mystery is solved he ceased speaking rose and traversed the room backwards and forward several times I ventured to ask for an explanation he fixed his eyes upon me by the hand that led me to the window which he threw wide open cropping himself upon his arms he leaned out and looking down into the garden told me the history of his life when he finished I left him touched and ashamed End of Part 1 of The Cremona Violin Recording by Thomas Copeland Part 2 of The Cremona Violin in Weird Tales Volume 1 by E.T. A. Hoffman Translated by J.T. Bilby This Diver Works recording is in the public domain by Thomas Copeland In a few words, his relations with Antonia rose in the following way 20 years before the counselor had been led to Italy by his favorite and grossing passion of hunting up and buying the best violins of the old masters at that time he had not yet begun to make them himself and so of course he had not begun to take to pieces those which he bought In Venice, he heard the celebrated singer Angela Blankey who at this time was playing with splendid success as prima donna at St. Benedict's Theatre His enthusiasm was awakened not only in her art which Signora Angela had indeed brought to a high pitch of affection but in her angelic beauty as well he sought her acquaintance in spite of all his rugged manners he succeeded in winning her heart principally through his bold and yet at the same time masterly violin playing Close intimacy led in a few weeks to marriage which however was kept a secret because Angela was unwilling to sever her connection with the theatre neither did she wish to part with her professional name that by which she was celebrated nor to add to it the cacophonous crespe with the most extravagant irony he described to me what a strange life of worry and torture Angela led him as soon as she became his wife Crespo was an opinion that more capriciousness and waywardness were concentrated in Angela's little person than in all the rest of the prima donnas in the world put together if he now and again presumed to stand up in his own defense she let loose a whole army of avats musical composers and students upon him who ignorant of his true connection with Angela soundly rated him as a most intolerable, un-gallant lover who are not submitting to all the senora's caprices it was just after one of these stormy scenes that Crespo fled to Angela's country seat to try and forget in playing fantasies on his promenavial in the annoyances of the day but he had not been there long before the senora who had followed the heart after him stepped into the room she was in an affectionate humor she embraced her husband overwhelmed him with sweet and languishing glances and rested her pretty head on his shoulder but Crespo carried away into the world of music continued to play on until the walls echoed again thus he changed to touch the senora somewhat un-gently with his arm and the fiddle boat she leapt back full of fury shrieking that he was a German brute snatched the violin from his hands and dashed it on the marble table into a thousand pieces Crespo stood like a statue of stone before her but then, as if awakening out of a dream he seized her with the strength of a giant and threw her out of the window of her own house and without troubling himself about anything more, fled back to Venice to Germany it was not however until some time it elapsed that he had a clear recollection of what he had done although he knew that the window was scarcely five feet from the ground and although he was fully cognizant of the necessity under the above mentioned circumstances of throwing the senora out of the window he yet felt troubled by a sense of painful uneasiness and the more so since she had imparted to him in no ambiguous terms a lasting secret as to her condition he hardly dared to make inquiries and he was not a little surprised about eight months afterwards at receiving a tender letter from his beloved wife in which he made not the slightest allusion to what had taken place in her country house only adding to the intelligence that she had been safely deliberate of a sweet little daughter the heart felt prayer that her dear husband and now a happy father would come at once to Venice that however Crespo did not do rather he appealed to a confidential friend for a more circumstantial account of the details and learned that the senora had a lighted upon the soft grass as lightly as a bird and that the sole consequences of the fall or shock had been psychic that is to say after Crespo's heroic deed she had become completely altered she never showed a trace of caprice of her former freaks or of her teasing habits and the composer who wrote for the next carnival was the happiest fellow under the sun since the senora was willing to sing his music without the scores and hundreds of changes which she at other times had insisted upon to be sure at his friend there was every reason for preserving the secret of Angela's cure else every day would see lady singers flying through windows the counselor was not a little excited at this news he engaged horses and took his seat in the carriage stop he cried suddenly why there's not a shadow of doubt he remembered to himself that as soon as Angela sets eyes upon me again the evil spirit will recover his power and once more take possession of her and since I have already thrown her out of the window what could I do if a similar case were to occur again what would there be left for me to do he got out of the carriage and wrote an affectionate letter to his wife making graceful allusion to her tenderness in especially dwelling upon the fact that his tiny daughter had like him a little mole behind the ear and remained in Germany now ensued an act of correspondence between them assurances of unchanged affection invitations laments over the absence of the beloved one thwarted wishes, hopes, etc flew backwards and forwards from Venice to H. Blank to Venice at length Angela came to Germany and as is well known sang with brilliant success as Primadonna at the great theater in F. Blank despite the fact that she was no longer young she won all hearts the irresistible charm of her wonderful splendid singing at that time she had not lost her voice in the least degree meanwhile Antonia had been growing up and her mother never tired of writing to tell her father how that a singer of the first rank was developing in her Grespo's friends in F. Blank also confirmed this intelligence and urged him to come for once to F. Blank to see and admire this uncommon sight of two such glorious singers they had not the slightest suspicion of the close relations in which Grespo stood to the pair willingly would he have seen with his own eyes the daughter who occupied so large a place in his heart and who moreover often appeared to him in his dreams but as often as he thought upon his wife he felt very uncomfortable and so he remained at home amongst his broken by limbs there was a certain promising young composer a B. Blank of F. Blank who was found to have suddenly disappeared nobody knew where this young man fell so deeply in love with Antonia that as she returned his love he earnestly resaw her mother to consent to an immediate union sanctified as it would further be by art Angela had nothing to urge against his suit and the counselor the more readily gave his consent that the young composer's productions have found favor before his rigorous critical judgment Grespo was expecting to hear of the consummation of the marriage when he received instead a black sealed envelope addressed in a strange hand Dr. R. Blank conveyed to the counselor the sad intelligence that Angela had fallen seriously ill in consequence of a cold caught at the theater and that during the night immediately preceding what was to have been Antonia's wedding day she had died to him the doctor Angela had disclosed the fact that she was Grespo's wife and that Antonia was his daughter he, Grespo, had better hasten therefore to take charge of the orphan notwithstanding that the counselor was a good deal upset by this news of Angela's death he soon began to feel that an antipathetic disturbing influence had departed out of his life and that now for the first time he could begin to breathe freely the very same day he set out for f-lane you could not credit how heart-rending was the counselor's description of the moment when he first saw Antonia even in the fantastic oddities of his expression there was such a marvelous power of description that I am unable to give even so much as a faint indication of it Antonia inherited all her mother's amiability and all her mother's charms but not the repellent reverse of the medal there was no chronic moral ulcer which might break out from time to time Antonia's betrothed put in an appearance whilst Antonia herself fathoming with happy instinct the deeper-lying character of a wonderful father sang one of old Padre Martini's motets note Jambotista Martini more commonly called Padre Martini of Bologna formed an influential school of music there in the latter half of the 18th century he wrote vocal and instrumental pieces both for the church and for the theater he was also a learned historian of music he has the merit of having discerned and encouraged the genius of Mozart when a boy of 14 he visited Bologna in 1770 returned to text sang one of old Padre Martini's motets which she knew Crespo in the heyday of his courtship had never grown tired of hearing her mother sing the tears ran in streams down Crespo's cheeks even Angela he had never heard sing like that Antonia's voice was of a very remarkable and altogether peculiar timbre at one time it was like the sighing of the Aeolian heart at another like the warbled gush it seemed as if there was not room for such notes in the human breast Antonia blushing with joy and happiness sang on and on all her most beautiful songs B-blank playing between wiles as only enthusiasm that is intoxicated with delight can play Crespo was at first transported with rapture then he grew thoughtful still absorbed in reflection at length he leapt to his feet pressed Antonia to his heart and begged her in a low husky voice sing no more if you love me my heart is bursting I fear I fear don't sing again no remarked the counsellor next day to Dr. Arblank when as she sang her blushes gathered into two dark red spots on her pale cheeks it had nothing to do with your nonsensical family likenesses I knew it was what I dreaded the doctor whose countenance had shown signs of deep distress from the very beginning of the conversation replied whether it arises from a too early taxing of her powers of song or whether the fault is nature enough Antonia labors under an organic failure in the chest while it is from each two that her voice derives this wonderful power and its singular timbre which I might almost say transcends the limits of human capabilities of song but it bears the announcement of her early death for if she continues to sing I wouldn't give her at the most more than six months longer to live Crespal's heart was lacerated as if by the stabs of hundreds of stinging knives it was as though his light had been for the first time overshadowed by a beautiful tree full of the most magnificent blossoms and now it was to be sawn to pieces at the roots so that it could not grow green and blossom anymore his resolution was taken he told Antonia all he put the alternatives before her whether she would follow her betrothed and yield to his and the world's seductions but with a certainty of dying early or whether she would spread round her father in his old days that joy and peace which had hitherto been unknown to him and so secure a long life she threw herself sobbing into his arms and he knowing the heart-rending trial that was before her did not press her for a more explicit declaration he talked the matter over with her betrothed but notwithstanding that the latter that no note should ever cross Antonia's lips the counselor was only too well aware that even B. Blank could not resist the temptation of hearing her sing at any rate aria's of his own composition and the world, the musical public even though acquainted with the nature of the singer's affliction would certainly not relinquish its claims to hear her for in cases where pleasure is concerned people of this class are very selfish and cruel the counselor disappeared from F. Blank along with Antonia and came to H. Blank B. Blank was in despair when he learned that they had gone he set out on their track overtook them and arrived at H. Blank at the same time that they did let me see him only once and then die, entreated Antonia die die, cried Crespo wild with anger as he shuddered running through him his daughter, the only creature in the wide world who had awakened in him the springs of unknown joy who alone had reconciled him to life, tore herself away from his heart and he he suffered the terrible trial to take place B. Blank sat down in Vienna Antonia sang Crespo fiddled away merrily until the two red spots showed themselves on Antonia's cheeks then he let her stop and as B. was taking leave of his betrothed she suddenly fell to the floor with a loud scream I thought continued Crespo in his narration I thought that she was as I had anticipated really dead but as I prepared myself for the worst my commonest did not leave me nor myself command deserved me I grasped B. Blank who stood like a silly sheep in his dismay by the shoulders and said here the counselor fell into his singing tone now that you my estimable piano forte player have as you wished and desired really murdered your betrothed you may quietly take your departure at least have the goodness to make yourself scarce before I run my bright hanger through your heart my daughter who as you see as rather pale could very well do with some color from your precious blood make haste and run for I might also hurl a nimble knife or two after you I must I suppose have looked rather formidable as I uttered these words for with a cry of the greatest terror B. Blank tore himself loose from my grasp rushed out of the room and down the steps directly after B. Blank was gone when the counselor tried to lift up his daughter who lay unconscious on the floor she opened her eyes with a deep sigh but soon closed them again as if about to die then Kraspel's grief found vent aloud and would not be comforted the doctor whom the old housekeeper had called in pronounced Antonia's case a somewhat serious but by no means dangerous attack and she did indeed recover more quickly than her father had dared to hope she now clung to him with the most frightening childlike affection she entered into his favorite hobbies into his mad schemes and wins she helped him take old violins to pieces and glue new ones together I won't sing again any more but live for you she often said sweetly smiling upon him after she had been asked to sing and had refused such appeals however the counselor was anxious to spare her as much as possible therefore was that he was unwilling to take her into society and solicitously shun all music he well understood how painful it must be for her to forgo altogether the exercise of that art which she had brought to such a pitch of affection when the counselor bought the wonderful violin that he had buried with Antonia and was about to take it to pieces she met him with such sadness in her face and softly breathed the petition what? this as well? by some power which he could not explain he felt impelled to leave this particular instrument unbroken and to play upon it scarcely had he drawn the first few notes from it then Antonia cried aloud with joy why that's me now I shall sing again and in truth there was something remarkably striking about the clear silvery bell-like tones of the violin they seemed to have been engendered in the human soul Gresville's harp was deeply moved he played too better than ever as he ran up and down the scale playing bold passages with consummate power and expression she clapped her hands together and cried with delight I did that well I did that well from this time onwards her life was filled with peace happiness she often said to the counselor I should like to sing something father then Gresville would take his violin down from the wall and play her most beautiful songs and her harp was right glad and happy shortly before my arrival on each blank the counselor fancied one night that he heard somebody playing the piano in the adjoining room and he soon made out distinctly that B blank was flourishing on the instrument in his usual piano he wished to get up but felt himself held down as if by a dead weight and lying as if fettered in iron bonds he was utterly unable to move an inch then Antonia's voice was heard singing low and soft soon however it began to rise and rise in volume until it became an ear-splitting fortissimo and at length she passed over into a powerfully impressive song which B blank had once composed in the devotional style of the old masters. Gresville described his condition as being incomprehensible for terrible anguish was mingled with the delight that he had never experienced before. All at once he was surrounded by a dazzling brightness in which he beheld B blank and Antonia locked in a close embrace and gazing at each other in a rapture of ecstasy the music of the song and of the piano forte accompanying it went on without any visible signs that Antonia sang with it B blank touched the instrument then the consular fell into a sort of dead fate whilst the images vanished away on awakening he still felt the terrible anguish of his dream he rushed into Antonia's room she lay on the sofa her eyes closed a sweet and jealous smile on her face her hands devoutly folded and looking as if asleep and dreaming of the joys and raptures of heaven that she was dead End of the Cremona Violin Recording by Thomas Copeland The Firmata in Weird Tales Volume 1 by E.T.A. Hoffman translated by J.T. Bilby this Diver Works recording by Thomas Copeland Hummel's amusing vivacious picture note Johann Erdmann Hummel born 1769 died 1852 a German painter studied in Italy painted various kinds of pieces and also wrote treatises on perspective and kindred subjects the picture he referred to became perhaps almost as much celebrated from the fact of its having suggested using sketch to Hoffman as for its intrinsic merits as of what we are return to text Hummel's amusing vivacious picture company in an Italian inn became known by the art exhibition at Berlin in the autumn of 1814 where it appeared to the delight of all who saw and studied it an arbor almost hidden in foliage a table covered with wine flasks and fruits two Italian ladies sitting at it each other one singing the other playing a guitar between them more in the background stands an abbot acting as music director with his baton raised he is awaiting the moment when the senior shall end in a long trill the cadence which with her eyes directed she is just in the midst of then down will come his hand whilst the guitarist gaily dashes off the dominant chord the abbot is filled with exquisite light and at the same time his attention is painfully on the stretch he wouldn't miss the proper downward beat for the world he hardly dare breathe he would like to stop the mouth and wings of every buzzing bee and midge so much the more therefore is he annoyed at the bustling host who must needs come and bring the wine just at this supreme delicious moment an outlook upon an avenue patterned by brilliant strips of light there a horseman is pulled up and a glass of something refreshing to drink is being handed up to him on horseback before this picture stood the two friends Edward and Theodore the more I look at this singer said Edward in her gay attire who though rather old is yet full of the true inspiration of her heart and the more I am delighted with the great but genuine Roman profile and lovely form of the guitarist and the more my estimable friend the Abbott amuses me the more does the whole picture seem to me instinct with free strong vital power it is plainly a caricature in the higher sense of the term but rich in grace and vivacity I should just like to step into that harbor and open one of those dainty little flasks which are ogling me from the table I tell you what I fancy I can already smell something of the sweet fragrance of the noble wine come Edward sinned for this solicitation to be wasted on the cold senseless atmosphere that is about us here let us go and drain a flask of Italian wine in honor of this fine picture of art and of Mary Italy where life is exhilarating and given for pleasure whilst Edward was running on thus in disconnected sentences Theodore and silent and deeply absorbed in reflection I that we will come along he said starting up as if awakening out of a dream but nevertheless he had some difficulty in tearing himself away from the picture and as he mechanically followed his friend he had to stop at the door to cast another longing lingering look back upon the singer and guitarist and Abbott Edward's proposal easily admitted of being carried into execution they crossed the street diagonally and very soon a flask exactly like those in the picture stood before them in Salateroni's little blue room note Salateroni the keeper of a well-known tavern in Berlin at about the time when this tale was written 1817 to 1820 return to text it seemed to me said Edward as Theodore still continued very silent and thoughtful after several glasses had been drawn it seems to me that the picture has made a deeper impression upon you than upon me and not such an agreeable impression either I assure you replied Theodore that I lost nothing of the brightness and grace of that animated composition yet it is very singular it is a faithful representation of a scene out of my own life reproducing the portraits of the parties concerned in it in a manner in which I am living my life like you will however agree with me that diverting memories also of the power of strangely moving the mind when they suddenly spring up in this extraordinary and unexpected way as if awakened by the wave of a magician's hand that's the case with me just now what? a scene out of your own life exclaimed Edward quite astonished do you mean to say the picture represents an episode in your own life? I saw it once that the two ladies and the priest were eminently successful portraits but I never for a moment dreamed that you would ever come across them in the course of your life come now tell me all about it how it all came about you're quite alone nobody else will come this time of day willingly answered Theodore but unfortunately I must go a long way back to my early youth in fact never mind far away rejoined Edward though over much about your early days if it lasts a good while nothing worse will happen than that we shall have to empty a bottle more than we had at first bargain for and to that nobody will have any objection neither we nor Mr. Taroni that throwing everything else aside I at length devoted myself entirely to the noble art of music began Theodore need excite nobody's astonishment for while still a boy I would hardly do anything else but play and spent hours and hours strumming on my uncle's old creaking jarring piano the little town was very badly provided for music there was nobody who could give me instruction except an old opinionated organist he however was merely a dry arithmetician and plagued me to death with obscure unmelodious tucatas and fugues but I held on bravely without letting myself be daunted I was crappy and often found a good deal of fault but he had only to play a good piece in his own powerful style and I was at once reconciled both with him and with his art I was then often in a curious state of mind many pieces particularly of old Sebastian Bach were almost like a fearful ghost story and I yielded myself up to that feeling of pleasurable awe to which we are so prone in the days of our fantastic youth but I entered into a veritable Eden when as sometimes happens in winter the bandmaster of the town and his colleagues supported by a few other moderate dilettante players gave a concert and I, owing to the strict time I always kept was permitted to play the kettle drum in the symphony it was not until later that I perceived how ridiculous and extravagant these concerts were my teacher generally played two concertos on the piano by Wolf and Emanuel Bach note the third son of the Sebastian Bach the Bach just meant in the bow he was sometimes called the Berlin Bach or the Hamburg Bach return to text a member of the town band struggled with stomates while the receiver of excise duties worked away hard at the flute and took in such an immense supply of breath that he blew out both lights on his music stand and always had to have them relighted again singing wasn't thought about my uncle, a great friend and patron of music always disparaged the local talent in this line he still dwelt with exuberant delight upon the days gone by when the four choristers of the four churches of the town agreed together to give the Lötzchen Unfall note this was one of a species of musical composition called Singspiel a development of the simple song or lead by Johann Adam Heller properly Heller born 1728 died 1804 return to text above all, he was one to extol the toleration which united the singers in the production of this work of art for not only the Catholic and the evangelical but also the reformed community was split into two bodies those speaking German and those speaking French the French chorister was not daunted by the Lötzchen but, as my uncle maintained, sang his part spectacles on nose in the finest falsetto that ever proceeded forth from a human breast now there was amongst us, I mean in the town a spinster named Mabel aged about 55 who subsisted upon the scanty pension which he received as a retired court singer of the Metropolis and my uncle was rightly of opinion that Miss Mabel might still do something for her money in the concert hall she assumed heirs of importance required a good deal of coaxing but at last consented so that we came to have bravuras in our concerts she was a singular creature, Miss Mabel I still retain a lively recollection of her lean little figure dressed in a many-colored gown she was wont to step forward with her roll of music in her hand looking very brave and solemn and to acknowledge the audience with a slight inclination of the upper part of her body her headdress was a most remarkable headdress in front was fastened a nosegave Italian flowers of porcelain which kept up a strange trembling and tottering as she sang at the end, after the audience had greeted her with no stinted measure of applause she proudly handed the music roll to my uncle and permitted him to dip his thumb or finger into a little porcelain snuff box fashioned in the shape of a poked dog out of which she took a pinch herself with evident relish she had a horrible squeaky voice indulged in all sorts of ludicrous flourishes and lullads and so you may imagine what an effect all this combined with her ridiculous manners and style of dress could not fail to have it on me my uncle overflowed with panagyrics that I could not understand and so turned him more readily to my organist who, looking with contempt upon vocal efforts in general delighted me down to the ground as in his hypochondriac malicious way he parodied the ludicrous old spinster the more decidedly I came to share with my master his contempt for singing the higher did he rate my musical genius he took a great and zealous interest in instructing the encounter point so that I soon came to write the most ingenious tucatas and fugues I was once playing one of these ingenious specimens of my skill to my uncle on my birthday, I was 19 years old when the waiter of our first hotel stepped into the room to announce the visit of two foreign ladies who had just arrived in the town before my uncle could throw off his dressing gown it was of a large flower pattern and on his coat and vest his visitors were already in the room you know what an electric effect every strange event has upon those who have brought up in the narrow seclusion of a small country town this in particular which crossed my path so unexpectedly was preeminently fitted to work a complete revolution within me picture to yourself two tall slender Italian ladies dressed fantastically and in bright colors quite up to the latest fashion meeting my uncle with the freedom of professional artists and yet with considerable charms of manner and addressing him in firm and sonorous voices what the deuce of a strange tone they speak only now and then does it sound at all like German my uncle doesn't understand a word embarrassed mute as a maggot he steps back and points to the sofa they sit down talk together it sounds like music itself at length they succeed in making my good uncle comprehend that they are singers on a tour they would like to give a concert in the place and have come to him as he is the man to conduct such musical negotiations whilst they were talking together I picked up their Christian names and I fancied that I could now more easily and more distinctly distinguish the one from the other for they're both making their appearance together had at first confused me Loretta apparently the elder of the two looked about her with sparkling eyes and talked away at my embarrassed old uncle with gushing vivacity and with demonstrative gestures she was not too tall and of a voluptuous build so that my eyes wandered amid many charms that either two had been strangers to them Teresina the taller, more slender with a long grave face spoke but seldom but what she did say was more intelligible now and then a peculiar smile flitted across her features it almost seemed as if she were highly amused at my good uncle who had withdrawn into his silken dressing gown like a snail into its shell and was vainly endeavoring to push out of sight the treacherous yellow string with which he fastened his nightjacket together and which would keep tumbling out of his bosom yards and yards long at length they rose to depart my uncle promised to arrange everything for the concert for the third day following then the sisters gave him and me whom we introduced to them as a young physician a most polite invitation to take chocolate with them in the afternoon perhaps with a solemn air and awkward gait we both felt very peculiar as if we were going to meet some adventure to which we were not equal in consequence of new previous preparation my uncle had a good many fine things to say about art which nobody understood neither he himself nor any of the rest of us this done and after I had thrice burned my tongue with the scalding hot chocolate thought with the stoical fortitude of a chevrolet smiled under the fiery inflection Loretta at length said that she would sing to us Teresina took a guitar tuned it and struck a few full chords it was the first time I had heard the instrument and the characteristic mysterious sounds of the trembling strings made a deep and wonderful impression upon me Loretta began very softly and held on the note rising to fortissimo and then quickly broke into a crisp complicated run through an octave and a half I can still remember the words of the beginning sento la me caspe me my heart was oppressed I had never had an idea of anything of the kind but as Loretta continued to soar in boulder and higher flights and as the musical notes poured upon me like sparkling rays thicker and thicker then was the music that had so long lain mutant lifeless within me and kindled rising up in strong grand flames ah I had never heard what music was in my life before then the sisters sang one of those grand impressive duets of Abbott Stefani note Agostino Stefani an Italian by birth 1655 spent nearly all his life in Germany by the courts of Munich and Hannover he wrote several operas and was renowned for his duets motets etc. returned to text impressive duets of Abbott Stefani which confined themselves to notes in a low register my soul was stirred at the sound of Teresina's alto it was so sonorous and as pure as silver bells I couldn't for the life of me restrain my emotion tears started to my eyes my uncle coughed warningly and cast angry glances upon me it was all of no use I was really quite beside myself this seemed to please the sisters they began to inquire into the nature and extent of my musical studies I was ashamed of my performances in that line and with the hearty hood born of enthusiastic admiration I bluntly declared that that day was the first time I had ever heard music the dear good boy Lisbloreta so sweetly it bewitching me on reaching home again I succeeded with a sort of fury I pounced upon all the tucatas and fugues that I had hammered out as well as a beautiful copy of 45 variations of a canonical theme that the organist had written and done with the honor of presenting to me all these I threw into the fire and laughed with spiteful glee as the double counterpoint smoked and crackled then I sat down at the piano and tried first to imitate the tones of the guitar then to play the sisters melodies and finished by attempting to sing them at length, above midnight my uncle emerged from his bedroom and greeted me with my boy, you'd better just stop that screeching and troop off to bed and he put out both candles and went back to his own room I had no alternative but to obey the mysterious power of song came to me in my dreams at least I thought so for I sang Sant'Olamic of Spémy in excellent style the next morning my uncle had hunted up everybody who could fiddle and blow for the rehearsal he was proud to show what good musicians the town possessed but everything seemed to go perversely wrong Loreta set to work at a fine scene but very soon in the recitative the orchestra was all at sixes and sevens not one of them had any idea of accompaniment Loreta screamed, raved, wept with impatience and anger the organist was presiding at the piano she attacked him with the bitterest refuges he got up and in silent obduracy marched out of the hall the bandmaster of the town whom Loreta had dubbed a German ass took his violin under his arm and banging his hat on his head with an air of defiance likewise made for the door the members of his company sticking their bows under the strings of their violins and unscrewing the mouthpieces of their brass instruments followed him there was nobody but the dilettante left and they gazed about them with disconsolate looks whilst the receiver of excise duties exclaimed with a tragic air oh heaven how mortified I feel all my dividends was gone I threw myself in the bandmaster's way I pegged, I prayed in my distress I promised him six new minuettes with double trios for the annual ball I succeeded in appeasing him he went back to his place his companions followed suit and soon the orchestra was reconstituted except that the organist was wanting he was slowly making his way across the marketplace no shouting or beckoning could make him turn back Teresina had looked on at the whole scene with smothered laughter while Loreta was now as full of glee as before she had been of anger she was unstinted in her praise of my efforts she asked me if I played the piano and ere I knew what I was about I sat in the organist's place with the music before me never before had I accompanied a singer still less directed an orchestra Teresina sat down beside me at the piano and gave me every time Loreta encouraged me with repeated bravows the orchestra proved manageable and things continued to improve everything was worked out successfully at the second rehearsal and the effect of the sisters singing at the concert is not to be described the sovereign's return to his capital was to be celebrated there with several festive demonstrations the sisters were summoned to sing in the theatre and at concerts until the time that their presence was required they resolved to remain in our little town thus it came to pass that they gave us a few more concerts the admiration of the public rose to a kind of madness Ole Miss Mabel, however, took with the deliberate air a pinch of snuff out of her porcelain pug and gave her opinion that such impudent catawalling was not singing singing should be low and melodious my friend the organist never showed himself again and in truth I did not miss him in the least I was the happiest fellow in the world the whole day long I spent with the sisters copying out the vocal scores of what they were to sing in the capital Loreta was my ideal her vile caprices, her terribly passionate violence the torments she inflicted upon me at the piano all these I bore with patience she alone had unsealed for me the springs of true music I began to study Italian and try my hand at a few kinds of dance in what heavenly rapture was I plunged when Loreta sang my compositions or even praised them often it seemed to me as if it was not I who had thought out and said what she sang but that the thought first shone forth in her singing of it with Teresima I could not somehow get on familiar terms she sang but seldom and didn't seem to make much account of all that I was doing and sometimes I even fancied that she was laughing at me behind my back at length the time came for them to leave the town and now I felt for the first time how dear Loreta had become to me and how impossible it would be for me to separate from her often when she was in a tender playful mood she had caressed me although always in a perfectly artless fashion nevertheless my blood was excited and it was nothing but the strange coolness with which she was more usually want to treat me that restrained me from giving range to my ardour and clasping her in my arms in a delirium of passion I possessed a tolerably good tenor voice which however I had never practiced but now I began to cultivate it assiduously I frequently sang with Loreta one of those tender Italian duets of which there exists such an endless number we were just singing one of these pieces The Hour of Departure was close at hand Senza di te ben mio Viva rinno in pozzio Without thee my own account lived Who could resist that? I threw myself at her feet I was in despair she raised me up but my friend need weep then part I picked up my ears with amazement she proposed that I should accompany her and tear a scene into the capital for if I intended to devote myself wholly to music I must leave this wretched little town sometime rather pictured herself one struggling in the dark depths of boundless despair who has given up all hopes of life and who in the moment in which he expects to receive the blow that is to crush him forever suddenly finds himself sitting in a glorious bright arbor of roses where hundreds of unseen but loving voices whisper you are still alive dear still alive and you will know how I felt then along with them to the capital that had seized upon my heart as an ineradicable resolution but I won't tire you with the details of how I set to work to convince my uncle that I ought now by all means to go to the capital which moreover was not very far away he at length gave his consent and announced his intention of going with me here was a tricksy stroke of fortune I dare not give utterance to my purpose of travelling and company with the sisters a violent cold which my uncle cock proved my saviour I left the town by the stagecoach but only went as far as the first stopping station where I awaited my divinity a well-lined purse enabled me to make all due and fitting preparations I was seized with the romantic idea of accompanying the ladies in the character of a protecting paladin on horseback I secured a horse which though not particularly handsome was as his owner assured me quiet and I rode back at the appointed time to meet the two fair singers I soon saw the little carriage which had two seats coming towards me Loretta and Teresina sat on the principal seat whilst on the other with her back to the driver set their maid the fat little Chana a brown cheeked the paladin besides this living freight the carriage was packed full of boxes, satchels and baskets of all sizes and shapes such as invariably a company ladies when they travel two little pug dogs with Chana was nursing in her lap began to bark when I gaily saluted the company all was going on very nicely we were perversing the last stage of the journey when my steed thought once conceived the idea that it was high time to be returning homewards being aware that stern measures were not always blessed with a remarkable degree of success in such cases I felt advised to have recourse to milder means of persuasion but the obstinate truth remained insensible to all my well meant exhortations I wanted to go forwards he backwards and all the advantage that my efforts gave me over him was that instead of taking to his heels for home he continued to run around in circles Caracena leaned forward out of the carriage and had a hearty laugh Loretta holding her hands before her face screamed out as if I were in imminent danger this gave me the courage of despair I drove the spurs into the brutes ribs but that very moment I was roughly hurled off and found myself sprawling on the ground the horse stood perfectly still and stretching out his long neck regarded me with what I took to be nothing else than derision I was not able to rise to my feet the driver had to come and help me Loretta had jumped out and was weeping and lamenting Caracena did nothing but laugh without ceasing I had sprained my foot and couldn't possibly mount again How was I to get on? My steed was fastened to the carriage whilst I crept into it just pictures all two rather robust females a fat servant girl, two pug dogs a dozen boxes, satchels and baskets and me as well all packed into a little carriage picture Loretta's complaints at the uncomfortableness of her seat the howling of the pups the chattering of the Neapolitan Caracena's sulks the unspeakable pain I felt in my foot and you will have some idea of my enviable situation Caracena averred that she could not endure it any longer we stopped in a trice she was out of the carriage had untied my horse and was up in the saddle prancing and cravetting around us I must indeed admit that she cut a fine figure the dignity and elegance which marked her carriage and bearing were still more prominent on horseback she asked for her guitar then dropping the reins on her arm she began to sing proud Spanish ballads with a full tone accompaniment her light silk dress fluttered in the wind its folds and creases giving rise to a sheeny play of light whilst the white feathers of her hat quivered and shook like the prattling spirits of the air which we heard in her voice altogether she made such a romantic figure that I could not keep my eyes off her notwithstanding that Loretta reproached her for making herself such a fantastic simpleton and predicted that she would suffer for her audacity but no accident happened either the horse had lost all his stubbornness or he liked the verisigner better than the paladin at any rate Terracina did not creep back into the carriage again until we had almost reached the gates of the town if you had seen me then at concerts and operas if you had seen me reveling in all sorts of music and as a diligent accompanist studying arias, duets but now what besides at the piano you would have perceived by the complete change in my behaviour that I was filled with a new and wonderful spirit I had cast off all my rustic shyness and sat at the piano forte with my score before me like an experienced professional directing the performances of my prima donna all my mind all my thoughts were sweet melodies utterly regardless of all the rules of counterpoint I composed all sorts of consonants and arias which Loretta sang though only in her own room why would she never sing any of my pieces at a concert I could not understand it Terracina also rose before my imagination curbetting on her proud steed with the loot in her hands and like art herself disguised in romance without thinking of it consciously I wrote several songs of a high and serious nature Loretta it is true with her notes like a capricious fairy queen there was nothing upon which she ventured in which she had not success but never did a roulade cross Terracina's lips nothing more than a simple interpolated note at most a mordant but her long sustained tones leaned like meteors through the darkness of night awakening strange spirits who came and gazed with earnest eyes into the depths of my heart I know not how I remained ignorant of them so long the sisters were granted a benefit concert I sang with Loretta a long scene from Anfossi note Pasquale Anfossi an Italian operatic composer of the 18th century he was for a time the fashion of the day at Rome but occupies now only a subordinate rank among musicians returned to text as usual I presided at the piano we came to the last fermata Loretta exerted all her skill and art she warped trill after trill like a nightingale executed sustained notes then long elaborate roulades the whole solfeggio in fact I thought she was almost carrying things too far this time I felt a soft breath on my cheek Terracina stood behind me Loretta took a good start with the intention of swelling up to a harmonic shake and so passing back into our tempo the devil entered into me I jammed down the keys with both hands the orchestra followed suit and it was all over with Loretta's trill just at the supreme moment when she was to excite everybody's astonishment almost annihilating me with a look of fury she crushed her music together tore it up and hurled it at my head so that the pieces flew all over me then she rushed like a mad woman through the orchestra into the adjoining room as soon as we had concluded the piece I followed her she wept she raved out of my sight villain she screamed as soon as she saw me you devil you've completely ruined me by fame my honor and oh my trill you devil's owned she made a rush at me I escaped to the door while someone else was performing Teresina and the music director at length succeeded in so far pastifying her rage that she resolved to appear again but I was not to be allowed to touch the piano in the last duet that the sisters sang Loretta did contrive to introduce the swelling harmonic shake was rewarded with a storm of applause then settled down into the best of humours but I could not get over the vile treatment which I had received at her hands in the presence of so many people and I was firmly resolved to set off home next morning for my native town I was actually engaged in packing my things together when Teresina came into my room observing what I was about she exclaimed astonished are you going to leave us I gave her to understand that upon me by Loretta I could not think of remaining any longer in her society and so replied Teresina you're going to let yourself be driven away by the extravagant conduct of a little fool who is now heartily sorry for what she has done and said where else can you better live in your art than with us let me tell you it only depends upon yourself and your own behaviour to keep her from such pranks as this too compliant, too tender, too gentle besides you rate her powers too highly her voice is indeed not bad and it has a wide compass but what else are all these fantastic warblings and flourishes these preposterous runs these never-ending shakes but delusive artifices of style which people admire in the same way that they admire the foolhardy agility of a rope dancer do you imagine that such things can make any deep impression upon us and stir the heart the harmonic shake which you've spoiled I cannot tolerate I always feel anxious and pained when she attempts it and then this scaling up and down into the region of the third line above the stave what is it but a violent straining of the natural voice which after all is the only thing that really moves the heart and the low notes a sound that penetrates to the heart a real quiet easy transition from note to note or what I love above all things no useless ornamentation a firm clear strong note a definite expression which carries away the mind and soul that's real true singing and that's how I sing if you can't be reconciled to Loretta again then think of Teresino who indeed likes you so much that you shall in your own way be her musical composer don't be cross but all your elegant canzenets and arias can't be matched with this single lank she sang in her sonorous way a simple devotional sort of canzona which I had said a few days before I had never dreamed that it could sound like that I felt the power of the music going through and through me tears of joy and rapture I seized Teresino's hand and pressing it to my lips a thousand times swore I would never leave her Loretta looked upon my intimacy with her sister with envious but suppressed vexation and she could not do without me for in spite of her skill she was unable to study a new piece without help she read badly and was rather uncertain in her time Teresino on the contrary sang everything at sight but her ear for time was unparalleled never did Loretta give such free reign to her increase in violence as when her accompaniments were being practiced they were never right for her she looked upon them as a necessary evil the piano ought not to be heard at all it should always be pianissimo so there was nothing but giving way to her again and again and altering the time just as the whim happened to come into her head at the moment but now I took a firm stand against her I combated her impertences I taught her that an accompaniment devoid of energy was not conceivable and that there was a market difference between supporting and carrying along the song and letting it run to riot without form and without time Teresino faithfully lent me her assistance I composed nothing but pieces for the church writing all the solos for a voice of low register Teresino too tyrannized over me not a little to which I submitted with a good grace since she had more knowledge of and so at least I thought more appreciation for German seriousness than her sister we were touring in South Germany in a little town we met an Italian tenor who was making his way from Milan to Berlin my fair companions went in ecstasies over their countrymen he stopped close to them cultivating in particular Teresino's so that to my great vexation I soon came to play rather a secondary part once just as I was about to enter the room with a roll of music under my arm the voices of my companions and the tenor engaged in an animated conversation fell upon my ear my name was mentioned I picked up my ears I listened I now understood Italian so well that not a word escaped me Loreta was describing the typical occurrence of the concert when I cut short her trail by prematurely striking down the concluding notes of the bar a German ass exclaimed the tenor I felt as if I must rush in and hurl the flighty hero of the boards out of the window but I restrained myself she then went on to say that she had been minded to send me about my business at once but moved by my clamorous entreaties she had so far had compassion told me as to tolerate me some time longer since I was studying singing under her this to my utter amazement Teresina confirmed yes he's a good child she added he's in love with me now and sets everything for the alto he is not without talent but he must rub off that stiffness and awkwardness which is so characteristic of the Germans I hope to make a good composer out of him then he shall write me some good things for there is very little written as yet for the alto voice and afterwards I shall let him go his own way he's very tiresome with his billing and cooing and lovesick sighing and he worries me too much with his various compositions which have been but poor stuff up to the present I at least have now got rid of him interrupted Loretta and Teresina how the fellow pestered me with his arias and duets you know very well and now she began to sing a duet of my composing which formerly she had praised very highly the other sister took up the second voice and they parodied me both in voice and in execution in the most shameful manner the tenor laughed till the walls rang again my limbs froze at once I formed an irrevocable resolve I quietly slipped away from the door back into my own room the windows of which looked upon a side street opposite was the post office the post coach for Bamberg had just driven up to take in the mails of passengers the latter were all standing ready waiting in the gateway but I had still an hour to spare hastily packing up my things I generously paid the whole of the bill at the hotel and hurried across to the post office as I crossed the broad street I saw the fair sisters and the Italian still standing at the window and looking out to catch the sound of the post horn I leaned back in the corner and dwelt with a good deal of satisfaction upon the crushing effect of the bitter scathing letter that I had left behind for them in the hotel with evident gratification Theodore tossed off the rest of the fiery aleatico that Edward had poured into his glass note, aleatico a red aromatic sweet Italian wine made chiefly at Florence return to text the latter, opening a new flask and skillfully shaking off the drops of oil which slam at the top note the wine was presumably in flasks of the usual Italian kind bottles encased in straw or reed etc. with oil on the top of the wine instead of a cork in the neck of the bottle return to text the latter remarked I should not have deemed teresina capable of such falseness and artfulness I cannot vanish from my mind the recollection of what a charming figure she made as she sat on horseback singing Spanish ballads whilst the horse branched along in graceful crevets that was her culminating point interrupted Theodore I still remember the strange impression which the scene made upon me I forgot my pain she seemed to me like a creature of a higher race it is indeed very true that such moments are turning points and that in them many images arise which time does not avail to dim whenever I have succeeded with any fine romance it has always been when teresina's image has stepped forth from the treasure house of my mind in clear bright colors at the moment of writing it but said Edward but let us not forget the artistic Loretta and scattering all rancor to the winds let us drink to the health of the two sisters they did so oh exclaimed Theodore how the fragrant breezes of Italy arise out of this wine and fan my cheeks my blood rolls with quickened energy in my veins oh why must I so soon leave that glorious land again as yet interrupted Edward as yet in all that you have told me I can see no connection with the beautiful picture and so I believe that you still have something more to tell me about the sisters of course I've received plainly that the ladies in the picture are none other than Loretta and Teresina themselves oh you're right they are replied Theodore and my ejaculations in size and my longings after the glorious land of Italy will form a fitting introduction to what I still have to say a short time ago perhaps about two years since just before leaving Rome I made a little excursion on horseback before a woman stood a charming girl the idea struck me how nice it would be to receive a cup of wine at the hands of the pretty child I pulled up before the door in a walk so thickly planted on each side with shrubs that the sunlight could only make its way through in patches in the distance I heard sounds of singing and the tinkling of a guitar I pricked up my ears and listened for the two female voices affected me somehow in a singular fashion gradually enough Jim recollections began to stir within my mind but they refused to take definite shape I dismounted and slowly drew near to the vine-clad arbor whence the music seemed to proceed eagerly catching up every sound in the meantime the second voice had ceased to sing the first sang a cantonnette alone as I came nearer and nearer that which had at first seemed familiar to me and which had at first attracted my attention gradually faded away the singer was now in the midst of a florid, elaborate fermata up and down she warbled up and down at length she stopped holding a note on for some time but all at once the female voice began to let off a torrent of abuse maledictions, curses, recuperations a man protested a second laughed the other female voice took part in the altercation the choral continued to wax louder and more violent with true Italian fury at length I stood immediately in front of the arbor and Abbott brushes out and almost runs over me he turns his head to look at me I recognized my good friend, Signor Luridico, my musical Newsmonger from Rome what in the name of wonder I exclaimed oh sir, sir, he screams save me, protect me from this mad fury from this crocodile this tiger, this hyena, this devil of a woman yes, I did, I did, I was meeting time to enforce his cousinet and brought down my baton too soon whilst she was in the midst of the fermata I cut short her trill but why did I meet her eyes, the devilish divinity that deuce take all fermata as I say in a most curious state of mind I hastened into the arbor along with the priest and recognized at the first glance the sisters Loretta and Teresina the former was still shrieking and raging and her sister still seriously remonstrating with her my host, his bare arms crossed over his chest was looking on laughing, whilst a girl was placing fresh flasks on the table no sooner did the sisters catch sight of me than they threw themselves upon me exclaiming ah, Signor Teodoro and covered me with caresses the quarrel was forgotten here you have a composer, said Loretta to the abbot, as charming as an Italian and as strong as a German both sisters continually interrupting each other began to recount the happy days we had spent together to speak of my musical abilities whilst still a youth of our practicings together of the excellence of my compositions never did they like singing anything else but what I had said Teresina at length informed me that a manager had engaged her as his first singer in tragic casts for the next carnival but she would give him to understand that she would only sing on condition that the composition of at least one tragic opera was entrusted to me the tragic was above all others, my special department and so on, so on Loretta on her part maintained that it would be a pity if I did not follow my bent for the light of the graceful, in a word the opera bufa she had been engaged as first lady singer of this species of composition and that nobody but I should write the piece in which she was to appear was simply a matter of course you may fancy what my feelings were as I stood between the two in a word you perceive that the company which I had joined was the same as that which Hummel painted and that just at the moment when the priest is on the point of cutting short Loretta's fermata but did they not make any allusion as Edward to your departure from them or to the scathing letter not a single syllable answered Theodore and you may be sure I didn't for I had long before banished all animosity from my heart and come to look back upon my adventure with the sisters as a merry prank I did however so far revert to the subject that I related to the priest how that several years before exactly the same sort of mischance befell me in one of Anfossi's arias that had just befallen him I painted the period of my connection with the sisters in tragic comical colors and distributing many a keen side blow I let them feel the superiority which the ripe experiences both of life and of art of the years that had elapsed in the interval had given me over them and a good thing it was I concluded that I did cut short that fermata for it was evidently meant to last through eternity and I am firmly of opinion that if I had left the singer alone I should be sitting at the piano now but Signore replied the priest what director is there who would dare to prescribe laws to the primatoma your offense was much more heinous than mine you in the concert hall and I here in the leafy harbor besides I was only director in imagination nobody need to attach any importance to that and if the sweet fiery glances of these heavenly eyes have not fascinated me I should not have made an ass of myself the priest's last words proved tranquilizing for although Loretta's eyes had begun to flash with anger as the priest spoke before he had finished she was quite appeased we spent the evening together many changes take place in 14 years which was the interval that had passed since I had seen my fair friends although looking somewhat older was still not devoid of charms Teresina had worn better without losing her graceful form both were dressed in rather gay colors and their manners were just the same as before that is 14 years younger than the ladies themselves at my request Teresina sang some of the serious songs that had once so deeply affected me but I fancied that they sounded differently from what they did when I first heard them and Loretta singing too although her voice had not crucially lost anything either in power or in compass seemed to me to be quite different from my recollection of it of former times the sisters behavior towards me their feigned ecstasies their rude admiration which however took the shape of gracious patronage had done much to put me in a bad humor and now the obtrusiveness of this comparison between the images in my mind and the not over and above pleasing reality tended to put me in a still worse the droll priest who in all the sweetest words you can imagine was playing the amoroso to both sisters at once as well as frequent applications to the good wine had length restored me to good humor so that we spent a very pleasant evening in perfect concord and gaiety the sisters were most pressing in their invitations to me that we might at once talk over the parts which I was to set for them and so concert measures accordingly I left Rome without taking any further steps to find out their place of abound and yet after all said it is to them that you owe the awakening of your genius for music that I admit replied Theodore I owed them that and a host of good melodies besides and that is just the reason why I did not want to see them again every composer can recall certain impressions which time does not obliterate the spirit of music spake and his voice was the creative word which suddenly awakened the kindred spirit slumbering in the breast of the artist then the latter rose like a song which can never more set thus it is unquestionably true that all melodies which stirred up in this way proceed from the depths of the composer's being seemed to us to belong to the singer alone who fan the first spark within us we hear her voice and record only what she has sung it is however the inheritance of us weak mortals that clinging to the clods we are only too feigned to draw down what is above the earth into the miserable narrowness characteristic of things in the earth thus it comes to pass that the singer becomes our lover and our wife the spell is broken and the melody of her nature which formerly revealed glorious things is now prostituted to complaints about broken soup plates or ink stains in new linen happy is the composer who never again so long as he lives sets eyes upon the woman who by virtue of some mysterious power and kindled in the flame of music even though the young artist's heart may be rent by pain the moment comes for parting from his lovely enchantress nevertheless her form will continue to exist as a divinely beautiful strain which lives on and on in the pride of youth and beauty and gendering melodies in which time after time he perceives the lady of his love but what is she else if not the highest ideal which working its way from within outwards is at length reflected in the external dependent form a strange theory but yet plausible was Edward's comment as the two friends arm in arm passed out from Salatorones into the street End of the Faremata Recording by Thomas Copeland