Anne Evans: Poems and Music :: :: University of Virginia Library

Bassi, violini, violoncelli!
Where is Corelli?
Let grateful acknowledgments greet
Mr. Ella: how few for a musical treat
So willing and able to cater!
He brings to us Beethoven, greater
Than mortal admirer can measure,
Mozart with a treasure
Of pleasure—
Ah! well!—
Beyond what our speaking can tell:
Blythe Haydn, who so playfully reigns
O'er flowery Arcadian domains;
And the amiable Spohr,
Who charms us the more
By blending the pure gold of joy
With subtle discordant alloy.
We've these and we've others,
Their generous brothers:

Each from the wealth of his mind
Gives in his kind.
But amid the profusion,
Wherefore Corelli's exclusion?
What, will the passion
For music be subject to fashion?
Nay, might it not now be improving
To show as a fact
That a work of art can be compact,
Yet dignified, elegant, moving?
Might nobody thence
Discover the value of form,
As opposed to the prevalent storm
Of musical sound without sense?
And is it not really a duty
To recognise all kinds of beauty?
Bassi, violini, violoncelli!
Forget not Corelli!