"What can be finer than the simple strains of the opening section!
As he, defeated, dying, On whose forbidden ear The distant strains of triumph Break, agonized and clear!
The music of ancient Ireland consisted wholly of short airs, each with two strains or parts--seldom more.
At last a grisly thought came to me: it was that they would learn these sweet strains, and put their own words to them so as to use them at the awful sacrifices.
They seemed to hunger and thirst after this music, and the strains of the inspired Celtic race seemed to come to them like the revelation of the glory of heaven.
Then, after some minutes, there crossed her face such a look as visits the face of one who, waking from sleep, strains his faculties to recapture some blissful and vanishing vision....
From the perennial fount of song within his breast there streamed fresh melodious strains through his symphonies, the ninth and last of which, the C major, ranks him with the great symphonists.
Music is all-powerful to awaken the one, but powerless to abate the other; and the eyes that weep over the pathetic strains of "Lochaber" can gaze without a tear upon the death-agonies of a slaughtered friend.
The entrance of the presto surprises, and seems out of keeping with what precedes; but what we hear after the return of tempo primo--the development of those simple strains, or rather the cogitations on them--justifies the presence of the presto.
Large families were the rule among the capable pioneers of America; now they are rare except in the lower industrial ranks. Democracy and opportunity are favoring this process of increasing the mediocre and reducing the excellent strains of stock.