"... "With all my heart," said Mr. Bult, willing to be gracious. "I was sure he had too much talent to be a mere musician."(George Eliot, Daniel Deronda)
"Ah, sir, you are under some mistake there," said Klesmer, firing up. "No man has too much talent to be a musician. Most men have too little. A creative artist is no more a mere musician than a great statesman is a mere politician. We are not ingenious puppets, sir, who live in a box and look out on the world only when it is gaping for amusement. We help to rule the nations and make the age as much as any other public men. We count ourselves on level benches with legislators. And a man who speaks effectively through music is compelled to something more difficult than parliamentary eloquence."
With the last word Klesmer wheeled from the piano and walked away."
Monday 23 March 2015
Help to rule the nations and make the age- No man has too much talent to be a musician
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Di,
ReplyDeleteProbably just a coincidence, but isn't klezmer is a type of Jewish music, mostly from Central and Eastern Europe?
Oh it is. I didn't know this. Just checked.
DeleteProbably not a coincidence, I think. Klesmer's Jewish, and many characters' names also have some meaning.