Scan 229
The American history and encyclopedia of music .., 1908
8 lines. Read by computer on 10 September 2026. Printed page 155. See the scan on archive.org.
1solo yet sweeter, sadder, and stranger, the movement continually increasing until all was fast and wild, and mad, a locomotive quickstep, and then a sudden silence, then sunlight, and the storm had blown away."
3The gypsies offer a strange contrast in corporal chastity with great lasciviousness of expression both in song and dance. They have the faculty of adapting themselves to circumstances and of presenting to their audiences what they instinctively feel will please. They have no religion of their own and at no time have they been deeply influenced by the religious spirit. Their songs deal with love in all its phases, war and the "Romany road."
5Wherever the gypsy is, there is music and dancing. And his music and dance take on the character of the country in which he sojourns. He even has appropriated and called his own the various instruments of the different countries wherein he has wandered. But no matter what the music is, or on what instrument it is performed, he always imparts his own peculiar character to it. The tune is never reproduced in its original form but always is overloaded with the heavy masses of tonal embroidery he so dearly loves. This imparts an Oriental color and usually points to a scarcity of ideas, also to the fact that the performer has more technical skill than musical attainment. The gypsy tries to produce soul-moving effects, rather than musical compositions, and in this he is entirely successful. Therein lies the beauty of his music. The listener is thrown into an almost hypnotic state. He may imagine he hears the turmoil of battle and tumult ending with defeat, when the music ends in a wail of passionate grief. Suddenly it will change to wild bursts of joy and exultation, carrying the hearer along in its intensity. It is music which charms by its sharp contrasts, extreme exhilaration, and anon, deepest depression. It is intoxicating, fascinating, irresistible.
7In Spain, the gypsy dances the romalis, a dance peculiarly his own. It is accompanied by hand-clapping and singing, and the favorite tune is an old eastern or Moorish
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