How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Revolving my thoughts upon this curious state, I resolved thus: I would not fail 03-01. I would not fail my mother. I would prove the superior excellence of my faculties.
From that day, my studies took on a new intensity.
And I played the violin like a very devil. (1.12.5-7)
Octavian's all about pleasing people, including Mr. Gitney, even though he's just found out that his entire life has been a scientific experiment to prove the intelligence of Africans. If you ask us, we'd be pretty irritated about being lied to about our lives. But not Octavian. He's an overachiever out to impress, especially when it comes to his music skills. By the way, the whole reference to the devil comes into play again later on in the book when Mr. Sharpe makes him dress up as a devil while playing "The Devil's Trill" at Faneuil Hall.
Quote #2
Thou hast not heard fiddling, Joan, until thou hast heard this tiny being, legs thin as sumac twigs, produce such tones; which sweet music dazzled not merely in its display of speed and accuracy, but most in its gravity; the child being able to introduce an element of melancholy into even the liveliest of passages. (1.12.5)
Dr. Fruhling's writing a letter to his wife Joan about how the College generally is a den of sin, except for Octavian's violin-playing. What's interesting about this part is how amazed Dr. Fruhling is that Octavian's a tiny "being" and able to insert "melancholy" into his music. Why italicize those words anyway? Why all the awe over Octavian's "being"-ness or his emotional depth?
Quote #3
I cannot doubt that at first his interest in her songs was forensic, nothing but fodder for an article to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Philosophical Ephemera of the Novanglian College of Lucidity. As he listened to her Africk monodies, though, their unaccountable rhythms, their outbursts and their alien allusions, he grew passionate about them, and would often importune her to sing them again; which she did not, after she reached the age of sixteen or seventeen. She would always demur, saying, "You would not hear these olden, shrieking things." (1.15.9)
This is all about Mr. 13-04's (the music teacher) fascination with Cassiopeia's songs from her motherland. It's clear that Octavian thinks Mr. 13-04 likes the music because it's different, "Other," exotic even. It might be worth considering whether Octavian also is fascinated with those songs for their "unaccountable rhythms, their outbursts and their alien allusions"—after all, he doesn't know anything much about Cassiopeia's homeland either.