Here is a quote from Baron Friedrich Melchior von Grimm "Le petit prophete de Boehmischbroda" (1753).
And while I was saying this to myself (for I love to talk to myself when I have time), I found that the orchestra had begun to play without my having noticed it, and they were playing something which they call an overture.
And I saw a man who was holding a stick, and I believed he was going to castigate the bad violins for I heard many of them, among the others that were good and were not many.
And he made a noise as if he were splitting wood, and I was astonished that he did not dislocate his shoulder, and the vigour of his arm terrified me. And I reflected (for I love to reflect when I have the time), and I said to myself:
Oh! how talents are misplaced in this world, and how genius displays itself nonetheless even if it is out of its right place!.
And I said: If that man had been born in my father's house, which is a quarter of a league from the forest of Boehmischbroda in Bohemia, he would make as much as thirty farthings a day, and his family would be rich and honoured and his children would live in abundance.
And people would say: ' behold the woodchopper of Boehmischbroda, behold him!' And his talents would not be wasted, whereas in this booth he cannot earn enough to eat his bread and drink his water.
And I beheld that they called this 'beating the time,' and although it was beaten most forcibly, the musicians were never together.
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