| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
STORIES OF
expenses. Thornton's remains lie in the quiet God's Acre of Walcot Wesleyan Chapel, Bath. The'song known as "Rousseau's Dream" is extracted, as far as the air goes, from Jean Jacques Rousseau's opera, " Le Devin du Village," which was produced in 1752. In the original it is a pantomime tune, without words, and the name of " Rousseau's Dream" was first given to it in print by J. B. Cramer. The English words," Now, while eve's soft shadows blending" were written to the melody by William Ball. Some organists of the Church of England (acting upon the old Puritan prin-ciple of "not letting the devil have all the pretty tunes") occasionally employ it as a psalm or hymn tune. In this connection of thought a quotation from Chappell's " Popular Music of the Olden Time" will come in apropos. " Some writers have asserted that the popular tunes of different countries sprang from the church; but this is mere assertion, without one atom of proof. The better feelings of man have ever revolted at such appropriations. To sing them would have been thought the extreme of ribaldry. On the contrary, in all countries, the case has been reversed. In the Vatican Library at Rome there are now eighty volumes of masses constructed upon popular tunes by composers of
232 |
||