II. The didactic and contemplative, as interpolations in soliloquy, or
in chorus of adoration, prayer, and warning.
A third element, the dramatic accessories of costume, scenery, and
action, we have dispensed with, and, I think, happily so.
We find in these days in many nations, including our own dear country,
composers are striving after this highest and noblest ideal; let us pray
they may receive that strength necessary for so great a responsibility.
There is none greater in music, and our hearts tell us that unless a
composer knows and believes himself that the subject which in reverence
he approaches is the truth itself, which he must proclaim and preach as
a conviction of his own--we say that unless he thus incorporates himself
in his work it is but mockery, and the result of it nothingness.