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Bok, Edward William, 1863-1930

"A Dutch Boy Fifty Years After"

Then,
too, instead of dreading the approach of Saturday evenings, he was
looking forward to them, and invariably so arranged his engagements
that they might not interfere with his attendance at the orchestra
concerts.
After a busy week, he discovered that nothing he had ever experienced
served to quiet him so much as these end-of-the-week concerts. They
were not too long, an hour and a half at the utmost; and, above all,
except now and then, when the conductor would take a flight into the
world of Bach, he found he followed him with at least a moderate degree
of intelligence; certainly with personal pleasure and inner
satisfaction.
Bok concluded he would not read the articles he had published on the
meaning of the different "sections" of a symphony orchestra, or the
books issued on that subject. He would try to solve the mechanism of
an orchestra for himself, and ascertain as he went along the relation
that each portion bore to the other. When, therefore, in 1913, the
president of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association asked him to become
a member of its Board of Directors, his acceptance was a natural step
in the gradual development of his interest in orchestral music.


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