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Untitled Article
Anak might have tilted , with just beneath them , and of like colossal proportion , the standard of Le Genereux festooning its tricolor and solitary drapery . There was the band , the instrumental in the centre , the principal singers in front , forming the chord of the arc , and the choristers on each of its projecting sides ;
an orderly and organized pile of . living beings , and of instruments that almost seemed instinct with life and harmony . And then along the thronged area , and around the thronged galleries , what plumes were fluttering and what eyes were glancing , the assembled pride of the city and the county , all gay and gorgeous as at a tournament of old ! There are few sights so splendid ; especially
when , in the evening , the lambent gas running along the pillared and pointed arches ,, and following their graceful curves , flickered in the musical undulations of the air ; or when , more beautiful still , in the morning , the partial sunlight streamed through some one or other of the gothic windows , making long radiant groups of lovely heads and faces , a troop of ' shining ones' amid the
shadowed gaiety of the surrounding mortals . It is worth while going a pretty long journey to Norwich only to see the Festival ; it is a festival to see it . I know of few buildings that would allow of such a coiip-cTceil , and those few are not likely to have the opportunity . Moreover I could almost think that the skies love , and do somewhat , at times , to grace the spectacle . I have seen
there strange effects of light and shade , as on a landscape , and more than once have heard together the rolling of the drums and of the thunder . Last time , when Braham was singing the Battle of the Angels , peal after peal accompanied his ' big manly voice , ' and the lightnings blazed athwart the hall , as if the reminiscences of the heavens were awakened by the song of that strife of Gods , which once shook them to the centre , and decided their dominion .
Nor does the commonest state of the atmosphere , which would not be a common state were it without changes manifold , in the many hours which the morning performances occupy , fail of bestowing on the visual sense sundry outgushings of light and glory , intermingled with dim curtainings of gloom , and rich
streakings and shiftings of variegated colouring , which blend their prismatic harmonies and magical alternations with those of the auditory atmosphere , the element of sound in which for the time we * have our being , ' contributing to an influence over the sensations which altogether is probably without a parallel .
We see no reason why musical festivals should be an aristocratical luxury ; but many reasons why they should be rendered much more popular than they are . Nor would the process of so rendering them be a very difficult one . Our observation of what passed at Norwich suggested many considerations illustrative of its facility , and of its favourable influence upon the progress of musical taste and science , as well as on the enjoyments , and thereby , the improvement of the people .
Untitled Article
Reflections on the Norwich Musical Festival . 753
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1833, page 753, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2626/page/21/
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