MENDELSSOHN AND THE FLY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11484, 17 January 1903, Page 7

MENDELSSOHN AND THE FLY.

As an example of the fact tiiat great art&rte in music have sometimes derived kseons from the world of outdoor life, the following incident will be interesting: —lienaeksohn, at the time he was busy with the overture to "'-Midsummer Night's Dream," was one day riding with his friend Sohubring. The weather was beautiful, and the two were engaged in animated conversation as they lay iv tho shade on the grass, resting themselves and their horses, wlien all of a sudlden there was a "Hush!" A large fly had just then gone buzzing by, and Mendelssohn wanted to hear the sound it produced gradually die away. When tlw overture was completed, Mendelssohn drew Sehubring's attention to the passage in the progression where the violonoeilo modulates in the chord of the seventh of the descending scale from B minor to F sharp minor. "There, that's the fly that buzzed past us at Sehonhauser, , ' said Perhaps it will never be known how much musicians have been indebted for some of their inspirations to the sounds of.nature.