登陆注册
5247800000002

第2章 THE SPIRIT OF PLACE(2)

If, especially in England, we make rough and reluctant bells go in gay measures, when we whip them to run down the scale to ring in a wedding--bells that would step to quite another and a less agile march with a better grace--there are belfries that hold far sweeter companies. If there is no music within Italian churches, there is a most curious local immemorial music in many a campanile on the heights. Their way is for the ringers to play a tune on the festivals, and the tunes are not hymn tunes or popular melodies, but proper bell-tunes, made for bells. Doubtless they were made in times better versed than ours in the sub-divisions of the arts, and better able to understand the strength that lies ready in the mere little submission to the means of a little art, and to the limits-- nay, the very embarrassments--of those means. If it were but possible to give here a real bell-tune--which cannot be, for those melodies are rather long--the reader would understand how some village musician of the past used his narrow means as a composer for the bells, with what freshness, completeness, significance, fancy, and what effect of liberty.

These hamlet-bells are the sweetest, as to their own voices, in the world. Then I speak of their antiquity I use the word relatively.

The belfries are no older than the sixteenth or seventeenth century, the time when Italy seems to have been generally rebuilt. But, needless to say, this is antiquity for music, especially in Italy.

At that time they must have had foundries for bells of tender voices, and pure, warm, light, and golden throats, precisely tuned.

The hounds of Theseus had not a more just scale, tuned in a peal, than a North Italian belfry holds in leash. But it does not send them out in a mere scale, it touches them in the order of the game of a charming melody. Of all cheerful sounds made by man this is by far the most light-hearted. You do not hear it from the great churches. Giotto's coloured tower in Florence, that carries the bells for Santa Maria del Fiore and Brunelleschi's silent dome, does not ring more than four contralto notes, tuned with sweetness, depth, and dignity, and swinging one musical phrase which softly fills the country.

The village belfry it is that grows so fantastic and has such nimble bells. Obviously it stands alone with its own village, and can therefore hear its own tune from beginning to end. There are no other bells in earshot. Other such dovecote-doors are suddenly set open to the cloud, on a festa morning, to let fly those soft-voiced flocks, but the nearest is behind one of many mountains, and our local tune is uninterrupted. Doubtless this is why the little, secluded, sequestered art of composing melodies for bells--charming division of an art, having its own ends and means, and keeping its own wings for unfolding by law--dwells in these solitary places. No tunes in a town would get this hearing, or would be made clear to the end of their frolic amid such a wide and lofty silence.

Nor does every inner village of Italy hold a bell-tune of its own; the custom is Ligurian. Nowhere so much as in Genoa does the nervous tourist complain of church bells in the morning, and in fact he is made to hear an honest rout of them betimes. But the nervous tourist has not, perhaps, the sense of place, and the genius of place does not signal to him to go and find it among innumerable hills, where one by one, one by one, the belfries stand and play their tunes. Variable are those lonely melodies, having a differing gaiety for the festivals; and a pitiful air is played for the burial of a villager.

As for the poets, there is but one among so many of their bells that seems to toll with a spiritual music so loud as to be unforgotten when the mind goes up a little higher than the earth, to listen in thought to earth's untethered sounds. This is Milton's curfew, that sways across one of the greatest of all the seashores of poetry--

"the wide-watered."

同类推荐
  • 太平兩同書

    太平兩同書

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太上老君清静心经

    太上老君清静心经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 梅花拳秘谱

    梅花拳秘谱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 谈薮

    谈薮

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 泰尔亲王配力克里斯

    泰尔亲王配力克里斯

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 玉箓生神资度转经仪

    玉箓生神资度转经仪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 本色

    本色

    珍琴和钟粟算得上是青梅竹马了。他们两家,是相隔两栋房子的前后邻居;而且他们从小学到中学都在同一所学校里读,只不过,珍琴比钟粟要低两年级。两人小时候常常在一起玩,尽管那时候玩伴很多,但他们两人的关系要比旁人稍微亲近一些。因为珍琴性格安静不大喜欢玩闹,一般只是站在一旁看大家玩。而钟粟呢,由于他身子骨单薄,玩什么都比别人差一点火候,伙伴们大都不喜欢跟他玩,玩剧烈一点的游戏,就把他排除在外,所以他也大都只能在一旁看看。于是他们两人就时常凑在一起,玩一些用沙子堆房子呀,过家家呀,这些个比较安静也不需要体力比较适合他们各自性格和体力的游戏。
  • 王小波全集(第五卷)

    王小波全集(第五卷)

    本书讲述了男人之间同性恋的故事,它几乎没有那种情欲氛围,整个故事是靠夜色、对话和一些意识流的回忆镜头和幻想镜头组成的。就两个男人,一个同性恋作家,阿兰,一个英俊的警察,小史。小史把“搞流氓”的阿兰带回派出所审问,在好奇和蔑视的双重心境中让阿兰自述他那奇怪的人生。一个夜晚过去了,阿兰通过语言将小史潜在的同性恋倾向完全释放出来,就像启开了一个魔瓶,晨光中,小史像重新投胎似的兴奋和恐惧。
  • 一品寒妃

    一品寒妃

    推荐腹黑新文【邪皇妖后】她,不仅聪慧,而且还拥有一张风华绝代的容貌,受尽众人的宠爱,可是却因为一句话,被送到山上修炼,受尽苦难;十年过去,又是因为一句话,被迫嫁给那个人人惧怕的恶魔。他,冰冷的心因为她不再寒冷。情景一绝色女子持剑抵着男子的心口处,轻声吐出,“放我走!”“除非我死,不然你永远都是属于我的。”男子说完,只见亮白的剑身已被鲜血染红。情景二“想救她?”冰冷的声音从她口里吐出。男子好看的嘴型眯成一条线,寒冷的眸子闪过一丝的柔情。“只要你能打败我,就能从我手上带走她!”剑轻轻一划,鲜红的血随着剑身而流下。“好”她招招狠辣,而他,也没留情。他的一掌,把她打下了悬崖。“不…”一道身影紧随着那道白色身影跳下悬崖。他,战场的恶魔靖王,冰冷的心,却不知在什么时候,内心已经被她给占据了。他,江湖上人人惧怕的魔王,可是在她面前,他不再是那个令人害怕的魔王,而是温柔体贴的男子。他,襄王,他明知道他们不可能在一起,但是他为了她,愿意付出自己的性命。他,世上极具神秘的人,活在这世上只为了一个人,那就是她。【邪皇妖后】简介:她的大婚,没有喜,也没有乐,有的只是悲,还有痛,只因在这一天,她的国家没了,至亲没了,就连他也背叛了她,只因他的新娘不是她。“只要我没死,我一定会让那些伤我害我灭我的人付出惨痛代价!”万丈悬崖,闭上双眸,纵身一跳。当她再次睁开双眸时,她不再是以前那个不谙世事,天真无邪的小公主,而眼底闪过的锐利光华让人无法别过自己的视线。当她打败了武林盟主,摧毁了最强大的暗杀组织,踹了帝君一脚,剃光了郡主的万根墨发等等,而且她背后总是有一个妖孽男子跟在屁股后面甩也甩不掉,世人再也不敢小看这个小女子,不单单只是因为这女子的能力,更是因为她背后的妖孽男子。片段一:“女人,你当我只是摆件吗?”男子怒斥着。“摆件是死的,你是活的。”男子的怒气稍微缓了缓,似乎多了些抱怨,“那你当我是什么?”“男人!”女子冰冷的吐出两个字。“就这样?”“不然你想当女人?”“对,我是男人!”男子邪邪一笑,而后扑倒了绝色女子,屋内一片旖旎。片段二:冰冷的眸子尽显柔意,冰冷的大手持起那只柔软的玉手贴在自己心口处,柔声吐出,“这里装满了你!”“脏了!”倾世女子冷冷抽回自己的小手,寒声吐出。“不,除你之外,从未有人能住进去。”“那也是脏了!”
  • 重生修仙在都市

    重生修仙在都市

    【最热火爆】绝世强者,重生五百年前。唐易发誓,要将曾经的敌人踩在脚下,要将曾经的爱人揽入怀中。新书《我有无数鬼将》欢迎收看建了个群:二群:807137331一群:97347415(已满)
  • 符皇

    符皇

    家族被毁,亲人失踪,婚约被撕……这个松烟城人人讥笑的扫把星,却获得百万年前荒古时期的一座神魔洞府传承!从此以后制神符,炼体魄,修无上剑道,悟法则奥义……凭借过人的胆识和逆天的机缘,在这神魔纵横,妖魅潜行的大世界中,最终踏上无尽大道的巅峰,掌控天下!
  • 佛说延寿妙门陀罗尼经

    佛说延寿妙门陀罗尼经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 无力骑士传

    无力骑士传

    西方大陆,东方少年。天生不凡,奈何天妒。无灵亦无力,无力亦无敌!庆幸吧!获胜的方法,可远不止一种!
  • 暗黑之门

    暗黑之门

    明凤桢站在病房门口。白色的门。她把手放在把手上。这一瞬间,它仿佛变成了黑色——像一个突然出现的黑洞,立刻吸光了她所有的勇气。明凤桢倒退了几步,靠在走廊的墙上,开始喘息。“弥怎么了?”护士小姐关切地看着明凤桢,她的额头上正密密麻麻地冒着冷汗,“哪里难受啊?我去叫医生”“不,不用……”明凤桢闭上眼。护士扭头看了一眼方才明风桢想要打开又未能打开的门,若有所思。“你别太担心,丁小姐只是晕倒,她的身体素质很好,没有大碍的,应该很快就能醒了。”
  • 快穿攻略:戏精撩上瘾

    快穿攻略:戏精撩上瘾

    /甜风文快穿系列/苏染从没想过有天会被绑定个坑逼系统。系统问:“想要不一样的人生吗?”苏染想了想:“怎么个不一样法?”系统再接再厉道:“比如……撩男神?各种款式任你选择!”苏染撑着下巴,眨眨眼:“听着好像还不错的样子……”且看苏染如何花式撩男神,追男神!!!<因为我还没有成年,并没有签约,佛系更新><只要每天有评论或者推荐票都能够让我兴奋的码出一篇给你们><爱你^3^><发射一波小心心biubiu>