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THE CONCERT

A young monk is seated at a harpsichord, with his fingers resting on the keys. His fur-trimmed sleeves fall back, showing his strong yet delicate hands. As he strikes a chord he turns his head toward a priest behind him who is holding a viol. Evidently the priest is going

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to play a duet with the monk. The third person in the picture is a young man wearing a yellow and black doublet and a hat with a white plume.

Giorgione, the Italian artist who painted this picture, seemed to love everything that was joyous and beautiful. Most of his pictures are full of warmth and glow, and one writer says that he has "a certain flame-like quality of color." But in "The Concert" the light is subdued. The monk and his friends seem to be in an old, shadowy Italian palace. There is very little color, for the monk is dressed in black, and the priest wears a white robe and a black cape. Yet there is something Yet there is something charming in the soft light, the sober tints, the quiet people. We feel that these men are real lovers of music, and that in a few moments the strains from their instruments will float through the old palace in exquisite harmony.

GIORGIONE
(1477-1510)

Although Giorgione was one of the world's most famous painters, we know little of his life. He was born at the picturesque old city of Castelfranco in Italy, and studied art at Venice. In those days Venice was a very gay, brilliant, pleasure-loving city. Giorgione soon became popular there. He decorated the outer walls of a great building on the Grand Canal; but alas, sun and rain have destroyed this wonderful work. Only a few faint red patches on the wall show where the painting used to be. When Giorgione was at the height of his fame, a terrible plague broke out in Venice. Two thousand people died,

and among them was the young artist from Castelfranco. He passed away in his thirty-fourth year, "to the unspeakable grief of his friends," says an old Italian writer, "and to the no little injury of art."

THE GREAT SEBASTIAN

The year before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth a man named Veit Bach died in Germany. He was a miller and a baker. He loved music so well that he used to play the zither while the corn was grinding in his mill.

"The zither and the clattering mill wheels must have sounded merrily together," said Sebastian Bach, a greatgreat-grandson of the jolly miller.

Nearly all the descendants of Veit Bach were musicians. For two hundred years the family was famous in music. In that part of Germany all the best music positions were held by the Bachs. Once a year they used to meet in a family gathering to play music and to learn what they could from one another.

One of the great-grandsons of Veit Bach was the townmusician of Eisenach. Eisenach is a little German town where a castle called the Wartburg stands. Perhaps you remember that in the Wartburg, hundreds of years before, the Minnesingers had held a famous song contest.

Here at Eisenach was born John Sebastian Bach, the son of the town-musician. Sebastian grew up to be the

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greatest musician of all this musical family.

He took lessons in violin-playing from his father. When he was nine years old his father and mother died.

Then the

little orphan went to live with a grown-up brother in another town.

This older brother was an organist. He sent Sebastian to school and gave him lessons in clavichord-playing. The clavichord was an instrument somewhat like the modern piano. It was very small, with tiny spindle legs and odd little drawers for holding music. We should think it a queer sort of instrument nowadays.

Sebastian learned music quickly and was eager to study more. The older brother was a stern, harsh, gloomy man. He became jealous of the boy's talent. He refused to let Sebastian buy any music or do any practicing except upon the lessons that were given him.

Little Sebastian often looked longingly at a certain cupboard in his brother's house. It contained a book of organ music which had been written by the best masters of the time. His brother had forbidden him to touch the book.

Part of the cupboard door was of open lattice-work. One moonlight night Sebastian stole into the room, climbed up to the cupboard, and succeeded in squeezing the book through the lattice.

The boy was not allowed to have any candles, and at first he didn't know how he could copy the music. Then he noticed the moon shining brightly through his little

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