AL 10.55.4. HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY FROM THE BEQUEST OF COPYRIGHT, 1890, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 1 PRELUDE. "OUR existence in life is a continued alternating of desires and gratifications. The will is forever wanting, and it strives continually to gratify its wants. We really know but two states while in the body-the state of want and the state of satisfaction; the conditions of desire and gratification. Analogous to this, music has but two leading chords, from which all others are derived. These are the tonic chord and the dominant chord of the seventh. The first is a chord of rest and calmness, the second is a chord of unrest, of longing and striving. Music is a continued succession of these two chords, and in this is represented our never-ceasing desires as followed by gratification. Thus the composer reveals the inmost condition of our souls; he speaks the greatest truth, and speaks it in a language which reason comprehends not, but a language which is understood alike by all men the world over."-SCHOPENHAUER. THE DOMINANT SEVENTH. CHAPTER I. "THAT first violin iss sick once more ahgén,” said Karl Klinder, pushing aside the mahoganycolored portière at the door of the McChesneys' music-room, where an amateur club met for weekly practice. He spoke with the careful accent and precise pronunciation that mark the ambitious German who desires to be considered a true American citizen. A language, however, being-like beauty— more satisfactory as an inheritance than as an acquisition, and requiring, moreover, for its perfect development abstinence from all demoralizing influences, it is not surprising that the worthy Karl, who rendered faithful homage to the beer-garden and the New York Musicians' Protective Union, should still remain to attentive ears, as well as observant eyes, a German citizen. In view of his announcement, made with Teutonic gravity and a quizzical glance over the top of his spectacles, he |