ABSTRACT
Melancholy opens the soul above all to delight. Melancholy is a sacred presence or way of being within Delight and belongs to Delight. Delight shelters and protects melancholy, for she is vulnerable. Melancholy would not be melancholy and Delight would not be delight without death's ambience. Decorative chinoiserie was modish in Henry Purcell's time, and no less delightful than it is now. 'Fetes' ("Festivals") gives us the vibrating, dancing rhythm of the atmosphere with sudden flashes of light. Impressionism can be seen as the last bright glow of art before the crushing weight of business and technology completely overwhelm musical art altogether, causing it to either retreat to the academy or become part of pop culture on the radio and concert circuit, having sold out to it. Of all composers, Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most consistently delightful, only outshone, perhaps, by Mozart.
