In Praise of the Afternoon of August 6 -- A Great Deed Was Accomplished on that Day

     On the afternoon of August 6, . . .
Martin Gregor-Dellin, Richard Wagner: His Life, His Work, His Century.
           Or, maybe, . . .
Albert Camus, The Stranger.
                     . . . it was the 5th . . .
Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo.
                                  . . . I can’t be sure. . . .
Albert Camus, The Stranger.
          . . . Wagner summoned . . .
Martin Gregor-Dellin, Richard Wagner: His Life, His Work, His Century.
                    . . . a young musician . . .
Hugo Wolf, Letter to His Parents in Romain Rolland, Hugo Wolf.
                                  . . . to his hotel room and invited him to look through the score of Tristan. It was almost finished.
Martin Gregor-Dellin, Richard Wagner: His Life, His Work, His Century.
     All . . .
Albert Camus, The Plague.
          . . . the visitor . . .
H.G. Wells, The Stolen Bacillus.
                   . . . gathered was that the work . . .
Albert Camus, The Plague.
                        . . . Wagner . . .
Charles Darwin, Origin of Species.
                               . . . was engaged on ran to a great many pages, and he was at almost excruciating pains to bring it to perfection.
Albert Camus, The Plague.
         “Eh? What’s that?”
Albert Camus, The Stranger.
                    . . . where are you?
Richard Wagner, Tristan und Isolde.
        . . . bar 28 . . .
Ernest Newman, The Life of Richard Wagner.
                    Can one imagine F sharp and G sharp accompanied by a chord in A minor!
The Beethoven Companion quoting A. Oulibicheff, Beethoven, ses critiques et ses glossateurs, Paris, 1857.
         He was bending over the manuscript.
Albert Camus, The Plague.
                        What key are we in?
Leonard Bernstein, The Unanswered Question.
                                . . . no sphinx ever imagined such a riddle . . .
The Beethoven Companion quoting The Harmonicon, London, August 1823.
                    . . . it seems to elude analysis . . .
Hector Berlioz, A Critical Study of Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies.
          “Well?”
Albert Camus, The Stranger.
                        A minor?
Leonard Bernstein, The Unanswered Question.
         “More or less.”
Albert Camus, The Plague.
                          ‘Ah! Now I see,’ said the visitor.
H.G. Wells, The Stolen Bacillus.
          “It’s my opening phrase, and . . .
Albert Camus, The Plague.
                  . . . it gave me . . .
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Parasite.
                        . . . trouble, no end of trouble.”
Albert Camus, The Plague.
                                      The theme floats serenely . . .
Philip T. Barford, Beethoven’s Last Sonata.
         . . . says Wagner, . . .
Leonard Bernstein, The Unanswered Question.
                     . . . like a planet in the void, a star born in the emptiness of that motionless moment which gives the clue to the whole work.
Philip T. Barford, Beethoven’s Last Sonata.
          At half-past four . . .
Martin Gregor-Dellin, Richard Wagner: His Life, His Work, His Century.
                . . . in front of this audience, . . .
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Flight to Italy: Diary and Selected Letters.
                         . . . Wagner . . .
Anthony Storr, Solitude: A Return to the Self.
                                  . . . wrote in the final bars.
Martin Gregor-Dellin, Richard Wagner: His Life, His Work, His Century.
          That was all.
Elia W. Peattie, The Piano Next Door.
                       No agony and no ecstasy.
Judith Rossner, August.