The adventures begin. Here are the windmills (trills from
the violins and wood wind), and the bleating army of the grand emperor,
Alifanfaron (tremolos from the wood wind); and here, in the third
variation, is a dialogue between the knight and his squire, from which
we are to guess that Sancho questions his master on the advantages of a
chivalrous life, for they seem to him doubtful. Don Quixote talks to him
of glory and honour; but Sancho has no thought for it. In reply to these
grand words he urges the superiority of sure profits, fat meals, and
sounding money. Then the adventures begin again. The two companions fly
through the air on wooden horses; and the illusion of this giddy voyage
is given by chromatic passages on the flutes, harps, kettledrums, and a
"windmachine," while "the tremolo of the double basses on the key-note
shows that the horses have never left the earth."[177]
But I must stop. I have said enough to show the fun the author is
indulging in. When one hears the work one cannot help admiring the
composer's technical knowledge, skill in orchestration, and sense of
humour. And one is all the more surprised that he confines himself to
the illustration of texts[178] when he is so capable of creating comic
and dramatic matter without it.
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