Irish Melodies

When the family had an evening alone it was often given over entirely to music. Then the great living room sounded as if it were filled with singing birds. Both father and mother had excellent voices and a wonderful collection of Irish melodies. Katherine Burton

Genuine Music

The young Austrians growing up in the 1920’s wanted genuine music again. They went up and down the countryside, collecting real folk songs and folk tunes, delved into archives and libraries and copied unpublished music of the old masters, the great unknown ones. In mimeographed and hand-copied sheets this music went from town to town……

Naples Sings

Everybody in Naples who is not laughing seems to be singing. Papa said to me, “As we go farther and farther south, in Italy, the people seem to grow poorer and poorer, but they seem to love music more, too.” And that is so. Though the Neapolitans may be poor, they seem to love singing……

Music Everywhere

The weather was perfect, and all the orchards were drowned in color. My morning’s work done, I made my way to the river. Suddenly, a black-bird alighted on a bough of a neighboring birch and sang, and I answered him. I had been singing since my early childhood. Everybody who had anything of a voice……

Creating Beauty

Men learn of God through Beauty. We Builders who hold beauty in our fingers have the key. We could create it only if we loved it enough. Eloise Lownsbery, Boy Knight of Reims

Stained-Glass Beauty

Seen from the outside, the stained-glass windows in a church look dull and dark; but when you enter the church and can see the same windows illumined by the rays of the sun, you discover their incredible beauty. The light of the sun can transform stained-glass windows into magnificent works of art. Likewise, you can……

The Able Housekeeper

The house had been clean under my care; under Betsie’s it glowed. She saw beauty in wood, in pattern, in color, and helped us to see it, too. The soup kettle and the coffee pot on the back of the stove, which I never seemed to find time for, were simmering again the first week……

The Beauty of a Song

The other day as I was taking my pleasure along a river called “The River of Gold,” from which one can faintly see the enormous mountains which shut off Spain from Europe, as I walked, I say, along the Mail, or ordered and planted quay of the town, I heard, a long way off, a……

Cottage of the Woodcarver

Just outside the village stood the cottage of a woodcarver. The woodcarver and his wife took me in, and I became their foster child. I learned to carve. A poet in wood-carving was my foster father. How proud everyone was of his work! How carefully he planned and cut designs in his wooden pieces! My……

Days of Carving

Happily Joseph worked at his carving, which greatly pleased him. The son watched his father’s fingers as they deftly cut the splinters of wood. How skillfully they carved an image lifelike and fine. Madeline Brandeis