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But if you were a senator of Venice, you must have been rich​.​.​.

from HdB - album (2020) by HöFLICH

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From the writings of Honoré de Balzac

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“’But if you were a senator of Venice, you must have been rich: how did you come to lose your fortune?’”
At this question he turned his head towards me, with a truly tragic movement as if to examine me and replied, ‘In misfortunes.’”
“He no longer thought of drinking and, with a gesture, refused the glass of wine which the old flageolet-payer was just at that moment handing to him; then he bowed his head. While these three machine-like musicians were playing the dance, I examined the old Venetian noblemen with the avid feelings of a twenty-year-old. I could see Venice and the Adriatic; I could see it in ruins on that ruined face. I walked in that town so beloved of its inhabitants. I went from the Rialto to the Grand Canal, from the Quai des Esclavons to the Lido; I went back to the cathedral, so distinctly sublime; I looked at the windows of the Casa d’Oro, each of which is differently ornamented; I gazed at the old palaces with their wealth of marble; and, in short, at all those wonders which the scholar appreciates all the more in that he can colour them as he pleases and does not deprive his dreams of their poetry by the sight of reality. I reconstructed the life-history of this offspring of the greatest of the condottieri, trying to discover in it the traces of his misfortunes and the causes of that deep-seated physical and moral deterioration which made even more beautiful the newly-revived sparks of greatness and nobility. His thoughts were no doubt the same as mine, for I think that blindness speeds up intellectual communication, by preventing the attention from being frittered away on external objects. I did not have long to wait for a proof of our fellow-feeling. Facino Cane stopped playing, rose from his chair, came up to me and said, ‘Let’s go.’ The effect of his words on me was like an electric shock. I gave him my arm and we went out.”

credits

from HdB - album (2020), released January 8, 2020
Narration & concept by Peter Hoflich
Soundscapes & mixes produced by Cronkite Satellite

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HöFLICH Singapore

Peter Hoflich is a musician living in Singapore. He has sung in the rock bands MegalomaniA, the Hideous Motör-Apes, Reckless Hearts, Von Doom and The Sinisters, as well as the folk unit the Es with Athena Desai and Jae Lee. He also performs his own acoustic songs from time to time, and is trying a few experimental things in the home studio. ... more

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