Before his time instrumental music was chiefly written for the Paradiesensaal, and its melody often sacrificed vitality of idea to a ceremonial courtliness of phrase.
There were to be found the most contradictory qualities in perfect agreement with each other - gravity and courtliness, earnestness and gaiety, the man of learning, the noble and the bishop. But all centred in an air of high-bred dignity, of graceful, polished seemliness and wit - it cost an effort to turn away one's eyes.
The Tuscan convertible is a paradox: there is a charming courtliness to this brutish Bohemian.
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