Complete Encyclopaedia of Music/A/Accent of feeling

by John Weeks Moore

Accent of feeling. This accent breathes through the whole subject an animating spirit. It is the most spontaneous, quick, and deeply inwrought product of every good performer. It gives the execution designed both by the author of the words and the writer of the music. When one hears it, he can revel in the full luxury of music ; and to thus enjoy song, one can have no hired minstrel, no crowded benches, no glare of lamps, no bustle. He must have a still, calm eye, in some quiet bower, away from the hum of cities ; with one who needs not ask or be told what string to strike - one who will cling to the merit, not the less precious that we seldom hear it, the pathetic simplicity which nature prompts - whose heart is in the strain breathed forth - carolling in its own created atmosphere of harmony. Such is a banquet at which there would be no chance "that the appetite should sicken, and so die." To such a feast one would be even selfish enough to wish no fellow-guests. One would have no voice to break the spell - to startle the spirit from its trance of enchantment - to mar with the sounds of earth the tones which bless us with dreams of heaven.