Books › The song and the singer; a setting forth, in words, of certain movements in a latter-day life: prelude-allegro; andante con moto; scherzo; presto con brio-coda, 1902 › scan 121
Scan 121
The song and the singer; a setting forth, in words, of certain movements in a latter-day life: prelude-allegro; andante con moto; scherzo; presto con brio-coda, 1902
16 lines. Read by computer on 19 September 2026. Printed page 107. See the scan on archive.org.
1them, four for the eight firsts—whew! We've got a job ahead of us, Billy."
3"If it's nothing worse than long hours, I'm with you," said Billy. "Hustle, now."
5Ordway hustled, and as he wrote, feeling the sounds of which the notes were the symbols, he heard again the exhilarating trial reading in Guarda's parlor. He thrilled again and again at the memory of it. Once, when he looked aside at the turning of a page, he saw Billy, as before, clutching the coverlet and staring painfully.
7Presently a second violin part was ready.
9"Now, Billy," said the composer, "I'll start this for you, as I don't want the heading to betray the authorship, and then you can go ahead. Remember that music is more exact than science; the slightest misplacing of a note will result in violent discord."
11"Pope says 'all discord is but harmony not understood.'"
13"Pope didn't know what he was talking about, Billy. Pope never wrestled with copyists."
15Ordway had plunged into a first violin part. For some minutes he paid no attention to the reporter, for Billy either could make a useful copy, or he could not. In either case it would be a waste of precious minutes to try to oversee him. Two pens scratched away at the paper, one with rapidity and certainty, the other tentatively. At the turn of a page, Ordway looked around. He was just in time to catch Billy's head, which was falling forward to the table.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.