Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 6).pdf/58

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[50]

nevertheless, adventure to print the two moderato's without any sort of scruple.

What Yorick could mean by the words lentamente,—tenutè,—grave,—and sometimes adagio,—as applied to theological compositions, and with which he has characterized some of these sermons, I dare not venture to guess.—I am more puzzled still upon finding a l'octava alta! upon one;—Constrepito upon the back of another;—Scicilliana upon a third;—Alla capella upon a forth;—Con l'arco upon this;—Senza l'acro upon that.—All I know is, that they are musical terms, and have a meaning;—and as he was a musical man, I will make no doubt, but that by some quaint application of such metaphors to the compositions in hand, they impressed very distinct ideas of their several cha-racters