In 1872, Johann Strauss was invited to perform in the United States. A building was built for him in Boston that could accommodate 100,000 listeners and 20,000 performers. He described the grand occasion in a letter to a friend: "In order to deal with this large group of people, they gave me a hundred conductors as assistants. I myself can only lead the people closest to me... Now please imagine that I am among one hundred thousand Americans. The situation in front of the audience. I stood in front of the music stand of the general conductor, and suddenly the sound of cannons sounded. This was really a gentle hint, telling us that the concert could begin. My one hundred assistants followed my example as quickly and enthusiastically as possible. At this moment, a big scene that I will never forget began... A hundred thousand people in the audience shouted with excitement..." This performance, not only John. ·An unforgettable page in Strauss's life and a rare event in the history of music.

Johann Strauss wrote 462 pieces of music in his lifetime: including polkas, waltzes, square dances, marches and other genres of music. He is known as the "King of Waltz". Although he humbly admitted: "My little achievement is just to expand the forms inherited from my predecessors." However, his moving waltzes sounded like amazing loudspeakers in the hazy sky of Europe. Thunder, like hearing the footsteps of spring on the green embankment of the Danube River, makes people forget the worries of life and be full of joy and hope for the future.

Johann Strauss, who was loved by the people and received high honors, in his later years, when he was nearly 70 years old, still maintained the habit passed down from his father: every morning, he thought hard and wrote operas and music. ; and often go to the theater to watch performances of his own operas.

One day, he was invited to a banquet with his wife, Jetty Dreyfuss, who was willing to sacrifice herself for music and devote everything to her husband. Met the King of Austria at a banquet. The king pointed to the band playing the John Strauss Waltz and the dancing companions around him. He praised and sighed: "You are the happiest person. I can only command my army, and Austria The people are intoxicated under your baton." But Johann Strauss replied seriously: "Although the apple is sweet, who knows that there are many bitter cores in it?" He and his wife looked at each other and smiled. Leave quietly.

The life of an artist lies not only in his life itself, but also in the life force of the artistic works he creates through hard work.

A "Ten Thousand Treasures Book"

Gogol once said: "A writer should be like a painter, always carrying pencils and paper with him. If a painter wastes a day , it’s very bad if you don’t draw a single sketch. It’s also very bad if a writer doesn’t write down a single thought or feature in a wasted day.”

That’s exactly what Gogol did. He has the habit of taking notes. He writes down the rumors, interesting stories, aphorisms, proverbs and reading experiences he sees and hears in his notebook at any time.

He likes to go for a walk before lunch. He often goes home because he sees or thinks of interesting things and writes them down in his notebook.

Once, Gogol invited a friend to a restaurant for dinner. Suddenly, a menu caught his interest, so he took out his pen and copied the menu into his notebook.

After the food was served, he was still busy copying it. Seeing his indifference, his friend felt very unhappy and said impatiently: "Are you inviting me to dinner, or are you inviting me to accompany you to copy the menu?" After that, he left the restaurant angrily.

Gogol completely forgot that he was dining with a friend, and kept copying without raising his head. He didn't even notice that his friend had left, and kept praising him: "That's great. "It's so useful!" Later, Gogol used this menu when writing a novel.

This great writer had a notebook of nearly 500 pages, which contained a large amount of material. He happily called it the "Wanbao Encyclopedia".

The most precious thing for a person is life, and no day should be wasted.