But that this is evidently absurd is clear from other arts and sciences; for with respect to musicians who play on the
flute together, the best
flute is not given to him who is of the best family, for he will play never the better for that, but the best instrument ought to be given to him who is the best artist.
Altisidora had by this time sat up on the catafalque, and as she did so the clarions sounded, accompanied by the
flutes, and the voices of all present exclaiming, "Long life to Altisidora!
The second course was two ducks trussed up in the form of fiddles; sausages and puddings resembling
flutes and hautboys, and a breast of veal in the shape of a harp.
As soon as the next moon was full the hunter's wife went to the mill-pond, played on a golden flute, and when she had finished placed it on the bank.
But one evening when the moon was full they sat together watching their flocks, and the shepherd played upon his flute. Then the shepherdess thought of that evening when she had sat at the full moon by the mill-pond and had played on the golden flute; the recollection was too much for her, and she burst into tears.
"I apprehend your
flute, which, by the by, I am glad to see you have brought, will be rather in the PENSEROSO style this evening, Mr.
Thus in the music of the
flute and of the lyre, 'harmony' and rhythm alone are employed; also in other arts, such as that of the shepherd's pipe, which are essentially similar to these.
The air was 'Away with melancholy'--a composition, which, when it is played very slowly on the
flute, in bed, with the further disadvantage of being performed by a gentleman but imperfectly acquainted with the instrument, who repeats one note a great many times before he can find the next, has not a lively effect.
I dreamed, I thought, that once while he was blowing into this dismal
flute, the old woman of the house, who had gone nearer and nearer to him in her ecstatic admiration, leaned over the back of his chair and gave him an affectionate squeeze round the neck, which stopped his playing for a moment.
"Why should you expect me to oblige you by hearing you play the
flute, any more than I should expect you to oblige me by not playing it?"
In the villages he played upon his
flute to pay for his food and his night's lodging.
I saw a little table in the great mosaic school in Florence--a little trifle of a centre table--whose top was made of some sort of precious polished stone, and in the stone was inlaid the figure of a
flute, with bell-mouth and a mazy complication of keys.
There was nobody inside but a miserable shoeless criminal, who had been taken up for playing the
flute, and who, the offence against society having been clearly proved, had been very properly committed by Mr.
William Rodney, having come back earlier from the office than he expected, sat down to pick out the melodies in "The Magic
Flute" upon the piano.
Would you admit them into our State when you reflect that in this composite use of harmony the
flute is worse than all the stringed instruments put together; even the panharmonic music is only an imitation of the
flute?
