Now, you might be saying, “Jessica, I am not crafty.” I hear you. But I am not talking about crafts. I am talking about living out the God-given passions that are inside of us. Creativity isn’t crafting; it is any original expression you pursue—running, playing music, gardening, sewing, cooking, and so on are all creative acts. Even activities like volunteering and throwing parties are creative pursuits because by giving of ourselves for others we are expressing ourselves in a meaningful way. Moreover, these are activities that inspire us in an indescribable way. And when we make room in our days to include them, we feel more alive and joyful.
Cesti's operas likewise contain many passages evidently intended for the horn, although the instruments are not specified in the score, which was nothing unusual at the time. Lulli composed the incidental music for a ballet, _La Princesse d'Elide_, which formed part of Molière's divertissement, "Les plaisirs de l'île enchantée," written for a great festival at Versailles on the 7th of May 1664. A copy of the music for this ballet, made about 1680, is preserved in the library of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. The music contains a piece entitled "Les violons et les cors de chasse," written in the same style as Cavalli's scena; there are but two staves, and on both the music is characteristic of the horn, with which the violins would play in unison. The piece finishes on B[flat][music notes] and to play this note as the second of the harmonic series, the fundamental not being obtainable, the tube of the horn must have been over 17 ft. long. Among Philidor's copies of Lulli's ballets preserved in the library of the Paris Conservatoire of Music (vol. xlvii., p. 61) is a more complete copy of the above. The second number is an "Air des valets de chiens et des chasseurs avec les cors de chasse," which is substantially the same as the one in the Fitzwilliam Museum, but set for five horns in B[flat]. Here again the use of D, the fifth note of the harmonic series, indicates that the fundamental was [music notes] a tone lower than the C horn scored for by Cavalli, and known as B[flat] basso. Victor Mahillon[56] considers that the music reveals the fact that it was written for horns in B[flat], 35 degrees (chromatic semitones) above 32-ft. C, or [music notes] having a wave-length of 1.475 m. To this statement it is not possible to subscribe. The quintette required four horns in B[flat] over 8 ft. long and one B[flat] basso about 17 ft. long. It is obvious that the present custom of placing the bass notes of the horn on the F clef an octave too low, as is now customary, had not yet been adopted, for in that case the bass horn would in several bars be playing above the tenor. Entry: FIG