Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

56. ”Good King Wenceslas” when I finished reading. This melody has for me a strange character; particularly the end, the last three notes “- do-fa-do –“ of equal length. I can’t explain the mystery that seems to be in that simple phrase. I call it the arc of wonder; I felt a warm regard for that unknown man who conceived that melody with its odd ending – just how or why did he do it that way? Only because he felt a genuine “wonder” over what he was expressing. The ordinary song maker would have written “do-sol-do” or “do-me-do” or even “do-re-do” – but they would not have done. He belonged to my “store” –

     As tho I had not had enough for one evening I played thru my new Sibelius records, the sixth symphony. This symphony grows rapidly in power & beauty; it fills me with happiness, and has that unaccountable manner of doing that belongs only to Sibelius. No one else could have put that finish to the first movement that he did – if pressed I doubt he could tell why he did so and yet it is so absolutely right.