How to Embroider Almost Every Cute

Thing: A Sourcebook of 550 Motifs +

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 How to
EMBROIDER
Almost
Every Cute Thing
A Sourcebook of 550
Motifs + Beginner Stitch Tutorials

By Nihon Vogue
 contents
Assorted Patterns
Simple Flowers
Folk Art Flowers
Fairytale Flowers
Breakfast Foods
Fruits & Vegetables
Favorite Foods
Sweets & Treats
Zodiac Animals
Dogs & Cats
Favorite Animals
Animal Friends
Fairytale Animals
Everyday Life
Sports & Games
Hobbies & Activities
Border Designs
Flower Alphabets
Food Alphabets
Letters & Numbers
Childhood Favorites
People & Things
 Inspiration Gallery
Tools & Materials
Getting Started
Basic Stitches
Embroidery Artist Profiles
Assorted Patterns

Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: nekogao
Simple Flowers

Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: nekogao
Folk Art Flowers
Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: nico.
Fairytale Flowers
Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: ironna happa
Breakfast Foods

Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: nekogao
Fruits & Vegetables

Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: nekogao
Favorite Foods

Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: pulpy
Sweets & Treats

Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: pulpy
Zodiac Animals

Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: Chicchi
Dogs & Cats

Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: Chicchi
Favorite Animals
Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: Chicchi
Animal Friends
Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: mopsi
Fairytale Animals
Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: arinocosha
More Fairytale Animals
Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: arinocosha
Everyday Life
Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: TRÈS JOLIE
Sports & Games
Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: Chicchi
Hobbies & Activities
Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: Chicchi
Border Designs
Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: nico.
Flower Alphabets
Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: Ray chel*
Food Alphabets
 Instructions: Here
sDesign & Embroidery: Kumamori
Letters & Numbers

Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: Kumamori
Childhood Favorites

Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: meiP
People & Things
Instructions: Here
Design & Embroidery: mona.yu
inspiration gallery
Use the embroidery motifs to personalize
pouches,
t-shirts,
tote bags,
linens, and more!
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 Richard Strauss, the Proteus of Music

In the list of tone poets, Richard Strauss (1864), or Richard II is

one of the most important. It is strange that he should have the same
name as Wagner, for his father Franz Strauss, a skilled horn player,
disliked Wagner and his compositions intensely. Richard’s mother
was the daughter of a brewer and they all lived in Munich, where the
son was born.
When he was a little boy, he wrote musical notes before he could
write the alphabet, and at six, composed little pieces. By the time he
was twenty he had written compositions which put him with
Schubert and Mozart, in the ranks of musical prodigies.
Until his sixteenth work Aus Italien (From Italy) (1886), his first
tone poem, he did not depart from the classic forms, although there
were a few signs of change in style in a violin sonata which he wrote
just before the tone poem. In fact, he was so much against Wagner
and his innovations, that no one could have guessed that later he
himself would be considered an innovator and would be accused of
imitating Wagner.
During his youth, after hearing Siegfried he wrote to a friend about
the music of Mime: “It would have killed a cat and the horror of
musical dissonances would melt rocks into omelettes.”
When he met von Bülow, the old master thought little of his
talents, but the young man gave him a surprise. For, when Richard
went to Meiningen he had never led an orchestra in his life and
without one rehearsal, conducted his Serenade for Strings, opus 7.
Von Bülow realized his great ability, made him assistant conductor,
and a year later when he left Meiningen, Strauss took his place.
It was about now that Richard met Alexander Ritter the violinist
and radical thinker who, he said, changed his life by introducing to
him new ideas. He became converted to Wagner. When he heard
Tristan and Isolde he was thrilled by it. So, like Proteus, the god who
changed his form to suit his adventure, Strauss, the musical Proteus
changed his ideas to suit his opinions.
 Wearied by hard work after writing many classical pieces including
a sonata, an overture, the Festmarsch, a violin concerto, songs, a
horn concerto and other things, he became very ill. He said to a
friend that he was ready to die, and then added, “No, before I do, I
should love to conduct Tristan.” This shows that the young man
could change his opinion and become devoted to what he loathed
years before, a fine quality which continually brought down upon his
head criticism from smaller folk. Yet this Proteus-like quality was a
sign of his power for growth.
Because he did not gain strength quickly from his illness, he went
to Italy and then wrote his first symphonic poem Aus Italien (From
Italy) in a new and modern vein.
When he returned, he led the orchestra in the Court Theatre of
Munich and then went to Weimar for two years, and this former
young classicist was now hailed as the leader of modern composers!
He produced, here, three tone poems: Macbeth, Don Juan and Tod
und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration) (1888–1890).
Then, on account of illness (1892) he went to Greece, Egypt and
Sicily. During this tour, he wrote Guntram, which he produced on
his return to Weimar.
He became interested in the Bayreuth festivals and in 1894 he
conducted a production of Tannhäuser, after which he married
Pauline de Ana who played Elizabeth. Before this, he had made her
the heroine of his first opera, Guntram (1893).
Not long after this he gave up the Weimar post and went to
Munich with his bride. He became the conductor there and at the
same time, led the Berlin Philharmonic concerts until the double
work and commuting became too much for him. He gave up Berlin
and Arthur Nikisch succeeded him,—the same Arthur Nikisch who
later took the baton of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in America.
In 1899 he became the leader of the Royal Opera in Berlin in which
city he decided to live and from there made trips all over the world
including the United States, first in 1904 and later, after the World
War. During his last tour, we heard him play the piano for his songs
which are unsurpassed in beauty, and conduct some of his own
orchestral works with skill and enthusiasm.
 He is tall and slender, with kindly blue eyes, rather informal in
manner. He has the air of a happy man even if he has received some
of the harshest criticism from friends and foes that any composer has
had from earliest times. His wife used to sing his songs in public. He
is fond of games, especially the card game “skat” and like the true
grandson of a brewer enjoys his glass of beer.
 Strauss’s Contribution to Music

Among Strauss’ greatest works are his operas Electra, Salome and
Der Rosenkavalier and his nine tone poems. Despite all the harsh
things critics have said of him, Strauss has always maintained that,
although he did not write in accepted forms, he felt that the form
should always be suitable to the subject, for “as moods and ideas
change so must forms.” This, Ernest Newman said in defence of
Strauss, and it may be applied to all arts.
So Strauss is not formless but like Proteus, has many forms. Cecil
Gray said, “he seems to have an irresistible itch to provoke the
amazement and the horror of the multitude.” This is quite true,
especially in Salome, Electra and Der Rosenkavalier in which opera
he went back to Mozart form as a model. It seems incredible that a
man who could write the noble songs that he has written should have
chosen such unpleasant plots for his operas!
In Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration) he was
distinctly a follower of Liszt. His friend Alexander Ritter is said to
have written the poem after the music.
At the time that it was first played, it caused so much comment
that Strauss, like Browning, laughed at people for trying to “read”
more into it than he wrote. Browning was asked whether he meant a
certain thing in one of his poems, and his reply was something like
this: “Madam, I never thought of it, but if you think it is there, I am
more than glad to know it.”
His Don Juan is delightful, too, but his Til Eulenspiegel (1895)
which tells of the mischievous pranks of Til, is one of the finest
examples of humor in music and probably will outlive many works of
this modern period, his own as well as others. He wrote it in the form
of a classical Rondo, because he could picture Til’s ever recurring
deviltry and exploits in this form. Poor Strauss was reviled for this
daringly written music, too, yet this tone poem is an amazing piece of
work and was given gloriously as a ballet in New York City a few
years ago by Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet.
In Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra), Strauss
uses the idée fixe or leit-motif. This is based on a prose poem of
Nietzsche.
In Don Quixote he goes back to the form of the classical variation,
for it is an ingenious way of showing the varying sides of the
character of Don Quixote. Here he shows events and not ideas, a
most definite story in tones. You can almost see the attack on the
wind-mills and you can actually hear the sheep bleating, the church
music of passing pilgrims, and the love tale of Dulcinea. In this piece,
program music reaches its height.
In Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life) (1898) Strauss frankly quotes
from his musical works. He does not have to prove that he is the
hero, for he admits it! When Strauss was asked what the poem
meant, he said, “There is no need of a program, it is enough to know
that there is a hero fighting his enemies.” In it, you can really hear
the carping critics, his retorts, the triumphs and the defeats. It is very
interesting and amazingly well written.
The Domestic Symphony (Sinfonia Domestica) is the story of a
family for one day. There is the father motif, the mother motif and
the baby motif! The final fugue represents education very aptly for
you get from it the sense of flight and struggle and the never
endingness of education.
One of his last works is The Alpine Symphony. His other works
include an early opera Feuersnoth, and his songs which are among
the greatest ever written by any composer, ranking him with Franz,
Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Hugo Wolf.
Strauss shows in all his work great pictorial power. He paints in
tones if ever a man does. His humor in music is amazing. He tries to
make vivid in music a thing as simple as a fork and as complex as a
philosophic idea. Some one said of him, comparing him to Wagner,
that he started out to write symphonic poems and really wrote music
dramas, while Wagner started out to write music dramas and ended
by writing Tristan and Isolde, a super-symphonic poem with voices
added.
Richard Strauss is the last of the great German classic and
romantic composers who have ruled the musical world for the past
two centuries. Still living in Germany he has opened the way to many
of the younger composers, who have learned much from his methods
of orchestration and handling music in the large forms. While he
out-Wagnered Wagner in strange and new harmony, he now seems
old fashioned in comparison to Schoenberg, Stravinsky and
Honegger. Although Strauss seemed to us very complex and
exaggerated a few years ago, it was very interesting to notice that
when his works were revived in America after the War, the audiences
had grown up musically to the point where they seemed no longer
unintelligible or ultra-modern.
We remember when we were leaving the opera house after the first
performance of Salome in this country, hearing one ill bred,
untutored woman say, “Gee! Goit, but that was one big noise!” By
this time she has probably reached the point where she is jazzing the
Salome dance with real pleasure and understanding!
He did many unusual things with instruments, added many new
ones, and as someone said, he loves to have the “trombone play like a
piccolo!”
No one can say where Strauss will stand as a composer, for time
alone can place him. However, we make bold to state that he will
stand high in the company of the world’s composers.
 Chabrier (1841–1894)

As imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, there is no proof of

the success of the tone poem more telling than the fact that
practically every composer in the musical world has written
symphonic tone poems. In fact today, one hundred tone poems are
written to one symphony! Berlioz had his followers in France, and in
the group around César Franck were several who wrote tone poems.
One of the most charming of these poets was Alexis Emanuel
Chabrier (1841–1894) who took up music first as an amateur while
studying law in Paris, and while he was Minister of the Interior.
Later he became so devoted to music that he gave all his time to it.
Among his works are operas and many other forms of music, the
loveliest of which is the Rhapsody on Spanish tunes called España. It
is a model of its kind and in it he uses the collected material with rare
skill. It shows him very clever in reproducing foreign atmosphere
and feeling. He was born in Ambert, France, and died in Paris.
 Debussy

Claude Achille Debussy (1862–1918) although talked of in another

chapter, must be mentioned as a composer of tone poems in this.
Among his most famous works are Après-midi d’Un Faune, La Mer,
Les Nuages, Fêtes, and Sirènes which are all surpassingly lovely,
written in Debussy’s special harmonies with which he wove a
mystical, far away atmosphere, so compelling and yet so magical that
you think you are in a mysterious cloudland. He usually uses a scale
of whole tones. In Pelleas and Melisande, his greatest work (opera)
you seem to look into a distant land which never did and never will
exist, except in the glorious reaches of his or our imaginations. So to
those of us who love fairy realms, cloudland and beauty of idea and
serene expression, Debussy will be a rare treat and never vanish from
our mind’s ear.
 Ravel

Maurice Ravel (1875) still living in Paris, seems to love Spanish

themes as did Chabrier and Bizet. One of the loveliest tone poems is
his Rhapsodie Espagnole in four movements. His Mother Goose
suite and La Valse are also lovely, modern, short orchestral works.
He writes with rare distinction and beauty. In the chapter on 20th
century music, Ravel will make another appearance.
 Paul Dukas (1865)

Among the most humorous and delightful tone poems is

L’Apprenti-Sorcier (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) by Paul Dukas
(1865). Dukas too, will appear in another chapter.
 CHAPTER XXVIII
Late 19th Century Composers Write New Music on Old Models

Brahms in Germany—Franck in France

After calling Beethoven a Colossus, there does not seem to be room

for any one else, and yet Brahms (1833–1897) is no less of a genius.
You will often hear people speak of “the three Bs,”—Bach, Beethoven
and Brahms; and of these, Brahms being closer to our own day has
had the advantage and influence of the past. But perhaps he also had
the disadvantage of having had some one else say what he would like
to have been the first to say! That Brahms continued the things that
Beethoven began, may be understood from the fact that many call
Brahms’ first symphony The Tenth, meaning that Brahms had begun
his symphonies where Beethoven left off.

Johannes Brahms at Home.

 After the painting
by Rongier.

César Franck.

It is not easy to write of Brahms without seeming to exaggerate,

because if we speak of his songs we must say that no one ever created
more beautiful song form; if we speak of his chamber music we must
acknowledge that he understood writing for instruments as no one
before or since has surpassed. His piano pieces, too, are pure delight!
Where will one find finer work than his one concerto for violin and
those for piano? His four symphonies have so far been unsurpassable
and his choral works, too. If he had never written anything but the
German Requiem this would have marked him as one of the world’s
masters. Has he not justified Schumann’s exclamation upon meeting
him in 1853, when Brahms was twenty years old? “Graces and
Heroes have watched the cradle of this young genius who sprang ‘like
Minerva, fully armed from the head of Jove.’” But Brahms was very
modest and was always embarrassed in the presence of praise. While
he was compared to Beethoven he waited until very late in life to
write symphonies. “How can I write a symphony,” he is reported to
have said, “when I feel the shadow of the great Beethoven treading
constantly behind me?”
He was born in Hamburg. His father, who was a musician, rejoiced
greatly when little Johannes at an early age gave proof that he was
gifted. The Brahms family was very poor, and instead of becoming a
great artist according to his desire, Johannes’ father from the time he
was old enough to earn his living, was a double-bass player. Even
though he was the best in Hamburg, he and his wife, who was also
musical, had to struggle and save to give their little son the best
teachers in piano and composition.
In order to make more than the small amount gained by playing in
the orchestras the father organized what we call “the little German
band” which played in the open air. Father Brahms and five other
musicians attracted the people wherever they went. The boy who had
begun to earn a few pennies by arranging dances and marches for the
little bands of the cafés, wrote music for his father’s band, and early
in the morning even while he brushed shoes before others were
awake, the thoughts which became his loveliest songs came to his
mind.
 Brahms meets Remenyi

When Johannes was fifteen he gave his first public piano recital
and made a deep impression. It started him on the road to fame, for
he played so well that he was engaged to accompany the Gypsy
violinist, Remenyi, who played all over the world and became very
famous. Brahms went into many countries with him but never came
to America, where Remenyi was a great idol. Gypsy-like, he was
happy in his wanderings and when he was old went into vaudeville,
drawing thousands wherever he played. He was about to face one of
these immense audiences in San Francisco but drew only a few tones
from his beloved violin when his magic fingers were stilled in death!
Remenyi was a great influence in Brahms’ life, for it was through
him that Brahms became fascinated with the Gypsy Dances which
the composer gave the world as Hungarian Dances. He wrote them
for piano solos, duets and bits of them may be found all through
Brahms’ orchestral writings. This is folk music, even though it was
not the folk music of the country in which Brahms was born.
Another important thing that came into his life through Remenyi
was his meeting with Joachim, one of the greatest violinists and
teachers of the world. At a concert given by Remenyi when playing
the Kreutzer sonata of Beethoven the piano was tuned so low that
Brahms was compelled to transpose the entire piano part a semitone
(half-step) higher while playing it. Joachim who was in the audience
came behind the stage to congratulate the players, and gave Brahms
letters of introduction to Liszt, then at Weimar, and Schumann at
Düsseldorf. This visit led to Schumann’s article about him,
mentioned at the opening of this chapter.
 Brahms and the Schumann’s

Brahms became a favorite visitor at the home of Schumann and his

brilliant wife Clara Schumann. He was hailed by all the celebrities
who assembled at the frequent soirées and musicales, as a musician
of great promise. His compositions show a strong influence of this
early friendship. But Brahms repaid this kindness, for when the ill-
fated Schumann died, he became like a son to the bereaved Clara
Schumann, who loved him as one.
As this splendid pianist had played her husband’s piano works all
over Europe, so she made known the first piano concerto of her
young friend. She made a success in spite of the fact that it was not
particularly well received at its first performance at the Leipsic
Gewandhaus, probably because Brahms was not as great a pianist as
he was a composer. His feeling seems to have made him want to turn
the piano into an orchestra. He felt everything in a massive way and
was very exact.
At the age of twenty-one Brahms became Director of the Court
Concerts and of the Choral Society of the Prince of Lippe-Detmold.
Being very conscientious he learned much from this experience,
which helped him toward becoming one of the greatest writers of
choral works as his German Requiem and The Song of Fate prove.
Outside of his music Brahms led an uneventful life. He never
married, and devoted such affection as he might have given to a
family to music. It is told that someone who knocked at his door,
receiving no answer, entered to find him sobbing violently under the
emotion caused by some music that he was composing.
When Brahms was about forty he visited Vienna and was so
delighted with the musical life he found there that he remained for
the rest of his days. As we note the delightful swing of his Waltzes, it
is easy to believe that he felt the Viennese moods, which found their
way into his compositions.
There is little to say of his general habits except that he was
devotedly fond of out-door life and he interrupted his work only to
take long jaunts in the open, usually in company with sympathetic
friends, for he was friendly, and needed companionship. He did not
give up all his time to composing, for he was director of the great
Singverein (Choral Society) and he gave some marvelous
performances of the choral works of Bach, Beethoven, and of other
oratorios and masses.
Brahms died (1897) at sixty-four from a cold he caught while
attending the funeral of his friend Clara Schumann. He now lies in
the same cemetery as Beethoven and Schubert.
 His Contribution to Music

Although Brahms did not create any new forms, there are so many
different sides in his compositions, that it is hard to describe any one
in particular. He came into the world at the time when music was
turning toward the dramatic, because of Wagner’s influence. It
seemed that Brahms, himself, was afraid to hear Wagner, whose
work he admired. Brahms never wrote an opera and he never wrote
pictorial works such as tone poems. His writings were “absolute
music” that is, music in its purest form, neither imitating nor
representing anything but music. Here was Brahms between the tone
poems of Liszt, and the operas of Wagner, and he remained true to
pure music! It is said that Hans von Bülow invited him to attend the
first performance of Parsifal but he refused saying that he had a
dread of Wagnerians, (but not of Wagner)! Although Brahms wrote
when the romantic school was at its height, he brought back
classicism with a force that influenced the entire musical world. In
addition to the classic and romantic forms, many works are called
classic to distinguish them from popular music.
Brahms was of the peasant type, and honesty was one of his
strongest qualities. This honesty, sincerity and simplicity may be
found in every line of his music, which never has light or frothy
moments, and which shows everywhere that he loved Bach. He left a
large number of very great works. Indeed, one might study Brahms
for years and even then never know all he wrote.
He was the center of a group of song writers to whom he must have
been an inspiration and an example. His lyrical gift and form, which
mean that his songs almost sing themselves, was so great that it is
hard to understand how he could have written symphonies and
sonatas which, to many people, sound complex, thick and confused.
But many people, even good musicians feel this way about Brahms.
May we not believe that some day their ears will be opened to its
beauties and joys?
The song writers of this period were many as they are in all periods
in every country. Many write one or two songs that are lucky enough
to become popular, but this does not make a great composer, for the
great either bring something new into the world, or create music
which by its quality moves other people to write good and beautiful
music.
 Song Writers

Brahms towered among song writers after the time of Schubert

and Schumann. He carried forward the form which has given
Germany fame for her exquisite lieder (songs). Great beauty with
simplicity of vocal melody against an accompaniment that had the
character of a full-fledged piano piece distinguished these songs from
those of an earlier period in which the accompaniment gave just a
little support to the singer. The old songs however, were often heart
appealing by their very simplicity for they had almost a folk-song
manner.
Franz Abt (1819–1885) was one of these writers. He must have
made a fortune out of When the Swallows Homeward Fly—only, as
the composer can not control these things, he probably never knew
that this song was to be found on nearly every piano in America for
almost fifty years!
Robert Franz (1815–1892) made the world want to singer German
lieder for the haunting beauty of his songs. The Rose Complained
and In Autumn are fair examples of a collection said to include 350
published songs.
In Chapter XXIV you have seen the place in song occupied by
Schubert and Schumann. From them to Brahms does not seem such
a great stretch, but only the musician knows how wide it is. The form
in which Brahms wrote lieder brought a new feeling to the
composers, not by way of imitation, but because vocal music
developed naturally into the paths along which he led the way.
Richard Strauss, known for his great tone poems, also for his
operas Salome, Elektra and The Rose Cavalier, shortly after Brahms
wrote some of the most beautiful songs in the world.
We also find many by his colleagues, Felix Weingartner (1863),
Hans Pfitzner (1869), Mahler and others, whose songs, though
beautiful, showed their skill less than their operas, symphonies, and
choral works.
 Hugo Wolf—Song Genius

Hugo Wolf (1860–1903) will be regarded, as time goes on, as one

of the greatest composers of the 19th century. This, notwithstanding
the fact that he published 260 songs and nothing at all for orchestra,
and in chamber music, he wrote only one very interesting quartet
introduced in this country nearly twenty years ago by the Flonzaley
Quartet. Such a master would no doubt have left more than songs,
would have been one of the musical beacon-lights of the world, had
his life not been one of tragedy.
His story, indeed, exceeds in unhappiness that of Schumann or
even of Beethoven. Early in the best days of his life, his mind began
to give way, and during periods of sanity he wrote with unbelievable
fluency only to be suddenly cut off from the power. He was fully
aware of his condition and his fate, and his letters expressing his
emotions and describing his agony are too sad to write about.
Hugo Wolf, born at Windischgratz in Styria (1860) was the fourth
son of a leather-currier who was also a musician. The home was the
scene of much chamber music in which Hugo played the second
violin. The people of Styria loved the old Italian operas, and Wolf
frequently expressed the belief that he had some Latin blood in his
veins. This seemed to show in his music for he wrote songs in Italian
and Spanish style and he was particularly attracted to French music
and musicians. One wonders could greater songs have been written
than his (Spanisches Liederbuch) Spanish Song Book which includes
not only thirty-four brilliant folk-melodies, but also ten noble
religious songs.
Romain Rolland, the great French writer on musical subjects
wrote: “It has been said that the Spanisches Liederbuch is to Wolf’s
work what Tristan is to Wagner’s.”
Indeed many who write of Wolf have said that his vivid power of
expression, and inspiration could only be compared to Wagner’s. The
poems he selected proved what a high literary taste he had. For a
time he was a musical critic and made the bitterest enemies because
of the abuse he hurled at Brahms.