Edward Bellasis

Cardinal Newman as a Musician Edward Bellasis

Book Excerpt: ...ven's Ninth Quartet and C minor Symphony, and the Allegretto of the Symphony in A. I cannot of that music rightly say, Whether I hear or touch or taste the tones, Oh, what a heart-subduing melody![23][Footnote 23: The Dream of Gerontius.]There was just that human element about it, so "deeply pathetic," which in the same way made him prefer Euripides to Sophocles, for all the latter's "sweet composure, melodious fulness, majesty and grace."[24] And here we may add, that as late as January, 1890, apropos of a Greek play for his school, he was as keen and eager as ever about the merits of Euripides, expressed himself as being at a loss to understand the critics invariably preferring Sophocles to the other two, and evidently placed Euripides and Æschylus first and second respectively. A frequently true and natural feeling, whether displayed by the author of the Bacchæ, or by the composer of Fidelio, evidently almost atoned, in his estimation...