Baroque Notes: Flowers and Duets

All of a sudden it flowed down. "I don't mean it, but I'm not talking nonsense. Yes, I love music, but my mother ordered me to study law//law and choose law//law as my career."

"You listen to what your mother says?!" Handel was a little annoyed, "Listen! My good friend Philip! You are already 20 years old! You are not a three-year-old child, you can do whatever your parents say! "

"I...I know." Telemann sniffed, he knew that he must look terrible now, but what could he do. "I... I didn't have a choice. My father died early, my mother pulled me and my brothers and sisters up, and I didn't want to let her down. And... and I didn't have the confidence in myself that if I was in music, Can I give her a decent future, after all..."

"Have you told your mother what you think?" Handel suddenly stopped being angry, and just said coldly.

"Yes. But she doesn't agree," Telemann said, tears streaming down his red nose from crying.

"Have you ever fought? Have you thought about other ways besides agreeing and opposing? Have you tried to mediate?" Handel sat cross-legged on the ground, examining the fragile teenager in front of him with sharp eyes, "Give up music Choose law//law, this is a decision that you will regret for the rest of your life, don't you think so?"

Telemann said nothing.He looked at the sheet music for the sixth Psalm of David that Handel held in his hand.The water-stained places on it are actually the tears he lamented for his fate in the dead of night these days.

"Listen. You who gave up music with the seemingly noble rhetoric of being for the sake of your family and future livelihood, all this can only show that you don't love music enough, you don't really love music." Handel said coldly, "I Misread you, sorry, young Herr Telemann."

Still Telemann said nothing.He bit his lip.The room was so quiet that only the clock and the boy's sobbing could be heard. "Mr. Handel," Telemann said, taking a deep breath, "Telemann asks you one thing. Burn my sheet music, get out of here, and forget that you once met a man from Magdeburg in Halle." music liar."

"Okay. Simply!" Handel stood up abruptly, his face full of indifference and disdain.He lit a candle...then he put down the music and put the candle on the candlestick.The dimly lit room was lit by a faint candle.In the shadow of the flickering candle, Telemann looked at his friend with confused and sad crying red eyes, "Why didn't you burn it?"

The indifference on Handel's face added a kind of sadness.Looking at the sheet music in his hand, he read out excerpts from the Psalm:

"Turn back, Lord, and deliver me! Save me in your steadfast love.

For no one will remember you in death, who will thank you in Sheol?

I am weary with my groaning; every night I weep, I float the couch, and soak the mattress.

My eyes are dimmed with sorrow, and dimmed with all my enemies. "

"Perhaps you did not choose your own work unintentionally," Handel said, putting down the score, "but it seems to me that this is the poem in your heart. Poor Philip, young Herr Telemann, I, Handel, although this year He's only 16, but he's seen more of the world than the average country kid. Listen to me, there's nothing certain in the world, and you think a Bachelor of Laws is the end of your music career, but it doesn't have to be. However, if even you deny yourself this possibility, then even if Jehovah hears your prayer, He will be helpless.”

Seeing Telemann still in tears, Handel sat down beside him. "And, as far as I am concerned, from my selfish psychology... I don't want you to be sad, I don't want you to force yourself to do things you hate, I want you to be happy... Every tear of yours is like The needle in my heart."

The friend's hand is so warm, and Telemann feels that if he is not so sad at this moment, then he will be melted by tenderness... Every trace of his gaze, tone, and touch is the most violent poison// , is the poison of music, which tortured Telemann.

"Fred... I don't realize until now that you are indeed Orpheus, the incarnation of sublime music... Unfortunately, I, Philip, am Eurydice... Our relationship was cursed from the beginning. This love is a deadly poison, which first destroyed me and then will destroy you...! Leave me, Fred! Forget me, Fred! Do not expect to save me from my sad fate, I must die at the place of Persephone, queen of the underworld, don't sacrifice yourself for me! Fred, use your great musical genius to make wood and stone mourn, to tame wild beasts, to save the common people, to convey the spirit...and I will go to In the pile of Fa//Lü's old papers, don't see me again, don't miss me for a moment!"

After a long time, Handel said with a little self-mockery, "It's ridiculous and sad, why did God create you and me, and then let us meet again! Listen, if you are Eurydice, then I am Eurydice too. To tell you the truth, as soon as you leave tomorrow, I will go to Halle University to report. Do you know what my family arranges for me to study? Ha, it's also law!"

Telemann was shocked by Handel's words.

"Honor your mother and cherish this opportunity..." Handel said, "Listen, my Philip, I am more unable than you to resist the further education my family has arranged for me... This is my father's last wish , I can't let him disappoint me in heaven. My father had a son when he was 63 years old and had me. Four years ago, when I was 12 years old, he left my mother and me for good. … His greatest wish during his lifetime was for me to study law." Looking into Telemann's unbelievable eyes, Handel continued, "But, you know? I decided to study law, but it doesn't mean I'm going to give up music... When the time is right, I'm definitely going to drop out of the law school at Halley University to pursue my music career. Yes, it must be hard to lose the support of my family, and yes, the music field Once Lu becomes a profession, he will lose a lot of romance and casualness, but I am ready, if I am destined to be crazy in the end, let me be crazy because of the torture of music!"

"Fred..." Telemann was speechless for a while, "I... I don't know... I don't know if I will have the courage to go against my mother's wishes halfway... Please forgive my cowardice, I am concerned about the future Potential hardship fraught with retreat..."

Handel said nothing.This 16-year-old boy lost his childishness prematurely because of family accidents. "Listen, Philip, I don't want to hear your ramblings." The Halle's bad temper came up again. "It's getting late and I can't stay long. I know you're leaving for Leipzig early tomorrow morning. I can't persuade you to change your attitude." Opinion. I just ask you to promise me two things -- please promise me, for our short encounter, lifelong friendship and eternal music." While speaking, Handel picked up a piece of letter paper from the table and wrote A few lines passed to Telemann.

"This is my home address in Halle, which I will continue to use when I go to university. If you are grateful for the grumpy Halle teenager you have met here in the past few days, please write to me when you have settled in Leipzig .”

"Second thing," said Handel, picking up Telemann's score for Psalm Six from the side of the candlestick, "never give up the music. Don't burn this score. Keep it forever. Yes, after I saw At the first glance of it, I saw not only your mourning over your fate, but also your future happiness. Really. You must believe me. Read it again, my friend. "

"I'm leaving." When Telemann overlooked the dark streets of Harley from the window of the hotel, he looked at his friend who he had known for only a few days but seemed to have known each other for a century, that Orpheus of Harley, who had such a close relationship with him There are so many similarities, facing the same young man who studied law//law but did not give up on himself, his handsome back disappeared neatly into the dark night, and as he drifted away, the boy's farewell words It echoed in Telemann's mind for a long time, "But we will meet again. Whether in person, in letters, or in music, we will meet again. I believe this is God's instruction, and our fate will be like intertwined like a fugue."

Telemann carefully folded the paper with the address on it and put it in the inner pocket of his clothes.He looked back at the Sixth Psalm that should have been burned, picked it up, and read it under the light...

"Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity! For the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping.

The LORD has heard my supplication; the LORD will accept my prayer.

All my enemies will be ashamed, and greatly dismayed; they will draw back, and suddenly they will be ashamed. "

"Telemann formed a warm childhood friendship with Handel...The two boys developed a friendship quickly. But they had to part. Telemann continued his journey with a heavy heart. But he persisted and reached Leipzig .”

------- Romain Rolland, Telemann: AForgottenMaster

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"I do believe that in all this there is something