The music of sweaty rags

"A nasal musical jingle came out from the pivot of the great machine, centuries of music, and there had to be respect for musical tradition, as if Poverty had caught cold. Years later, that celestial music came back to him with clearest drops of moonlight, and it was Norma ... But at that time, from the merry-go-round, it seemed to him like the music of sweaty rags, of the snotty nose, of revolt, of nougat, of pushing and shoving, of fritters, of roasted peanuts that rapidly turn stomach-ache to shit ..."

-Carlo Emilio Gadda, The Experience Of Pain