,,the ,,romantic ,,composers ,illustration ,,the ,,macmillan ,,company ,,new ,,york ,,boston ,,chicago ,,dallas ,,atlanta ,,san ,,francisco ,,macmillan ,,and ,,co41 ,,london ,,bombay ,,calcutta ,,madras ,,melbourne ,,the ,,macmillan ,,company ,,of ,,canada1 ,,limited ,,toronto ,illustration3 ,,robert ,,schumann ,from a water color made in ,vienna in his youth ,the ,,romantic ,,composers ,,by ,,daniel ,,gregory ,,mason ,,author ,,of ,,from ,,grieg ,,to ,,brahms1 ,,beethoven ,,and ,,his ,,forerunners1 ,,etc4 ,consciously or unconsciously a new school is being founded on the basis of the ,beethoven-,schubert romanticism1 a school which we may venture to expect will mark a special epoch in the history of art4 ,,schumann ,,new ,,york ,,the ,,macmillan ,,company ,,london3 ,,macmillan ,,co41 ,,ltd4 #aidj ,,copyright1 #aijf1 ,,by ,,the ,,macmillan ,,company4 ,,copyright1 #aicd1 ,,by ,,daniel ,g4 ,,mason4 ,all rights reserved--no part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher1 except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in magazine or newspaper4 ,set up and electrotyped4 ,published ,november1 #aijf4 ,,printed ,,in ,,the ,,united ,,states ,,of ,,america ,,preface ,this book completes the series of studies of composers and of their music1 from ,palestrina to the present day1 which was begun with ,from ,grieg to ,brahms 7#aijb71 and continued in ,beethoven and his ,forerunners 7#aijd74 ,it will be noted that these three volumes should be read in an order different from that of their publication4 ,first should come ,beethoven and his ,forerunners1 in which are made a general survey of the periods of musical history and the principles of musical style1 and special studies of ,palestrina1 ,bach1 ,haydn1 ,mozart1 and ,beethoven2 then ,the ,romantic ,composers1 in which the story is taken up at the death of ,beethoven and carried through the period of romanticism1 with essays on ,schubert1 ,schumann1 ,mendelssohn1 ,chopin1 ,berlioz1 and ,liszt2 and finally ,from ,grieg to ,brahms1 comprising studies of the chief modern musicians1 including ,grieg1 ,dvok1 ,saint-,sans1 ,franck1 ,tschakowsky1 and ,brahms1 and two more general papers on ,the ,appreciation of ,music and ,the ,meaning of ,music4 ,thus read1 the three books should serve as a commentary on the more important individual composers1 sthetic principles1 and historical schools in modern instrumental music4 ,from the first ,i have had in mind the intention of illuminating the musical peculiarities of each composer by constant reference to his personal character and temperament4 ,for this reason1 while ,i have dealt as briefly as possible with colorless biographical facts1 ,i have made free use of characteristic anecdotes1 of contemporary descriptions of appearance1 manners1 etc41 and of letters and table-talk where they are available4 ,music is indeed a unique artistic medium1 and no man can express anything in it except through a technical mastery which has little to do with his character4 ,yet1 given the medium1 what he does express is bound to be permeated with his peculiar personality2 and as the general reader can get a much clearer idea of a human being like himself than he can of so subtle a technique as that of music1 it has seemed better to lay stress on that side1 even though it is not the only or perhaps even the most important one4 ,with the object of keeping awake1 nevertheless1 the reader's sense of those technical methods and traditions which so largely determine the nature of all music1 ,i have included in each book some pages dealing with impersonal principles and historical schools4 ,believing that one has no right to intrude1 in such studies as these1 one's own prejudices1 but should transcend as far as possible one's temperamental limitations1 ,i had hoped to be able to maintain throughout the attitude of the chronicler1 and to exclude all special pleading4 ,in the essays on ,berlioz and ,liszt ,i have perhaps not achieved this detachment of attitude4 ,realism is a tendency which seems to me quite mistaken and mischievous in music1 and ,i have attacked it with some warmth4 ,but in view of the great favor that realism enjoys in contemporary composition1 the shoals of writers that rally every day to its defence1 and the potency of its appeal to the average listener1 whose dramatic sense and pictorial imagination are always livelier than his purely musical perception1 ,i do not greatly fear that ,i shall dangerously disturb any reader's critical equilibrium4 ,these studies are intended simply as guides to the music they discuss4 ,if they lead the reader to the concert-hall1 to the piano1 to the library of scores2 if they help him to hear themes and their development where before he heard only masses of agreeable sound2 if they incite him to repeat and analyze his musical experiences1 to listen with his mind as well as his ears1 to study a symphony as alertly as he would study a painting or an essay1--then only will they have justified their existence4 ,,washington1 ,,connecticut1 ,october #ag1 #aijf4 ,,contents ,,page ,i4 ,,introduction3 ,,romanticism ,,in ,,music #a ,,ii4 ,,franz ,,schubert #fa ,,iii4 ,,robert ,,schumann #ajc ,,iv4 ,,felix ,,mendelssohn #afc ,v4 ,,fr,d,,ric ,,chopin #aie ,,vi4 ,,hector ,,berlioz #bec ,,vii4 ,,franz ,,liszt #cjg ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,,facing ,,page ,,schumann ,,as ,a ,,young ,,man ,title ,,schubert #fc ,,schumann #aje ,,mendelssohn #afe ,,chopin #aig ,,berlioz #bee ,,liszt #cji ,i ,,introduction ,,romanticism ,,in ,,music ,i ,,introduction ,,romanticism ,,in ,,music ,i ,historians of music are accustomed to speak of the first half or three-quarters of the nineteenth century as the ,romantic ,period in music1 and of those composers who immediately follow ,beethoven1 including ,schubert1 ,schumann1 ,mendelssohn1 ,berlioz1 ,chopin1 ,liszt1 and some others1 as the ,romantic ,composers4 ,the word romantic1 as thus used1 forms no doubt a convenient label2 but if we attempt to explain its meaning1 we find ourselves involved in several difficulties4 ,were there then no romanticists before ,schubert8 ,have no composers written romantically since #ahgj8 ,such questions1 arising at once1 lead us inevitably to the more general inquiry1 ,what is romanticism8 ,in the broadest sense in which the word romanticism can be used1 the sense in which it is taken1 for example1 by ,pater in the ,postscript of his ,appreciations1 it seems to mean simply interest in novel and strange elements of artistic effect4 ,it is the addition of strangeness to beauty1 says ,pater1 that constitutes the romantic character in art2 and the desire of beauty being a fixed element in every artistic organization1 it is the addition of curiosity to this desire of beauty that constitutes the romantic temper4 ,romanticism is thus the innovating spirit1 as opposed to the conserving spirit of classicism2 romanticists appear in every age and school2 and ,stendhal is right in saying that all good art was romantic in its day4 ,it is interesting1 in passing1 to note the relation of this definition to the widely prevalent notion that romanticism is extravagant and lawless4 ,to the mind wedded to tradition all novelty is extravagant2 and since an artistic form is grasped only after considerable practice1 all new forms necessarily appear formless at first4 ,hence1 if we begin by saying that romantic art is novel and strange art1 it requires only a little inertia or intolerance in our point of view to make us add that it is grotesque and irrational art1 or in fact not art at all4 ,critics have often been known to arrive at this conclusion4 ,suggestive as ,pater's definition is1 however1 it is obviously too vague and sweeping to carry us far in our quest4 ,it does not explain why ,monteverde1 with his revolutionary dominant seventh chords1 or the ,florentine composers of the early seventeenth century1 with their unheard-of free recitative1 were not quite as genuine romanticists as ,schubert with his whimsical modulation and ,schumann with his harsh dissonances4 ,we have still to ask why1 instead of appending our label of romantic to the innovators of centuries earlier than the nineteenth1 we confine it to that comparatively small group of men who immediately followed ,beethoven4 ,the answer is to be found in the distinctness of the break that occurred in musical development at this time1 the striking difference in type between the compositions of ,beethoven and those of his successors4 ,from ,philipp ,emanuel ,bach up to ,beethoven1 the romanticism of each individual composer merely carried him a step forward on a well-established path2 it prompted him to refine here1 to pare away there1 to expand this feature1 to suppress that1 in a scheme of art constantly maturing1 but retaining always its essential character4 ,with ,beethoven1 however1 this particular scheme of art1 of which the type is the sonata1 with its high measure of formal beauty and its generalized expression1 reached a degree of perfection beyond which it could not for the moment go4 ,the romantic impulse toward novelty of ,beethoven's successors had to satisfy itself1 therefore1 in some other way than by heightening abstract sthetic beauty or general expressiveness2 until new technical resources could be developed the limit was reached in those directions4 ,beethoven had himself1 meanwhile1 opened the door on an inviting vista of possibilities in a new field--that of highly specialized1 idiosyncratic1 subjective expression4 ,he had shown how music1 with ,mozart so serene1 detached1 and impersonal1 could become a language of personal feeling1 of individual passion1 even of whim1 fantasy1 and humor4 ,it was inevitable that those who came after him should seek their novelty1 should satisfy their curiosity1 along this new path of subjectivism and specialized expression4 ,and as this music of the person1 as we may call it1 which now began to be written1 was different not only in degree but in kind from the objective art which prepared the way for it1 it is natural that in looking back upon so striking a new departure we should give it a special name1 such as romanticism4 ,as for the other line of demarcation1 which separates the romantic period from what we call the modern1 that is purely arbitrary4 ,modern is a convenient name for us to give to those tendencies from which we have not yet got far enough away to view them in large masses and to describe them disinterestedly4 ,as the blur of too close a vision extends back for us to #ahgj or thereabout1 we find it wise to let our romantic period1 about which we can theorize and form hypotheses1 end there for the present4 ,but it already seems clear enough that the prevalent tendency even in contemporary music is still the personal and subjective one that distinguished the early romantic period4 ,probably our grandchildren will extend that period from ,beethoven's later works to those of some composer yet unborn4 ,and thus we have1 in studying the romantic composers1 the added interest that we are in a very real sense studying ourselves4 ,,ii ,if1 with a view to getting a more precise notion of the new tendencies1 we ask ourselves now what are the salient differences between a classical and a romantic or modern piece of music1 we shall be likely to notice at once certain traits of the latter1 striking enough1 which are nevertheless incidental rather than essential to romanticism1 and must be discounted before we can come at its inmost nature4 ,these changes have come chiefly as a result of the general evolution of musical resources1 and though necessarily modifying the romantic methods1 are not primary causes or effects of them4 ,thus1 for example1 the nineteenth century has seen an extraordinary development in the mechanism of all musical instruments1 and in the skilful use of them by musicians4 ,this is impressed upon us by the most cursory glance at any modern orchestral score4 ,haydn's and ,mozart's orchestra consisted of a nucleus of strings1 with a few pairs of wood and brass wind instruments added casually for solos or to reinforce certain voices in the harmonic tissue4 ,the scheme was fundamentally monochromatic1 however much it might be set off by bits of color here and there4 ,by the time of ,wagner the orchestra was essentially a group of several orchestras of divers colors3 the addition of a third flute1 of ,english horn to the oboe family1 of bass clarinet1 and of contrafagotto made each group of the wood-wind instruments capable of fairly complete harmony2 the horns were increased in number from two to six or eight1 the bass trumpet made possible complete chords for the trumpets1 and there were four trombones and a choir of tubas4 ,thus1 instead of having a uniform foundation1 with variety merely in the trimming1 the modern orchestra has complete1 independent choirs of most various instruments1 capable of all sorts of combination1 opposition1 and contrast4 ,the manner of writing for the orchestra changed as much as its constitution4 ,beethoven usually writes three- or four-part harmony for the strings1 and doubles the wood and brass as seems effective4 ,tschakowsky and ,wagner are apt to put an entire family of instruments on one melodic voice1 another on another1 a third on a third--as in the second movement of the ,symphonie ,pathtique1 at the point where flutes1 oboes1 clarinets1 and bassoons sing the melody1 while first and second violins and violas pick an obligato to it4 ,in a word1 much more attention is paid in the modern orchestra to richness and variety of tone-color and to an impressionistically effective disposition of the various timbres than in the classical scores4 ,the same tendency is observable in chamber and pianoforte music4 ,not only are modern composers fond of curious groupings of wind and string instruments1 as in the trumpet septet of ,saint-,sans1 the clarinet quintet and horn trio of ,brahms1 and other such works1 but when they use only the four stringed instruments they combine contrasting rhythms and modes of phrasing1 as well as pizzicato1 the sordino1 the high register of the 'cello1 and other exotic devices1 with an unfailing sense of color-values4 ,schubert is the first conspicuous example of this sort of quartet writing2 ,dvok is his worthy follower4 ,as for the piano1 there is almost as much difference between the piano writing of ,beethoven1 so often thick1 harsh1 and lumpish1 and the ramifying figuration of ,schumann or the wide1 clear arpeggiated accompaniments and flowering scale-figures of ,chopin as there is between the coloring of ,rembrandt and that of ,monet4 ,all this gain in sensuous richness and technical elaboration is1 however1 to be considered largely as a concomitant rather than a direct result 7though to some extent is was that7 of the romantic movement4 ,it was primarily merely a phase of that unparalleled material and mechanical progress so characteristic of the nineteenth century4 ,the modern orchestra and the modern pianoforte are simply special examples of the ingenuity of that century in mechanical devices2 the genius which turned the clavichord into the piano was the same as that which substituted the propeller for sails1 and the electric telegraph for the lumbering mail-coach4 ,but if this modern mechanical genius has indeed brought to the musician priceless gifts1 it is still important to remember that perfected mechanisms do not account for romantic music1 which might conceivably have existed without them4 ,instruments alone cannot make music1 any more than a steam derrick can build a bridge4 ,if we wish to seize the true spirit of the modern musical art1 we must1 after all1 leave orchestra1 and piano1 and sensuous value behind1 and ascertain to what use composers have turned all these resources1 and to what manner of expression1 embodied in what kind of forms1 they have been spurred by the romantic spirit4 ,,iii ,difficult to make1 and dangerous when made1 as are sweeping generalizations about so many-sided a matter as the expressive character of whole schools or eras of art1 there seem to be generic differences between classical and romantic expression which we can hardly avoid remarking1 and of which it is worth while to attempt a tentative definition1 especially if we premise that it is to be suggestive rather than absolute4 ,the constant generality of classical expression1 and the objectivity of attitude which it indicates in the worker1 cannot but strike the modern student1 especially if he contrasts them with the exactly opposite features of contemporary art4 ,the classical masters aim1 not at particularity and minuteness of expression1 but at the congruous setting forth of certain broad types of feeling4 ,they are jealous of proportion1 vigilant to maintain the balance of the whole work1 rigorous in the exclusion of any single feature that might through undue prominence distort or mar its outlines4 ,their attitude toward their work is detached1 impersonal1 disinterested--a purely craftsmanlike attitude1 at the furthest pole from the passionate subjectivity of our modern tone-poets4 ,j4 ,s4 ,bach1 for example1 the sovereign spirit of this school1 is always concerned primarily with the plastic problem of weaving his wonderful tonal patterns2 we feel that what these patterns turn out to express1 even though it be of great1 and indeed often of supreme1 poignancy1 is in his mind quite a secondary matter4 ,the preludes and fugues of the ,well-tempered ,clavichord are monuments of abstract beauty1 rather than messages1 pleas1 or illustrations4 ,and even when their emotional burden is so weighty as in the ,b-flat minor prelude or the ,b-minor fugue of the first book1 it still remains general and1 as it were1 communal4 ,bach is not relieving his private mind2 he is acting as a public spokesman1 as a trustee of the emotion of a race or nation4 ,this gives his utterance a scope1 a dignity1 a nobility1 that cannot be accounted for by his merely personal character4 ,haydn and ,mozart illustrate the same attitude in a different department of music4 ,their symphonies and quartets are almost as impersonal as his preludes and fugues4 ,the substance of all ,haydn's best work is the folk-music of the ,croatians1 a branch of the ,slavic race2 its gaiety1 elasticity1 and ingenuousness are ,slavic rather than merely ,haydnish4 ,it is true that he idealizes the music of his people1 as a gifted individual will always idealize any popular art he touches2 but he remains true to his source1 and accurately representative of it1 just as the finest tree contains only those elements which it can draw from the soil in which it grows4 ,mozart1 more personal than ,haydn1 shares with him the aloofness1 the reticence1 of classicism4 ,what could be more ,greek1 more celestially remote1 than the ,g-minor ,symphony1 or the quintet in the same key8 ,what could be less a detailed biography of a hero1 more an ideal sublimation of his essential character1 than the ,jupiter ,symphony8 ,and even in such a deeply emotional conception as the introduction to the ,c-major quartet1 can we label any specific emotion8 ,can we point to the measures and say1 ,here is grief2 here is disappointment2 here is unrequited love8 ,in ,beethoven we become conscious of a gradually changing ideal of expression4 ,there are still themes1 movements1 entire works1 in which the dominant impulse is the architectonic zeal of classicism2 and there is the evidence of the sketchbooks that this passionate individualist could subject himself to endless discipline in the quest of pure plastic beauty4 ,but there are other things1 such as the third1 fifth1 and ninth symphonies1 the ,egmont and ,coriolanus overtures1 the slow movement of the ,g-major concerto 7that profoundly pathetic dialogue between destiny and the human heart71 and the later quartets1 in which a novel particularity and subjectivity of utterance make themselves felt4 ,in such works the self-forgetful artist1 having his vicarious life only in the serene beauty of his creations1 disappears1 and ,ludwig van ,beethoven1 bursting with a thousand emotions that must out1 steps into his place and commands our attention1 nobly egotistic1 magnificently individual4 ,and then there is the ,pastoral ,symphony1 in which he turns landscape painter1 and with minutest details of bird-notes and shepherds' songs and peasants' dances delineates the external objects1 as well as celebrates the inner spirit1 of the countryside4 ,these things mark the birth of romanticism4 ,for romanticism is1 in essence1 just this modern subjectivity and individualism1 just this shifting of the emphasis from abstract beauty1 with its undifferentiated expressiveness1 to personal communication1 minute interest in the uttermost detail1 impassioned insistence on each emotion for itself rather than as a subordinate member in an articulate organism1 and1 in extreme cases1 to concrete objects1 persons1 and scenes in the extra-musical world4 ,musicians since ,beethoven have inclined to exploit more and more that aspect of their art which is analogous to language1 even when this means neglect of the other aspect1 the nearest analogue of which is to be found in sculpture1 architecture1 and decorative painting4 ,the modern watchword has come to be initiative rather than obedience1 originality rather than skill1 individuality rather than truth to universal human nature4 ,it is1 after all1 one impulse1 the impulse toward specialization1 that runs through all the various manifestations of the romantic spirit1 and may be traced alike in the lyricism of ,schubert1 the fanciful whimsicality of ,schumann1 the picturesqueness of ,mendelssohn1 the introspection of ,chopin1 and the realism of ,berlioz and ,liszt4 ,in ,schubert1 the first of the out-and-out romanticists1 and the eldest of them all in point of time 7his birth date falls in the eighteenth century71 we find a curious grafting of a new spirit on an old stem4 ,brought up on the quartets and symphonies of ,haydn and ,mozart1 making his first studies in boyishly literal imitation of them1 he acquired the letter of the classical idiom as none of the others save ,mendelssohn ever did4 ,his works in sonata form1 written up to #ahaf1 might well have emanated from ,esterhaz or ,salzburg2 the ,c-major ,symphony1 so far as general plan is concerned1 would have done no discredit to ,beethoven4 ,yet the spirit of ,schubert is always lyrical4 ,it was fated from his birth that he should write songs1 for his was a typically sentimental temperament2 and when he planned a symphony1 he instinctively conceived it as a series of songs for instruments1 somewhat more developed than those intended for a voice1 but hardly different in kind4 ,as a naturalist can reconstruct in fancy an extinct animal from a fossil jaw-bone1 a musical historian might piece out a fair conception of what romanticism is1 in the dearth of other evidence1 from a study of ,erlknig1 or ,stndchen1 or ,am ,meer2 and the ideas he might thus form would be extended rather than altered by acquaintance with the ,unfinished ,symphony or the ,d-minor ,quartet4 ,the lyrical ,schubert contrasts always with the heroic and impersonal ,bach or ,beethoven1 much as ,tennyson contrasts with ,shakespeare1 or ,theocritus with ,sophocles4 ,schumann adds to the lyrical ardor of ,schubert insatiable youthful enthusiasm1 whimsicality1 a richly poetic fancy1 and a touch of mysticism4 ,his songs are even more personal than ,schubert's1 and his piano pieces1 especially the early ones1 bristle with eccentricities4 ,the particularity1 minute detail1 and personal connotation of the ,abegg ,variations1 the ,davidsbndertnze1 the ,papillons1 the ,carnaval1 the ,kreisleriana1 are almost grotesque4 ,he confides to us1 through this music1 his friendships1 his flirtations1 his courtship1 his critical sympathies1 his artistic creed1 his literary devotions4 ,never was music so circumstantial1 so autobiographic4 ,in later years1 when he had passed out of the enchanted circle of youthful egotism1 and was striving for a more universal speech1 his point of view became not essentially less personal but only less wayward4 ,till the last his art is vividly self-conscious--that is his charm and his limitation4 ,no one has so touchingly voiced the aspirations of the imprisoned soul1 no one has put meditation and introspection into tones1 as he has done in the adagio of the ,c-major ,symphony1 the ,funeral ,march of the ,quintet1 the ,f-sharp major ,romance for piano4 ,if ,schumann sounds1 as no other can1 the whole gamut of feeling of a sensitive modern soul1 ,mendelssohn1 quite dissimilar in temperament1--correct1 reserved1 dispassionate1--is nevertheless also romantic by virtue of his picturesqueness1 his keen sense for the pageantry of life1 his delicate skill as an illustrator of nature and of imaginative literature4 ,his ,songs without ,words reveal a strain of mild lyricism1 but he is never intimate or reckless1 he never wholly reveals himself4 ,his discreet objectivity is far removed from the frankly subjective enthusiasms of ,schubert and ,schumann4 ,he was1 in fact1 by tradition1 training1 and native taste1 a classicist2 the exhibition of deep feeling was distasteful to his fastidious reticence2 and he is thus emotionally less characteristic of his period than any of his contemporaries4 ,but for all that he shows unmistakably in the felicity of his tone-painting the modern interest in picturesque detail1 in the concrete circumstance1 the significant particular4 ,illustration rather than abstract beauty--that is one of the special interests of the new school4 ,no one has cultivated it more happily than the composer of the ,midsummer ,night's ,dream music1 the ,hebrides ,overture1 and the ,scotch and ,italian ,symphonies4 ,chopin presents an even more singular instance than ,schumann affords of what introspection can make of a composer1 of how resolute self-communion can individualize his work until its intense personal savor keeps little to remind us of other music4 ,all ,chopin's tastes were so aristocratic that the exclusiveness of his style seems a matter of course1 and was probably to his mind a supreme merit4 ,and if it debarred him from some musical experiences1 if it made his music sound better in a drawing-room than in a concert hall1 it certainly gave it a marvellous delicacy1 finesse1 originality1 and fragile beauty4 ,it is1 so to speak1 valetudinarian music1 and preserves its pure white complexion only by never venturing into the full sunlight4 ,here1 then1 is another differentiation in musical style1 a fresh departure from the classic norm1 due to the exacting taste of the mental aristocrat1 the carefully self-bounded dreamer and sybarite4 ,markedly specialized as the expression is1 however1 in ,schubert1 ,schumann1 ,mendelssohn1 and ,chopin1 and strikingly contrasted as it is with the serene generality of the classical music1 the two schools after all differ rather in the degree of emphasis they lay on the various elements of effect than in kind4 ,both1 we feel1 are using the same means1 though to such different ends4 ,but with ,berlioz and ,liszt we pass into a new world1 in which not only emphasis and intention1 but the actual materials and the fundamental principles of art1 have undergone a change4 ,these men have pushed the romantic concreteness even beyond the range of sentiments and emotions1 to invade that of facts and events4 ,they are no longer satisfied with the minuti of feelings2 they must depict for us the external appearance of the people who feel1 give us not only heroes1 but these heroes' coats1 with the exact number of buttons and the proper cut1 according to the fashion of the particular decade4 ,if ,schumann and his fellows are the sentimental novelists of music1 the ,thackerays and the ,george ,eliots1 here are the naturalists1 the scientific analysts1 the realists with microscope and scalpel in hand1 the ,zolas and the ,gorkys4 ,this insistence on the letter is quite instinctive with ,berlioz4 ,in the first place1 he was a ,frenchman2 and the ,french have a genius for the concrete1 and in music have shown their bias by approaching it always from the dramatic1 histrionic point of view4 ,opera is the norm of music to the ,frenchman4 ,for him1 music originates in the opera-house1 quite as inevitably as for the ,german it originates in the concert room4 ,berlioz's symphonies1 therefore1 as a matter of course1 took the form of operas1 with the characters and action suppressed or relegated to the imagination4 ,in the second place1 the active impulses in ,berlioz's personal temperament predominated over the contemplative to a degree unusual even in his countrymen2 he conceived a work of art in terms not of emotion but of action2 and his musical thinking was a sort of narration in tones4 ,he accordingly wrote1 with ingenuous spontaneity1 in a style that was1 from the ,german standpoint1 revolutionary1 unprecedented1 iconoclastic--a style the essence of which was its matter-of-fact realism4 ,his ,symphonie ,fantastique1 which ,mr4 ,hadow calls his most uncompromising piece of program music1 sets forth the adventures of a hero 7whose identity with the composer is obvious7 in five movements or acts1 and with the most sedulous particularity4 ,we first see him struggling with love1 tormented by jealousy1 consoled by religion2 then in a ball-room1 pausing in the midst of the dance to muse on his beloved2 then in the country1 listening to idyllic shepherds and hearing the summer thunder4 ,he dreams that he has murdered the beloved1 that he is to be beheaded at the guillotine2 he is surrounded by witches1 his mistress has herself become a witch1 the ,dies ,ir clangs its knell of death across the wild chaos of the dance4444 ,now in all this the striking point is the concreteness of the imagery1 the plenitude of detail1 the narrative and descriptive literalness of the treatment--and above all the subordination of the music to a merely symbolic function4 ,berlioz here brings into prominence for the first time the device1 so frequent in later operatic and program music1 of treating his themes or motives as symbols of his characters1 associated with these by a purely arbitrary but nevertheless effective bond4 ,when we hear the melody we are expected to think of the character1 and all the changes rung on it are prompted not by the desire for musical development1 but by psychological considerations connected with the dramatic action4 ,thus1 for example1 in this symphony the motive known as l'ide fixe represents the beloved2 its fragmentary appearances in the second1 third1 and fourth movements tell us that the thought of her is passing through our hero's mind2 and in the last movement1 when she endues the horrid form of a witch1 we hear a distorted1 grotesque version of it sardonically whistled by the piccolo4 ,highly characteristic of ,berlioz is this use of melodies1 so dearly valued in classic music for themselves alone1 as mere counters for telling off the incidents in the plot1 or cues for the entrances of the dramatis person4 ,liszt1 a man of keener musical perception than ,berlioz1 placed himself also1 in obedience to his strong dramatic sense1 on the same artistic platform4 ,in such a work as the ,faust ,symphony we discern a more musical nature producing practically the same kind of music4 ,there is the same narrative and descriptive intention2 the three movements take their names from the chief characters in the action1 ,faust1 ,gretchen1 and ,mephistopheles2 and though the second is more general in expression than ,berlioz ever is1 the other two are good examples of his method4 ,there is also the same machinery of leading motives and their manipulation according to the requirements of symbolism1 even to the parodying of the ,faust themes in the ,mephistopheles section4 ,in the symphonic poem1 ,les ,prludes1 however 7and in the ,dante ,symphony and other compositions71 ,liszt shows his ,german blood in a treatment more imaginative1 the actuating subjects being often not persons and events1 but emotional and mental states4 ,but the fact that many of the transformations of the themes are from the musical standpoint travesties1 justified only by their psychological intention1 shows that the attitude even here is still that of the dramatist1 not that of the abstract musician4 ,the art1 in a word1 is still representative1 not presentative and self-sufficing4 ,again1 the representative function of music for ,liszt is shown by his tendency to approach composition indirectly1 and through extraneous interests of his many-sided mind1 instead of with the classic single-mindedness3 his pieces are suggested by natural scenery1 historical characters1 philosophic abstractions1 poems1 novels1 and even statues and pictures4 ,in all these ways and degrees we see exemplified the inclination of the nineteenth-century composers to seek a more and more definite1 particular1 and concrete type of expression4 ,subjective shades and nuances take the place of the ground-colors of classicism2 music comes to have so personal a flavor that it is as impossible to confound a piece of ,chopin with one of ,schumann as it is difficult1 by internal evidence alone1 to say whether ,mozart or ,haydn is the author of an unfamiliar symphony2 ultimately1 insistence upon special emotions opens the way to absorption in what is even more special--individual characters1 events1 and situations1--and on the heels of the lyrical treads the realistic4 ,the artistic stream thus reverses the habit of natural streams3 as it gets farther and farther from its source it subdivides and subdivides itself again1 until it is no longer a single large body1 but a multitude of isolated brooks and rivulets4 ,our contemporary music1 unlike the classical1 is not the expression of a single social consciousness1 but rather a heterogeneous aggregate of the utterances of many individuals4 ,what is most captivating about it is the sensitive fidelity with which it reflects its composers' idiosyncrasies4 ,,iv ,all things human1 however1 have their price1 and romanticism is no exception to the rule4 ,the composers of the romantic period1 in becoming more particular1 grew in the same proportion less universal2 in bowing to the inexorable evolutionary force that makes each modern man a specialist1 they inevitably sacrificed something of the breadth1 the catholicity1 the magnanimity1 of the old time4 ,it is doubtless a sense of some such loss as this1 dogging like a shadow all our gains1 that takes us back periodically to a new appreciation of the classics4 ,there is often a feeling of relief1 of freer breathing and ampler leisure1 as when we leave the confusion of the city for the large peace of the country1 in turning from the modern complexities to the old simplicities1 and forgetting that there is any music but ,bach's4 ,the reasons for this contrast between the two schools must of course lie deeply hidden in the psychology of sthetics1 but a clew to them at least may be found near at hand1 in the conditions of life1 the everyday environments1 of the two groups of artists4 ,it has often been remarked that the composers of the nineteenth century have been men of more cultivation1 of greater intellectual elasticity and resulting breadth of interest1 than their predecessors4 ,palestrina1 ,bach1 ,handel1 ,haydn1 ,mozart1 even ,beethoven1 concentrating their whole minds on music1 were far less curious as to other human pursuits than their later brethren4 ,the six composers we are studying are impressive instances of this modern many-sidedness of mind4 ,at least three of them1 ,schumann1 ,berlioz1 and ,liszt1 were skilled journalists and men of letters2 ,schumann with the finely judicial1 fancifully conceived sketches of his ,new ,journal of ,music1 ,berlioz with his brilliant1 fantastically humorous feuilletons1 and ,liszt with his propaganda1 in book and pamphlet1 of ,wagner1 ,chopin1 and other contemporaries4 7,fancy ,bach interrupting his steady stream of cantatas to write an exposition of the genius of ,handel67 ,schumann was1 moreover1 something of a poet1 and ,mendelssohn was one of the most voluminous and picturesque of letter-writers4 ,chopin was as versed in social as in musical graces and ,liszt was--what was he not8--a courtier1 a ,lovelace1 a man of the world1 and an abb4 ,schubert alone1 of them all the eldest and the nearest to classical traditions1 was a composer pure and simple4 ,the versatility of these men was no accident or freak of coincidence2 it was the effective trait that made their work so profusely allusive1 so vividly minute1 in short1 so romantic4 ,and what is more to our purpose just here1 it was the underlying cause of a defect which is quite as symptomatic of romanticism as its merits4 ,so various a mental activity must needs lack something in depth2 if attention is spread wide it must be spread thin2 thought given to avocations must be borrowed from the vocation4 ,we should expect to find1 accordingly1 division of energy resulting1 here as elsewhere1 in a lack of concentration1 a failure of power2 and herein we are not disappointed4 ,with the possible exception of ,mendelssohn1 no one of our six composers can compare1 simply as a handicraftsman1 with ,bach or ,mozart4 ,schubert was so little a contrapuntist that he had just engaged lessons when death interrupted his brief career4 ,schumann and ,chopin gave in their youth innumerable hours that should have counted for systematic to routine the fanciful improvisation so seductive to poetic temperaments4 ,berlioz kicked down all the fences in his coltish days1 and ever after looked askance at the artistic harness4 ,liszt1 for all his diabolical cleverness1 remained the slave of mannerisms1 and became a dupe of his own rhetorical style4 ,now there is doubtless in all this waywardness something that strikes in us a chord such as vibrates in sympathy with the small boy who1 regardless of barbed wire1 invades the orchard and carries off the delectable green apples4 ,it is a fine thing to be young1 it is glorious to be free4 ,but sober second thought relentlessly follows3 we know that apples must be sent to market in due course1 and that that exciting green fruit is1 after all1 indigestible and unripe2 and we know equally that musicians must undergo their apprenticeship1 and that all art executed without adequate technical mastery is crude4 ,the crudity of the art of our musical orchard-robbers becomes at once evident when we compare a single melody1 or an entire movement1 of ,schubert or his successors with one by ,mozart or ,beethoven4 ,the single melody is the molecule of music1 the smallest element in it that cannot be subdivided without loss of character4 ,every great melody has an indefinable distinction1 a sort of personal flavor or individuality1 which we may discern but cannot analyze4 ,it has also1 however1 an organic quality1 depending upon both the unity and the variety of its phraseology1 that we can to a certain extent study and define4 ,assuming1 to start with1 the subtle distinction without which it would sink into the commonplace1 we can compare and contrast it with other melodies in respect of its organic quality1 its simultaneous presentation of unity and variety--in a word1 its plastic beauty4 ,such a melody as the second theme of the first movement of ,mozart's ,g-minor ,quintet1 for example1 gains a wonderful charm from the complexity1 and at the same time the final simplicity1 of its phrase structure4 ,the several musical figures1 or motives1 of which it is composed follow each other without the least impression of crass mechanical dovetailing2 yet one feels1 as they proceed1 such a sense of logical progression1 of orderly sequence1 that the final cadence seems like an audible ,q4 ,e4 ,d4 ,contrasted with such dexterous phrase-weaving as this1 many of ,schubert's and ,schumann's tunes1 with their literal repetitions of short phrases1 their set thesis and antithesis1 seem pitifully bald and trite4 ,it is hardly fair to take extreme cases1 but they best bring out the point4 ,schubert's ,drang in die ,ferne1 ten consecutive measures of which repeat literally the same rhythm1 and the theme in ,schumann's ,abegg ,variations1 in which a single phrase recurs sixteen times1 will make it almost painfully evident4 ,this tendency to rhythmic monotony1 to an unvaried singsong reiteration of phrase1 besets constantly these two composers1 too often takes ,chopin in its grasp1 and in ,mendelssohn is aggravated by an inclination to stay in one key1 page after page1 until our heads droop with drowsiness4 ,berlioz1 on the other hand1 errs in the opposite direction4 ,variety1 with him1 degenerates into a chaotic miscellaneousness1 and what should be an agreeably diversified landscape becomes a pathless jungle4 ,in both cases there is a failure of the constructive faculty1 due to a lack of mental cordination and concentration4 ,the price paid for interesting detail is monotony or instability in the organism4 ,similar weaknesses reveal themselves when we pass from considering the elemental melodies to survey the ways in which they are built up into larger sections and whole movements--when we pass1 that is1 from form to structure4#a ,none of the romantic composers attained a breadth1 diversity1 and solidity of construction in any wise comparable to ,beethoven's4 ,schubert was intellectually too indolent1 if not indifferent1 to attempt intricate syntheses of his materials1 but relied instead on their primitive charm to justify endless repetitions4 ,schumann1 less tolerant of platitude1 and gifted with more intense1 if hardly more disciplined1 imagination1 resorted to constant kaleidoscopic change1 resulting in those mosaic forms which are related to true cyclic forms much as a panorama is related to a picture4 ,mendelssohn was naturally a better master of construction1 but the knots he ties are somewhat loose and inclined to ravel out4 ,chopin1 a born miniaturist1 obviously fails to make his sonatas and concertos anything but chance bundles of lyrical pieces4 ,as for ,berlioz and ,liszt1 they frankly faced their dilemma1 and had the shrewdness to disclaim the desire to do that for which they wanted the faculty4 ,they fell back on the poetic forms1 and let their works pile up without internal coherence1 held together only by the thread of the story they were illustrating4 ,for this failure to work out the highest degree of plastic beauty possible to them1 the romanticists frequently have to pay in a serious loss of power4 ,keenly interesting as are the details of their work1 the whole impression is apt to lack fusion1 clearness1 integrity4 ,not without terrible risks may the musician neglect form1 since form is itself1 for him1 perhaps more than for any of his brother artists in other mediums1 a fundamental means of expression4 ,of this matter popular thought is inclined to take a superficial view2 it is fond of confusing vital form with dry formalism1 of speaking contemptuously of formal analysis as the pedantic dissection of lovely melodies1 the plucking and counting of the petals of the flowers of art1 and of reiterating ad nauseam its irritating half-truth1 ,music is the language of the emotions4 ,popular thought would do well to pause and consider2 to ask itself whether language too has not its form1 without which it is unintelligible2 to inquire how much of the expressive power of a lovely melody would remain were its pitch and time relations 7that is1 its form7 materially altered1 how long we could be inspired by the most exciting rhythms1 were they ceaselessly reiterated without relief1 and how eloquent we should find even the most moving symphony1 were it written all in one key1 or in several keys that had no relation to one another4 ,such consideration soon suggests the truth1 which impresses us the more the more deeply we study music1 that there is a general expressiveness underlying all particular expressions1 a fundamental beauty by which all special beauties are nourished as flowers are nourished by the soil1 a symmetry and orderly organization that can no more be dispensed with in music without crippling its eloquence than a normal regularity of the features can be dispensed with in the human face without distorting it into absurdity or debasing it into ugliness4 ,without its pervasive presence1 all special features1 however amusing or superficially appealing1 fail to inspire or charm4 ,they become as wild flowers plucked to languish indoors1 as seaweeds taken from their natural setting of liquid coolness4 ,or again1 the particular expressions of music may be compared to the strings of an instrument1 of which the sounding board is plastic beauty2 without its sympathetic reinforcement the strings1 strike them as we may1 give forth a scarcely audible murmur2 with it1 there is clear and powerful sonority4 ,so the most ingenious music is dull and dead if it lack the vitality of organic form1 but if it be beautiful it will make its way directly to the heart4 ,it is surely not necessary to add that this discussion of the primal importance of form is not intended to impeach all romantic music as deficient in the appeal that beauty alone can make4 ,this were indeed a reductio ad absurdum4 ,much of the music of ,schubert1 ,schumann1 ,mendelssohn1 and ,chopin is of the rarest beauty1 and1 by the same token1 of the most moving eloquence4 ,the intention of our analysis is rather to secure that aid to the appreciation of just such beauties which discrimination alone can give1 and by means of comparison to sharpen the focus of our mental image of what romanticism achieves and of what it fails to achieve4 ,at its best1 we shall rejoice to find1 it shares the serene loveliness1 the impersonal grandeur1 of classicism4 ,at its less than best1 it offers us a vivid intellectual interest1 a keen pleasure in following its wide ramifications and its faithful illustrations of many phases of life4 ,at its worst only does its exaggerated passion for detail mislead it into petty and prosaic literalism4 ,v ,a slightly different angle of approach to this whole problem of musical expression is afforded by psychological analysis4 ,here1 again1 as we might expect1 modern theory1 the learned as well as the popular1 is somewhat biassed by the prominence in modern practice of certain special features of effect4 ,the psychologists dwell with a pardonable partiality of vision on the means of special expression2 to complete their theories the reader has often to add for himself a consideration of the psychology of form4 ,an article by ,m4 ,edmond ,goblot1 entitled ,la ,musique ,descriptive1#b is interesting1 like others of its kind1 both for what it explains and for what it ignores4 ,m4 ,goblot classifies expressive music under three headings1 to which he gives the names of la musique emotive1 la musique descriptive1 and la musique imitative4 ,his first rubric is somewhat vague1 a sort of rag-bag into which he stuffs toute musique qui provoque l'emotion sans aucun intermediaire conscient4 ,the other two are not only more precise1 but serve to call attention to devices which have become very prominent in romantic1 and especially in modern realistic1 music4 ,imitative music1 by reproducing literally sounds heard in the extra-musical world of nature1 suggests to the listener the objects and events associated with them4 ,examples are the bird-notes in ,beethoven's ,pastoral ,symphony1 the thunder in ,berlioz's ,symphonie ,fantastique1 the bleating of sheep in ,strauss's ,don ,quixote1 the striking of the clock and the wailing of the baby in his ,symphonia ,domestica4 ,descriptive music suggests actions and events by means of analogies1 chiefly of movement and of utterance1 between the music and the object1 and is of course far commoner than the more literal and narrowly circumscribed imitation4 ,beethoven is descriptive when he represents the even flowing of the brook1 in the ,pastoral ,symphony1 by rippling figures in eighth notes1 or when in the bass recitatives of the ,ninth ,symphony he suggests the impassioned utterance of an imaginary protagonist2 ,mendelssohn describes in his ,hebrides ,overture the heaving of the ocean1 and in his ,midsummer ,night's ,dream the dancing of fairies2 ,saint-,sans reproduces in ,le ,rouet d',omphale the very whirr of the spinning-wheel1 and ,wagner in his fire-music the ceaseless lapping of flames4 ,such devices as these certainly occupy a prominent place in modern music4 ,almost every composer of the later nineteenth century has taken his fling at this sort of sketching from nature4 ,one cannot resist1 nevertheless1 the suspicion that ,m4 ,goblot attaches too great an importance to what is1 after all1 a casual and desultory element in most compositions1 and that he inclines to lay on the narrow shoulders of imitation and description a greater burden of explanation than they can carry4 ,beethoven's birds and brooks are attractive features in a great work2 ,saint-,sans' spinning-wheel makes a charming arabesque on a harmony of solid musicianship2 but what are we to say to ,m4 ,goblot's assertion that a passage cited from ,alexandre ,george1 modulating upward by whole steps1 is emphatically expressive because it reminds us of a person reiterating with growing exaltation the same authoritative or impassioned affirmation1 and each time advancing a step1 in an attitude of menace or defiance8 ,can we accept as unquestioningly as he does a series of thirteen consecutive fifths1 descriptive of sunrise1 on the ground that it wounds our ears as the light of the sun wounds our eyes8 ,and listen to his comment on ,schubert's ,trout1 that long-suffering denizen of ,teutonic waters3 ,en courant sur son lit de pierres1 elle se creuse de plis profonds1 se hrisse de crtes saillantes1 et ces plis et ces crtes se croisent obliquement en miroitant4 ,schubert's fat shoulders1 we suspect1 would have shaken could he have read this ingenious commentary on his work4 ,if such finical transcription of natural sights and sounds is the aim of music1 why do we prefer ,beethoven's thunder1 which clings cravenly to the diatonic scale1 to ,berlioz's1 so much more realistic in its daring dissonance8 ,why do we not forthwith turn about face on the road our art has so long been travelling1 and forsake musical intervals1 those quite artificial figments1 for the noises which surround us everywhere in the actual world8 ,noise is indeed the hidden goal toward which all description and imitation aspire1 and sound could never have passed into music under their guidance1 but only in quest of a far deeper1 more subtle expressiveness4 ,it is hard to believe that any sane listener would long continue to patronize music in which there was not something more truly satisfying than the lapping of brooks1 the crashing of storm or battle1 and the whirring of spinning-wheels or the creaking of wind-mills4 ,if such were the case1 we should have to admit sadly that music had fallen to the level to which dramatic art falls in the real-tank-and-practicable-saw-mill melodrama1 to which painting falls in those pictures from which we try to pluck the too tangible grape4 ,m4 ,goblot evidently realizes himself that there is a subtler appeal than that of description and imitation2 for it is in order to account for it that he makes his separate heading of la musique emotive1 by which he indicates all music which acts directly upon the emotions1 without the aid of any recognition of external objects1 any intellectual concepts1 or1 as he says1 aucun intermediaire conscient4 ,the appeal he here has in mind is that of thousands of melodies1 which1 without describing or imitating any concrete object1 suggest vividly special states of feeling1 by recalling to us1 in veiled1 modified1 and idealized form1 those gestures or cries we habitually make under the spur of such feelings4 ,since the spontaneous vocal expressions of strong emotion--wailing1 crying1 pleading1 moaning1 and the like--have all their characteristic cadences1 which can be more or less accurately reproduced in a bit of melody1 and since the natural bodily gesticulations can be similarly suggested by divers rhythmical movements1 music has the power to induce a great variety of emotional states by what we may call direct contagion1 without the intermediation of any mental images4 ,it can act upon us like the infection of tears or laughter1 to which we involuntarily succumb1 without asking for any reasons4 ,and it certainly exercises this power much more constantly and steadily than it imitates or describes4 ,almost all lyrical melodies1 such as ,schumann's ,ich ,grolle ,nicht1 with its persistently rising inflection of earnest protestation1 or ,chopin's ,funeral ,march1 with its monotone of heavy grief1 will be found on analysis to recho1 in an idealized and transfigured form1 the natural utterance of passion4 ,this kind of expression1 which has been frequently described1 appeals to our subconscious associations rather than to those conscious processes of thought by which we follow realistic delineation4 ,operating at a deeper level in our natures1 it is proportionately more potent and irresistible4 ,but is even this type of expression1 more general and pervasive though it be than the types so interestingly studied by ,m4 ,goblot--is even this style of expression universal1 omnipresent1 fundamental8 ,does it suffice to explain the overwhelming emotional appeal of an organ-fugue of ,bach1 for example1 of which the impression seems to be vague1 general1 indefinable in specific terms1 in the exact measure of its profundity8 ,if la musique emotive works at a deeper level and upon a more subconscious element in our nature than la musique imitative and la musique descriptive1 is there not still another kind of music1 which we may perhaps best call simply la musique belle1 which1 addressing still deeper instincts1 exercises an even more magical persuasiveness8 ,the case of the ,bach fugue forces us to the conclusion that there is indeed a kind of expression depending neither on the portrayal of natural objects nor on the suggestion of such special feelings as joy and grief1 but penetrating by a still deeper avenue to the primal springs of our emotion4 ,the more compelling the experience1 it seems1 the more is it idealized away from concrete references and provocations in the direction of abstract musical beauty4 ,by presenting to us a perfect piece of form1 a highly complex yet ultimately single organism of tones1 it calls into full play our most fundamental perceptions2 and this satisfying exercise of our faculties gives us a pervasive happiness1 a diffused sense of efficient vitality1 ineffably more delightful than any particularized emotion or isolated intellectual process4 ,perfection of form thus turns out to be the most indispensable of all the means of expression at the command of the composer4 ,psychological analysis1 carried to its legitimate end1 verifies1 we see1 the conclusions of the nave musical observer4 ,all expression1 for psychology1 is the product of an association between two terms in the mind--the first that which is given by experience1 the expressive object1 the second that system of thoughts and feelings at which the mind arrives through the associative act1 that which1 as we say1 is expressed4 ,this being the case1 it is evident that1 other things being equal1 that expression will be most potent the first term of which most deeply stirs our instinctive1 subconscious life4 ,when the first term is a basic activity of our minds1 such as the perception of a beautiful form1 the feelings to which it leads us will have a peculiar depth and amplitude4 ,our whole organism1 like the sounding-board of the well-attuned instrument1 will be set in vibration4 ,this is what happens when we listen sympathetically to music that is really beautiful4 ,when1 on the other hand1 the mental trigger pulled is only some special emotion1 so that the stimulation is superficial or local1 the impression will reverberate less far-reachingly4 ,we shall be less profoundly moved4 ,and when it is not even an emotion1 however special1 that starts off the train of thought1 but the intellectual concept of some object or event1 we shall likely be not so much moved as interested2 our curiosity rather than our passions will respond2 and we shall call the music bizarre1 original1 or striking1 but hardly beautiful4 ,something like the same gradation in the power of various appeals1 according to their generality1 is observable in ordinary life4 ,to read a love-story1 labyrinthine in minute detail1 is a less seizing experience than to overhear the impassioned speech of some actual lover1 even if we catch none of the words2 and this in turn commoves us less than to feel in our own frames that boiling of the blood1 that surging of the vitals1 which is the raw material of love4 ,brisk exercise on a fine autumn day of sun and wind gives a richer happiness than is dreamed of in our philosophies4 ,it communicates no particular ideas1 but attunes our whole being so exquisitely that the fancies spring up spontaneously1 like wild-flowers in a fertile meadow4 ,so lovely music simply establishes in us a mood1 leaving all the furniture of that mood to our imaginations4 ,and this is why it is that artistic expression1 as it becomes more minute and meticulously precise1 is apt to lose in persuasive power1 and that the composer1 if he understands his medium1 must needs hesitate long before sacrificing the least degree of beauty1 however interstitial and inconspicuous1 to any isolated feature of interest1 no matter how salient or seductive4 ,,vi ,perhaps it is not too much to hope that the foregoing analysis1 incomplete and tentative as it is1 affords us something like a rational basis for our instinctive attitudes toward the various types of music4 ,though its intention is to suggest rather than to dogmatize1 it may by this time have fixed clearly in our minds certain fundamental principles of artistic effect2 and by constant reference to these it may have established in us a measure of judicial impartiality and poise4 ,especially1 it may have clarified our notions1 likely to remain confused so long as they are unconscious1 of the essential achievements of the romantic school1 both in its lyrical and in its realistic phases1 as well as of the peculiar drawbacks and limitations to which it is subject4 ,the abiding charm of the lyrical work of the romantic composers1 typical of which are ,schubert's songs1 ,schumann's novelettes and phantasiestcke1 and ,chopin's nocturnes and preludes1 lies in its intimateness1 its strong personal flavor4 ,it fascinates us by its impulsive self-revelation1 its frankness1 spontaneity1 and enthusiasm4 ,its subjectivity and introspection1 even when they are troubled or touched with sadness1 stir a sympathetic chord in the self-conscious modern breast4 ,to those moods which the classic reticence chills and repels1 romantic music speaks with tender1 caressing humanity4 ,even its limitations are then an added appeal2 for when we are too weary or dull to brace ourselves to the perception of impersonal beauty1 the accent of private grief1 aspiration1 struggle1 and disappointment seems better pitched to our capacity1 and has a pathos we can understand4 ,schumann and ,chopin are the best companions for hours of reverie and self-communion4 ,on the other hand1 when those hours overtake us in which we realize the pathetic incompleteness of all merely personal life1 in which we discern what fragmentary creatures we are1 and how little of truth we can ever see1 then all living to ourselves alone is touched with the sense of vanity4 ,then every utterance of our petty private griefs1 and even of our nobler but still private joys1 seems like a breath dissipated in a universe2 we find true existence1 solid reality1 only in an identification of our interests with those of all mankind4 ,as morals finds its escape from this sense of the vanity of individual living in social devotion1 sthetics finds it in the impersonality of classic art4 ,romanticism is sometimes silent1 or speaks to unattending ears4 ,we turn from all special expressions1 touched as they are with human mortality and evanescence1 to the eternal abstract beauty4 ,if lyrical music is unsatisfactory to these moods of highest vitality and severest demand1 realistic music is exasperating1 intolerable4 ,when we have nothing better to do it is amusing enough to note the ingenuity with which a composer can introduce the bray of an ass into his delicate tissue of tones1 as ,mendelssohn does in the ,midsummer ,night's ,dream ,overture1 or make three bird-notes sound a harmonic triad as ,beethoven does in his ,pastoral ,symphony4 ,there is a fascinating technical problem involved in the suggestion of natural noises by musical tones1 and when we are indifferent to such technical interests1 we may still find diversion in following a series of tonal cues to the events of a familiar story4 ,but when we crave the sublimity of music1 when we long to feel once more the thrill of its transcendent beauty1 how can we endure to be put off with the barking of a dog1 the mewing of a cat1 the galloping of a horse1 or the crying of a baby8 ,most program music is incredibly trivial in intention1 and gives an impression of maladaptation of means to ends1 the former are so elaborate1 the latter so paltry and mean4 ,to elicit from a modern orchestra of a hundred instruments a feeble imitation of a battle seems1 as some one has piquantly phrased it1 like using a steam-hammer to kill a fly4 ,we read with impatience the annals of this school4 ,john ,mundy1 an ,english composer of the seventeenth century1 writes a ,fantasia on the ,weather1 in four parts3 ,faire ,weather2 ,lightning2 ,thunder2 a ,faire ,day4 ,adam ,krieger1 in #affg1 composes a four-part vocal fugue entirely imitative of cats1 on a chromatic subject set to the words ,miau1 miau4 ,dussek produces a series of pieces entitled ,the ,sufferings of the ,queen of ,france1 some of which are3 ,the ,queen's ,imprisonment 7largo72 ,she reflects on her ,former ,greatness 7maestoso72 ,her ,invocation to the ,almighty just before her ,death 7devotamente72 ,the ,guillotine drops 7a glissando descending scale72 ,apotheosis4 ,we smile patronizingly over these first childish attempts of an art essentially childish4 ,no longer satisfied with such innocent delineations of natural and political history1 we must have autobiography1 domesticity1 and even metaphysics1 translated into tones4 ,but will posterity take a truly keener delight in our triumphs of realism than we do in the works of ,mundy and ,krieger8 ,already ,mr4 ,arthur ,symons1 in his essay on ,richard ,strauss1 cries in pardonable irritation3 ,if ,i cared more for literature than for music1 ,i imagine that ,i might care greatly for ,strauss4 ,he offers me sound as literature4 ,but ,i prefer to read my literature1 and to hear nothing but music4 ,were triviality the only sin of program music we might leave it1 without further ado1 to the gradual oblivion which overtakes the jejune in art4 ,but1 unfortunately1 program music not merely bores the music-lover2 it does him a positive injury1 which criticism ought1 so far as it can1 to mitigate4 ,by its false emphasis it distracts attention from what music can do supremely to what it can only botch and bungle1 brings true masterpieces into discredit with hearers not sensitive or disciplined enough to appreciate them1 and plunges the simple into a hopeless sthetic quagmire4 ,pitiable is the frequency of such questions1 on the lips of aspiring students1 as1 ,ought ,i1 when ,i listen to music1 to have in mind a series of pictures1 or a story8 ,to judge by the minuteness of its detail the art which beyond all others is great by virtue of indefinite suggestion1 and inspires by appealing to faculties far below the level of intellectual consciousness1 is to be sadly duped4 ,we forget1 writes ,vernon ,lee1 that music is neither a symbol which can convey an abstract thought1 nor a brute cry which can express an instinctive feeling2 we wish to barter the power of leaving in the mind an indelible image of beauty for the miserable privilege of awakening the momentary recollection of one of nature's sounds1 or the yet more miserable one of sending a momentary tremor through the body2 we would rather compare than enjoy1 and rather weep than admire4 ,the upshot of all this is1 that not even in enjoying the novel delights1 the picturesque glimpses1 and the fancy-provoking allusiveness which romanticism has introduced into music should we give ourselves too unreservedly to what may be1 after all1 but a partial and limited pleasure4 ,if these things make us indifferent to deeper beauties they do us a disservice4 ,if1 however1 we can keep1 in spite of their seductions1 our sense of proportion1 our perception of relative values1 we shall enjoy them in security4 ,the romantic movement has undoubtedly led to a widening of our artistic sympathies1 has enriched our music with new expressive possibilities and technical resources4 ,it has been one of those periods of ebullience1 corresponding perhaps in the consciousness of the race to the storm and stress of adolescence in the individual1 which are bound to come so long as we are growing4 ,we cannot fully maintain our poise at the very moment in which we are extending our field of experience2 periods of conquest must alternate with periods of assimilation2 and as in walking we constantly lose our balance in order to progress1 so in mental life we willingly forego control until it can supervene on a broader consciousness4 ,the romantic composers1 eagerly developing the expressive possibilities of music1 may have forgotten sometimes in their enthusiasm the organic beauty without which music can never wholly satisfy1 but nevertheless they have enriched their art4 ,the available resources of music are to-day more various than ever before4 ,not only have its mechanical facilities been wonderfully perfected by the ingenuity of the nineteenth century1 but its potentialities for vivid and detailed expression have been permanently raised by the subjective intentness of the modern temperament4 ,it remains for future composers to make a new synthesis of all these novel elements1 and without sacrificing their vividness to impose upon them the ultimate integrity of impression which at present they too often lack4 ,a classical unity and beauty must supervene upon our romantic multiplicity and interesting confusion4 ,expression1 without losing the minuteness that modern speculation has gained for it1 must regain something of the classical serenity4 ,we have had already one musician who1 profiting by his heritage1 has vied with ,schumann in versatility and with ,bach in intimacy1 who has combined in his single mind something of the sensitive sympathy of the romanticists and the rugged power of the classicists4 ,it may be that ,brahms but points the way to a music of the future which will be as grand as it is vivid1 as universal in scope as it is personal in accent and inspiration1 and in which beauty of form and richness of expression will be reunited in perfect coperation to one great artistic end4 ,,footnotes3 #a ,properly speaking1 form refers to the molecular constitution of music1 to the ways in which relations of pitch and rhythm are manipulated in melody and harmony2 structure to the molar constitution of music1 the subsequent grouping of the melodies into complete pieces4 ,the difference between a sonata1 a fugue1 and a nocturne is a difference of structure2 the difference between a good melody and a bad one is a difference of form4 #b ,la ,revue ,philosophique1 ,vol4 ,,lii4 ,,ii ,,franz ,,schubert ,illustration3 ,,franz ,,schubert ,from an original water color by ,w4 ,a4 ,rieder ,,ii ,,franz ,,schubert ,as the earliest full-fledged representative of the romantic school of composers which succeeded ,beethoven1 ,schubert occupies a peculiar position in the history of music4 ,his work forms the link between the classical music of ,haydn1 ,mozart1 and ,beethoven and the romantic music of ,schumann1 ,mendelssohn1 and ,chopin1 having certain qualities in common with each4 ,traditions1 training1 and environment allied him with the older order2 but instinct led him into new paths4 ,scattered plentifully through the thousands of pages covered by his racing pen1 many of which might be the work of some humdrum eighteenth-century kapellmeister1 are features of surprising novelty1 pointing unmistakably to the future rather than to the past--gleams of the true gold in a vast heap of sand4 ,nine-tenths of the time he is content to imitate1 with amiable1 unthinking garrulity1 the quartets and sonatas he grew up with2 the other tenth he breaks forth incontinently1 an inspired pioneer4 ,this mingling of the matter-of-course and the unexpected1 of the sand and the gold1 makes his music a curious study4 ,born in ,vienna1 ,january #ca1 #agig1 ,schubert began the study of music when still a child1 under the direction of his father1 a school-teacher by profession1 and his two brothers4 ,while in his teens the boy began playing the viola pans in the family string quartet4 ,his brothers took the violin parts1 and his father played the 'cello3 not always impeccably1 it is to be feared1 for we read how little ,franz1 looking doubtless very solemn and gnomelike in the spectacles he already wore1 would from time to time1 without stopping to look at the score1 comment on the wrong notes the paternal fingers were sounding4 ,this informal quartet was the nucleus of an orchestra1 known as the ,orchestral ,society of ,amateurs1 which flourished at a somewhat later period1 and served to make ,schubert acquainted with the works of ,krommer1 ,romberg1 ,cherubini1 ,spontini1 ,ctel1 ,mehul1 ,boeldieu1 ,weigl1 ,winter1 and others of that category1 as well as with some ,haydn and ,mozart1 and the first two symphonies of ,beethoven4 ,there was also an orchestra in the government school for the ,emperor's choir1 known as the ,convict 7from convivo1 not convinco71 which the boy1 thanks to his clear soprano voice1 attended from his eleventh to his sixteenth year2 and of this he was not only a member1 but for some time a conductor4 ,one can readily imagine that with all this music-making there was little time for general schooling4 ,indeed1 from the moment he left the ,convict1 in #ahac1 he seems to have given little thought to any but a technical education2 and though he attended a normal school for a while1 and later even tried teaching under his father for three years1 his main interests were his lessons with the famous opera composer1 ,salieri1 and his first essays in composition4 ,for the instinct of imitation had started him composing at an age when most boys nowadays are learning arithmetic4 ,at thirteen he broke the ice with a four-hand piano fantasia1 and from that moment swam contentedly through a sea of manuscripts4 ,his teeming fecundity and his carelessness for the children of his brain once they were hatched showed themselves from the first4 ,when he mislaid thirty minuets written at the ,convict1 he would not trouble to recopy them2 what he enjoyed was the activity1 not its product2 and it was dull to bottle old water while the spring was flowing so cool and fresh4 ,the figure of a spring does scant justice to ,schubert's inexhaustible fancy2 it was more like one of those magic knapsacks in the fairy stories--the more he took out of it1 the more remained behind4 ,by #ahae his fertility had become almost uncanny1 especially when we remember that he had for music only the leisure hours of a young schoolmaster of eighteen4 ,in ,march he wrote the ,mass in ,g2 between ,march #be and ,april #a a string quartet in ,g-minor2 in ,may a symphony 7his third7 in ,d-major2 in ,june an entire operetta2 during six days in ,july another operetta1 of which the libretto fills forty-two closely printed pages2 on ,october #ae seven songs2 on the #aith four more2 and in the interstices of time1 another symphony1 four other operettas1 two piano sonatas1 and one hundred and thirty-five songs1 headed by ,the ,erl-,king4 ,one rubs one's eyes4 ,compared with ,schubert's pen1 ,aladdin's lamp seems a poor affair4 ,the natural result1 in worldly matters1 of this imaginative preoccupation was abject poverty4 ,never did ,apollo turn his back on ,admetus with a more sublime indifference than in the avatar of this otherwise modest musician4 ,it is true that he gave some scattering music lessons1 and that for a time he acted as music-master in that same ,esterhazy family which so long patronized ,haydn2 but of any lasting patronage1 any remunerative appointment1 or any systematic teaching1 we hear nothing4 ,even his compositions brought him but a farcical revenue4 ,he published nothing until #ahba1 when the first batch of songs1 including ,the ,erl-,king1 was printed by subscription4 ,later1 the publishers being still unwilling to take risks on a virtually unknown composer1 twenty more songs were similarly issued4 ,only when popular favor had become manifest could he use the regular channels of publication2 and then he had to content himself with the merest pittances4 ,diabelli1 who in forty years is said to have gained over ten thousand dollars on ,the ,wanderer1 paid ,schubert for the plates and copyright of that and nineteen other songs only three hundred and fifty dollars4 ,haslinger1 in the composer's last year1 when his reputation was made and his work practically done1 paid him one dollar and a quarter for half a dozen of his finest songs4 ,that he was himself largely to blame for this pecuniary misfortune1 through his aversion to drudgery and his carelessness in the conduct of business affairs1 hardly reconciles us to the fact of his constant and often extreme poverty1 but for which he might have lived longer and wrought to even better purpose4 ,but if he was poor1 he had at least the temperament and tastes suitable to poverty4 ,not even ,mozart1 whose character and destiny had much in common with ,schubert's1 was more light-hearted and easy-going4 ,perfect freedom of action1 says his biographer1 was the element in which he by preference moved1 and for which he was content to make every sacrifice4 ,to drink his mug of beer and eat his sausage1 to flirt with pretty servant-maids and peasant girls1 to discourse youthful philosophy and play practical jokes with convivial poets1 painters1 and students1 above all to fill reams of music paper with the melodies that were always flooding his brain--this was his conception of sufficing happiness4 ,it is curious to read of his daily routine--how1 rising early1 he would proceed1 often before dressing1 to improvise until breakfast2 how1 after a morning spent in composition1 he would dine at the ,gasthaus for a ,zwanziger 7ten cents72 how he would divide the rest of the day between walking in the suburbs1 calling on the ladies of his acquaintance1 and discussing beer and friendship in ,bogner's coffee-house1 or the ,zur ,ungarischen ,krone1 or the ,zum rothen ,kreuz1--sometimes1 in these latter haunts1 jotting down immortal melodies on the backs of wine cards in the midst of the tavern pandemonium4 ,when he was in high spirits he would challenge a friend to a mock duel with walking-sticks1 or sing the ,erl-,king1 in parody1 through the teeth of a comb4 ,and then there were the ,schubertiaden1 or ,schubert evenings1 held by his friends of both sexes in some one of the ,vienna suburbs1 at which the diversions consisted of dancing1 lieder-singing1 and theatricals1 all to the accompaniment of the flowing bowl4 ,when the juice of the grape flowed in his veins1 says one of his biographers1 he became a laughing tyrant1 and would destroy everything he could1 without making a noise1--glasses1 plates1 and cups1--and sit simpering and screwing up his eyes into the smallest possible compass4 ,altogether we get the picture of a ,bohemian1 irresponsible1 bachelor life1 innocent enough1 but not troubled with embarrassing refinements4 ,schubert was not at his ease in highly cultivated circles4 ,in his first letter from ,zelsz1 the seat of the ,esterhazys1 he describes the servants in detail before giving a word to their princely employers4 ,physically ,schubert was a short1 stout man1 with round shoulders1 thick1 blunt fingers1 low forehead1 projecting lips1 stumpy nose1 and short curly hair4 ,very near-sighted1 he wore spectacles from boyhood4 ,his friends' somewhat boorish wit compared him to a negro1 a cabman1 and even a tallow-candle1 and afflicted him with the nickname of ,schwammerl1 or ,the ,sponge--whether in reference to his fondness for beer or to his superfluous flesh does not transpire4 ,the noteworthy fact toward which all these bits of otherwise insignificant personal detail point1 the thesis in support of which they are here cited1 is that ,schubert was an unusually pure case of the sentimental temperament4 ,all the external evidence--his contentedly ambling1 unbuttoned existence1 his combination of sweetness and a sort of involuntary nobility of aim1 with an utter lack of intellectual distinction1 his gullibility in business matters and practical affairs1 his devotion to day-dream and revery1 even his indolence and resulting sponginess of physique--points in the one direction4 ,and these matters of ordinary observation are reinforced by the internal evidence of his music1 as for example the preference for short pieces1 each vividly expressive of a single mood2 the pervasive tone of tender sadness1 frequently irradiated by charming fancy1 but seldom swept aside by tumultuous passion and energy2 the fondness for minor keys1 delicious modulations1 and persistent hypnotizing rhythms2 the incapacity for complex structure and sustained imagination4 ,here1 obviously1 is no hero of abstract thought1 like ,bach1 or of intellectual and emotional passion1 like ,beethoven1 but a gracious sentimentalist1 a man of feeling1 a sort of ,burns or ,heine of music4 ,the natural medium of musical expression for such a temperament is the brief lyric1 the song for single voice with piano accompaniment2 and it was inevitable that ,schubert1 constituted as he was1 should become the father of the song4 ,before his time1 this had been a form not favored by the great composers2 ,mozart's and ,beethoven's songs1 as ,mr4 ,hadow has remarked1 were merely the chips thrown off in a great workshop2 for them the norm of expression was the symphony4 ,but ,schubert1 as a new sort of man among composers1 treated the song with a new kind of earnestness1 and with an unprecedented spontaneity4 ,each of his best songs is an unsophisticated utterance of simple sentiment1 a wondrously vivid presentment of a single isolated feeling1 a moment's monument1 as ,rossetti said the sonnet should be4 ,and this was precisely what the artistic situation required4 ,as in a short story of the kind that ,kipling1 ,stevenson1 and others have made familiar to us we do not demand that evolution of character1 that complex nodation of plot1 that subtle action and reaction of motive1 which every great novel must have1 but simply vividness1 brilliant depiction of a single person1 idea1 or situation1 so in a song we desire no symphonic grandeur of scope and wealth of ordered detail1 but rather perfect utterance of a single highly specialized emotion4 ,schubert's best songs fulfil this requirement in an almost inimitable degree4 ,simple in style and design1 wonderfully direct and sincere1 conceived as idealizations of the beautiful old ,german ,volkslieder1 and carried out with all the artistic perfection and appropriateness of detail that good craftsmanship could give1 they are among the few things in music that are absolutely achieved4 ,especially remarkable is the art-concealing art by which ,schubert1 through some perfectly simple and unobtrusive feature of rhythm1 melody1 or harmony1 knows how to suggest exactly the spirit and atmosphere of his text4 ,in the well-known ,serenade1 for example1 the deftly managed mixture of minor and major harmonies 7a favorite device1 by the way1 with ,schubert7 strikes just the right emotional note of loverly solicitude and tenderness4 ,in ,am ,meer four chords at the beginning1 and again at the end1 bring the sombre1 majestic ocean visibly before us1 while the sudden dissonances introduced with the line ,fielen die ,thrnen nieder bring home to us with a terrible poignancy the human tragedy which the poet has so vividly outlined against this stern natural background4 ,and then turn to ,hark6 ,hark6 the ,lark1 perhaps the most purely lovely1 in a musical sense1 of all the songs1 and note the adorable elasticity of the rhythm1 the lambent grace of the tune1 the idyllic change of key at the words1 ,and winking ,mary-buds begin to ope their golden eyes1 and the poising flight of the melody at the final1 ,arise--arise--arise3--truly ,elizabethan this music1 in its graciousness and childlike joy4 ,in short1 ,schubert strikes at once1 and in each case1 in such songs as ,hark1 hark6 the ,lark1 ,who is ,sylvia8 ,am ,meer1 ,du bist die ,ruh1 ,die ,forelle1 ,heidenrslein1 and perhaps a dozen others1 the exact tone and style needed to transfigure the particular feeling with all the magic of music1 and throughout the song maintains the mood perfectly1 with no mixture or clouding4 ,and this1 too1 with the greatest actual diversity of mood in the different songs1 to which his art flexibly responds4 ,this group of his fifteen or twenty best songs is not only the crown of his own work1 but one of the brightest jewels in the crown of romanticism4 ,in critical justice it is necessary to add1 however1 that in another group of his songs1 even more popular than this supreme one1 ,schubert's romanticism inspired him less happily4 ,whenever1 giving free rein to his passion for detailed expression1 he directed his effort less towards reproducing an emotional mood than towards illustrating actual incidents1 whenever1 that is1 he allowed dramatic rather than musical considerations to sway him1 he produced a type of song which1 in spite of its popularity1 is intrinsically inferior1 and hence likely to lose favor as musical taste develops4 ,the most famous examples of this type are ,the ,erl-,king and ,the ,wanderer2 others scarcely less known are ,der ,atlas1 ,die ,doppelgnger1 ,die ,junge ,nonne1 ,die ,allmacht1 ,kolma's ,klage1 and ,hagar's ,klage4 ,to hear the music of some of the songs of this class1 unhappily large1 after reading the commentaries of their admirers1 is almost as cruel a disillusion as to eat the food at a cheap restaurant after a perusal of the pretentious and highly decorated bill of fare4 ,of ,die ,allmacht1 for example1 ,mr4 ,a4 ,b4 ,bach1 in his book on ,the ,art ,ballad1 writes as follows3-- ,this composition ,i would call a great tone-picture2 it is a hymn of praise1 stately and full of splendor4 ,we seem to hear some prophet1 who1 with a voice of thunder1 speaks to the people of the power and glory of the ,almighty4 ,the greatness of ,god in nature is first proclaimed4 ,the tone-painting is full of grandeur and majesty4 ,not with the delicate1 charming pencil of ,fra ,angelico1 but with the strong1 energetic1 and powerful brush of ,michael ,angelo1 does ,schubert paint the raging of the storm1 the forest's boisterous violence1 the thunder and the lightning4 ,the painting is softer1 milder1 sweeter1 only when he comes to the beautiful and calming words that the power of ,god is high above all1 and greater when man feels it in his inmost heart4444 ,then follows a great crescendo1 ending with the powerful and mighty exclamation1 ',great is ,jehovah1 the ,lord6' which produces an overpowering effect4 ,in this composition1 as scarcely in any other1 ,schubert1 usually so charming1 is very dramatic1 and shows command of the loftiest expression4 ,turning1 with expectation keyed high1 from this rhapsody to the music of ,die ,allmacht1 what do we find8 ,an annoyingly loud thumping of the piano1 in its muddy lower register1 for four pages on end1 with no rhythmic relief2 a vocal part more like a second-rate operatic recitative than one of those divine tunes of which ,schubert had the secret2 and to fill the cup of boredom1 three rumbles of conventional musical thunder1 as threadbare and outworn as the antiquated theatrical properties described by ,steele in the ,tatler4 ,it is hard to understand how any true lover of music can turn from ,hark1 hark6 the ,lark1 or ,who is ,sylvia8 or ,du bist die ,ruh1 to such songs as these1 with their physically exciting tremolos1 crashing diminished-seventh chords1 chromatic climaxes1 mysterious staccato octaves1 pianissimo1 in the bass1 and other such claptrap effects1 better suited to accompany the drowning of the heroine of melodrama than to edify the sense of musical beauty4 ,they reveal pitilessly the seamy side of romanticism1 and make us wish that ,schubert's fecund imagination had been controlled by a more fastidious taste4 ,if the sentimentalist's tendency to value emotion for itself1 as the voluptuary wallows in sensation1 and the realist's fondness for crudely detailed effect1 sometimes led ,schubert into an artificial and fevered style1 his very simplicity at other times played him false4 ,simplicity in art1 as the case of ,wordsworth has notoriously proved1 covers a wide range1 from the sublime to the ridiculous4 ,schubert is often sublimely simple1 as in ,du bist die ,ruh1 ,heidenrslein1 ,der ,leiermann2 but sometimes he is merely flat and obvious4 ,indeed1 writing1 as he did1 over six hundred songs in a score of years1 not the most inspired of men could always have avoided platitude4 ,thus we must set aside many melodramatic and many trite compositions before we can get an unimpeded view of his real masterpieces4 ,but after that has been done1 we have left about twenty or thirty songs of such incomparable loveliness as to give him a secure place among the great masters of the musical lyric4 ,the careful discrimination between quantity and quality in ,schubert's work1 so obviously important in judging his songs1 becomes perhaps even more indispensable when we come to his instrumental works4 ,the facts that here present themselves to the intending student on his first approach to the subject are entirely misleading4 ,schubert wrote1 he learns1 ten symphonies and twenty string quartets1 besides much other chamber and orchestral music4 ,remembering that ,beethoven wrote nine symphonies and sixteen string quartets1 he is likely to assume that the essential ,schubert is to be found permeating the one set of works just as the essential ,beethoven permeates the other1 and that if he can take1 so to speak1 a critical average of them all1 he will come at the true musical personality of their author4 ,nothing could be more erroneous4 ,for it must be borne in mind that while the works of ,beethoven were written during the entire period of his artistic maturity1 from his twenty-fifth to his fifty-sixth year1 and with the most laborious care1 those of ,schubert are largely youthful exercises1 and were in many cases thrown off as one would write a letter4 ,schubert wrote voluminously and carelessly1 and died at thirty-one1 just as he was entering the prime of life4 ,his works are thus1 if one may say so1 like his person1 embedded in superfluous flesh4 ,the bulk of them are1 so far as representing him goes1 pure surplusage1 to be stripped off and thrown aside before we can see the outline and stature of his genius4 ,the compositions produced before #ahbj are interesting to-day only as documents bearing on the peculiar way in which his individual style was gradually developed4 ,what they chiefly reveal is the ingenuousness1 one might almost say the unconsciousness1 with which he habitually composed4 ,he seems to have made no effort to draw forth1 by taking thought1 his shy and retiring individuality2 his method was rather to copy1 often almost literally1 the music he knew and liked1 especially that of ,haydn and ,mozart4 ,the quartet in ,g-minor1 written in #ahae1 for example1 contains a perfectly ,mozartish minuet1 while its finale is pure ,haydn1 except for occasional gleams of ,schubert in the happy exuberances of detail and in the quick1 informal modulations4 ,of the symphony in ,b-flat1 written in #ahaf1 the first and fourth movements are ,haydn1 the second and third ,mozart4 ,the closeness of the imitation is at times fairly disconcerting1 as in the last eight measures of the minuet1 which sound like a rejected sketch for the minuet of the ,jupiter ,symphony3-- ,illustration3 score ,illustration3 score ,figure ,i4 ,an even more amusing case is that of a passage in the ,e-major ,quartet 7opus #abe1 no4 #b71 written in the following year 7#ahag71 so startlingly like a portion of ,mozart's ,g-minor ,symphony that we can hardly resist the theory of unconscious plagiarism4 ,the passages in question merit a careful comparison4 ,if imitation is the sincerest flattery1 ,schubert was paying an eloquent tribute1 indeed1 to the genius of ,haydn and ,mozart in his works of #ahae-ahag4 ,illustration3 score ,,schubert4 ,illustration3 score ,and later ,illustration3 score ,,mozart4 ,figure ,,ii4 ,before #ahah there is little internal evidence that ,schubert had felt at all the influence of the greatest musician of the period1 ,beethoven1 with whom1 if we may judge from his diary1 he was not yet in complete sympathy4 ,under date of ,june1 #ahaf1 he compares disparagingly that bizarrerie for which we have chiefly to thank one of the greatest ,german artists with the naturalness and purity of the ,italian1 ,salieri4 ,in the ,c-major symphony of #ahah1 however1 he has evidently fallen completely under the sway of the master4 ,the first movement of this work shows a great advance over earlier symphonies2 the orchestral resources are increased1 and used with more skill2 the themes are more concise and vigorous1 more truly symphonic1 though still showing a tendency to rhythmic monotony2 the construction is ampler and more carefully planned1 there being a slow introduction and a ,beethovenish coda4 ,the transition by which the repetition of the first section of the movement is approached shows afresh the curious literalness with which ,schubert copied his models4 ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,iii4 ,the long poising1 pianissimo1 on a single harmony1 and the final almost imperceptible lapse into the original key1 are ,beethoven to the letter4 ,the other movements show the same influence4 ,especially noteworthy are the substitution of a scherzo for the old-fashioned minuet1 and1 in the finale1 the many sudden shifts of tonality by a semitone1 and sudden alternations of extreme loud and soft4 ,here1 as much as in the earlier things1 it is true1 ,schubert remains the obedient and passive student2 he is still1 in the phrase of ,stevenson1 playing the sedulous ape2 but his model is much more complex1 his touch is surer1 his technical facility greater1 and he needs only to grow a little older1 a little more mature and self-conscious1 in order to stamp all these gradually acquired materials with his own individuality4 ,now maturity comes to most men1 the romanticists like the others1 as a result of the suffering1 misunderstanding1 and disappointment that years have a way of bringing4 ,the youth interprets all the world by his own freshness of enthusiasm1 keen sensation1 untrammelled imagination4 ,everything seems possible to him1 and life is one long1 romantic adventure4 ,but when he actually comes in contact with that world which looked so fair from a distance1 through the rosy glasses of temperament1 he discovers that it is stubborn to his purposes1 that it is full of alien wills with which he struggles in vain1 and that this struggle reveals insurmountable weaknesses and limitations in himself4 ,then either bitterness1 or a new understanding of himself1 resignation to the inevitable1 and interpretation of life in more universal terms1 is bound to displace the old romantic egotism4 ,experience regroups itself in soberer colors1 and if he be generous enough to escape cynicism he emerges from the ordeal chastened and humanized4 ,this transition from self-absorbed youth to magnanimous manhood came to ,schubert between his twenty-third and twenty-seventh years1 hastened by the adverse conditions of his life4 ,we have seen how poverty held him in its sullen grasp2 ill-health was added in #ahbd2 and all through his last decade the sense of the indifference of the public to his higher artistic aims must have been dispiriting in the extreme4 ,his songs were favorably enough received1 but little interest was taken in his chamber and orchestral music except by a small circle of friends4 ,that he could nevertheless go on1 year after year1 producing so splendid a series of compositions1 in a spirit of such uncompromising devotion to art1 almost entirely unsupported by public recognition1 buoyed up by inward conviction alone1 proves that underneath the careless ,bohemianism of his everyday existence there was developing in him the stuff of real heroism4 ,like ,columbus1 he found a world1 and had no chart ,save one that faith deciphered in the skies4 ,to trust the soul's invincible surmise ,was all his science and his only art4 ,the story of the last year of his short life is most pathetic4 ,in ,march1 #ahbh1 he made an attempt to mend his fortunes by giving a concert of his own works1 by which he earned one hundred and fifty dollars1 to him a large sum4 ,but no temporary help like this could count for much1 so long as his compositions1 the main business of his life1 were so shamefully underrated by the publishers4 ,for six of the best of the ,winterreise songs he received a little over one dollar2 for the ,e-flat ,trio 7opus #ajj71 about four dollars and a half2 for the great ,a-major ,pianoforte ,quintet 7opus #aad71 a little over six dollars4 ,his health being now seriously impaired1 he wished to spend the summer in the country with friends1 but was compelled by poverty to remain in the heat and confusion of ,vienna4 ,a momentary encouragement offered in a projected performance of his greatest work1 the ,c-major ,symphony1 but it was given up as too difficult1 and he never heard it4 ,it was first performed eleven years after his death1 by ,mendelssohn1 in ,leipsic4 ,in the fall he rapidly failed1 and had just arranged to take lessons in counterpoint1 with a view to yet greater works1 when1 after a comparatively short illness1 he died1 on ,november #ai1 #ahbh4 ,he left no will1 but from the official inventory of his effects we learn that he left behind him twenty-six dollars' worth of clothing and house furniture1 and a quantity of old music 7including the manuscript of the ,c-major ,symphony71 valued at five dollars4 ,such were the dingy outer circumstances of this man's life4 ,but his spirit soared above them4 ,my compositions1 he wrote in his diary1 are the product of my mind1 and spring from my sorrow2 those only that were born of grief give the greatest delight to the outside world2 and in another place1 more profoundly3 ,certainly that happy joyous time is gone when every object seemed encircled with a halo of youthful glory2 444 and yet ,i am now much more than formerly in the way of finding peace and happiness in myself4 ,but the best evidence we have that ,schubert learned the lesson of sorrow1 and not only transmuted bitter experience into immortal beauty but under the stress of that experience first found his true self1 lies in the wonderful series of compositions which he wrote between #ahbj and #ahbh4 ,here we find at last the essential ,schubert4 ,in the single movement in ,c-minor for string quartet1 dated #ahbj1 he discloses a new world of dramatic expression1 earnest feeling1 daring modulation1 intricate harmony1 and chromatic melody4 ,and from this time on masterpiece followed masterpiece3 the ,unfinished ,symphony in #ahbb2 the ,a-minor ,quartet and the ,octet in #ahbd2 the ,g-major and ,d-minor ,quartets in #ahbf2 the first two piano trios a year later2 and to cap the climax1 the ,c-major ,quintet and the immortal ,c-major ,symphony in #ahbh4 ,in spite of the emotional depth of these last works1 the dominant note remains in them1 as in everything that emanated from ,schubert1 romantic4 ,everywhere in them the interest of the romanticist in color for its own sake1 in the primary sensuous charm of the tone combinations1 is strikingly manifest4 ,one of the hallmarks of ,schubert's symphonies is his impressionistic treatment of orchestral tints1 both pure and in mixture4 ,none knows better than he how to make the oboe sultry or menacing1 the clarinet mellow and liquid1 the horn hollow1 vague1 mystical1 the 'cellos passionate1 and the violins clear1 aspiring1 and ethereal4 ,the score of his ,c-major ,symphony is a marvel of ingenuity and felicity in the weaving of various colors and modes of playing1 as staccato and legato1 pizzicato1 etc4 ,look1 for instance1 at page #afb of ,eulenberg's miniature score1 and see how the wood-wind instruments chatter in staccato against the long rise and fall of the strings playing in octaves1 legato2 or at page #aci1 noting how1 after a powerful climax and a moment of complete silence1 the 'cello1 against plucked chords by the other strings1 sings a languorous melody1 which is presently taken up by the oboe2 or at pages #cj-ce1 where1 under the shimmering veil of the strings1 the trombones gradually work out their sinister call1 rising ever higher and higher1 and finally precipitating all into the sounding turmoil of the climax on page #cf4 ,in such passages as these every tone sounds1 and all unite harmoniously to produce the intended effect4 ,in few scores will one find at once such richness and such clear transparency of coloring4 ,nor is ,schubert dependent for variety of color1 as unimaginative composers are1 on the richly diversified palette of the full orchestra4 ,his chamber music shows how much he can accomplish with limited means4 ,in his two trios1 op4 #ii and #ajj1 by making the most of the percussion quality of the piano as well as of both the pizzicato and the sustained tones of the strings1 he evolves a surprising variety from the three instruments4 ,even with the string quartet1 the most monochromatic of chamber combinations1 he achieves great differentiation and contrast1 largely by rhythmically individualizing each voice4 ,the opening of the ,a-minor ,quartet is a good example3 viola and 'cello give a drone bass in a peculiar and striking rhythm 7a dotted half-note followed by a group of four sixteenths72 the second violin holds the tone-mass together by means of a graceful legato running figure in eighth-notes2 the first violin sings a melody that follows its own free and untrammelled rhythm4 ,one is reminded by such a passage of ,dvok1 who is of close artistic kin to ,schubert4 ,both men1 in their writing for strings1 secure fascinating texture by opposing many diverse rhythms simultaneously4 ,the device has been assailed as being a mask to cover a poverty of real polyphony 7inner melodiousness72 but though it may to a certain extent be that1 there can be no doubt of its sensuous effectiveness4 ,another similarity between ,schubert and ,dvok1 also indicative of their romantic interest in special momentary features1 is their coloristic use of harmony1 and especially of modulation4 ,sudden transitions to remote keys are no commoner perhaps in ,schubert than in ,beethoven1 but in ,schubert they are prompted by considerations of color rather than of design4 ,like ,dvok1 he loves unexpected recrystallizations of tone4 ,he shakes the kaleidoscope of his fancy1 and all the bits of glass fall into a new pattern 7tonality74 ,such a fascinating change as that immediately after the forte chord of ,d1 in the second entr'acte of ,rosamunde1 is an illustration4 ,even better ones1 because showing so clearly the lack of any element of formal design in these changes1 are those casual alternations of major and minor mode which are so frequent as to constitute a mannerism4 ,at the close of the first movement of the ,g-major ,quartet is an extreme case4 ,four measures consist entirely of abrupt alternations of the major and minor tonic chords1 with no melodic binding together4 ,this is obviously purely a color effect1 and its motive is of course unequivocally romantic4 ,romantic also is the persistent lyricism of all ,schubert's music1 the symphonies and quartets as well as the songs and piano pieces4 ,in the larger almost as much as in the smaller works1 the fundamental trait of the peculiar type of expression used is its subjectivity1 its strong personal flavor4 ,if the songs of the classicists seem often like condensed symphonies1 the symphonies of this romanticist are in many respects magnified songs4 ,in several of his instrumental movements ,schubert actually transcribes his themes from songs already written1 as for example in the variations of the ,d-minor ,quartet1 founded on ,death and the ,maiden1 and those of the ,forellen ,quintet1 founded on ,die ,forelle4 ,when he uses entirely new material1 he is apt to conceive it in the lyrical style1 and even to cast it in the lyrical form1 with an exact balance of phrases of equal length4 ,the second subject in the ,unfinished ,symphony1 for instance1 is like a stanza or strophe2 the imagination easily adds words to it2 it is an instrumental song4 ,most of ,schubert's more emotional themes share this quality of utterances1 and seem rather communications of personal feeling than objects of abstract beauty4 ,even in the later works1 like the ,d-minor and ,g-major ,quartets and the ,c-major ,quintet1 in which the romance is tinged with tragedy1 it is still1 one feels1 romantic tragedy1 the tragedy of sentiment and sensibility1 and not universal cosmic tragedy like ,beethoven's or ,bach's4 ,yet there is in these later works1 also1 an intensity and breathlessness of utterance1 a white heat of passion burning away all dross and surplusage1 and giving the style an incisiveness strongly contrasted with ,schubert's usual genial prolixity1 which seem to emanate from some sterner1 wilder element in his nature4 ,there is a nervous tenseness here which is distinctively modern2 the ,d-minor ,quartet particularly has the modern closeness of texture and rapidity of pulse4 ,its first theme1 unlike most of ,schubert's1 is a short and trenchant motive of five notes1 compelling attention from the very outset4 ,the entire first movement is treated with great depth of feeling and sustained power1 and the coda is of a wonderful dignity and reticence4 ,the final presto1 too1 reminds us of ,schumann in its emotional richness1 and of ,tschakowsky in the passion of its broken rhythms and headlong harmonic progressions4 ,on the other hand1 the harmonic idiom of the first movement of the quartet in ,g-major 7see ,figure ,,iv471 with its lapses of triads down through intervals of a whole step1 is that of ,csar ,franck4 ,schubert is here the prototype of the most advanced modern symphonists1 as in his piano pieces he anticipates the methods of ,schumann1 ,chopin1 and ,liszt1 and in his songs gives the cue to ,franz1 ,rubinstein1 ,grieg1 and ,brahms4 ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,iv4 ,the chief faults of ,schubert's instrumental works--and they are grave ones--result in part from his way of composing1 and in part from the untraversable opposition between the lyrical expression native to him and the modes of construction suitable to extended movements4 ,schubert was an easy-going1 careless1 and indolent writer4 ,he wrote music as most people write letters2 often he would scribble off half a dozen songs in a single day2 he thought nothing of making an overture in three hours1 or a whole operetta in a week2 to a friend who asked him how he composed1 he replied1 ,as soon as ,i finish one thing ,i begin another4 ,what all this means1 practically1 is that he did not compose at all in the strict sense of placing together tones with care and forethought1 but merely improvised on paper4 ,and as a result1 while he certainly attained a delightful spontaneity of effect1 he also fell into the pitfalls of monotony and diffuseness4 ,he is constantly becoming hypnotized by a rhythm1 keeping it up relentlessly1 page on page1 without relief4 ,when he has once hit upon a phrase that appeals to him1 such1 for example1 as the second subject in the ,g-major ,quartet1 he is apt to adhere to it pretty closely through a whole section of the piece4 ,such insistence1 in contrast to the variety of phraseology of composers like ,mozart1 is comparable in effect to the singsong couplets of ,pope or ,dryden1 as contrasted with the pliant versification of ,shelley4 ,this weaker aspect of ,schubert1 connected with his lack of intellectual vigor and possibly with a certain flabbiness of moral fibre1 has been exhaustively discussed by ,mr4 ,h4 ,h4 ,statham1 an ,english critic1 who reaches the conclusion that in music1 as in literature1 easy writing is hard reading1 and that in ,schubert's larger pieces lovely melodies follow each other1 but nothing comes of them4 ,whether or not we agree with so extreme a view1 we cannot deny ,schubert's weakness in musical construction4 ,we usually find in his music five pages of repetition to one of real development4 ,mr4 ,statham is right in contrasting the vain repetitions in the andante of the ,c-major ,symphony with the logical evolution of matter in the allegretto of ,beethoven's ,seventh ,symphony4 ,and even where1 as in the fine coda of the finale of the ,c-major ,symphony1 ,schubert has a truly broad design to work out1 he fills in his detail in the easiest1 least exacting way by repeating identical phrases at a higher and higher pitch4 ,the effect of the long1 gradual climax is intensely dramatic1 but when upon familiarity we realize that the ideas generate1 so to speak1 by fission1 or exact reduplication1 rather than by organic evolution1 we are left sthetically unsatisfied4 ,the truth seems to be that ,schubert1 being essentially a lyrical writer1 makes beautiful symphonies and quartets in spite of1 rather than by means of1 the natural conditions of these epic musical forms4 ,his symphonies are expanded songs1 delightful1 as songs are delightful1 for their directness of feeling1 their beauty of detail1 their warmth of color and sensuous charm4 ,his last work1 however1 the great ,c-major ,symphony1 has enough of the heroic about it to make us cautious in saying what he might or might not have done had he not died at thirty-one1 when he was just entering the period of artistic maturity4 ,there is a grandeur of scale and intention1 a deliberation and solidity1 a sustained power1 large touch1 and freedom of execution about this symphony that place it above all his other works4 ,the long climaxes bespeak a reserve power not associated with ,schubert the song-writer2 the themes wear their possibilities less upon the surface1 and unfold them more cumulatively2 the harmony is firmer1 plainer1 and stronger2 the scoring is done as it were with a larger brush1 the colors laid on in wider spaces and freer patterns2 and in the last movement the romantic note is for once well drowned in a deeper cry of tragic heroism4 ,it is not a mere coincidence that the theme at the beginning of the development section so strongly suggests ,beethoven's ,hymn of ,joy2 the spirit here is ,beethoven's1 and the spaciousness of the scheme of construction1 if not the detail with which it is filled in1 are worthy of the greatest symphonist4 ,here surely the graciousness of childhood and the romantic dalliance of youth are laid aside1 and ,schubert speaks with the deep1 deliberate voice of manhood4 ,death never came to an artist more untimely4 ,had he lived1 we cannot tell what new and even profounder expressions of the ripe earnestness that lies beyond romance he might not have planned and achieved4 ,,iii ,,robert ,,schumann ,illustration3 ,,robert ,,schumann ,from a painting by ,e4 ,bendemann ,,iii ,,robert ,,schumann ,in the year #ahcj1 in the old ,german university town of ,heidelberg1 ,robert ,schumann1 then a youth of twenty1 a reluctant student of law1 and a devoted lover of music1 was making the most momentous decision of his life4 ,for us1 to whom his music is a fait accompli1 it is easy enough to see the way his genius pointed2 for him it was a time of self-searching1 of beckoning hopes and haunting fears1 of long hesitation before the final courageous adventure into an unknown land4 ,my whole life1 he writes his mother1 has been a twenty years' struggle between poetry and prose1 or1 if you like to call it so1 ,music and ,law4 ,now ,i am standing at the crossroads1 and am scared at the question ',which way to choose4' ,let me draw a parallel1 he continues4 ,art says3 ',if you are industrious1 you may reach the goal in three years4' ,jurisprudence says3 ',in three years you may perhaps be an ,accessist1 earning sixteen groschen a year4' ,art continues3 ',i am as free as air2 the whole world is open to me4' ,jurisprudence shrugs her shoulders1 and says3 ',i am nothing but red tape1 from the clerk to the judge1 and always go about spick-and-span1 and hat in hand4' ,art goes on to say3 ',beauty and ,i dwell together1 and my whole world and all my creations are in the heart of man4 ,i am infinite and untrammelled1 and my works are immortal4' ,jurisprudence says1 with a frown3 ',i can offer you nothing but bumpkins and lawsuits1 or at the utmost a murder1 but that is an unusual excitement4 ,i cannot edit new ,pandects4' ,my beloved mother1 ,i can but faintly indicate the thoughts which are surging through my brain4 ,i wish you were with me now1 and could look into my heart4 ,you would say3 ',start on your new career with courage1 industry1 and confidence1 and you cannot fail4'#c ,certainly there was little enough in the legal profession to attract a youth such as these early letters reveal1 ardent1 imaginative1 romantically intolerant of the humdrum and the prosaic4 ,from the first we see him1 in this clear mirror of his own words1 marked for a life of artistic expression and free creation4 ,he has all the artist's susceptibility to impressions1 both sensuous and intellectual1 as we gather from his rhapsodies over the landscapes1 peasant maidens1 and wines of the ,rhine ,valley1 and from his interest in the individualities of his travelling companions4 ,he is a creature of moods1 plunged in a day from heights of joy into abysses of melancholy4 ,he is impetuous1 generous1 and volatile in his boyish friendships and love affairs2 an affectionate but inconsiderate son1 an ardent but desultory worker1 a voluminous but irregular correspondent1 irresponsible in money matters1 impatient of social usages1 inconstant in almost everything but his devotion to beauty4 ,the idol of his boyish hero worship is ,jean ,paul ,richter1 that curiously ,german compound of sentimentality1 mysticism1 and wayward humor2 he wishes that all mankind might read ,richter and become better and more unhappy2 and he often favors his mother with ,jean-,paulish apothegms1 reflections1 and fantasies1 in which platitude and sincerity are mixed as only enthusiastic boyhood can mix them4 ,byron1 ,heine1 and the other romantic poets of the day he reads1 too1 with avidity1 and imitates them in erotic ballads and plays about picturesque robbers4 ,and all along1 music is the language of his deepest moods1 and he spends hours communing with his piano in rhapsodic improvisation1 and devotes his leisure to composing musical character-sketches of his friends4 ,by such a youth the choice between law and music could hardly be decided but in one way4 ,he persuaded his mother and his guardian to allow him six months in ,leipsic1 under the teaching of ,friedrich ,wieck1 to show what he could make of himself as a pianist4 ,his letters during this period of the first steady labor he had known1 when the reaction necessarily following the feverish weeks of decision plunged him into a dull and relaxed state1 show the sterling side of his meteoric nature4 ,they complete the picture of one of the most lovable of youths4 ,i just keep jogging on1 he writes in ,may1 #ahca4 ,it is the fault of all vivid young minds that they aspire to too much at once2 it only makes their work more complicated1 and their spirit more restless4444 ,if only ,i could do one thing well1 instead of many things badly1 as ,i have always done6 ,still1 the principal thing for me to keep in mind is to lead a pure1 steady1 sober life4 ,if ,i stick to that1 my guardian angel will not desert me2 he now sometimes almost possesses me for a little4 ,a few months later he continues1 more tranquilly3 ,if one has at last come to a conclusion1 and is quiet and satisfied in one's own mind1 the ideas of honor1 glory1 and immortality1 of which one dreams1 without doing anything toward their accomplishment1 all resolve themselves into gentle rules1 only to be learned from time1 life1 and experience4 ,to bring to light anything great and calmly beautiful1 one ought only to rob ,time of one grain of sand at a time2 the complete whole does not appear all at once1 still less does it drop from the sky4 ,it is only natural that there should be moments when we think we are going back1 while in reality we are only hesitating in going on4 ,if we let such moments pass1 and then set to work again quickly and bravely1 we shall get on all right4 ,the philosophic calm thus gained by habits of regular work was soon to be sorely taxed2 for in that very year all ,schumann's hopes of ever becoming a piano virtuoso were shattered by an accident to his right hand4 ,with characteristic impatience he had devised a mechanism for hastening the independence of the refractory fourth finger by holding it up with a string while the others practised4 ,of course the result of this violence was a permanent lameness4 ,under this affliction1 however1 was hidden an incidental benefit2 for piano playing became now no longer one of the many things that he did badly1 as he had complained1 and he had at last all his attention to concentrate upon composition4 ,he had written his opus #a1 ,variations on the name of ,abegg1 in #ahcj2 he now followed this up with an endless stream of charming piano pieces1 the like of which had never before been seen4 ,in #ahcj-ca came the ,papillons1 opus #b1 and the ,allegro1 opus #h2 in #ahcb the ,studies after ,paganini 7in which the technical interest of the virtuoso is still paramount71 the ,intermezzi1 and the fascinating ,impromptus on a ,theme of ,clara ,wieck2 #ahcc added to the list two more primarily technical works1 the ,concert tudes on ,caprices of ,paganini and the splendid ,toccata1 opus #g2 and in the next six years1 up to #ahci1 came a long series of unique and lovely things1 among which stand forth in especial prominence those romantic whimsicalities1 the ,davidsbndlertnze1 the ,carnaval1 and ,kriesleriana1 the somewhat less successful1 because more ambitious1 ,sonatas1 opuses #aa1 #ad1 and #bb1 and the more mature ,symphonic tudes1 ,kinderscenen1 ,phantasie1 and ,novelettes4 ,these piano works1 conceived with most daring originality and executed with inimitable verve1 deserve to take rank with ,schubert's songs1 ,mendelssohn's overtures1 and ,chopin's nocturnes and preludes1 among the very few supreme and perfect attainments of the romantic spirit in music4 ,their exuberant vitality1 their prodigal wealth of melodic invention1 their rhythmic vigor and harmonic luxuriance1 their absolutely novel pianistic effects1 their curious undercurrent of fanciful imagery and extra-musical allusion1 the peculiarly personal1 even perverse1 idiom in which they are couched1 all conspire to make them unique even among their author's works1 and in some respects more happily representative of him than the later productions in which he was more influenced by conventional or borrowed ideals4 ,in them we have the wild-flavored first fruits of his genius1 fresh with all the aroma and bloom of unsophisticated youth4 ,a curious feature of most of these early pieces1 due to the literary cultivation and to the fanciful bias of their composer's mind1 is their constant reference to all sorts of extra-musical interests4 ,schumann1 at this time almost as much a man of letters as of tones1 took pleasure in equipping his pieces with an ingenious and amusing series of allusions to places and people1 real and fictitious1 a kind of running commentary of footnotes on the music1 comprehensible only to the initiated4 ,this is managed partly by means of spelling out words in the letters which stand for musical tones1#d partly by directions printed above the music1 like stage directions in a play1 and partly by mottoes1 both musical and literary1 and quotations of original and other melodies4 ,the ,variations1 opus #a1 are founded on a theme which spells ,a-,b-,e-,g-,g--a pseudonym given by ,schumann to a lady whose beauty he had admired4 ,illustration3 score ,figure ,v4 ,most of the pieces in the ,carnaval are founded on four tones spelling ,a-,s-,c-,h1 in honor of a friend who lived in the town of that name1 the rhythms being so ingeniously varied that each theme sounds new in spite of its set tonal basis4 ,illustration3 score ,,pierrot4 ,illustration3 score ,,arlequin4 ,,valse ,,noble4 ,illustration3 score ,,florestan4 ,,coquette4 ,illustration3 score ,,papillons4 ,figure ,,vi4 ,in later life ,schumann wrote six organ fugues on the name ,b-,a-,c-,h2 in the album of ,gade1 the ,danish composer1 he wrote a theme spelling ,g-,a-,d-,e1 ,a-,d-,e 7,gade1 farewell72 and the ,northern ,song1 in his ,piano ,pieces for the ,young1 is founded on the same letters1 in honor of the same musician4 ,mottoes and quotations meet us at every turn4 ,printed above one of the melodies in the ,intermezzi are the words ,meine ,ruh' ist hin--,my peace is gone4 ,the ,davidsbndlertnze bear at their head a stanza of verses1 and commence with a musical motto by ,clara ,wieck4 ,in the final march of the ,carnaval1 a melody of the seventeenth century1 ,the ,grandfather's ,dance1 is used to symbolize the futile resistance of pedantic conservatism to the progress of art4 ,the ,phantasie1 opus #ag1 was to have been called ,obolos1 the purpose of its composition being to contribute to a fund for a monument of ,beethoven1 and the separate movements were to have received the highly fanciful titles1 ,ruins1 ,triumphal ,arch1 and ,the ,starry ,crown2 but ,schumann finally contented himself with a motto from ,schlegel3-- ,durch alle ,tne ,tnet ,im bunten ,erdentraum ,ein leiser ,ton gezogen ,fr den der heimlich lauschet4#e ,in the ,faschingsschwank aus ,wien 7,carnival ,prank at ,vienna7 he manages the musical quotation with felicitous humor4 ,it seems that the playing of the ,marseillaise was at that time forbidden by the ,german authorities1 on account of the strongly revolutionary tendencies of public feeling4 ,this police taboo did not prevent ,schumann from letting a single strain of the splendid tune flash out from his mosaic of melodies1 to the unbounded delight of his audience and the discomfiture of the helpless officials4 ,of all his compositions1 the ,davidsbndlertnze is fullest of this tricksy play of imagination1 in which he took1 as ,oscar ,bie says1 the pleasure of the delicate man of taste in labelling4 ,from about #ahcd1 when he founded his musical journal1 the ,neue ,zeitschrift fr ,musik1 the imaginary society of the ,davidsbund played an important part in his mental life4 ,believing that it was a part of his duty to oppose the philistinism1 the dulness1 pedantry1 and sensuality which pervaded the music of the day1 he dramatized the conflict as a struggle between the ,davidsbund1 or club of ,davidites1 and the forces of ,philistia4 ,his fancy played about this central conception until it had evolved a whole company of ,davidites1 individualizing each one4 ,several were merely single aspects of their creator's complex temperament4 ,florestan was the impassioned ,schumann1 ,eusebius the dreamy and tender ,schumann1 ,raro the philosophical mediator between the two4 ,others indicated friends3 ,felix ,meritis was ,mendelssohn2 ,chiarina1 ,clara ,wieck2 ,estrella1 ,ernestine von ,fricken1 an early sweetheart4 ,once projected into the actual world1 these figments of fancy became very real to their creator4 ,his ,sonata1 opus #aa1 was originally printed as by ,florestan and ,eusebius4 ,each of the numbers of the ,davidsbndlertnze is signed ,f41 or ,e41 or ,f4 and ,e41 and the ascription is always conscientiously justified by the character of the music4 ,in the first edition there are even stage directions1 such as1 ,here ,florestan stops1 his lips trembling painfully1 and ,eusebius said too much about this2 but his eyes were full of joy4 ,these finical particularities1 however1 as well as the motto in verse1 were in the second edition stricken out4 ,all these elaborate paraphernalia with which ,schumann equipped his first essays in composition are noteworthy not so much for any intrinsic significance as for the light they throw on his peculiar attitude toward an art which most of his predecessors had approached in a wholly objective and detached spirit4 ,the persistent and minute subjectivity they reveal is remarkable in so young a man1 working by instinct and in despite of the powerful influence of tradition4 ,most men approach music through a systematic technical discipline1 and achieve individuality of style only with maturity2 ,schumann1 reversing the process1 turns to music at first simply as to one of several available ways of expressing a lively imagination1 and gains technical skill but gradually and by arduous effort4 ,his eloquence is that of a man filled with matter and enthusiasm1 but untrained in oratory2 he stammers1 hesitates1 coins words1 improvises phraseology as he goes1 and in the end attains fluency by dint of sheer earnestness and conviction4 ,the inner impulse to expression creates its own medium1 instead of being itself formed by the medium available2 and while a language thus derived offhand has necessarily certain crudities1 it has also1 of course1 a delightful freshness and happy spontaneity4 ,the inexhaustible tunefulness of the early ,schumann is little short of marvellous4 ,few composers have been so prodigal of lovely melodies4 ,they are like the king's daughters in the fairy tales1 each more beautiful than the last2 and though there is doubtless a family resemblance1 each has a distinct physiognomy1 a pronounced individuality4 ,they are1 for the most part1 indeed1 brief1 striking motives rather than deliberately composed tunes1 perfect but minute crystals of most various shapes1 forming spontaneously in the highly saturated solution of the musical thought4 ,no effort is made to purify1 separate1 or collect them2 what their composer seems chiefly to value is their profusion and luxuriance4 ,to state the same thing in more technical terms1 there is next to no thematic development2 there is simply the presentation of one charming phrase after another4 ,the result is of course a certain fragmentariness and whimsicality2 the music impresses us not by its cumulative power1 its orderly advance1 but by the sheer charm of its primitive elements4 ,the vigor of the rhythms never flags4 ,short notes in dotted rhythms1 holds from unaccented to accented beats1 and all manner of devices for intensifying accentuation1 give an inimitable elasticity to such things as the first of the ,intermezzi1 the sixth1 seventh1 ninth1 and final sections of the ,impromptus on a ,theme of ,clara ,wieck1 the ninth of the ,davidsbndlertnze1 ,prambule1 ,coquette1 ,chiarina1 ,valse ,allemande1 and the final march in the ,carnaval1 ,aufschwung in the ,phantasiestcke1 and many others4 ,there is to be observed also a constant tendency to emphasize the metre by slight but systematic deviations from it1 such as syncopation and the shifting of motives into artificial relations to the measure1 and the simultaneous use of two or more metrical schemes at once4 ,interesting examples of this sort of intensive syncopation occur in ,grillen1 one of the ,phantasiestcke1 in the ,b-flat major section of the eighth ,novelette1 and in the ,faschingsschwank aus ,wien4 ,a delightfully quaint use of shifted motives is made in the finale of the ,sonata1 opus #aa4 ,the theme of the movement1 though written in triple measure1 consists entirely of two-beat motives1 so that there is a constantly felt1 and very exciting1 opposition between metrical and rhetorical accents4 ,the motive of the scherzo of the same work is treated in a somewhat similar way4 ,of all the many instances which might be mentioned of a simultaneous use of two metrical schemes1 one of the most consummate is the employment1 in ,des ,abends1 of three groups of two sixteenth-notes in the melody1 against two groups of three sixteenths in the accompaniment--a subtlety often missed by pianists1 but essential to the charm of the piece4 ,the first two numbers of the ,davidsbndlertnze also present attractive oppositions of metre4 ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,vii4 ,the same waywardness finds further expression in certain harmonic eccentricities4 ,schumann loves to surprise1 waylay1 disappoint1 and otherwise cajole his hearer4 ,strong unprepared dissonances1 entrances of chords before we expect them1 delays of the expected ones1 entire evasions of the seemingly inevitable1 and felicitous transitions into the seemingly impossible are a constant feature of his program4 ,he loves to hit upon a note as if by accident1 and then to justify and even emphasize it1 as in the eighth and succeeding measures of the theme of the ,papillons2 to wound our ears with the harshest intervals1 and then compel our acquiescence by a resulting felicity1 as in the introduction to the ,f-sharp minor ,sonata2 to toss us restlessly upon a chromatic sea and bring us out at last into diatonic tranquillity1 as in the first two pages of the ,toccata4 ,at the beginning of the ,kreisleriana he keeps the right hand half a pace ahead of the left1 thus producing a great richness of tone as well as emphasizing the vigorous progression of the bass4 ,in the first variation in opus #e just the reverse of this occurs2 the bass takes the lead1 while the chords in the right hand lag behind1 making temporary discords1 but always coming out right in the end4 ,many of these peculiarities of harmony are doubtless due simply to ,schumann's sensuous susceptibility to good ear-filling sound1 long intensified and developed by his habit of improvisation4 ,sir ,hubert ,parry remarks that he loved to use all the pedal that was possible1 and had but little objection to nearing all the notes of the scale sounding at once4 ,he is said to have liked dreaming to himself1 by rambling through all sorts of harmonies with the pedal down2 and the glamour of crossing rhythms and the sound of clashing and antagonistic notes was most thoroughly adapted to his nature4 ,there is1 indeed1 evidence of this taste for rich tonal effects on almost every page of his piano music4 ,like ,chopin he finds a ,mozartian clarity of sound a little tame1 and prefers to obscure the outlines of his consonant chords by means of plentifully sprinkled dissonances2 but while ,chopin1 more fastidiously delicate1 makes his dissonances float like a diaphanous veil over the pure chords1 ,schumann1 with true ,teutonic luxuriousness1 fills up all the chinks and crannies with suspensions and passing notes1 and holds down the pedal to boot4 ,his piano style is much more massive than ,chopin's4 ,he has the true ,johnsonian taste for sonorousness and resonance4 ,his ear is insatiably curious1 too2 witness the final chord in the ,papillons1 with its tones released successively until but one remains sounding1 the extraordinary clangor of low thirds and final emergence of ghostly pianissimo chord at the end of ,paganini in the ,carnaval1 and the many bizarre sonorities he obtains by making the left hand play above the right1 as in the second of the ,abegg ,variations and in the section marked ,langsamer in number two of the ,kreisleriana4 ,taken all together1 these piano compositions of the decade #ahcj-ahdj1 which may be called the first period of ,schumann's artistic life1 reveal an extraordinarily mobile and fanciful temperament1 working with the greatest freedom and spontaneity1 though without the guidance of regular discipline4 ,their crudities are undeniable3 the flights are short1 the forms are fragmentary and often badly proportioned1 the style is highly subjective1 eccentric1 arbitrary4 ,yet there is in these things such unflagging vitality1 such rare and various beauty1 such abounding youthful enthusiasm and freshness1 that one would hardly sacrifice them for anything else that music has to offer1 and it has even been questioned whether in the final analysis there is not more of the true ,schumann in them than in the later1 larger1 and more technically perfect works4 ,in a sense ,hans von ,blow was right in saying that the ipsissimus ,schumann was to be found only in the early works up to opus #ej4 ,however this may be1 it is certain that at about his thirtieth year ,schumann's artistic ideal began to undergo a gradual but radical transformation4 ,we see him in the compositions of this time paying less and less attention to those purely personal whims and fancies that had at first dominated his imagination1 and beginning to work very earnestly toward objective beauty and impersonal expression4 ,the fictitious characters1 the mottoes1 the stage directions1 the whole elaborate machinery of allusion to extra-musical interests1 are forgotten1 and the interest of the music itself becomes all in all4 ,there had been already1 among the works of his storm and stress period1 single compositions in which the dramatic interest was wholly subordinated to the musical1 as1 for example1 the great ,toccata1 opus #g1 the ,allegro1 opus #h1 and the ,novelettes1 opus #ba2 but now what had been only occasional in the days when fancy and a self-involved emotional life absorbed him grew to be normal and constant1 and he became for the first time a liberal and devoted artist4 ,of the causes underlying this important change1 the most fundamental was doubtless simply increasing maturity4 ,youth is naturally and innocently egotistical2 the young man of sensibility loses himself in day dreams and whimsical fancies1 which have no basis in experience1 and no reference to anything beyond themselves2 age brings a sense of the values of real life1 sobers and domesticates the passions1 and enlarges the interests until they spread from the self to all humanity4 ,in an artistic nature this general change of attitude involves a change of artistic ideal2 poignancy1 intensity of expression1 become less valued than justice and proportion2 the merely self-expressive comes to seem trivial1 and whimsicalities are discarded as interfering with the serenity of a universal beauty4 ,schumann's change of attitude was simply an unusually striking case of what happens to every perceptive mind when experience has been sufficiently assimilated4 ,the anxieties1 doubts1 fears1 and disappointments connected with his courtship of ,clara ,wieck probably did more than anything else to chasten and to steady his character at this time4#f ,the two artists1 so diverse in talents1 so remarkably at one in musical ideals1 had first met in ,leipsic in #ahbh1 when one was a law student and amateur musician of eighteen1 and the other an accomplished pianist1 though only nine years old4 ,their relation was for a while purely musical2 but as ,clara's mind gradually developed1 and especially after she began to play ,schumann's compositions1 they discerned more and more how deep-seated an artistic and personal congeniality was destined to bind them together4 ,it is most interesting to trace in his letters and published music the successive steps of their comradeship4 ,in #ahcb he composes his ,impromptus on a ,theme of ,clara ,wieck2 in #ahcc he writes3 ,i have had a sympathetic idea1 namely that to-morrow1 exactly at eleven o'clock1 ,i shall play the ,adagio from ,chopin's ',variations1' and shall think intensely1 exclusively1 of you4 ,my petition is that you will do the same1 so that we may meet and communicate in spirit2 in #ahcd he says3 ,when ,i am thinking of you very intently ,i invariably find myself at the piano1 and seem to prefer writing to you in chords of the ninth1 and especially with the familiar chord of the thirteenth4 ,chiarina1 in the ,carnaval1 written in #ahce and #ahcg1 is a musical portrait of the already beloved ,clara1 and the ,f-sharp minor ,sonata1 dating from the same period1 one of his most romantic and impassioned works1 is dedicated to her4 ,the ,davidsbndlertnze 7#ahcg7 opens with a motive by her1 and in #ahci1 while he is busy with the ,phantasie1 he tells her1 ,i suppose you are the ,ton in the motto4 ,as time goes on1 musical sympathy merges more and more into love4 ,the ',davidsbndlertnze1' and ',phantasiestcke1' he writes in ,january1 #ahch1 will be finished in another week4 ,there are many bridal thoughts in the dances1 which were suggested by the most delicious excitement that ,i ever remember4 ,my ,clara will understand all that is contained in the dances1 for they are dedicated to her more emphatically than any of my other things4 ,the whole story is a ,polterabend4#g ,in ,april he observes ingenuously1 ,i have just noticed that ,ehe#h the ,german for marriage is a very musical word1 and a fifth1 too4 ,a year later he exclaims3 ,from your ,romance ,i see plainly that we are to be man and wife4 ,every one of your thoughts comes out of my soul1 just as ,i owe all my music to you4444 ,once ,i can call you mine you shall hear plenty of new things4444 ,and we will publish some things under our two names1 so that posterity may regard us as one heart and one soul1 and may not know which is yours and which mine4 ,how happy ,i am6 ,meanwhile1 however1 the narrow selfishness of the father1 ,friedrich ,wieck1 was raising all sorts of obstacles to this union4 ,his daughter being1 by her playing in public1 a source of financial gain to him1 he steadily opposed a marriage1 as unfavorable to his interests4 ,he forbade the lovers to meet1 circulated false and damaging stories of ,schumann1 and when the couple1 goaded to despair by his insensate obstinacy1 had resolved to take matters into their own hands1 thwarted even so radical a step by pretending to yield1 but imposing conditions that could not possibly be carried out4 ,on the whole1 considering his impulsive temperament1 ,schumann bore this persecution with admirable patience1 though not without an occasional plaint4 ,your father calls me phlegmatic8 ',carnaval' and phlegmatic6 ,f-sharp minor ,sonata and phlegmatic6 ,being in love with such a girl and phlegmatic6 ,and you can listen calmly to all this8 ,he says that ,i have written nothing in the ,journal for six weeks4 ,in the first place1 it is not true2 secondly1 even if it were1 how does he know what other work ,i have been doing8 ,up to the present the ,journal has had about eighty sheets of my own ideas1 not counting the rest of my editorial work1 besides which1 ,i have finished ten great compositions in two years1 and they have cost me some heart's blood4 ,to add to all this1 ,i have given several hours' hard study every day to ,bach and ,beethoven1 and to my own work1 and conscientiously managed a large correspondence4 ,i am a young man of twenty-eight1 with a very active mind1 and an artist to boot2 yet for eight years ,i have not been out of ,saxony1 and have been sitting still1 saving my money1 without a thought of spending it on amusement or horses1 and quietly going my own way1 as usual4 ,and do you mean to say that all my industry and simplicity1 and all that ,i have done1 is quite lost upon your father8 ,but all these difficulties and disappointments1 all these occasions for patience1 tact1 industry1 loyalty1 and self-control1 painful as they were to experience1 were slowly transforming the capricious and dreamy youth into a man of mature will and seasoned resourcefulness4 ,no man is any use1 says ,stevenson1 until he has dared everything4 ,some such conviction must have been in ,schumann's mind when at last1 early in #ahdj1 he resolved to avail himself of the law of ,saxony that when parents withhold their consent to a marriage without good reason1 the consent of the courts may be substituted4 ,for such a man1 so public a step in so sacredly private a matter must have been doubly difficult2 to decide upon it must have involved a long mental turmoil4 ,but he did finally take his case to the courts1 and eventually married ,clara ,wieck1 with the sanction of the law1 in ,september1 #ahdj4 ,with this manly and courageous action his youth may be said to have ended1 and the responsibilities1 anxieties1 labors1 and sober joys of his manhood to have commenced4 ,it thus happens that the last purely lyrical expression of his essentially lyrical genius is to be found in the fine series of songs which he poured forth in #ahdj4 ,in the early months of this1 his song-year1 he was in a most sensitive and exalted state4 ,the prospect of attaining the goal so long vainly striven for had fired his imagination to fever heat2 and according to his habit he relieved this excitement by incessant composition4 ,since yesterday morning1 he writes in ,february1 ,i have written about twenty-seven pages of music 7something new71 and ,i can tell you nothing more about it1 except that ,i laughed and cried over it with delight4 ,ah1 ,clara1 what bliss it is writing for the voice1 and ,i have had to do without it for so long6 ,this something new was the cycle of ,myrthen songs1 opus #be1 among which are ,widmung1 ,der ,nussbaum1 ,die ,lotosblume1 ,du ,bist wie eine ,blume1 and others almost equally earnest1 tender1 and passionate4 ,with his first published songs 7nine lyrics by ,heine1 opus #bd7 he sends the message3 ,here is a slight reward for your last two letters4 ,while ,i was composing these songs ,i was quite lost in thoughts of you4 ,if ,i were not engaged to such a girl1 ,i could not write such music4 ,i have been composing so much1 he writes in ,may1 that it really seems quite uncanny at times4 ,i cannot help it1 and should like to sing myself to death1 like a nightingale4 ,there are twelve songs of ,eichendorff's the ',liederkreis1' opus #ci1 containing the dramatic ',waldesgesprch1' the ethereal ',mondnacht1' and the splendidly passionate ',frhlingsnacht'1 but ,i have nearly forgotten them1 and begun something else4 ,all together1 over one hundred songs were produced during this single year1 including such immortal masterpieces as ,er1 der ,herrlichste von ,allen1 ,im wunderschnen ,monat ,mai1 ,ich grolle nicht1 ,ich hab' im ,traum geweinet1 and ,die ,beiden ,grenadiere1 in addition to those already mentioned4 ,in general1 the songs have the same melodic freshness1 richness of harmony1 color1 vigor of rhythm1 and individuality of style that distinguish the earlier piano works4 ,it is noteworthy1 however1 that in a certain directness of utterance1 in freedom from eccentricities of manner and perversity of fancy1 and in an increased breadth and coherence of structure1 they show a distinct advance4 ,they mark1 indeed1 a point of transition in ,schumann's career1 a point at which1 still retaining the exuberance of youth1 he has just learned to direct and control it by means of a more efficient artistry1 and in the service of a maturer ideal4 ,to most of his other works a strict criticism has reluctantly to admit the pertinence1 on one side or the other1 of the proverb ,si jeunesse savait1 si vieillesse pouvait2 but the songs seem as thoroughly achieved as they are richly inspired4 ,after his marriage he turned to the larger forms of composition1 which he took up in a curiously methodical rotation4 ,first came1 in #ahda1 three symphonies1 the ,b-flat major1 opus #ch1 the so-called ,overture1 ,scherzo1 and ,finale1 and the ,d-minor1 published many years later as opus #abj4 ,the piano concerto was also begun4 ,in #ahdb his interest was shifted to chamber music1 and the three quartets for strings1 the piano quartet1 and the piano quintet appeared in rapid succession4 ,not until #ahdc did he essay1 in ,paradise and the ,peri1 a large choral work1 but thereafter several such works appeared from time to time4 ,thus we see that while his more romantic compositions were for the most part produced in the years of youth and courtship1 he turned1 when once he had begun to face life as it is1 in all its tragedy and difficulty as well as its human beauty and sweetness1 to the severer1 grander forms of music4 ,in spite of the happiness he found in one of the most perfect of marriages1 we must remember that this union also involved new responsibilities1 anxieties1 and distractions4 ,it brought with it novel social and professional duties1 children to be protected1 guided1 and helped1 and above all the grinding routine by which the daily bread of an artist has to be earned4 ,how severe the conditions were we have only recently learned from the complete biography of ,clara ,schumann4#i ,in her diary we read of the constant struggles of these sensitive people to get the mere necessaries of life2 of the husband's steadily increasing ill-health1 physical and mental1 ending in insanity and early death2 of enforced migrations to ,dresden and ,dsseldorf in search of more lucrative posts for him as an orchestral conductor1 and of the defeat of even these efforts by the incompetence of disease2 and of the wife's loyal resumption of concert playing1 in order to fill the family purse4 ,all this experience of the sordid actualities with which the world always tests its idealists was well calculated to make even ,schumann take a sober1 and at times a tragic1 view of life2 and though he is always noble and devoted1 there is often in his chance remarks1 as years go on1 a note of weariness1 melancholy1 or philosophic resignation4 ,it is not that he surrenders his ideals--only that he finds them more difficult of realization than he had supposed in the flush of youth1 and under the buffets of fate retires somewhat into himself1 and chastens his enthusiasm into a stoical faith and a more patient loyalty4 ,this change of temper inevitably makes itself felt in such characteristic music as the solemn introduction and the aspiring adagio of the ,c-major ,symphony1 the mystical ,cathedral ,scene of the ,rhenish ,symphony1 the sombre and restless ,manfred ,overture1 the noble ,funeral ,march in the ,piano ,quintet1 and the infinitely tender ,andante grazioso of the ,piano ,concerto4 ,the same sincere1 simple nature as ever is felt behind these things1 but the stream of its emotion is now more profound and quiet1 as a river1 when it reaches the plains1 no longer sparkles and bubbles1 but flows tranquil and deep4 ,technically1 ,schumann was handicapped in this new departure by his exclusively pianistic early training4 ,he had acquired a habit of thinking in terms of the piano which it was almost impossible to break1 and he had not1 like most symphonists1 familiarized himself with orchestral instruments from boyhood4 ,the consequence was that he made many blunders in his first essays in instrumentation1 and never scored with the ease1 certainty1 and effectiveness of a master4 ,an oft-cited instance is the opening horn-phrase of the first symphony1 originally written as at 7a7 in ,figure ,,viii1 in which form it is grotesquely ineffective on account of the muffled quality1 on the horn1 of the fifth and sixth tones1 and changed only on second thought1 after rehearsal1 to its present form1 7b74 ,illustration3 score 7a7 ,illustration3 score 7b7 ,figure ,,viii4 ,another is the first trio of the scherzo in the second symphony4 ,curiously oblivious of tonal monotony1 he cast this passage entirely for the strings1 despite the fact that they had been prominent throughout the whole of the preceding scherzo4 ,it was ,mendelssohn who suggested the use of the wood-wind instruments here1 certainly a marked improvement4 ,isolated errors or miscalculations like these1 however1 are much less serious than the pervasive heaviness and muddiness of scoring that constantly mar the sound-mass4 ,a mistaken desire for richness of color led him to double his instruments until all transparency was lost4 ,it is as if a painter should use all his pigments all the time3 the potency of each would be cancelled by the others1 and the eye1 through a surfeit of impressions1 would become dulled and jaded4 ,only by the silence of some instruments can others come into relief4 ,schumann's symphonies1 says ,mr4 ,weingartner1#aj are composed for the pianoforte1 and arranged--unhappily1 not well at that--for the orchestra4 ,whenever ,i compare1 as a conductor1 the labor of the rehearsals and the performance with the final effect1 there comes over me a feeling similar to that ,i have towards a person in whom ,i expected to find mutual friendship and was disappointed4 ,no sign of life gleams in this apathetic orchestra1 which1 if given even a simple ,mendelssohnian piece to play1 seems quite transformed4 ,there are1 it is true1 as ,mr4 ,weingartner would doubtless admit1 many single passages of great tonal beauty and originality scattered here and there in these overladen scores4 ,such are the sombre trombone harmonies at the end of the slow movement of the ,b-flat ,symphony1 the celestial violin melody in the adagio of the ,c-major ,symphony 7to which ,mr4 ,weingartner gives the highest praise71 and the violin solo in the ,romance of the ,symphony in ,d-minor4 ,above all1 there is the wonderful horn-call in the ,genoveva ,overture--one of the loveliest moments in all music4 ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,ix4 ,but these are the high lights in a picture which for the rest is too often gray and blurred4 ,in the chamber music1 too1 we feel the same shortcomings4 ,the three quartets sound patchy or dry1 like piano pieces played without pedal2#aa only in the quintet and the quartet with piano does ,schumann's favorite instrument introduce elasticity and sparkle4 ,another problem1 even more fundamental than that of instrumentation1 which ,schumann1 in approaching the larger forms1 had to solve as best he could1 was that of melodic variety and breadth4 ,here again he was at a disadvantage4 ,all his experience had been with short lyrical melodies or germs of melodies such as are appropriate to piano pieces in the romantic vein and to songs2 but larger works require a wider sweep in the initial themes1 a more complex differentiation of themes1 and a power of mental synthesis that can combine the most diverse elements in a coherent organism4 ,mr4 ,hadow#ab names the two types of melody1 which are suitable respectively to the large and to the small forms1 the ,continuous and the ,discrete4 ,in the former1 he explains1 a series of entirely different elements is fused into a single whole3 no two of them are similar1 yet all are so fitted together that each supplies what the others need4 ,in the latter a set of parallel clauses are balanced antithetically3 the same rhythmic figure is preserved in all1 and the differences depend entirely upon qualities of tone and curve4 ,the former is the typical method of ,beethoven1 the latter that of ,schumann4 ,and he cites as examples ,beethoven's violoncello sonata in ,a1 and the opening movement of ,schumann's piano quintet4 ,now1 the construction of extended works out of melodies of the discrete or lyrical type presents certain inevitable difficulties that the romantic composers1 who instinctively think only in such melodies1 are always having to meet in one way or another4 ,we have already seen#ac how ,schubert1 on the whole1 failed to solve the problem1 and contented himself with monotonous repetitions of his ideas1 or with variations of their mere ornamentation or timbre4 ,we shall later see how ,chopin declined1 and how ,berlioz and ,liszt evaded1 the same embarrassment4 ,it will be enlightening to examine how far ,schumann succeeded and how far he failed in readjusting his musical imagination to the new requirements4 ,in many cases he fails as ,schubert failed4 ,beginning a symphonic movement with a song-like melody1 grouped in parallel phrases1 generally of four measures' length1 he is able to proceed only by more or less vain repetitions4 ,the result is a monotony1 a flatness and lack of contrast and relief1 something like that of a wall-paper with its endless re-presentations of a single pattern4 ,this defect is especially felt in the development sections of his first movements and finales1 in which he has1 by the compulsion of circumstances1 to forego the charm of melodic novelty4 ,in the allegro of the first quartet1 the development is founded on two or three patterns1 many times reiterated in various keys4 ,the first movement of the piano quartet1 in spite of its harmonic originality1 is open to the same criticism1 as are also1 in fact1 most of the development sections in all four of the symphonies4 ,a welcome contrast is found in the corresponding parts of the first movement in the quintet1 where an ingenious diminution of the theme gives opportunity for much genuine variation1 and of the finale of the concerto1 with its inexhaustible fertility of rhythms and melodic figures4 ,it must be added1 also1 that even when ,schumann is most helplessly shackled to his initial themes1 these are of such intrinsic beauty that the effect is infinitely to be preferred to that of more skilful mediocrity4 ,next to the primordial charm of his melodies1 his most efficient aid in the solution of the problem is his instinct for counterpoint1 with all its matchless power to vitalize the musical tissue4 ,this instinct was educated by a long and earnest study of ,bach4 ,as early as #ahbi he made thorough acquaintance with the ,well-tempered ,clavichord4 ,in #ahcb he writes3 ,i have taken the fugues one by one1 and dissected them down to their minutest parts4 ,the advantage of this is great1 and seems to have a strengthening effect on one's whole system2 for ,bach was a thorough man4 ,there is nothing sickly or stunted about him1 and his works seem written for eternity4 ,one of the most striking passages in the letters is that which acknowledges the supreme importance of such study to the romantic composers4 ,haydn and ,mozart1 he says1 had only a partial and imperfect knowledge of ,bach1 and we can have no idea how ,bach1 had they known him in all his greatness1 would have affected their creative powers4 ,mendelssohn1 ,bennett1 ,chopin1 ,hiller1 in fact all the so-called romantic school1 approach ,bach far more nearly in their music than ,mozart ever did3 indeed all of them know ,bach most thoroughly4 ,i myself confess my sins daily to that mighty one1 and endeavor to purify and strengthen myself through him4 ,besides this general purification and strengthening of his musical thought1 ,schumann found in ,bach an invaluable antidote for his wayward1 youthful subjectivism2 for ,bach is of all composers the most deeply and abstractly musical1 the most thoroughly founded on natural tonal laws1 the least infected with extraneous ideals and meretricious methods4 ,his art is wholly objective1 quite universal2 he makes no concession to vulgarity or to insensibility1 and his taste is as exacting as his skill is impeccable4 ,technically1 too1 he gave ,schumann1 too long habituated to the narrow scope and rigid rhythmical balance of the lyrical forms1 just the emancipation1 the mental liberation and broadening1 which he needed4 ,the way of escape from the prosodic monotony of the song lies through polyphony1 through the conceiving of music as a group or bundle of melodies each of which has its own vitality and its own provocation to fancy4 ,once the composer learns to follow each strand in this web1 for its own sake1 and to attain coherence by the persistence of characteristic motives of all types1 rather than by a slavish alternation of phrase and equal counter-phrase1 the creation widens in his view1 and he writes with a hitherto undreamed-of elasticity4 ,the wholesome influence of the polyphonic or contrapuntal habit of mind makes itself felt very early in ,schumann's works1 even in the piano pieces of the first period4 ,oscar ,bie detects its earliest manifestations in opuses #ac and #ad1 but it is certainly noticeable in the ,impromptus1 opus #e4 ,the very scheme of this work1 which is a set of variations on a fixed bass quite as much as on the ,romance of ,clara ,wieck1 suggests the ,bach standpoint4 ,the dexterous weaving of motives in sections four and eight show the same spirit4 ,above all1 the fugato in the finale1 with its bold contour and its steadily cumulative sonority and thematic interest1 and with its striking stretto 7see the figure71 not only gives evidence of minute study1 but is a far from unskilful imitation of a great model4 ,illustration3 score ,illustration3 score ,theme and ,stretto from the ,finale of the ,impromptus1 opus #e4 ,figure ,x4 ,the habitual use of the sequence1 the canon1 and even the fugato1 though always in an impressionistic1 romantic vein1 also presses itself constantly upon our attention4 ,such contrapuntal habits soon became instinctive and unconscious with ,schumann4 ,in my latest compositions1 he remarks in #ahch1 ,i often hear many things that ,i cannot explain4 ,it is most extraordinary how ,i write almost everything in canon1 and then only detect the imitation afterwards1 and often find inversions1 rhythms in contrary emotion1 etc4 ,but the explanation is given by a sentence in the same letter3 ,bach is my daily bread2 he comforts me and gives me new ideas4 ,so beneficent in the small pieces1 the inspiration of the ,bach polyphony became invaluable in the larger works4 ,to it are traceable the supreme passages in the symphonies1 such as the profoundly thoughtful introduction of the ,c-major1 with the rugged dissonances resulting from the superposing of the call of horns and trumpets upon the inexorable progression of the strings1 the insistently climactic introduction of the ,d-minor1 and the entire movement in the ,e-flat major known as the ,cathedral ,scene1 which is surely not the least of the monuments of ,gothic art1 though its massive pediments and soaring arches are carved of immaterial tones4 ,in his three essays in the string quartet1 the most exacting of all mediums1 ,schumann's contrapuntal skill is less secure4 ,failing often to conceive the inner voices independently1 he falls into a jerkiness resulting from the constant stoppages of the little phrases2 instead of letting the melodies germinate and soar1 he constricts them within a predetermined harmonic mould2 and the wall-paper patterns inevitably creep in4 ,but in the quartet with piano and still more in the quintet1 the contrapuntal stimulus is again efficiently felt4 ,from the soaring imitations of the first page to the two exciting fugatos in the coda of the finale1 one on the theme of that movement1 and the other1 by a happy inspiration1 on the theme of the opening allegro1 structurally rounding out the entire work1 the music bubbles and throbs with melody4 ,one other great work there is1 belonging to this period1 which for fecundity of invention1 luxuriant richness of coloring1 and stoutness of structure deserves to rank with the quintet1 if not above it4 ,this is the piano concerto in ,a-minor1 begun in #ahda and completed in #ahde1--that is to say1 written in the brief prime of ,schumann's troubled life1 when his powers had been marshalled and coordinated by discipline1 and before they had become blighted by disease4 ,it is thus quite up to his early standard in the matter of freshness of melody1 rhythmic animation1 and exotic gorgeousness of harmony1 and at the same time far more firmly knit1 more justly proportioned1 and more flexibly conceived than the piano sonatas or the string quartets4 ,the sincerity1 tenderness1 grace1 and impetuous enthusiasm of the youthful romanticist are not in the least abated4 ,what could be more contagious than the exuberant first movement1 in which one hardly knows which to admire the more1 the felicity of such details as the clarinet cantabile1 the ,andante expressivo for solo piano1 and the nobly polyphonic cadenza1 or the broadly climactic plan of the whole8 ,what could appeal more simply and directly to the heart than the delicate and yet ecstatic ,andante grazioso1 with its winding intermeshed melodies1 clustering about the violoncello phrases as a grapevine festoons itself upon a tree8 ,yet perfectly wedded with all this feminine suavity and grace is a more masculine quality1 a fine poise1 restraint1 reservation of force1 which counteracts all tendency to feverishness1 and gives the work a sort of impersonal dignity and beauty at the opposite pole from the perverse individualism of the ,davidsbndlertnze and the ,carnaval4 ,one feels that the composer1 no longer the victim of his moods1 is shaping his work with the serene detachment of the artist4 ,particularly manifest is this new mastery in the rhythmical treatment of the finale4 ,the rhythms here are as salient1 as seizing1 as ever1 but they are far more various4 ,the contrast between the strongly three-beat quality of the initial motif1 7a7 in ,figure ,,xi1 and the cross accent of twos in the second theme 7b71 is a stroke of positive genius4 ,illustration3 score 7a7 ,illustration3 score 7b7 ,illustration3 score 7c7 ,figure ,,xi4 ,one should note also the subtlety with which the regular three-beat meter is gradually resumed after the interregnum 7c in the figure74 ,indeed1 to do justice to the plastic beauty of this movement would require nothing less than a measure-by-measure analysis of its charmingly varied phraseology4 ,to play it after the ,abegg ,variations is like passing from a schoolboy's singsong delivery of ,the ,boy ,stood on the ,burning ,deck to the reading of an ode of ,shelley or a sonnet of ,keats4 ,in our desire to comprehend how much ,schumann gained by his study of ,bach and other great masters of composition 7such as his contemporary1 ,mendelssohn1 for instance1 whose perfection of form he vainly tried to emulate1 possibly to the disadvantage of his own originality71 we must not fail to note certain indications that his enthusiasm sometimes overleaped itself4 ,a strong will like his easily falls1 by the overuse or abuse of special artistic devices1 into mannerisms2 and he1 with his fondness for sequences1 inversions1 canons1 and other contrapuntal traits1 did not escape this danger4 ,so long as he used these tools with a certain romantic freedom and geniality1 inspired by their spirit rather than enslaved by their letter1 as he uses for example the canon in the andante of the piano quartet1 the device of diminution in the development section of the first movement of the quintet1 and the fugato in the finale of the same1 they enriched and guided his fancy4 ,but when he writes canonically throughout a whole movement1 as in the scherzo of the ,d-minor ,trio or the third movement of the ,f-major ,trio1 when he puts upon his genius the manacles of strict counterpoint1 as in the ,studies in ,canon ,form for ,pedal ,piano1 opus #ef1 and in the ,four ,fugues1 opus #gb1 above all when he indulges1 as in the organ fugues on ,b-,a-,c-,h1 in those inversions and retrogressions of themes dear to the schoolmen1 then learning becomes baneful1 and music degenerates into a pedantic exercise4 ,a far more insidious and fatal blight than such occasional pedantry was now1 however1 beginning to overspread his music4 ,the story of the long1 gradual eclipse and final extinction some years before death1 by the ravages of physical and mental disease1 of a genius which had dawned so brightly and reached its meridian in such ample and yet tempered splendor1 is one of the most pathetic chapters in the history of art4 ,the exact nature of the disease was somewhat obscure1 but the basis of it seems to have been a tendency1 inherited from the mother1 toward abnormal activity of the brain1 and a resulting congestion1 distention of the blood-vessels1 and final ossification of cerebral tissue1 carrying with it mental paralysis and degeneration4 ,the trouble was no doubt aggravated by overwork and by the constant excitement of musical composition4 ,a peculiar feature was its reaction on ,schumann's spirits4 ,generally this sort of cerebral atrophy is attended by unreasoning high spirits1 a baseless self-satisfaction uncanny to observe but merciful to the sufferer4 ,but ,schumann's native moral force and mental power were so great that he struggled with his fate as a lesser man would not have done2 and the result of the unequal fight was a terrible melancholy1 sinking sometimes into a blank lethargy of depression1 and rising at other times into acute despair4 ,it was in one of these frenzied moments that1 in ,february1 #ahed1 he attempted to drown himself in the ,rhine4 ,rescued from suicide1 he had for safety's sake to be put in an asylum1 where after two years of merely vegetative existence1 he died on ,july #bi1 #ahef4 ,this deep-seated physical disability is responsible for the curious impotence of those compositions which he so restlessly produced all through the afflicted years4 ,such things as the violin sonata1 opus #aba1 the ,introduction and ,allegro ,appassionata1 opus #ib1 the ,concert ,allegro1 opus #acd1 and the overtures ,julius ,caesar1 ,braut von ,messina1 and ,hermann und ,dorothea1 negligible from the artistic standpoint1 are as human documents deeply pathetic4 ,in them we see the crippled master in fruitless travail4 ,the intention is always noble1 the old fire flashes out now and then1 the ideal of expression is the same as ever1 but the path from will to act is clogged1 the musical fancy is paralyzed2 and all that results is page after dreary page of rigidly unchanging rhythms1 stagnant harmonies1 manufactured melodies1 and climaxes that reach no goal4 ,particularly saddening is it to note the hysterical character of the emotional passages4 ,in the overture to ,manfred1 one of his immortal masterpieces1 he showed once for all his marvellous power for impassioned expression4 ,alas6 that in the fever of sickness he was goaded to parody his own immortal work in futile replicas that imitate its qualities only to trivialize them4 ,it is a relief to turn from the sorry spectacle of these galvanic twitchings of the once so virile intellect to the one happy episode that lightens this period of gloom4 ,this was the coming of ,brahms in #ahec4 ,in order to understand fully what the apparition of a youth of so pure and high a genius meant to ,schumann1 we must remember the depth and unselfishness of his love for art1 the lifelong labors he had undertaken in order to purify public taste1 the grim and often single-handed battle he had waged against ,philistinism and mediocrity4 ,composition1 the service of the gods of music at their inmost shrine1 had been only one aspect of his life2 the other side had been his literary and editorial labors1 in which1 like a true priest1 he had gone forth to spread the faith among heretics and idolaters4 ,the ,new ,journal of ,music1 which he founded in #ahcd1 had for its object1 in his own words1 the elevation of ,german taste and intellect by ,german art1 whether by pointing to the great models of old time1 or by encouraging younger talents4 ,the musical situation1 he wrote some years afterwards1 was not then very encouraging4 ,on the stage ,rossini reigned1 at the pianoforte nothing was heard but ,herz and ,hnten2 and yet but a few years had passed since ,beethoven1 ,weber1 and ,schubert had lived amongst us4 ,one day the thought awakened in a wild heart1 ',let us not look on idly2 let us also lend our aid to progress1 let us bring again the poetry of art to honor among men4' ,the proposal thus made1 in a spirit of altruistic devotion to art unhappily too rare among creative musicians1 was faithfully carried out in a series of appreciative1 generally discriminating1 and always entertaining articles on such men as ,mendelssohn1 ,gade1 ,bennett1 ,franz1 ,henselt1 ,heller1 ,berlioz1 ,liszt1 ,thalberg1 and ,moscheles1 alternating with others of a more historical or general character1 always wise1 fair1 suggestive1 and pleasantly pointed with humor1 wit1 and the play of that irresponsible fancy which revelled in ,jean ,paul and created the ,davidsbund4 ,one of the most touching features of the ,new ,journal1 to a reader of to-day1 is the almost too generous kindliness of its judgments1 the eager enthusiasm with which it proclaims the advent of geniuses who have already fallen into oblivion4 ,its editor proceeded so heartily on the principle that it is wiser to encourage the good than to discourage the bad that he often discovered nonentities only to have them left helpless on his hands4 ,the experience must have been disappointing to the most sanguine4 ,seldom as he condemns1 too1 he must frequently have had the petty egotists swarming and buzzing about him1 black flies and gnats in human form1 such as will beset the stanchest crusader4 ,to one engaged in so humane and disinterested a task1 and pursuing it through such annoyances1 the advent of a true genius like ,brahms must have been the most joyful of events4 ,schumann at once recognized and welcomed it4 ,when ,brahms1 then a tow-headed1 high-voiced boy of twenty1 arrived from ,hamburg with a parcel of manuscripts1 he gave him1 in the famous article1 ,new ,paths1 the most royal greeting a neophyte has ever received from a brother musician4 ,he has come1 the chosen youth1 over whose cradle the ,graces and the ,heroes seem to have kept watch4 ,may the ,highest ,genius help him onward6 ,meanwhile another genius--that of modesty--seems to dwell within him4 ,his ,comrades greet him at his first step in the world1 where wounds may perhaps await him1 but also the bay and the laurel4 ,it is a fitting reward1 says ,mr4 ,hadow1 that the voice which had so often been raised in commendation of lesser men should devote its last public utterance to the honor of ,johannes ,brahms4 ,indeed1 despite the struggles of his youth1 the hardships and disappointments of his manhood1 and the cruel affliction that maimed and killed him before his time1 ,schumann's destiny1 look at it with but sufficient largeness1 was a happy one4 ,it is not given to men to attain their ideals2 and in this respect1 as in so many others1 he was most human4 ,his life1 in its mere actualities1 is1 like all lives1 a thing of incomplete beginnings1 disappointed hopes1 defeated or unrealized aspirations4 ,but to look at the individual is to see but a partial1 and therefore a distorted and misleading1 picture4 ,only in his relations to others1 in his service to the common good1 in the seeds of social benefit which he plants and the ways of social progress which he discovers1 is his true life to be found4 ,if he has wrought faithfully1 purely1 single-mindedly1 his work will suggest and imply more than it attains2 and it will partake by virtue of this suggestion in all future attainment of the same kind4 ,all ,schumann's work tends in the direction of what is highest and most beautiful in music4 ,much he achieved1 but much more he realized only as an ideal realizes that to which it points1 and in some sense gives it solid reality in the world4 ,whenever and wherever men pursue what is pure1 high1 fresh1 noble1 and fair in music1 there the spirit of ,schumann will be at work4 ,,footnotes3 #c ,early ,letters of ,robert ,schumann1 trans4 by ,m4 ,herbert1 ,london1 #ahhh1 pp4 #aac1 #aah4 #d ,in ,german the terminology of letters standing for tones is richer than in ,english4 ,b is our ,b-flat1 while ,h stands for our ,b-natural2 ,es is ,e-flat2 ,as1 ,a-flat1 etc4 #e ,see page #abh for ,schumann's comment on this motto4 #f ,the remarkable story of this courtship is told at length in ,clara ,schumann1 ,ein ,knstlerleben1 by ,berthold ,litzmann1 ,zweiter ,band1 ,leipsic1 #aijf4 ,it has also been vividly sketched in ,english by ,mr4 ,richard ,aldrich1 in an article in ,music1 vol4 #ah4 #g ,eve of a wedding day4 #h ,h1 it will be remembered1 stands in ,german for the note ,b-natural1 which makes the musical interval of a fifth with ,e4 #i ,clara ,schumann1 ,ein ,knstlerleben1 by ,berthold ,litzmann1 #aijc-aijf4 #aj ,the ,symphony since ,beethoven1 ,eng4 trans41 p4 #ca4 #aa ,see the ,adagio of the ,quartet1 opus #da1 no4 #a4 ,the accompaniment is essentially a piano accompaniment1 transcribed for 'cello and viola2 but without the pedal it lacks fluidity4 #ab ,studies in ,modern ,music1 ,first ,series1 ,essay on ,schumann1 p4 #bac4 #ac ,essay on ,schubert1 p4 #ih4 ,,iv ,,felix ,,mendelssohn ,illustration3 ,,felix ,,mendelssohn ,from the painting by ,edward ,magnus ,,iv ,,felix ,,mendelssohn ,in studying the relations of a number of contemporary artists to the general tendency of their age it is interesting to note how1 in spite of the influence exerted upon them all by prevailing conditions and available opportunities1 each responds to the occasion in his own way1 always maintaining1 in the common enterprise1 his own particular ideals1 tastes1 and methods4 ,despite all the schools and movements in the history of art1 each artist remains himself4 ,so it was in the period of romanticism4 ,the romantic tendency was in the air--the tendency to subjectivism1 to picturesqueness1 to specialized expression1 to a richly sensuous embodiment of ideas2 but nevertheless1 each individual composer approached music from his own standpoint1 seized upon those elements in it for which he had a native affinity1 and quietly ignored what did not attract him4 ,that ,mendelssohn should have been a romanticist at all is a proof of the strength of the romantic tendency in his day2 he seemed born rather for the severest1 purest1 most uncompromising classicism2 and if he did1 as a matter of fact1 come to share the ideals of his age1 it was in his own way and for his own ends4 ,the crudities1 the exaggerations1 the morbid self-involution of the extreme phases of the movement1 certainly never infected him4 ,for this happy immunity he was indebted largely to the fortunate conditions of his life1 both personal and artistic4 ,crudity is usually a result of narrowness of culture or of a deficiency in technique2 and ,mendelssohn grew up in a singularly refined domestic and social circle1 and was a skilled musician before he was breeched4 ,exaggeration springs from a lack of taste2 and ,mendelssohn's taste1 both by native endowment and by training1 was consummate4 ,self-consciousness1 whether blessed or baneful1 is the child of suffering2 how1 then1 should it come to one whose whole life was so protected1 so guided1 so lapped in material prosperity1 family affection1 and social respect8 ,mendelssohn's life reads like the story of some fairy prince1 beautiful1 brave1 and virtuous1 who is rocked in his cradle by the gentle godmother1 ,good-fortune1 who runs his race amid the plaudits of admiring friends1 and who dies young1 untarnished1 and full of honors1 as one loved by the gods4 ,he never knew the squalor of poverty1 the paralysis of drudgery1 the bitterness of inaptitude1 the dull ache of disappointment4 ,in his bright1 precocious childhood he was the idol of a wise father1 a fond mother1 brothers and sisters who shared his tastes and in some measure his abilities1 and a circle of literary and artistic friends at the head of which was the aged ,goethe4 ,in later years he had all the advantages of university training1 the best teachers in music1 foreign travel1 varied friendships1 a happy marriage1 and a fame extending to all corners of ,europe4 ,appropriately indeed was he named ,felix4 ,the influence of a long-established1 carefully bred1 and highly cultivated family played an important part in the formation of his personality4 ,schubert1 ,schumann1 ,chopin1 ,berlioz1 and ,liszt blazed out suddenly1 meteoric individuals1 from respectable but obscure origins2 but ,mendelssohn was the last bright flower put forth by an ancient stock4 ,only as such can he be understood4 ,his grandfather1 ,moses ,mendelssohn1 an orthodox ,jew of the old school and a self-made man1 was a famous scholar in his day4 ,he was prominent in the intellectual circles of ,berlin in the middle of the eighteenth century1 participated in a famous controversy with ,lavater1 was a friend of ,lessing1 and was the author of ,phdon1 or the ,immortality of the ,soul1 a work translated into all ,european languages4 ,his son ,abraham inherited his strong character and something of his mental power1 without his genius4 ,an independent thinker1 an unusually wise and devoted father1 he was yet singularly modest1 and used to say that he began by being the son of his father and ended by being the father of his son4 ,he married ,leah ,solomon1 daughter of a wealthy ,jewish family of ,berlin4 ,it was her brother1 a man of some reputation as an art critic1 who1 turning ,christian1 adopted and induced ,abraham ,mendelssohn to adopt the name of ,bartholdy1 as a distinction from the branches of their families which retained the ancient faith4 ,fanny ,mendelssohn1 ,felix's sister1 was also an unusual person4 ,she had a genius for music second only to his1 and would doubtless have become famous had it not been for her father's prejudice against a professional life for women4 ,some of the ,songs without ,words are of her composition1 and her criticism was always eagerly welcomed by her brother4 ,she married ,hensel the painter1 who added still further to the artistic interests and associations of the ,mendelssohn family4#ad ,in ,felix's sixteenth year his father bought the mansion known as ,leipziger ,strasse no4 #c1 in the suburbs of ,berlin1 which became the scene of a most idyllic family and social life4 ,there were separate suites of apartments for the various groups of the clan1 ,fanny ,hensel and her husband occupying one side1 and her sister ,rebecca and her husband1 ,edward ,devrient1 the other2 there was a room suitable for theatrical performances1 which were frequently given2 there was a large garden1 and in the middle of it a garden-house with a hall accommodating several hundred persons1 in which informal musicales were arranged every ,sunday afternoon4 ,no pains were spared to grace the everyday life4 ,in the summer-houses1 we read1#ae writing materials were provided1 and ,felix edited a newspaper1 called in the summer ',the ,garden ,times1' and in the winter ',the ,snow and ,tea ,times4' ,to this all comers were invited to contribute1 and the young people were joined in their fun by their elders1 including such distinguished personages as ,humboldt and ,zelter4 ,we can readily imagine that music was the constant accompaniment of all that went on2 for not only did ,felix and ,fanny play the piano and compose1 but ,rebecca and her husband were singers1 and ,paul1 the youngest of the family1 was a good violoncellist4 ,for the ,sunday afternoon musicales ,felix constantly wrote new things1 of which the most important was the ,midsummer ,night's ,dream ,overture1 played before a crowded audience in the garden-house at the end of #ahbf4 ,had ,mendelssohn not been surrounded1 thanks to the wealth and cultivation of his parents1 by this atmosphere of social friendliness and artistic charm1 he might have had reason to regret the nervous sensibility he had inherited from them4 ,the abnormal delicacy of constitution indicated by the fact that his grandfather1 father1 mother1 and sister all died of cerebral paralysis took in him the form of such an excitability1 physical1 emotional1 and mental1 as would have brought much suffering upon a youth whose conditions of life had been less ideal4 ,extreme sensitiveness was the most radical trait of his character and temperament4 ,his affection for his relatives was of passionate intensity2 a slight misunderstanding or coolness would reduce him to tears1 he could not work when his brother or sisters were ill1 and the death of his sister ,fanny was a shock from which he never recovered4 ,his friendships were romantic in their ardor and in their exacting demands2 he showed in them1 indeed1 the childish egotism of the oversensitive4 ,write soon1 and love me1 he ends one of his letters2 and a friend said of him1 significantly1 ,he loved only in the measure that he was loved4#af ,his brother-in-law1 ,devrient1 in his reminiscences1 says that when crossed or disappointed he sometimes lost all self-control1 and in illustration tells the story of some theatricals planned for the silver-wedding celebration of his parents1 for which he had written the music1 and in which ,devrient was to sing the principal part4 ,at the last moment ,devrient was summoned to sing at the ,crown ,prince's on the very evening appointed4 ,with singular blindness to everything but his own plans1 ,mendelssohn begged him not to go1 and when all were assembled began to talk incoherently1 and in ,english4 ,the stern voice of his father1 says ,devrient1 at last checked the wild torrent of words2 they took him to bed1 and a profound sleep of twelve hours restored him to his normal state4 ,it was the same sensitiveness1 doubtless1 that underlay his vanity in regard to his work1 and made indifference so intolerable to him4 ,the atmosphere of love and appreciation1 says ,devrient1 in which he had been nurtured was a condition of life to him2 to receive his music with coldness or aversion was to be his enemy1 and he was capable of denying genuine merit in any one who did so4 ,a blunder in manners1 or an expression that displeased him1 could alienate him altogether4 ,but fortunately1 at least for the moment1 the cold winds of the outside world rarely invaded the quiet garden of art and friendship in which he passed his youth4 ,inside the barriers which his father's wealth and devotion1 his mother's tender solicitude1 and his sisters' comradeship and admiration reared about him1 he composed1 studied1 and dreamed in idyllic peace4 ,for variety there were conversations with men skilled in art and literature1 studies in the classics and modern languages1 harmless flirtations1 letter-writing1 water-color sketching1 and tours in ,italy and ,switzerland4 ,for recreation there were bowling1 fencing1 and swimming4 ,and if the disagreeable could not be entirely eliminated1 if there must be an occasional headache or fit of lassitude1 or if1 in spite of one's personal charm and graceful1 lovable nature one's friends would not always take the trouble to understand one1 then one could resort to a sort of ,epicurean stoicism1 refuse to attend to the painful and the annoying1 and dwell insistently on all that was bright1 gracious1 and delightful4 ,mendelssohn's earliest compositions reflect all the freshness and gaiety of his youthful nature1 all the ease and charm of the circumstances in which it developed4 ,from the first their technical skill is perfect2 for ,mendelssohn had had no distracting struggles for daily bread1 like ,schubert1 no moiling in arid1 uncongenial studies1 like ,schumann2 he had been placed under the best masters1 and had assimilated harmony1 counterpoint1 and fugue as unconsciously as most boys assimilate reading1 writing1 and arithmetic4 ,what was even better1 their style was entirely individual2 for the spirit of ,ariel had never before been incarnated in a musician--or1 if it had been1 it had smothered under impeding conditions4 ,in the scherzo of the octet written at sixteen there are all the ,mendelssohnian traits3 fluent melodiousness1 correct harmony1 carefully polished detail1 and an inimitable delicacy1 finesse1 and lightness of style4 ,the whole piece1 wrote his sister ,fanny1 is to be played staccato and pianissimo1 the tremulandos coming in now and then1 the trills passing away with the quickness of lightning2 everything new and strange1 and at the same time most insinuating and pleasing1 one feels so near the world of spirits1 carried away in the air1 half inclined to snatch up a broomstick and follow the arial procession4 ,at the end the first violin takes a flight with a featherlike lightness1 and--all has vanished4#ag ,the last words are quoted from a stanza of the ,walpurgis ,night ,dream in ,faust1 of which it was ,mendelssohn's intention to give a musical illustration3-- ,the flight of the clouds and the veil of mist ,are lighted from above4 ,a breeze in the leaves1 a wind in the reeds1 ,and all has vanished4 ,the same kind of intention was carried out even more brilliantly in the ,midsummer ,night's ,dream ,overture1 of which it is not too high praise to say that it is worthy of its ,shaksperian inspiration4 ,in the immaterial dance of the violins and the strange calls of the trumpets and wood-wind instruments1 as if from some cloudy ,no-man's-land1 of this wonderful work1 conceived by a genius and executed by a master only seventeen years old1 a new type of music is born4 ,it is worthy of remark that in neither of these works is there the slightest trace of the turgidity so often observable in youthful productions4 ,on the contrary1 one of their most prominent traits is a cool dispassionateness1 as of the deliberate1 detached artist1 remarkable in so young a man4 ,the more one studies ,mendelssohn's music the more one becomes convinced that this cool dispassionateness is one of his fundamental qualities4 ,everywhere it reveals itself--in the suavity of his melody1 in the purity of his harmony1 in the smooth fluency of his part-writing4 ,violence of contrast1 dramatic trenchancy of expression1 the overemphasis of hysterical eloquence1 he punctiliously avoids2 he is always clear1 unperturbed1 discreet1 harmonious4 ,the lavish sensuousness of ,schubert1 the impulsive sincerity of ,schumann1 are impossible if not distasteful to this ,addisonian temperament2 personal sentiment1 self-revelation1 the autobiographic appeal1 he avoids as the purist in manners avoids a blush1 an exclamation1 or a grimace4 ,if he is romantic in his love of the picturesque1 in his sense of color1 and in his fondness for literary motives1 his emotional reticence is entirely classic4 ,he is more observant than introspective1 and his art is more pictorial than passionate4 ,compare1 for a moment1 by way of illustration1 the overtures ,manfred and ,hebrides4 ,schumann's work is intensely human from the opening onslaught of syncopated chords to the final1 deep-drawn sighs of the contrabasses4 ,there is unassuagable desire in the melody so appropriately marked ,in leidenschaftlichem ,tempo1 there is the very accent of a lover's longing in the beautiful ,astarte theme4 ,the music constantly rushes on into feverish excitement1 only to expend its force and die away to tender sadness1 whence in a moment it lashes itself again into new fury4 ,from this so human world-- ,of infinite passion1 and the pain ,of finite hearts that yearn-- ,mendelssohn transports us1 in his ,hebrides1 to an island set in a boundless expanse of the sea1 where we watch only the rise and fall of great billows and hear the long sigh of the wind and the cries of sea-birds4 ,the fierce dissonances of ,schumann1 his ceaseless modulation1 his never resting movement1 give place to clear ethereal harmonies1 to high1 pure trumpet calls1 poising violin melodies1 and the thin note of the oboe suggesting infinite distance1 and to an undulating movement like the ebb and flow of winds and waves4 ,these two works are typical4 ,if ,schumann is incomparable in his insight into the storm and stress of the human heart1 ,mendelssohn is one of the greatest of landscape painters4 ,what is true of the ,hebrides ,overture is in greater or less degree true of all ,mendelssohn's compositions which can be called really successful4 ,they charm us not by their personal appeal1 their introspective veracity1 as ,schumann's so constantly do1 but precisely by their freedom from personal bias1 their objective truth1 their universal interest4 ,when he makes us see the winds and waves of the ,hebrides ,overture1 the marching pilgrims of the ,italian ,symphony1 the dancing fairies of the ,midsummer ,night's ,dream music1 it is not as through a temperament1 but as in the white light of pure imagination4 ,it is such a view of the world as some visitant from another planet might get--some gentle1 happily organized being1 whose intelligence was unperturbed by human passions and undistorted by practical interests4 ,it is the view rather of a ,tennyson than of a ,browning4 ,in the eyes of ,mendelssohn1 a keen observer has recorded1 there was none of that rapt dreaminess so often seen among men of genius in art4 ,the gaze was rather external than internal2 the eye had more outwardness than inwardness of expression4 ,what is said here of the physical eye might with equal truth be applied to that mind's eye with which the artist envisages his work4 ,mendelssohn's attention1 we feel1 was never engaged with his own emotions1 but played like a disembodied spirit about the impressions he was imagining4 ,he himself is as elusive as the elves and fairies he so loved to depict4 ,he is always behind his work rather than in it4 ,the chief technical peculiarities of ,mendelssohn's music1 as we should expect in an art pursued in this spirit of cool and competent impersonality1 are fluency1 grace1 and elegance4 ,his melody1 lacking to an unusual degree the suggestion of impassioned utterance1 is more decorative than expressive--a sort of tonal arabesque1 often exquisitely wrought1 but curiously unexciting4 ,there is no boldness in the physiognomy of his tunes2 they conform closely to the average type of traditional ,german melody2 and their charm is due to the neatness and facility with which they follow the paths of least resistance4 ,his harmony is solid and correct1 but hardly ever unconventional2 he prefers an authorized to a novel progression1 values clearness above richness1 and treats dissonances with the utmost circumspection4 ,his attitude toward modulation is conservative4 ,certain of his works1 such as the ,scotch ,symphony1 with its endless ,a-minor and ,d-minor1 have justly been charged with monotony1 so fond he is of hovering gently about among a few closely related keys4 ,in polyphony his ideal is smoothness of progression4 ,those daring momentary collisions between different voices1 each progressing independently1 which give ,bach's fabric such a stoutness1 he shrinkingly avoids4 ,his part-writing is almost too conciliatory1 too considerate of the prejudices of the ear2 the natural roughnesses are all ironed out or glossed over4 ,in a word1 whenever he has a choice between the original and the established1 he chooses the latter2 he is too urbane to risk startling his hearer1 and prefers to ingratiate himself with familiar charms2 but so deftly does he manage these that he constantly gives us the pleasure of recognizing what oft was thought1 but ne'er so well expressed4 ,in the matter of orchestration his delicate ear and fine taste made him a great master4 ,his instinct for proper balance and fusion of timbres is unerring1 he knows how to be sonorous without becoming opaque or blatant1 and his scores abound in the purest1 clearest1 and freshest colors4 ,where shall we find a parallel for that ethereal shimmer of the violins in the ,midsummer ,night's ,dream ,overture1 or for the magical chord of the wood-wind that arrests it8 or for the serene beauty of the violin melody1 so airily poised1 at the end of the same overture8 or for the liquid coolness of the flutes1 violins1 and trumpets in the ,hebrides8 or for the elastic vitality of the violins at the opening of the ,italian ,symphony8 ,here1 we cry with delight1 is a master who can make flutes and clarinets and violins in their upper register1 and trumpets playing piano1 sound not like mere orchestral instruments1 but like angelic voices in remote skies4 ,this magical charm is largely due to the limpid transparency of his coloring4 ,he never overscores1 never surfeits the ear and confuses the mind by laying on the tints too thickly or piling up colors that will not coalesce4 ,few composers have so fully realized how little an effect is due to the mere quantity of the sounds1 how much to their skilful composition4#ah ,as an example may be cited the last page of the ,con moto moderato movement in his ,italian ,symphony1 where the same motive is sounded first by horns and bassoons1 then by trumpets and drums1 then by flutes and oboes1 all together building up the loveliest1 most diaphanous fabric of tone4 ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,xii4 ,an even more striking instance1 remarkable both for the economy of the means employed and for the indescribable charm of the resultant effect1 is the passage for violins and two flutes1 in the ,pilgrim's ,march of the same symphony4 ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,xiii4 ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,xiv4 ,as a master of pigments like ,monet knows how to set on the canvas spots of pure color which merge only in the eye of the beholder1 so ,mendelssohn builds olian harmonies with a few pure tones that fill but never cloy our ears4 ,so long as ,mendelssohn maintained his instinctive aloofness from human emotion1 so long as1 dwelling in his heaven of imagination1 he painted delicate aquarelles of fairyland and romantic natural scenery1 he was an incomparable master4 ,in that rarefied atmosphere sentiments1 like objects1 were quite properly somewhat ghostly1 tenuous1 impalpable2 the cheerful ,mendelssohnian contentment sufficed for joy1 the tender ,mendelssohnian melancholy for sorrow4 ,but as time went on it was perhaps inevitable that he1 too1 like ,schubert and ,schumann1 and indeed all sincere romanticists1 should strive to leave his fanciful boyish world behind him1 and to express something of those deeper realities with which the years were making him acquainted4 ,accumulating experience may well have brought to the man of forty a distaste for the gracious insubstantiality which was entirely charming in the work of a youth of seventeen4 ,but1 unfortunately1 a serious difficulty presented itself at this point4 ,from the outset a thoughtful observer might have doubted whether so artificially protected a life as that of ,mendelssohn's youth would develop his character and genius1 in the long run1 so favorably as it at first promised to do4 ,there is such a thing as a good fortune so unrelieved that1 by removing the prick of adversity1 the challenge of obstacles1 the illumination of sympathy1 it becomes in truth misfortune4 ,this is the fate that seems to have overtaken ,mendelssohn4 ,the smile of ,destiny1 constant from his youth1 became at last fixed and vacuous4 ,as in his boyhood he had been the pet of his family1 so in manhood he became1 as conductor of the famous ,gewandhaus ,orchestra in ,leipsic1 and general dictator of musical affairs1 the pet of a larger but still almost invariably indulgent circle4 ,as his fame as a composer1 conductor1 pianist1 and organist increased1 the admiring audience widened until it comprised all ,germany2 and when in his last years he turned to oratorio writing he had ,england too at his feet4 ,a wit has vividly pictured the atmosphere of adulation in which he lived in the remark3 ,mendelssohn could not stick his head out of the window but some one would shout ',hurrah6' ,the tendency of such an environment is to cramp the sympathies1 smother the sense of humor1 and intrench the petty pride of the most magnanimous of men2 ,mendelssohn was peculiarly at its mercy1 because extreme sensitiveness inclined him to be wounded rather than enlightened by such adverse criticism as he got1 because consciousness of real merit put him off his guard against the exaggerations of hero-worshippers1 and because the innate bias of his mind was more toward a fastidious distinction than toward a rugged catholicity4 ,even in his youth his affections1 as we have seen1 were exclusive and jealous2 and on the intellectual side a similar narrowness showed itself in a certain preciosity that we should call bigotry had it been less amiably expressed4 ,that is a significant incident that ,berlioz relates of his sojourn with ,mendelssohn in ,rome in their student days4 ,one evening1 he says1 we were exploring together the ,baths of ,caracalla1 debating the question of the merit or demerit of human actions1 and their remuneration during this life4 ,as ,i replied with some enormity1 ,i know not what1 to his entirely religious and orthodox opinions1 his foot slipped1 and down he rolled1 with many scratches and contusions1 in the ruins of a very hard staircase4 ',admire the divine justice1' said ,i1 helping him to rise2 'it is ,i who blaspheme1 and it is you who fall6' ,this impiety1 accompanied with peals of laughter1 appeared to him too much1 it seemed2 and1 from that time1 religious discussions were always avoided4 ,the lack of plasticity here shown in a religious matter is also observable in his literary and musical opinions4 ,lampadius quotes his comment on ,shelley's ,cenci3 ,no1 it is too horrible6 ,it is too abominable6 ,i cannot read such a poem4 ,mr4 ,hadow tells how he praised the treatment of the double-basses in ,berlioz's ,requiem1 just as he afterwards told ,wagner that 'a canonic answer in the second act of ,tannhauser had given him pleasure1' and remarks1 ,there was always a little touch of ,atticus in ,mendelssohn's relations to his fellow-composers4 ,in the artificial air he was condemned to breathe1 this pallor of intellectual anemia gradually became habitual4 ,as a rare plant1 kept always under glass1 withers at a breeze which would invigorate the hardy weed so he could but shiver and shrink from those winds of impartial opinion which ruder natures inhale with zest4 ,his youthful exquisiteness of taste thus grew peevish and fretful with advancing years4 ,too frequently we read of incidents like his studied coldness1 throughout a long rehearsal1 toward a favorite singer1 and his curt explanation at the end3 ,your curls provoke me1 ,frulein ,schloss4 ,wear your hair smooth2 curls ought never to be black1 but light brown or fair4 ,great1 however1 was the provocation4 ,to set yourself a pace no mortal could maintain by writing the ,midsummer ,night's ,dream ,overture at seventeen2 to marry an angelic creature who agreed with your most casual word and kissed your hand when you improvised in public2 to move among admiring friends1 relatives1 pupils1 and acquaintances as a king might move in a never ending triumphal procession2 to find all qualms you might feel from time to time as to the superiority of your work immediately drowned by the immemorial habit of passive self-acceptance2 to see other men1 with other ideals1 winning a success which your universally recognized fair-mindedness would not let you deny1--all this might bring pangs of bitterness to a saint4 ,perhaps this spiritual and professional exclusiveness1 and the isolation it resulted in1 did not really grow with the years1 but only seems more anomalous in age1 which should be mellow1 than in naturally arrogant youth4 ,certainly there were not lacking many evidences of a more wholesome development1 of a growth toward larger ideals1 of cordial services to fellow-artists4 ,true self-respect1 a very different thing from narrow conceit1 is shown in the following passage from a letter4 ,as time goes on ,i think more deeply and sincerely of that--to write only as ,i feel1 to have less regard than ever to outward results1 and when ,i have produced a piece that has flowed from my heart--whether it is afterwards to bring me fame1 honors1 orders1 or snuff-boxes1 does not concern me4 ,a fine modesty prompts the confession3 ,all ,i have done appears to me somewhat miscellaneous4444 ,i know what ought to be1 and is not4 ,and in spite of the reserve that always impeded his social efforts1 there is plenty of evidence that he put himself to much trouble to help such brother musicians as ,liszt1 ,berlioz1 and ,spohr to gain a hearing4#ai ,above all1 he was raised quite above all petty personal considerations by his whole-souled enthusiasm for the great ancient masters4 ,his efforts to educate popular taste by familiarity with classical works were as unremitting and as disinterested as ,schumann's4 ,he was the most active of all the champions of ,bach1 at that time so shamefully neglected4 ,his performance of the great ,st4 ,matthew ,passion in ,berlin1 in ,march1 #ahbi1 the first since the composer's death in the middle of the eighteenth century1 is one of the most important events in musical history2 the significance of it1 and of his other labors in behalf of ,bach propaganda1 to the entire subsequent progress of music1 and especially to the romantic movement1 of which ,bach is one of the corner-stones1 cannot be exaggerated4 ,yet1 in spite of all this1 if we compare ,mendelssohn with men like ,beethoven1 or ,schumann1 or ,tschakowsky1 in whom feeling is cordial and expression impulsive1 we cannot escape the impression of a certain thinness of blood1 straitness of sympathy1 and inelasticity of mind4 ,his personality is tenuous1 over-rarefied2 he seems more like a faun than a man4 ,and hence it comes about that when1 leaving his world of fairies1 elves1 visionary landscapes1 and ethereal joys and sorrows1 he tries to sound a fuller note of human pain and passion1 he is felt to be out of his element4 ,his style is too fluent1 too suave1 too insinuating and inoffensive1 to embody tragic emotion4 ,it lacks the rugged force1 the virile energy1 the occasional harshness and discordance even1 of the natural human voice2 its reading of life1 in which there is ugliness1 crudity1 and violence as well as beauty1 is too fastidiously expurgated4 ,which are the best of his piano works8 ,certainly not the ,songs without ,words1 with their facile melody1 their monotonous rhythms and their cloyingly consonant harmony2 nor the respectable1 harmless1 unexciting sonatas1 cut from the same stuff1 but by the yard instead of the square inch4 ,rather the ,variations ,srieuses and the ,preludes and ,fugues1 in which there is some of the vigor of ,bach1 and the elusive immaterial whimsies1 in the true ,mendelssohn vein1 such as the ,capriccio1 opus #aah1 the scherzos1 the ,spinning ,song1 the ,e-minor ,fantasie1 and the ,rondo ,capriccioso4 ,similarly1 in the chamber music1 it is the ,canzonetta of the ,e-flat quartet1 the scherzos of the trios1 and the finale of the violin concerto1 that most please us4 ,as for the symphonies1 even the noble adagio of the ,scotch is just the least bit soporific2 but the scherzo or the ,scottish jig1 and the fresh allegro vivace and stirring saltarello of the ,italian are delightful4 ,mendelssohn gay and gracious is the best of company2 ,mendelssohn sentimental makes us begin to loathe the taste of sweetness1 whereof a little more than a little is by much too much4 ,the effeminate element in his work is probably chiefly responsible for the indifference1 boredom1 or distaste with which it is nowadays so often received4 ,since his romanticism was a matter of imagination rather than of passion1 of fancy and delicate sentiment rather than of turbulent feeling1 it is inevitably voted dull by a generation given over like ours to the pursuit of thrills1 tolerant of any turgidity that can excite1 and preferring intensity to clarity of emotion4 ,he represents a mild1 tentative1 and restrained application of artistic principles that have been much more brilliantly and thoroughly illustrated by bolder spirits like ,schumann1 ,chopin1 and ,liszt1 who have accordingly somewhat eclipsed him4 ,his conservatism also made him retain many of the traditional formul and mannerisms of classicism1 which have become repugnant to our less conventional age4 ,the result is that it has become almost a fashion to sneer or to smile at his music4 ,but it is conceivable that we err in one direction as much as his contemporaries did in the other4 ,it may be that we call his art stale and vapid merely because our palates are jaded by over-indulgence in spices and condiments4 ,mendelssohn is undeniably1 for the present1 among the fallen gods2 but whether a maturer and less sophisticated taste than our own may some day set him up again is a question we must be content to leave unanswered4 ,,footnotes3 #ad ,see ,s4 ,hensel's ,the ,mendelssohn ,family1 from ,letters and ,journals1 a fascinating book4 ,english translation published in ,london1 #ahha4 #ae ,mendelssohn1 by ,s4 ,s4 ,stratton1 p4 #dj4 #af ,compare what is said of ,chopin at page #bca4 #ag ,the ,mendelssohn ,family1 p4 #aca4 #ah ,compare the remarks on ,schumann's scoring1 at page #aci4 #ai ,see the story of the banquet he tendered to ,liszt in ,leipsic1 in ,lampadius' ,life1 p4 #afg4 ,v ,,fr,d,,ric ,,chopin ,illustration3 ,,fr,d,,ric ,,chopin ,v ,,fr,d,,ric ,,chopin ,critics of literature and painting have succeeded in disseminating pretty widely the idea that the style of each artistic species is determined largely by the technical conditions under which it develops4 ,we all know that one style is appropriate to engraving1 another to oil-painting1 and still another to pastel work2 we recognize that the prose-writer and the versifier must use different vocabularies4 ,musical critics1 however1 whether from ignorance or from a disposition to involve their subject in an impenetrable haze of sentiment1 have for the most part left us undisturbed to the enjoyment of our primitive notion that music1 as a product of pure inspiration1 remains unmodified by such practical considerations as what voices can best sing1 or instruments best play4 ,we have to reach largely without their aid the conclusion that1 in music quite as much as in literature or painting1 the kind of body available to a composition determines in no small degree the sort of spirit which is to inhabit it4 ,the style of ,palestrina1 for example1 the greatest master of the sixteenth century1 bears the unmistakable stamp of the medium which at that time was firmly entrenched by tradition--the ecclesiastical choir of mixed voices4 ,his polyphonic texture came in obedience to the necessity of making many melodies1 simultaneous and intertwined1 for the various groups of singers2 the movement and range of his melodies were restricted by the rather narrow capacities of the human voice2 his harmony1 in the interests of accurate intonation1 had to be kept simple and transparent4 ,when1 somewhat later1 the organ came into vogue1 it suggested certain modifications of style1 splendidly realized by ,j4 ,s4 ,bach4 ,the natural capacities of the hands on the keyboard tended to focus attention quite as much on the chord as on the separate strands of melody1 and the massive effects of chord-patterns began to vie in importance with the more polyphonic traits4 ,at the same time harmony was free to become much more complex1 since pipes cannot sing out of tune1 and the mechanically even tone1 free from the vibrato and incapable of the accentuation of voices1 made feasible a grand impersonality of style1 felt at its maximum in ,bach's fugues4 ,a little later still the orchestra became the dominating medium1 and ,beethoven1 ignoring altogether the ecclesiastical tradition1 founded his work on the secular dance and song1 immemorially associated with bowed and wind instruments4 ,melody became lyrical rather than contrapuntal1 the exact balance of phrase by phrase instead of the imitation of motive by motive grew to be the chief means of coherence1 and a systematic extension of this balance resulted in the sonata-form4 ,at the same time the marvelous expressive power of the bowed instruments was nobly utilized3 on the emotional side music became more than ever before profound1 impassioned1 mystical1 and poignant4 ,as ,palestrina1 ,bach1 and ,beethoven reflect in their musical individualities the technique of the chorus1 the organ1 and the orchestra1 so ,chopin is in large measure a resultant of the peculiar qualities of the most influential of modern instruments1 the pianoforte4 ,this instrument had already assumed an important rle during the life of ,beethoven1 and by the time of ,schubert and ,schumann it had made its influence deeply felt2 but in no composer before ,chopin do we find so delicate a divination of its capacities1 so thorough a mastery of its mechanism1 so willing an acquiescence in its limitations1 so single-minded a formation of style upon the peculiar dialect it speaks in the language of music4 ,of none of his predecessors can it be said1 as it can of him1 that had the voice1 the organ1 and the orchestra not existed1 his art would still have been essentially what it was4 ,indeed1 his work is the offspring of so perfect a marriage between the artistic impulses of a sensitive human organism and the peculiar potentialities of a special instrument that it can be properly understood only through a study of both4 ,the most serious defect of the piano is its inability to sustain its tones4 ,the tones of the voice and of wind instruments are limited in duration only by the air capacity of the lungs1 those of bowed string instruments can be held indefinitely1 and an organ pipe will sound as long as the air pressure is maintained in the bellows4 ,the vibrations of a piano string1 on the contrary1 are at their maximum only during the moment in which it is struck by the hammer operated by pressing the key1 and from that moment gradually decrease1 giving forth a sound constantly fainter and fainter4 ,once the key is struck1 the player's control over the mechanism ceases1 and he has no choice but either to wait passively for silence or to strike another key4 ,for this reason the broad1 poising melodies and the slow-moving1 deliberate harmonies of the choral and organ schools are ineffective on the piano4 ,the long notes1 fading momently away1 fail1 because of the insufficiency of their physical embodiment1 to receive their due share of attention1 and so lose their musical value4 ,still more do purely polyphonic passages1 which depend for their effect on the leisurely succession of dissonances and their resolutions1 subtly interlinked1 suffer from the discontinuity of the piano tone4 ,the indifference1 or even insensibility1 to the beauty of pure line1 which characterizes so much of our modern musical taste1 is probably in large measure due to the prevalence of an instrument so little suited to exhibit it4#bj ,at a very early period after the piano came into common use1 musicians began to recognize the necessity of minimizing its characteristic defect by modifying their manner of writing4 ,they soon discovered that if the tones would not sustain themselves1 they must be struck over and over again as rapidly as possible3 repetition must counteract evanescence4 ,an early application of this principle is the use1 by ,bach and other clavichordists1 of trills1 mordants1 and other ornaments as a means of keeping long melody-notes audible4 ,a more important one is the breaking up of chords into figures of short notes in the accompaniments of ,haydn and ,mozart1 a device which soon became so indispensable that a glance at any modern piano score will discover hundreds of such groups of short notes1 which are nothing but chords played piecemeal in order to make them sound4 ,illustration3 score 7a7 ,,mozart3 ,piano ,sonata1 ,a-major4 ,illustration3 score 7b7 ,,beethoven3 ,piano ,sonata1 ,op4 #b1 ,no4 #a4 ,illustration3 score 7c7 ,,schubert3 ,fantasia1 ,op4 #ae4 ,illustration3 score 7d7 ,,chopin3 ,nocturne1 ,op4 #ec1 ,no4 #b4 ,figure ,,xv4 ,a melody in the right hand1 accompanied by these broken chords in the left--this soon became the normal texture of music intended for the piano4 ,the first great merit of ,chopin was that he carried to its logical extreme this system of counteracting the piano's defective sonority4 ,the great advance made by him is shown even in the brief quotations of ,figure ,,xv4 ,the ,mozart example is rudimentary--the device at its lowest terms4 ,in the ,beethoven passage the chords are placed too low2 they sound muddy1 opaque1 inelastic4 ,in the ,schubert passage the sonority is better1 but the figures are so arranged as to be very difficult to play1 on account of the wide jump the hand has to make at the middle of each measure4 ,chopin1 on the other hand1 avoids muddiness by clustering his harmony fairly high 7about the region of middle ,c71 at the same time gets a sufficient bass for his chords1 which he is able to do by covering a great deal of ground in each figure1 and in spite of the wide space traversed on the keyboard respects the comfort of the player by not requiring any sudden leaps4 ,it is furthermore worthy of note that by introducing two tones foreign to the harmony 7the fourth and the sixteenth7 he gains a richness of sound lacking in the other examples4 ,we get here1 however1 but the merest inkling of the inexhaustible ingenuity with which he manages this matter of figuration1 or the ornamental disintegration of chords4 ,in order really to appreciate it we should have to examine those nocturnes1 say1 like the second1 third1 seventh1 and eighth1 in which with the left hand unaided he supplies a good firm bass and an intricate texture of accompaniment2 we should have to study those pieces1 such as the first1 fifth1 and eighth of the tudes1 opus #aj1 and the ,prelude1 opus #bh1 no4 #bc1 in which it is the right hand that1 racing back and forth over the keyboard1 fills in the chinks of the harmony as a painter stipples an even tint with an infinite number of tiny brush-strokes2 we should have to analyze in detail such a masterpiece as the tude in ,a-flat major1 opus #be1 no4 #a1 in which it is both hands that weave together a diaphanous web of sound1 while the outer fingers of one sing the tune1 and those of the other the bass4#ba ,chopin's negative merit of minimizing the disadvantages of his instrument is1 however1 very intimately connected with a more positive skill in utilizing its peculiar advantages1 in order to understand which we shall have to revert for a moment to our examination of the mechanism of the piano4 ,the most characteristic feature of this mechanism--a feature so vital that it has been called the soul of the piano1 and so unique that no other instrument except the harp presents a parallel to it--is the damper pedal1 generally known by the inaccurate and misleading name of the loud pedal4 ,its function is to raise all the dampers which control the vibrations of the strings1 leaving them free to respond to any impulse they may receive4 ,it thus secures two important results4 ,in the first place1 it counteracts the non-sustainment of single tones by fusing a great many such individual tones1 separately produced1 into one impression4 ,it will readily be seen1 for instance1 how indispensable is the pedal to the intended effect of the broken chords of ,figure ,,xv3 only through its coperation do they become worthy equivalents1 in the piano idiom1 of what the organ or voices would present in the form of sustained chords in long notes4 ,moreover1 every tone sounded on the piano1 with the pedal down1 is reinforced1 through what is known as sympathetic vibration1 by many other tones not sounded by the hands at all4 ,for1 since every tone produced by a piano string is in reality1 as proved by scientific analysis1 by no means simple1 but a complex of many elements known as partial tones1 and since any elastic body capable of producing a given tone will actually produce it1 through sympathetic vibration1 whenever the tone is already being otherwise sounded in its vicinity1 it will readily be understood that all the partial tones set going by striking a piano key will1 if the dampers are1 by means of the pedal1 kept from interfering1 start into activity whatever strings are tuned to their respective pitches4 ,thus the pedal turns the entire body of strings into one vast olian harp1 ready to take up1 recho1 and multiply the slightest breath of sound produced through the keyboard4 ,some idea of the extraordinary enrichment of timbre or tone-quality which accrues to the piano through the sympathetic vibration made possible by the pedal may be gained by striking a single key1 say middle ,c1 first without1 then with1 the pedal4 ,the first tone stands out hard and angular1 like a leafless tree in a desert2 the second is liquid1 murmurous1 palpitant1 its outlines softened as a landscape is softened by a misty atmosphere4 ,when a chord rather than a single key is struck1 the effect is1 of course1 multiplied in direct proportion to the number of its constituent tones4 ,the hard nucleus of the impression is clothed in a soft web of subordinate sounds1 the result of sympathetic vibration4 ,suppose1 for example1 we play the chord of four whole notes in ,figure ,,xvi4 ,if at the same time we free the strings by pressing the pedal1 we shall summon from them an attendant train of ghostly harmonics for each of the four1 represented in the figure by quarter-notes4 ,these auxiliary tones1 to be sure1 will be exceedingly faint and individually indistinguishable1 but they will nevertheless give to the impression that curious mellowness1 depth1 or liquidity 7one calls vainly on the divers experiences of other senses to describe it7 which is one of the fundamental charms of the piano tone4 ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,xvi4 ,the second important result of the damper pedal is a still greater richness of tone which it enables composers to attain by artificially pushing still farther the fusion of many single tones which is illustrated on the plane of nature by the foregoing examples4 ,the student of harmony will observe that though most of the harmonics1 written in quarter-notes1 of ,figure ,,xvi1 are consonant to the fundamental chord1 and thus enrich without obscuring it1 there are several1 notably the ,g-sharp1 which1 being foreign to the chord1 tend slightly to blur its clarity4 ,these dissonant harmonics are1 however1 so faint that their effect is practically nil4 ,but if the composer1 acting on the hint they give him1 introduces into his chords similar foreign tones1 sounded more distinctly by the hands1 he at once imparts to the harmony a curious opacity and thickness which it is almost impossible to describe1 but which affords a pleasant contrast to the uniform clearness of purely consonant chords4 ,the fourth and the sixteenth notes in the bit of ,chopin already cited 7,figure ,,xv7 illustrate this device4 ,the effect of such dissonant tones may be likened to the effect of mixtures and body-colors in painting2 they afford relief from the monotony of consonance just as those afford relief from the monotony of the pure colors4 ,they provide the musical picture with chiaroscuro and atmosphere1 softening the sharpness of its lines1 spreading over it1 so to speak1 a delicate translucent haze4 ,used to excess1 of course1 they make a mere smutch1 a meaningless1 chaotic daub2 the music reverts to primitive noise2 the nice point is to use them just enough to gain depth1 solidity1 light and shade1 without blackening and confusing the whole impression4#bb ,now ,chopin is one of the supreme masters in the coloristic use of the dissonance4 ,his nocturnes1 especially the first1 seventh1 eighth1 and fourteenth1 may fairly be said to inaugurate by this means a new era in music1 comparable in many respects to the era of impressionism in painting4 ,their tremulous1 vaporous harmonies seem to come from no common piano1 but from some wind-swept olian harp4 ,take1 for instance1 such a passage as the following1 at the end of the third nocturne3-- ,illustration3 score ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,xvii4 ,here it is as if1 after placing on his canvas the two main chords of the cadence1 dominant and tonic1 he took1 while the colors were still wet1 a brush1 and with the softest imaginable touch drew it across the entire face of the picture4 ,the grace-notes1 most of which1 it will be noted1 are dissonant to the main harmony1 are no more meant to be heard individually than the spots of paint in a ,monet are meant to be seen individually2 they are a running of the colors1 blurring the otherwise too bald outline4 ,chopin's scores are full of these delicate veilings and obscurations4 ,in a majority of cases they are produced1 as in this instance1 by the right hand1 above a clear harmony in the lower register4 ,but sometimes1 more daringly1#bc he assigns the web of dissonance to the left hand1 in the middle register or even in the bass1 thus gaining an extraordinary lurid gorgeousness of coloring4 ,the passage in the third ballade1 beginning at the change of signature to four sharps 7,figure ,,xviii71 is an instance4 ,illustration3 score ,and later ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,xviii4 ,or again1 as in the ,meno mosso of the ,scherzo1 opus #ci1 both hands first deliver bold1 clear chords1 and then weave a shimmer of light above them4 ,in all such cases1 it is obvious that the dissonances in question do not belong to the essential melodic and harmonic lines of the composition2 they are1 as ,mr4 ,hadow says1 effects of superficies1 not effects of substance1 and may be compared to those local blurs made by a draughtsman's stump in a charcoal sketch1 or1 as before suggested1 to those surprisingly rich mixed tints produced in impressionistic paintings by a multitude of minute brush-strokes4 ,the at first sight very elaborate modulations of ,chopin which have provoked so much discussion are but a further application of the same principle4 ,they are really not modulations at all1 in the classic sense of transitions from one key to another having a structural value1 but rather amplifications of the groups of grace-notes that constantly embroider the tunes4 ,their function is sensuous rather than structural1 and we might describe them by coining the word grace-chords4 ,of the twelfth measure of the second nocturne1 for example1 ,mr4 ,hadow well says that when we see it on paper it seems to consist of a rapid series of remote and recondite modulations1 but when we hear it played 444 we feel that there is only one real modulation1 and that the rest of the passage is an iridescent play of color4 ,another striking instance is the following measure in the ,polonaise-,fantaisie1 a composition in which effects of this sort abound4 ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,xix4 ,the pedantic scholiast would say that the composer here modulated1 with startling speed1 through the keys of ,b-flat1 ,c1 ,d1 and ,a-minor2 but all that the mind grasps is the two chords at the beginnings of the measures1 connected by a gorgeous pageant of inarticulate sound4 ,the sketch is being rubbed with the draughtsman's stump again1 this time with even finer temerity and more splendid result than before4 ,it is a lesson in the meaning of that much-abused word originality to observe that ,chopin arrived at all these novel effects1 which differentiate his style so strikingly from those of the conservatives and the virtuosos of his day1 simply by discerning through a superior sensitiveness1 and working out with a matchless skill1 the peculiar potentialities of the medium at his hand4 ,realizing as no one else had done that the piano compensates for its inability to bring out the beauties of pure line 7due to the non-sustainment of single tones71 by the wealth of color made available through the pedal's fusion of many tones1 both consonant and dissonant1 in one composite impression1 he shrewdly arranged his campaign accordingly4 ,he adjusted all his technical resources1 both as a composer and as a pianist1 in the interests of the greatest possible transfusion and intermixture of impressions4 ,this is the secret of his harmonic scheme1 so chromatic and full of dissonance2 of his lavish melodic embroidery2 of his tempo rubato1 by which the outline of meter itself1 so arithmetical and inexorable1 is gently relaxed2 of his curious soft1 light touch1 which seemed to glide over rather than strike the keys--so insinuating and gossamer a touch1 says an ear-witness1 that the crudest and most chromatic harmonies floated away under his hand1 indistinct yet not unpleasing2 and this is the secret of his lavish use of the damper pedal1 equalled1 among his contemporaries1 only by that of ,schumann4#bd ,the unprecedented individuality of the style he thus developed profoundly impressed all observers4 ,in the marvellous art of carrying and modulating the tone1 in the expressive1 melancholy manner of shading it off1 says ,marmontel in his ,pianistes ,clbres1 ,chopin was entirely himself4 ,he had quite an individual way of attacking the keyboard1 a supple1 mellow touch1 sonorous effects of a vaporous fluidity of which only he knew the secret4 ,imagine1 writes ,schumann in the ,new ,journal of ,music1 an olian harp that had all the scales1 and that these were jumbled together by the hand of an artist into all sorts of fantastic ornaments1 but in such a manner that a deeper fundamental tone and a softly singing higher part were always audible1 and you have an approximate idea of his playing4 ,liszt's testimony is that he imprinted on all his pieces one knows not what nameless color1 what vague appearance1 what pulsations akin to vibration1 and that his modulations were velvety and iridescent as the robe of a salamander4 ,nor do the scholastic musicians of the time fail to pay this pioneer the eloquent tribute of misunderstanding him4 ,moscheles1 a man of the old rgime1 writes1 after hearing him play1 ,the harsh modulations which strike me disagreeably when ,i am playing his compositions no longer shock me1 because he glides over them in a fairylike way with his delicate fingers4 ,this comment is most significant4 ,moscheles found ,chopin's modulations harsh because he played them with the punctilious accuracy1 the absolute literalness1 which is appropriate to the music of line1 but not to the music of color4 ,in rendering a ,bach fugue we cannot get each tone too distinct1 since it is sure to be a part of some melody1 a clear perception of which is necessary to our appreciation of the design4 ,but ,chopin's polyphony is not ,bach's polyphony1 as is illustrated by the former's ,prelude1 opus #bh1 no4 #a4 ,both the right- and the left-hand parts here are melodic2 but if both are played with an equally salient touch1 the conflicts between the voices become unpleasant4 ,the proper way is to let the lower part sink into the background1 giving merely a certain depth and opacity to the general impression2 the two melodies are as it were on different planes1 the lower one more remote and heard but dimly as through a slight haze4 ,so it is everywhere in ,chopin4 ,to play him too distinctly is as fatal an error as to examine a charcoal sketch with a magnifying glass1 or to bend over a canvas of ,monet and peer curiously at each spot of paint4 ,one must stand off1 and half close one's eyes1 until the details are lost in the masses4 ,in a word1 here is a new type of art1 demanding a new mode of apperception4 ,if a ,bach fugue and a ,mozart quartet are the steel engravings of music1 ,chopin's pieces are its impressionistic paintings and pastels4 ,but it is time to pass to some other phases of the extraordinary sensibility and unerring taste of ,chopin1 thus evidenced by his originality in technique1 as they showed themselves in his everyday life and in the more intellectual aspects of his art4 ,the chief events of his short career may be very summarily recounted4 ,born in ,zelazowa-,wola1 a small village in ,poland1 in #ahji1 he studied music in ,warsaw1 and at twenty-two established himself as a pianist and teacher in ,paris1 where he passed most of his life4 ,in #ahcg ill health1 which soon developed into the pulmonary disease of which he died1 compelled him to seek a warmer climate1 and he passed the winter in the island of ,majorca with ,george ,sand1 the eminent novelist1 and her children4 ,thus began a connection which lasted for ten years1 and which has given rise to endless discussion4 ,the true inner history of this love-affair will probably never be known1 as the evidence is fragmentary and distorted by prejudice4 ,it is obvious1 however1 that neither the composer nor the novelist 7whose real name was ,madame ,dudevant1 but who had obtained a divorce from her husband before she met ,chopin7 was sufficiently unselfish to sustain permanently such a relation2 nor were their temperaments fundamentally congenial4 ,they separated in #ahdg4 ,by this time ,chopin's consumption was far advanced1 and after two more years of extreme feebleness1 complicated by poverty1 he died at ,paris1 ,october #ag1 #ahdi4 ,in physique ,chopin was slender and of middle height1 fragile even before disease had wasted him1 but supple and elastic2 his hands and feet were small1 his gestures varied and full of grace2 with his pale1 almost sallow1 complexion1 his long1 fine1 chestnut-brown hair1 parted at one side1 his high aquiline nose1 limpid yet bright eyes1 and sweet half-melancholy smile1 he impressed ,moscheles as exactly like his music1 tender and schwrmerisch4#be ,liszt says that the timbre of his voice was subdued1 and that his movements had such a distinction and his manners such an impress of good society that one treated him unconsciously like a prince4 ,in the matter of dress he was as fussy as a woman1 sparing no pains 7to the friends who served him in these affairs7 to secure just the distinguished mean between the insignificant and the ostentatious4 ,i forgot1 he writes from ,nohant1 ,george ,sand's country estate1 to his friend ,fontana1 to ask you to order for me a hat from my ,duport1 in your street1 ,chausse d',antin4 ,let him give the hat of this year's shape1 not too much exaggerated1 for ,i do not know how you are dressing yourself just now4444 ,call at my tailor's1 on the ,boulevards1 and order him to make me at once a pair of gray trousers--something respectable1 not striped1 but plain and elastic4 ,also a quiet black velvet waistcoat1 but with very little and no loud pattern1 something very quiet but very elegant4 ,should he not have the best velvet of this kind1 let him make a quiet1 fine silk waistcoat1 but not too much open4 ,another letter of the same time amply proves the truth of his biographer's statement that he had the coquetterie des appartements4 ,select wall-paper1 he directs1 such as ,i had formerly1 dove-color1 only bright and glossy1 for the two rooms1 also dark green with not too broad stripes4 ,for the anteroom something else1 but still respectable4 ,if there are any nicer and more fashionable papers that are to your liking1 take them4 ,i prefer the plain1 unpretending1 and neat ones to the shopkeeper's staring colors4 ,therefore pearl-color pleases me1 for it is neither too loud nor does it look vulgar4 ,in his later years1 as health waned1 the habit of luxury grew upon him4 ,near the end1 just before leaving ,london for home1 he writes another of his willing servitors1 this time his friend ,grzymala3 ,please see that the sheets and pillows are quite dry1 and cause fir-nuts to be bought2 ,madame tienne is not to spare anything1 so that ,i may warm myself when ,i arrive4 ,i have written to ,d---- that he is to provide carpets and curtains4 ,i shall pay the paper-hanger at once after my arrival4 ,tell ,pleyel to send me a piano on ,thursday2 let it be closed and a nosegay of violets be bought1 so that there may be a nice fragrance in the salon4 ,i should like to find a little poesy in my rooms and in my bedroom1 where in all probability ,i shall lie down for a long time4 ,the same fastidiousness is discernible in his musical and intellectual tastes4 ,liszt says that he ranked ,mozart above all other masters1 because ,mozart condescended more rarely than any other composer to cross the steps which separate refinement from vulgarity4 ,yet1 adds ,liszt1 his sybaritism of purity1 his apprehension of what was commonplace1 were such that even in ',don ,giovanni' he discovered passages the presence of which we have heard him regret4 ,next to ,mozart came ,bach1 whose works were the only music he carried with him to ,majorca1 and whose exquisitely lucid style exercised an important formative influence on his own4 ,his pupil ,mikuli says it was difficult to tell which of the two composers he loved better4 ,beethoven he accepted only with reservations4 ,certain parts of ,beethoven's works1 says ,liszt1 seemed to him too rudely fashioned4 ,their structure was too athletic to please him2 their wraths seemed to him too violent4 ,mendelssohn he considered common2 of ,schumann's ,carnaval he remarked that it was not music2 ,meyerbeer and ,berlioz he heartily disliked1 though for different reasons2 ,liszt1 according to ,niecks1 he often found guilty of making concessions to bad taste for the sake of success1 a sin which he viewed with the greatest indignation4 ,on the other hand1 he liked the music of ,bellini and ,rossini1 on account of its southern suavity and grace4 ,chopin took slight interest in philosophy and literature1 and detested argument1 whether political or religious4 ,of universality says ,niecks1 there was not a trace in him2 and the composer ,stephen ,heller1 himself a man of marked cultivation1 pronounced him uneducated4 ,what little we do learn of his reading1 however1 is most characteristic4 ,his friend ,gavard1 who read to him1 in his last illness1 out of ,voltaire's ,dictionnaire ,philosophique1 remarks3 ,he valued very highly the finished form of that clear and concise language1 and that so sure judgment on questions of taste4 ,thus1 for instance1 ,i remember that the article on taste was one of the last ,i read to him4 ,the graphologist will supplement these bits of evidence with the testimony of his handwriting1 inimitably neat and small4 ,his manuscripts are marvels of penmanship3 the notes like pin-points1 the slurs mere filaments of spider's web1 the stems painstakingly vertical1 even the erasures ornamental latticework1 so that the whole is as much a drawing as a writing4 ,the least pleasing of all the manifestations of ,chopin's exquisiteness is seen in his social habits4 ,here his refinement1 his shrinking aversion to all that was crude1 ugly1 or grotesque1 his sybaritic love of ease and elegance1 made of him an ultra-aristocrat1 a prcieux1--one is often tempted to say1 in good round ,english1 a snob4 ,dazzled by the brilliance and poisoned by the perfume of those salons to which his talent gave him access1 his taste1 so unerring in matters of art1 failed to distinguish between the genuine aristocracy of mind and the spurious aristocracy of wealth and fashion4 ,it is at once pathetic and exasperating to see such a genius1 of whom an honest1 simple man like ,delacroix could say1 he was the most true artist ,i have met1 anxiously striving to be borne aloft by that haute vole which was so immeasurably beneath him1 limiting his society to that small section of humankind which proudly styled itself le monde1 and dedicating his leisure and his compositions1 not to brother artists1 but to the baronesses1 countesses1 and princesses who gave him their half-patronizing homage4#bf ,in his letters one too frequently comes upon passages like this1 from ,vienna3 ,i have pleased the nobility here exceedingly4 ,as a proof ,i may mention the visit which ,count ,dietrichstein paid me on the stage1 or this from ,paris1 on his first arrival3 ,i move in the highest society--among ambassadors1 princes1 and ministers4 ,there is in the ,lettres ,parisiennes of ,madame de ,girardin a description of a soire at ,madame de ,courbonne's1 which brings this whole nauseous atmosphere with painful vividness under our very nostrils4 ,it was for passionate admirers1 writes ,madame de ,girardin1 the torment of ,tantalus to see ,chopin going about a whole evening in a salon1 and not to hear him4 ,the mistress of the house took pity on us2 she was indiscreet1 and ,chopin played1 sang his most delicious songs2 we set to these joyous or sad airs the words which came into our heads2 we followed with our thoughts his melodious caprices4 ,there were some twenty of us1 sincere amateurs1 true believers1 and not a note was lost1 not an intention was misunderstood2 it was not a concert1 it was intimate1 serious music such as we love2 he was not a virtuoso who comes and plays the air agreed up and then disappears2 he was a beautiful talent1 monopolized1 worried1 tormented1 without consideration and scruples1 whom one dared to ask for the most beloved airs4444 ,madame ,so-and-so said1 ',please1 play this pretty nocturne dedicated to ,mdlle4 ,stirling4'--,the nocturne which ,i called the dangerous one4--,he smiled1 and played the fatal nocturne4 ',i1' said another lady1 'should like to hear once played by you this mazurka1 so sad and so charming4' ,he smiled again1 and played the delicious mazurka4 ,the most profoundly artful among the ladies sought expedients to attain their ends3 ',i am practising the grand sonata which commences sic with this beautiful funeral march1' and ',i should like to know the movement in which the finale ought to be played4' ,he smiled a little at the stratagem1 and played the finale of the grand sonata4 ,decidedly1 there is too sickly a flavor of the boudoir about the salons in which this beautiful talent 444 whom one dared to ask for the most beloved airs deigned to spend his time4 ,we cannot wonder that in such a hothouse atmosphere the ugly weeds of his character throve almost as well as the delicate flowers1 that under such long-continued coddling he grew vain1 captious1 pettily egotistical4 ,it is distressing to note how much he is willing to ask of his friends ,fontana and ,grzymala1 in the way of laborious and disagreeable commissions--errands to tailors1 landlords1 paper-hangers1 and furniture-makers1 and bickerings with publishers--and how he is content to repay them with a few perfunctory protestations of regard1 nicely proportioned1 in each case1 to the magnitude of the favor exacted4 ,nor does he hesitate to speak slightingly1 behind their backs1 of such associates as ,pleyel the publisher1 ,leo the banker1 and even his fellow-countryman ,matuszynski1 at the same time that he is addressing them directly in the most cordial and even affectionate language4 ,in short1 it is impossible to deny that he was exacting1 ungenerous1 and disingenuous in his relations with comrades and friends4 ,in the more casual relations the same shortcomings revealed themselves in a malicious wit which was quite devoid of the magnanimity and exuberance of humor4 ,his description of ,thalberg1 his rival as a virtuoso1 is a little masterpiece of irony3 ,he is younger than ,i1 pleases the ladies very much1 makes potpourris on ',masaniello1' plays the forte and piano with the pedal but not with the hand1 takes tenths as easily as ,i do octaves1 and wears studs with diamonds4 ,when ,liszt1 who in the consciousness of his splendor was inclined to patronize1 volunteered to write a review of one of his concerts1 he said1 ,he will give me a little kingdom in his empire4 ,to a wealthy ,philistine who invited him to dinner1 and as soon as the coffee was removed requested him to play1 he responded sweetly1 ,ah1 but ,i have eaten so little6 ,obviously ,liszt is right in describing him as a fine connoisseur in raillery and an ingenious mocker4 ,but just as the sneer is physiologically the incipient uncovering of the teeth1 in self-defence1 of the animal at bay1 so ,chopin's sarcasms are the retaliations of a man constantly harassed1 upon a dull and cruel world4 ,he had to resort to innuendo because he was too fragile for rougher warfare4 ,the needles of his wit had to be sharply pointed and dipped in venom1 to make any impression on people accustomed to fight with sledge-hammers4 ,all his weaknesses of character1 indeed1--his malice1 his extreme caution1 his secretiveness1 his vanity1 even his snobbishness1--are in large measure but the necessary reflexes of inherent weaknesses of constitution1 and may be explained1 if not altogether condoned1 as the normal reactions of a too sensitive nature1 placed without protection in a sordid1 difficult1 phlegmatic world4 ,never1 surely1 was human being more delicately adjusted than ,chopin to receive painful impressions at every point4 ,his senses were so keen that as a child he cried at the mere sound of music2 disease made him shrink from minute changes of temperature or slightly unfavorable conditions of weather1 of which ordinary people are unconscious2 imperious pride made him similarly susceptible to his social climate2 and his high artistic ideal condemned him to constant disappointment even with his work4 ,peculiarly pathetic is the story of the last year of his life1 when1 unable to compose or to teach1 almost penniless1 and so weak that he had to be carried upstairs by his valet1 he undertook an ill-fated concert tour in ,scotland and ,england4 ,it was a sad jest of destiny to bring this subtle artist1 dying of consumption1 into contact with a ,manchester audience1 in a large hall which his tone could not fill4 ,he begged his friend ,osborne not to be present--,my playing will be lost in such a large room1 and my compositions will be ineffective4 ,hueffer describes a similar scene in ,london1 a ,grand ,polish ,ball1 at which the people1 hot from dancing1 who went into the room where he played1 were but little in the humor to pay attention1 and anxious to return to their amusement4 ,he was in the last stage of exhaustion1 and the affair resulted in disappointment4 ,it was an excusable bitterness with which1 on the way back to ,paris1 pointing at the cattle by the wayside1 he murmured a a plus d'intelligence que les ,anglais4 ,but1 alas6 to a temperament1 like his1 too delicately strung1 the whole world1 always and everywhere1 is somewhat ,british4 ,the single1 but perhaps sufficing1 good fortune in ,chopin's in many ways unhappy lot was that he was able to find a refuge from the irritations1 failures1 and disappointments of everyday existence in artistic expression4 ,however stubborn an aspect life presented to him1 in art at least he was successful4 ,the great law of compensation never wrought more subtly than when it made the very qualities which defeated him in the one realm the sources of his joyful conquest in the other4 ,the keenness of sense which found in the hurly-burly of the world so many painful impressions1 also discovered1 as we have seen1 wonderful new possibilities of tonal coloring in pianoforte music4 ,the minute discrimination which made him unpleasantly conscious of all that was vulgar1 crude1 and ugly in human nature1 also enabled him to winnow out unerringly1 from his musical resources1 all trite formul1 all hackneyed conventional progressions1 all threadbare adornments1 and so to attain a marvellous individuality and distinction of style4 ,the very exclusiveness which condemned the man to solitude1 safeguarded the artist against dissipation of energy and futile eclecticisms of method4 ,finally1 his ideal of perfection1 a cruel autocrat to serve in a world so imperfect1 proved the best of guides in the less refractory medium of art1 and led him near to the verge of complete realization4 ,in a word1 the paradox of ,chopin is that his fastidious taste--the radical1 fundamental trait of his nature--plunges him1 as a human being1 into a jungle of distresses1 but guides him1 as a musician1 to a mountain-top of commanding superiority4 ,the unfailing interest of the analysis of his music lies in the recognition1 at every turn1 of this fineness of nature1 this mental and spiritual high-breeding1 this exquisitely sensitive taste1 and in the detection of the various kinds of excellence it produces4 ,one easily traces it through several planes of achievement1 in an ascending series4 ,on the first and lowest plane it appears merely as an inimitable finesse in the execution of light1 playful1 and even frivolous designs3 no one has brought so delicate and yet firm a touch1 and so sure an instinct for dainty elegance of style1 to the treatment of the salon-piece 7a genre for which we find perhaps the best parallel in the paintings of ,watteau or the verses of ,mr4 ,austin ,dobson7 as the ,chopin of the waltzes1 the mazurkas1 many of the tudes and preludes1 and even of the more old-fashioned concert fantasias and variations brillantes4 ,weber is as polished1 but less subtle2 ,schubert is as spontaneous1 but by no means so distinguished4 ,schumann exerts the same fascination1 but with less ingratiation1 less politesse2 ,liszt's musical garment is equally sparkling1 but it is gemmed with rubies rather than with diamonds4 ,the technical sources of ,chopin's success in this genre are his graceful1 smoothly-moulded melodies1 frequently recalling those of ,bellini and other ,italians1 with whom he had much in common2 his simple1 transparent harmonies1 built up always with an unfailing sense of tone-color2 and his lambent1 coruscating ornamentation1 which always seems to effloresce spontaneously from the melody4 ,in all these matters he is the supreme model of purity and felicity in this style4 ,but the same punctilious taste which guided him so safely among the pitfalls of virtuosity and bravura soon led him beyond this entire scheme of art1 which is1 after all1 based on the somewhat frivolous ideal of ostentation1 up to the higher level of lyrical expression1 based on quiet and deep personal feeling4 ,the virtuoso was transformed into the poet4 ,in the nocturnes1 some of the tudes and preludes1 portions even of the ballades and polonaises1 and most strikingly of all in the slow movements of the concertos and sonatas1 his object is no longer to dazzle his audience1 but to portray subjective emotion1 often of a profound earnestness and spiritual beauty4 ,if in his early pieces he was the prestidigitator1 the brother-in-art of ,thalberg and ,liszt1 here he is the dreamer1 the rhapsodist1 and his nearest of kin is ,robert ,schumann4 ,the largo of the ,b-minor ,sonata is ,schumannesque in its contemplativeness1 its innigkeit1 its marked note of mysticism2 the funeral march in the ,b-flat minor ,sonata equals that of the great quintet in poignancy and dignity1 though it is a feminine version of what in the ,german composer we find expressed with more virile force4 ,in the nocturnes the feminine quality is even more evident4 ,their tender beauty has a pallor1 a fragility1 almost an emaciation1 which has often brought upon them the charge of morbidity4 ,it is certain that in the pieces of this type ,chopin has carried his fastidiousness a stage farther than in the display pieces1 attaining an even greater distinction and a rarer individuality4 ,the nocturnes and preludes1 the larghettos of the two concertos1 the largo of the ,sonata in ,b-minor1 and a few other things of the same sort constitute one of the few perfect manifestations of the romantic spirit in music4 ,there is still a third phase of ,chopin's work1 which some will probably consider as much higher than the lyrical phase as that is higher than the decorative4 ,this may be called the heroic or epic phase1 and is exemplified in the polonaises1 the ballades1 the ,fantaisie1 opus #di1 the twelfth tude1 the thirteenth nocturne1 and the finale of the ,sonata in ,b-minor4#bg ,a study of these works will open the eyes of any one who knows ,chopin only through his virtuoso or lyrical pieces to the scope and many-sidedness of his genius4 ,there is about them a largeness of utterance1 a sustainment of mood1 an intensity of emotion hardly ever degenerating into the hysterical or the sentimental1 which it is strange to find in the graceful salon writer1 the delicate miniaturist4 ,yet this final quality1 too1 by which ,chopin proves himself akin to ,beethoven as well as to ,thalberg and ,schumann 7an oddly assorted trio71 is1 like the others1 due to his characteristic fineness of nature4 ,it is the heroism of high breeding1 the vigor of intelligence1 the dignity of impeccable taste4 ,it bespeaks a strength rather subtle than brutal--the strength of the mettlesome thoroughbred1 not that of the stolid dray-horse4 ,it is a spiritual superiority 7like the technical and emotional superiority7 born of distinction and nourished by exclusiveness4 ,even in the most virile of the polonaises1 with the possible exception of the so-called ,military ,polonaise1 which is unique in its fresh1 open-air athleticism1 we feel that the power which surges through them is a nervous rather than a muscular power4 ,thus when he is heroic1 no less than when he is gay or introspective1 ,chopin remains true to his slender1 aquiline1 subtle1 aristocratic self4 ,it is interesting to examine the evolution of technique that went hand in hand with his growth in emotional earnestness4 ,in the first place the ,bellini-like tunefulness1 illustrated in the theme of the ,rondeau1 opus #a1 with its agile turns and trills and its skipping staccato movement1 gives place in the maturer works to a freer1 more chromatic1 more impassioned and rhapsodic type of melody4 ,it recrudesces1 to be sure1 here and there1 as in the ninth nocturne1 the larghetto of the ,e-minor concerto1 the moderato cantabile of the ,fantaisie ,impromptu2 for the languid southern luxuriousness was once for all a part of ,chopin's temperament4 ,but the deeper and more intimate the mood he is trying to express1 the broader and less trammelled becomes his melodic curve4 ,how sinuous the line1 how gradual the climax1 how deliberate the subsidence1 of this theme from the fourteenth nocturne 7a1 in ,figure ,,xx73 ,illustration3 score 7a7 ,illustration3 score 7b7 ,figure ,,xx4 ,how majestically the phrases rise1 tier on tier1 in the chief melody of the ,polonaise1 opus #dd6 ,how nobly rhapsodical1 how genially spontaneous and flexible1 is the phraseology of the second theme in the allegro of the ,b-minor ,sonata 7b1 in ,figure ,,xx76 ,well may ,mr4 ,edward ,dannreuther call ,chopin the supreme master of elegiac melody4 ,in his greatest tunes ,chopin indeed touches a point which few purely romantic writers ever reach4 ,we have noted1 from time to time1 in the course of these studies1 the tendency of all lyrical composers to build up their music out of a few short phrases many times repeated1 like the patterns in a wall-paper2 we have seen how ,schubert1 ,schumann1 and ,mendelssohn fell into this pitfall even in their orchestral works1 which therefore1 in comparison with ,mozart's or ,beethoven's1 seem patchy1 breathless1 or monotonous4 ,we have seen that melodies of long breath are conceivable only by minds of sufficient synthetic power to entwine many phrases1 diverse in length1 contour1 and rhythm1 into a single organism4 ,now ,chopin1 like the rest1 writes only too often in the wall-paper style1 as may be seen especially in the waltzes1 mazurkas1 and nocturnes4 ,but at other times he shows a synthetic faculty rare among lyrists1 by which he attains a noble breadth4 ,look1 for example1 at the passage marked sostenuto in the ,grande ,valse1 opus #db1 at the surging bass theme of the ,polonaise1 opus #dj1 no4 #b1 or at the second theme of the allegro of the ,b-flat minor ,sonata1 noting the sustained flight of the second eight measures of the tune4 ,better still1 examine with some particularity1 studying the diversity of the rhythmic figures employed1 the two melodies in ,figure ,,xxi1 one from the ,ballade1 opus #bc1 and one from the finale of the ,sonata1 opus #eh4 ,mark the deliberation1 the suspension of interest1 of the sequence in measures #e-h of the first1 the exciting inevitability of the chromatic descending scale near the end of the second4#bh ,in such tunes as these1 which are frequent in his later works1 ,chopin proves himself capable of the veritable longue haleine of the epic melodist4#bi ,illustration3 score 7a7 ,illustration3 score 7b7 ,figure ,,xxi4 ,a second technical result of the gradual deepening of ,chopin's ideal of expression was a wonderful development of his harmonic sense4 ,in the works of his prime he is one of the greatest of all masters of expressive harmony4 ,his originality in modulation and enharmonic transition1 his employment of chromatic progressions cheek by jowl with passages based on the old diatonic modes of the ,polish folk-music1 his daring use of consecutive fifths and other such bugbears of the scholastic1 entitle him to a high place among the pioneers of modern methods4 ,he constantly surprises us with premonitions of ,liszt1 ,wagner1 the ,french and ,russian composers of to-day1 and even ,richard ,strauss4 ,thus1 for instance1 the opening of the great ,polonaise-,fantaisie1 with its constantly shifting tonality1 its groping bass1 its murky1 mysterious minor-ninth and diminished-seventh chords1 seems like a page from ,tristan2 the series of kaleidoscopic modulations1 marked stretto1 near the end of the fourth ballade1 recall ,tschakowsky in one of his most reckless moods2 and we must go to ,csar ,franck to find a parallel for the lapsing chromatic dominant-seventh chords of the twenty-first mazurka4 ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,xxii4 ,nor does ,chopin make the mistake1 so fatal to some modern writers1 of surfeiting our ears on these complexities until they become apathetic4 ,his taste is too sensitive for that4 ,scarcely are we launched on an admiring study of his harmonic intricacies 7which it must be confessed became in his latest pieces1 as ,mr4 ,niecks suggests1 almost too fine-spun7 before we are arrested by some fascinating bit of utter simplicity and bell-like clarity4 ,how grateful1 after the ominous harmonics at the beginning of the ,polonaise1 opus #bf1 no4 #b1 in the lower register1 the restless seventh chords of the principal tune1 and the clanging dissonances above the pedal-point on ,f at the middle of the first section--how grateful1 after all this clamor and stridency1 are the triads and dominant sevenths of the ,meno mosso 7see ,figure ,,xxii74 ,it is as if some bright band of pilgrims marched1 to the clear peal of trumpets1 out of the dust and blood of a battlefield4 ,exquisitely beautiful1 again1 is the celestial purity of those chords1 transparent and colorless as crystal1 which are introduced near the beginning of the second impromptu3-- ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,xxiii4 ,other similar passages are the religioso section in the sixth nocturne1 and the middle section of the eleventh1 both of which1 in their ecclesiastical serenity and severity1 take one back to ,palestrina4 ,and with all his diversity of vocabulary1 ,chopin never confuses his effects4 ,he can pass from the extreme plainness of the fifth tude to the chromatic complexity of the sixth1 without the least adulteration of either4 ,why the works of a master so various yet always so elevated in style1 animated by so high an ideal of what it is worth while to say1 and of how it should be said1 should be specially marked out for sentimentalization and degradation at the hands of performers too dull to divine their distinction1 is one of the mysteries of perverse destiny4 ,it is hard to see what justification can be found1 either in the internal evidence of the works themselves or in the recorded opinions of their composer1 by the misguided enthusiasts who drag out his lovely melodies into mawkish recitatives1 break his chords into arpeggios1 and vulgarize his tempo rubato into license of meter and confusion of rhythm4 ,there is1 to be sure1 in much of his music1 a subjective quality1 an intimacy of mood1 which gives the debauchee of sentiment an opportunity he does not find in abstract classic art4 ,there are even a few instances1 to give him countenance1 of actual affectation1 the tiresome posturing of the dramatic tone-poet1 as in the pompous ending of the ninth nocturne and the theatrical opening of the third scherzo1 where ,chopin seems to borrow a gesture from his friend ,liszt4 ,but the entire object of the foregoing analysis will have been missed if it has not convinced the reader of the essential distinction1 the superiority to all claptrap eloquence and feverish emotion1 of ,chopin's mind4 ,he was not a man to strut and pose2 he was too busy with an artistic ideal1 too bent upon expressing a high vein of feeling in a faultless technical medium4 ,there is also plenty of documentary evidence to prove his abhorrence of all sickly sentiment1 and of the messy technique it induces4 ,take1 for example1 the matter of the much discussed tempo rubato4 ,chopin regarded this as a sensitive adjustment of time values1 a delicate elasticity or flexibility of pace--by no means as a departure from essential metrical accuracy4 ,the left hand1 he said to his pupil ,von ,lenz1 is the conductor2 it must not waver or lose ground2 do with the right hand what you will and can4 ,he required adherence1 says another pupil1 to the strictest rhythm1 hated all lingering and dragging1 misplaced rubatos and exaggerated ritardandos4 ',je vous prie de vous asseoir1' he said on such an occasion1 with gentle mockery4 ,his aversion to melodramatic expressiveness1 in which the artist surrenders himself weakly to a momentary excitement1 may be inferred from his remark on ,liszt's performance of a ,beethoven sonata3 ,must one1 however1 always speak so declamatorily 7si declamatoirement78 and from a comment on his own playing by ,cramer1 a pedant who1 without entirely comprehending him1 yet could not but discern the dignity of his art3 ,i do not understand him1 but he plays beautifully and correctly1 he does not give way to his passion like other young men4 ,finally1 if ,chopin had really been a mere voluptuary and sentimentalist1 is it likely that he would have composed with such concentrated intensity of labor8 ,he shut himself up in his room for whole days1 writes ,george ,sand1 weeping1 walking1 breaking his pens1 repeating and altering a bar a hundred times1 writing and effacing it as many times1 and recommencing the next day with a minute and desperate perseverance4 ,no1 ,chopin may not be a giant like ,bach1 or ,mozart1 or ,handel1 or ,beethoven1 but he is a sincere and earnest artist1 who feels vividly1 and spares no pains to give his feelings worthy expression1 and to attain a supreme plastic beauty4 ,above all1 he is a man of the most delicate sensibility1 the most discriminating taste1 the most exacting ideal of artistic perfection4 ,in leaving him1 it is pleasant to attend less to the sufferings to which these qualities condemned him as a man1 than to the achievements to which they led him as an artist4 ,this shifting of emphasis is what he would himself have desired1 for his aspirations and standards were sthetic rather than ethical2 he lived as he could1 it was only in composing that his will was free and efficient2 his very individuality takes definite shape only in the favoring medium of musical imagination and emotion4 ,in that firmament of music he will continue to shine1 a fixed star1 not perhaps of the first magnitude1 but giving a wondrously clear1 white light1 and1 as he would have wished1 in peerless solitude4 ,,footnotes3 #bj ,bach's ,well-tempered ,clavichord is an example of a work to which1 since its beauty is largely one of line1 the piano cannot do justice4 ,see1 for instance1 ,prelude ,,iv1 in ,c-sharp minor1 in the first book1 measures #d-g1 inclusive4 ,the tenor part1 of a wonderful nobility1 is concealed by the more rapidly moving1 and therefore on the piano more sonorous1 soprano4 ,in order fully to bring it to our consciousness we must sing or otherwise reinforce it4 #ba ,schumann reports of ,chopin's playing of this tude3 ,it would be a mistake to suppose that he brought out every one of the little notes with distinctness2 it was more like a billowing of the ,a-flat major chord1 swelled anew here and there by means of the pedal2 but through the harmonies were heard the sustained tones of a wondrous melody1 and only in the middle of it did a tenor part once come into greater prominence amid the chords1 along with that principal cantilena4 #bb ,of course1 the amount of dissonance acceptable is not a fixed quantity1 but increases as the perceptive power of the ear develops4 #bc ,more daringly1 because the lower the pitch of a dissonant tone1 the greater the number of its audible harmonics1 and hence the greater the degree of its obscuration of the harmony4 ,even a consonance1 such as the major third1 sounds muddy when placed in the lower register4 ,readers interested in this matter should consult some convenient handbook of acoustics1 such as ,broadhouse's ,the ,student's ,helmholtz1 on the subjects of harmonics or partial tones1 sympathetic vibration1 etc41 and ,mr4 ,arthur ,whiting's ,pedal ,studies1 for a highly suggestive discussion of color in piano music4 #bd ,it is1 however1 interesting to note that1 lavish as ,chopin's use of the pedal seems when compared to the general practice of his time1 the fondness for the turbid and cloudy colors produced by commingled dissonances has grown so rapidly that to-day we prefer sometimes even more pedal than he gives us4 ,in the ,ballade1 opus #eb1 during that brilliant passage which debouches into the simple chords in ,b-flat major1 modern taste would prefer a continuous pedal through six measures1 instead of through only three1 as ,chopin has directed4 ,we should also blur the eleventh tude more recklessly than he does1 and many other instances will occur to the reader4 #be ,schwrmerisch--visionary1 imaginative1 dreamy4 #bf ,three of his pieces are dedicated to baronesses1 nine to countesses1 and four to princesses4 #bg ,it is noteworthy that most of these compositions bear opus numbers higher than #dj1 and belong to the last decade of the composer's life4 #bh ,cf4 also the subsequent1 even more extended1 treatment in the sequel4 #bi ,it may be asked why1 possessing this enviable longue haleine1 ,chopin did not turn it to better advantage in writing his sonatas and concertos1 which are structurally not satisfactory examples of their types4 ,in answer it may be suggested 7#a7 that in the concertos he was hampered by the orchestra1 his technique being essentially pianistic2 and 7#b7 that his melodies1 however broad in scope1 are generally lyrical in character1 and hence not adapted to symphonic treatment4 ,with his characteristic caution1 however1 he used these most extended forms but sparingly2 and in the more rhapsodic long forms1 such as the polonaises and ballades on a large scale1 he is highly successful4 ,,vi ,,hector ,,berlioz ,illustration3 ,,hector ,,berlioz ,,vi ,,hector ,,berlioz ,not many years ago three ,americans1 coming1 late one afternoon1 in the course of a walking tour in northern ,france1 to the little cathedral town of ,beauvais1 found its ordinarily quiet air filled with tumult1 bustle1 and confusion4 ,the streets1 gay with colored bunting and venders' booths1 were thronged with crowds of merrymakers2 the hum of insatiable conversation was everywhere2 no rooms were to be had at the hotels1 and their dining rooms were prempted by crowds of men in uniform1 engaged in an endless round of toasts and speeches4 ,beauvais was1 in a word1 the scene of a ,grande ,fte des ,pompiers1 or ,firemen's ,festival4 ,the firemen of all the surrounding country had assembled there1 had taken possession of the town1 and had surrendered themselves to conviviality and joy4 ,it was a spectacle interesting from many points of view2 but the fancy of the ,american observers was most of all struck by certain long strips of bunting which spanned the streets at intervals1 bearing in large letters the legend1 ,honneur aux victimes du devoir4 ,this1 it seemed to them1 was the note in this motley symphony most perfectly1 inimitably1 and deliciously ,french4 ,these festive firemen1 in the midst of their jollifications1 did not forget for a moment that it was their proud privilege to stand before the world1 so long as cognac allowed them to stand at all1 as the honored victims of duty4 ,one hardly knew whether to smile at their ingenuousness1 or to thrill in sympathy with their emotion1 which1 however theatrical1 was perfectly sincere2 on consideration one did both4 ,something of the quandary of these ,american observers of the very ,gallic firemen of ,beauvais must perhaps always be experienced by the ,anglo-,saxon who tries to understand the ,french attitude toward life or art1 so essentially different are the two types of temperament4 ,it is hard for the stolid1 matter-of-fact1 insensitive1 self-satisfied ,anglo-,saxon1 singly set upon his business1 indifferent to what the world may think of him1 to comprehend the subtleties and indirections of the ,gaul1 who conceives personal conduct as an actor conceives a rle1 spares no pains or labor to do justice to his part1 and feeds on the applause or starves on the indifference of his audience4 ,to your ,englishman or ,american such an ideal seems trivial1 artificial4 ,his sense of humor1 a faculty in which it must be confessed that the ,french1 for all their wit1 are deficient1 seizes at once upon the incongruities that must always exist between an ordinary human life and a histrionically conceived rle1 and in his amusement he often fails to do justice to the intelligence1 imagination1 and courage that may be brought into play by such a dramatic exercise4 ,possibly to a higher point of view his own attitude1 which he likes to call practical1 and which less friendly critics sometimes call stupid1 might seem essentially no better than the playful chivalry of his fellow4 ,such thoughts as these are bound to occur to the candid critic of that singular man1 that quintessential ,frenchman1 ,hector ,berlioz4 ,on first acquaintance he seems a creature of postures and pretence1 grandiloquent1 artificial1 specious4 ,he resorts to any means to make an impression1 keeps his name before the public by journalism1 by social eccentricities1 by ,byronic love-affairs1 by all manner of ingenious indirect advertising1 thrives only in the smile of the public1 and writes much less to express an inner conception of beauty than to dazzle1 startle1 and stun4 ,he seems to make a religion of idiosyncrasy1 and to shrink from nothing but the natural4 ,he lives1 speaks1 writes1 composes1 only in the interest of his carefully laid plot to be unprecedented4 ,but then1 as one studies him more1 one begins to find admirable traits under this fantastic exterior4 ,however artificial his ideal may be1 he brings a most vivid and many-sided intelligence to its service2 in spite of the opposition to the world in which his excessive individuality places him1 his stock of good-nature and of half-ironical1 half-kindly wit is inexhaustible2 and if he does not worship at an orthodox shrine1 he can suffer1 and endure1 and strive1 like a true martyr4 ,and so ,berlioz's critic1 like the ,americans at ,beauvais1 finally decides to smile at and at the same time to admire him4 ,hector ,berlioz1 born ,december #aa1 #ahjc1 at ,la ,cte ,st4 ,andr1 a small town in south-eastern ,france1 began his long struggle with the world when1 in his nineteenth year1 in ,paris1 whither his parents had sent him to become a doctor like his father1 he resolved to abandon the study of medicine for that of music4 ,it was a daring1 indeed a rash1 resolve1 worthy of a born dissenter like ,berlioz2 for not only were all external forces clearly in league to keep him in the beaten path1 but his vocation for music was as yet far from obvious4 ,he played only the flageolet1 the flute1 and the guitar2 his knowledge of harmony was of the slightest2 and he himself tells us in his autobiography that he had never seen a full score1 but that one day when he found a sheet of paper ruled with twenty-five staves he realized in a moment the wondrous instrumental and vocal combinations to which they might give rise1 and cried out1 ',what an orchestral work one might write on that6' ,the impulse was there1 if the technique was wanting2 and when the young medical student chanced to hear a performance of ,gluck's ,iphignie en ,tauride1 his smouldering enthusiasm burst at once into unquenchable flame1 and he resolved at all hazards to become a musician4 ,he introduced himself to ,lesueur1 professor of composition at the ,conservatoire1 with a cantata in which there were many blunders in harmony1 but a good deal of dramatic power also1 and on the strength of it became his pupil4 ,he studied the scores of ,gluck's operas in the ,conservatoire library4 ,with characteristic audacity he proposed to the aged ,andrieux1 lecturer on literature in the school of medicine1 that he should write for him an opera libretto1 but received a courteous refusal4 ,he did not hesitate to borrow twelve hundred francs from a friend as a means of producing at the church of ,saint-,roch a mass he had written4 ,and all this time he was raising obstacles for himself by his enthusiastic impulsiveness and his utter lack of tact and worldly discretion4 ,the story of his first meeting with ,cherubini1 a man of far-reaching influence as the director of the ,conservatoire1 will serve as an example4 ,cherubini1 who was a cold and formal precisian1 had made a strict ruling that the male and female readers at the ,conservatoire library should enter by different doors4 ,berlioz did not see the notice1 entered by the women's door1 and immediately buried himself in the score of ,alceste4 ,presently he was recalled to this world by finding ,cherubini standing beside him1 a thin1 cadaverous figure with a pale face1 tumbled hair1 and fierce1 gleaming eyes4 ,then arose an angry altercation1 ended by the director's ordering the porter to eject the offending student1 and a lively chase among the desks4 ,berlioz1 reaching the door1 only stopped to announce to the enraged ,cherubini that he was soon coming back to study ,gluck again4 ,he did so2 but he never conciliated the ill-will of his powerful enemy1 who from that day lost no opportunity to frustrate his ambitions4 ,it was indeed his failure to win one of the ,conservatoire prizes1 which lost for him the countenance of his parents and plunged him into many misfortunes4 ,his mother at this time threw him off entirely1 in anger for which there was much justification2 his father1 more patient1 allowed him a period of probation1 after which1 if he could not show himself a successful musician1 he was to return to the study of medicine4 ,thus put upon his mettle1 he rented a closet of a room up five flights of stairs1 lived on bread1 raisins1 prunes1 and dates1 and eked out his allowance by taking pupils on the guitar and the flute1 and in solfeggio4 ,in this way he even managed to pay half of his debt to the friend who had helped him produce his mass4 ,but alas6 this man1 as careless and devoid of tact as ,berlioz himself1 then wrote to the father the story of the loan1 requesting a payment in full4 ,who can wonder that ,dr4 ,berlioz1 his toleration at last exhausted1 upon paying the balance of the debt cut off entirely the allowance8 ,not even then1 however1 would ,berlioz accept defeat1 but1 getting a post as chorus singer in one of the small theatres1 continued the struggle to attain the prize on which so much depended4 ,could he but gain the ,prix de ,rome1 he would be assured an annuity of three thousand francs for five years1 the first two to be spent in the ,french ,academy at ,rome1 the third in ,germany1 and the last two at home3 he would be free to study and compose at leisure1 he could show the world and his parents what was in him4 ,the subject prescribed for the competition in #ahbf was the death of ,orpheus1 on which he proceeded to wreak himself with an ardor we can well imagine4 ,the result was that his bacchanal scene was pronounced unplayable by the mediocre pianist provided to play the pieces to the jury4 ,berlioz was furious--and most of all1 characteristically1 at the injustice done his orchestration4 ,the piano1 he cries1 at once reduces all composers to the same level1 and places the clever1 profound1 ingenious instrumentalist on the same platform with the ignorant dunce who knows nothing of this branch of his art4 ,the piano is a guillotine1 and severs the head of noble or of churl with the same impartial indifference4 ,as the time of the next trial approached1 ,berlioz with his usual impolitic frankness made such a nuisance of himself1 by criticising in a loud voice1 from the pit of the opera house1 the liberties taken with the scores of the great masters1 that he was debarred altogether by the scandalized authorities4 ,in #ahbh1 missing the first prize by two votes1 one of them ,cherubini's1 he obtained the second prize1 consisting of a laurel wreath1 a not very valuable gold medal1 and a free pass to the opera-house4 ,still invincible1 he prepared himself to storm once more the pedantry of the judges2 he did his best1 but1 in the words of ,boeldieu1 they found his best too good1 and in #ahbi the prize was not awarded at all4 ,it was not until #ahcj that1 at last learning by experience1 he wrote his cantata of ,sardanapalus in the dryest and most conservative style he could compass1 leaving out altogether the conflagration scene1 which might have proved unplayable1 and at any rate would have disturbed the tranquillity of the judges4 ,discretion won the day2 the prize was awarded him1 and he was free to depart for ,rome1 and to finish his cantata to his own satisfaction1 which we may be sure he lost no time in doing4 ,in the meantime1 as if these struggles were not enough to engage all his energies1 he had been busy playing the first scene of that love-tragedy1 or melodrama1 or farce--one hardly knows what to call it--which ended by joining him in uneasy and brief wedlock with ,henriette ,smithson1 an ,irish actress4 ,it is hard to tell how far the throes of his very ,gallic heart were genuine1 how far they were manufactured by his susceptible fancy1 his literary imagination1 and his keen sense for dramatic effect4 ,there is ever about ,berlioz a trace of the little boy playing pirate chief2 he goes through life with something of that youthful ecstasy of make-believe2 and when he tells us of his passions for ,mdlles4 ,s----1 ,r----1 and ,m----1 when he enumerates his thrills1 commemorates his tears1 and confides his plans for capture1 flight1 suicide1 or double murder1 we wonder whether he really felt all this1 or is merely convinced1 as a poet and journalist1 that he ought thus to have acted4 ,it was in #ahbg that ,berlioz first beheld his future wife1 who was acting ,shakespeare at the ,odon in a troupe of ,english players4 ,of the effect of her ,juliet upon him he writes1 ,after the third act1 hardly breathing1 in pain as if a hand of iron were squeezing at my heart1 ,i said to myself1 with the fullest conviction3 ',ah6 ,i am lost4' ,did he make any attempt to meet the lady whose beauty and genius had so singularly affected him8 ,not he2 such a course would have been painfully commonplace1 a terrible descent from poetry to prose4 ,he followed her about with gaunt eyes and dishevelled mien1 so that1 believing him mad1 she asked her friends for protection4 ,he lost himself in melancholy revery1 he roamed about the streets at night1 in such despair that on one occasion ,liszt and ,chopin followed him1 fearing he might kill himself4 ,then he rallied his forces in a great resolve2 he would win his indifferent mistress by his art2 he would give a concert of his own works1 and she should hear it4 ,i will show her1 he cried1 forgetting in his enthusiasm that she had no ear for music1 that ,i too am an artist4 ,after heroic labors and economies 7for it was at this time that he was supporting himself by singing in the theatre chorus1 and he had to work sixteen hours a day copying instrumental parts71 after endless struggles with his conductor1 who did not understand the music1 and with ,cherubini1 who refused him the only available concert hall1 he succeeded in bringing off the concert1 only to find that ,miss ,smithson did not hear of it at all4 ,shortly afterward she left ,france for some years4 ,disconsolate1 ,berlioz turned for comfort to a certain ,mademoiselle ,mooke1 to whom he became engaged in #ahcj1 soon after winning the ,prix de ,rome4 ,this affair1 however1 went little more smoothly than the other1 for hardly had he arrived in ,italy before he received a letter from ,madame ,mooke1 informing him that her daughter had married ,m4 ,pleyel4 ,his rle was thus suddenly changed to that of the abandoned lover1 thirsting for revenge2 and it must be conceded that he entered upon it with his usual artistic enthusiasm4 ,two tears of rage started from my eyes1 and my mind was made up on the spot4 ,i meant to fly to ,paris1 where ,i had two guilty women and one innocent man--one sees that magnanimity was a part of the rle--to kill without mercy4 ,as for killing myself afterwards1 you can well believe that that was indispensable4 ,behold him1 then1 in ,florence1 supplying himself with two double-barrelled pistols1 two vials of refreshment1 such as laudanum and strychnine1 and1 as a disguise1 the entire costume of a lady's-maid--no less--dress1 bonnet1 green veil1 and all4 ,behold him hesitating but one moment1 just long enough to write upon the unfinished score of the ,ball ,scene in his ,symphonie ,fantastique directions as to how1 if the work is played in his absence1 the flute part may be doubled with the clarinets and horns4 ,behold him1 after this lucid interval1 travelling to ,genoa1 where he either attempts suicide by drowning or falls into the water and is fished out by bystanders--his account is somewhat ambiguous--and where he buys a second lady's-maid's costume1 having absent-mindedly left the first one in the coach4 ,and then1 with his arrival at ,nice1 he feels that he has done his duty by the part of the wronged lover1 he feels that it would be a pity to deprive the world of his still unwritten compositions2 youth pleads the charm of life1 the beauty of the ,italian landscape1 and prudence suggests a brief note to the director of the ,academy at ,rome1 providing for a possible return to the fold4 ,i stop in ,nice a whole month1 wandering through the orange groves1 diving in the sea1 sleeping on the mountain heaths4444 ,i live wholly alone1 and write the overture to ',king ,lear4' ,i sing1 ,i believe in ,god4 ,convalescence has set in4 ,it is thus1 he ingenuously concludes his account of this episode1 that ,i passed in ,nice the twenty happiest days of my life4 ,on returning to ,paris1 in #ahcb1 and finding ,miss ,smithson again playing there1 ,berlioz tried again1 and this time with success1 the device of giving a concert of his own works4 ,his ,symphonie ,fantastique and its sequel ,lelio1 a monodrama with recitation1 were given entire4 ,whatever might be her ignorance of music1 ,miss ,smithson could hardly fail to divine the reference to herself of a typical passage in the text of ,lelio3 ,o that ,i could find her1 the ,juliet1 the ,ophelia1 that my heart calls to4 ,that ,i could drink in the intoxication of that mingled joy and sadness that only true love knows6 ,could ,i but rest in her arms one autumn evening1 rocked by the north wind on some wild heath1 and sleep my last1 sad sleep6 ,this somewhat florid wooing was effective2 on the day after the concert the oddly assorted pair met for the first time1 and in the following summer were married4 ,in taking this daring step ,berlioz seems for once to have manfully forgotten his audience and his dramatic unities1 and to have acted quite simply and from the heart4 ,his ,ophelia was no longer a favorite of the public2 she was now neglected and deeply in debt2 she had had the misfortune to break her leg in stepping from her carriage1 an accident which threatened to end her career on the stage2 her parents1 as well as his own1 were bitterly opposed to the match4 ,in spite of all1 ,berlioz married her1 and made no literary material out of the event except to weave about it one of his incisive antitheses3 ,on the day of our wedding she had nothing but debts2 ,i1 for my part1 had three hundred francs 444 and had quarrelled again with my parents4 ,but she was mine1 ,i bade defiance to everything4 ,it is much to his credit1 too1 that when his wife was ill1 he quite simply set aside a symphony at which he was working1 and wrote feuilletons in order to make more money for her4 ,but the one thing to which ,berlioz could never effectually bid defiance was the radical inconstancy of his own temperament4 ,once captured and domesticated1 his ,ophelia began to prove dull2 the part of husband gave little play to his romantic capacities2 and when he took less and less pains to disguise his boredom1 she became jealous even to shrewishness4 ,presently he sought distraction in the least creditable of all his amours4 ,if the ,smithson affair had been drama1 or at the least melodrama1 and the ,mooke episode harmless comedy1 the liaison with ,mademoiselle ,recio1 aside from its tragic results1 was broad farce4 ,this lady was a second-rate vocalist with an insatiable ambition to sing ,berlioz's works1 in order to defeat which he had often to resort to ignominious flight1 covered by petty prevarication4 ,his devotion to her cannot have resulted in much happiness1 and it entirely alienated him from his wife1 from whom he separated about #ahdj4 ,nevertheless1 when she died in #ahed1 he promptly married this ,mademoiselle ,recio1 with whom he lived in uneasy partnership for eight years4 ,one of the strangest instances of his morbid appetite for effect at any cost1 of the habit of posturing and parading his emotions which ruled him even in matters which should be most private and sacred1 is the passage in the autobiography in which he describes1 with a ,poe-like zest for revolting detail1 the reburial of his first wife beside the second in the cemetery of ,mont-,martre4 ,the incredible passage need not be quoted in detail1 but ends with this sentence1 in which the egotism of the sentimentalist stands as naked as it is unashamed3 ,the two departed ones rest here in peace sic to this hour1 awaiting the time when ,i shall bring my own portion of rottenness to that charnel-house4 ,this is an extreme instance of the posturing1 the attitudinizing1 the grandiloquence and rhetoric1 to which ,berlioz is always tempted more or less in his accounts of his personal doings and feelings4 ,he does not wilfully misrepresent1 but he balks at the grayness of mere fact2 he is not exactly a liar1 but his romantic imagination simply cannot envisage the commonplace2 involuntarily he suppresses here1 distorts or exaggerates there1 in order that his story may have the spectacular vividness1 the dramatic clat1 which alone can satisfy him4 ,on the other hand1 whenever1 treating of general topics1 as he does in the ,soires d',orchestre1 the ,a ,travers ,chants1 and the ,grotesques de la ,musique1 he can avoid the pitfall of the confidential1 he is one of the most charming of writers4 ,here his instinct for the salient leads him to put everything in the most vivid1 captivating way1 but without perversion2 one no longer has the uncomfortable sense of being hoaxed1 and can give oneself up to the enjoyment of his rich play of metaphor and allusion1 his subtle irony1 his unfailing good-nature1 and his nervous1 incisive style4 ,here1 in short1 his extraordinary intellectual vivacity is revealed at its best1 undegraded by being made to serve those posings which1 if not precisely dishonest1 are still not quite ingenuous4 ,his description1 for example1 of the machinations of the claqueurs or hired applauders at the opera house1 known in ,parisian slang as ,romans1 in the seventh and eighth evenings of the ,soires d',orchestre1#cj deserves a niche of its own in the literature of satire4 ,after writing at some length de viris illustribus urbis ,romae1 he goes on to enumerate the amateurs who swell the ranks of the claque1 as follows3-- ,they are3 simple friends1 who admire in good faith all that is to be done on the stage before the lamps are lighted2 relations1 those claqueurs given by nature2 editors1 ferocious claqueurs2 and especially lovers and husbands4 ,that is why women1 besides the host of other advantages they have over men1 have still one more chance of success than they4 ,for a woman can hardly applaud her husband or lover to any purpose in a theatre or concert room2 besides1 she always has something else to do2 while the husband or lover1 provided he has the least natural capacity or some elementary notions of the art1 can often bring about a success of renewal at the theatre4444 ,husbands are better than lovers for this sort of operation4 ,the latter usually stand in fear of ridicule2 they also fear in petto that a too brilliant success may make too many rivals2 they no longer have any pecuniary interest in the triumphs of their mistresses4 ,but the husband1 who holds the purse-strings1 who knows what can be done by a well-thrown bouquet1 a well taken-up salvo1 a well-communicated emotion1 a well-carried recall1 he alone dares to turn to account what faculties he has4 ,he has the gift of ventriloquism and of ubiquity4 ,he applauds for an instant from the amphitheatre1 crying out3 ,brava6 in a tenor voice1 in chest tones2 thence he flies to the lobby of the first boxes1 and sticking his head through the opening cut in the door1 he throws out an ,admirable6 in a voice of basso profundo while passing by1 and then bounds breathless up to the third tier1 from whence he makes the house resound with exclamations3 ',delicious6 ravishing6 ,heavens6 what talent6 it is too much6' in a soprano voice1 in shrill feminine tones stifled with emotion4 ,there is a model husband for you1 and a hard-working and intelligent father of a family4 ,the impression of paradox so markedly given by ,berlioz's prose writings1 in which such insight1 wit1 and good humor as we have here coexist with the tendency to pose revealed in his accounts of his love affairs1 is intensified by his musical compositions4 ,in them also he seems actuated by a desire1 not to communicate his real feelings in their simplicity1 but to project them into a dramatic conception1 and to present that with all the pomp and circumstance of which he is capable4 ,not truth to inner experience1 but vividness of external effect1 is his ideal4 ,yet to the service of this ideal he brings admirable intellectual qualities3 ingenuity1 resourcefulness1 imagination1 an originality that scorns all platitude1 and1 at least in the matter of instrumentation1 a matchless technical skill4 ,the brilliant performance of rather specious undertakings--that is ,berlioz's artistic cue4 ,this combination of trivial ends with highly clever means may be illustrated by the ,symphonie ,fantastique1 a work which1 though written early in his career1 remains one of his most characteristic productions4 ,how different1 to begin with1 are the inspirations which a romanticist and a realist derive from the passion of love6 ,schumann1 married to ,clara ,wieck after years of waiting1 utters his joy in a series of songs1 the most lyrical1 the most intimate1 that song literature has to show4 ,chopin1 in an amorous revery1 writes in the larghetto of the ,f-minor ,concerto one of the quietest1 simplest1 most devout of all his pieces4 ,berlioz1 on the contrary1 is goaded by the thought of his ,ophelia to conceive a young musician of unhealthily sensitive nature1 who has poisoned himself with opium in a paroxysm of love-sick despair1 and to carry this hero through a very detailed drama in five acts4#ca ,his impulse is1 in short1 realistic rather than lyrical1 and the art in which he embodies it is descriptive and narrative rather than emotionally expressive4 ,the most important technical result of this realistic attitude is that ,berlioz1 as we have already noted1 treats his melodies1 not as materials for a purely musical development1 but as symbols of characters or other dramatic motives1 thereby anticipating the leit-motif idea which later became so prominent in the work of ,wagner and ,liszt4 ,the central motive in the ,symphonie ,fantastique is the melody known as l'ide fixe1 symbolizing the beloved1 roughly transcribed for the piano in ,figure ,,xxiv4 ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,xxiv4 ,this melody1 though it appears in each of the five movements1 undergoes but little evolution2 it is complete in the first place1 and in its later phases is often modified hardly at all1 or if so chiefly for dramatic reasons4 ,in the ,ball ,scene two phrases of it are sounded pianissimo1 by the clarinet1 just after a sounding climax of the full orchestra1#cb to indicate the hero's remembrance of the beloved in the midst of the festivities4 ,in the third movement1 ,in the ,country1 it is given to the oboe and flute 7full score1 p4 #ff71 and is treated somewhat more ingeniously1 its fifth phrase being interrupted by a rough tumult in all the strings4 ,in ,the ,procession to the ,stake it figures purely as a theatrical property in a highly characteristic and amusing passage4 ,the hero has finished his long march to the place of execution2 as he puts his head on the block silence descends upon the scene1 and then a single clarinet plays four measures of the theme--,ah6 he thinks of her once more--but the thought is cut short by a blow of the axe 7fortissimo chord1 tutti7 and the death-rattle 7tremolando on three kettle-drums7 ends the movement and his life together4 ,only in the last movement1 the frenetic ,witches' ,sabbath1 is the theme really varied4 ,here1 at p4 #ajb1 it appears as in ,figure ,,xxv1 turned by change of rhythm and the addition of ornament into a grotesque1 undignified dance tune4 ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,xxv4 ,this is certainly clever1 but the incentive1 we must remember1 is still dramatic rather than musical--it is intended to show the loved one degraded to the horrid form of a witch4 ,there are many other subordinate features of the technique in which may be discerned the same preoccupation with spectacular effect rather than with musical beauty4 ,the mere noise resorted to by the composer in tuning his drums in the third movement1 in order to imitate thunder1 has already been mentioned2#cc there is a deal of even more chaotic pandemonium in the last two movements4 ,when the harmonies are in themselves consonant1 they are sometimes combined so incongruously as to obliterate all sense of tonality and to generate merely a feeling of haste and confusion1 as at page #id in the score1 where the chords of ,d-flat-major and ,g-minor tread on one another's heels2 so unprecedented was this association of remote harmonies that ,berlioz thought it necessary to point out in a foot-note that it was no clerical error1 and to beg the violins and violas not to correct their parts4 ,even the scholastic and highly formal device of the fugato he treats with the sang froid of the habitual impressionist in that weird section of the ,witches' ,sabbath in which he makes a sort of devil's fugue1 lost in limbo1 on the rhythm of the witches' round dance 7score1 p4 #acb74 ,yet how remarkable is the skill with which he works out his so perverse ideal6 ,his melodies1 however they may lack lyrical quality1 are always of definite contour and arresting individuality1 and frequently of an odd half-insidious1 half-challenging appeal4 ,though ,mr4 ,hadow's charge that time after time he ruins his cause by subordinating beauty to emphasis1 and is so anxious to impress that he forgets how to charm is undoubtedly just1 yet equally true is his further remark that his sense of rhythm was1 at the time when he lived1 without parallel in the history of music4 ,thanks to this sense of rhythm he entirely avoided those wall-paper patterns which make much of the music of romanticism so formally monotonous1 and he attained often a splendidly complex1 though generally slightly mechanical1 organization of phrases4 ,the ide fixe is a good example of this prosodic elasticity4 ,it consists of an eight-measure phrase balanced by one of seven measures1 four phrases of four measures each in climactic sequence1 and a codetta made up of a pair of two-measure phrases and a final phrase of five measures2 and with all this variety1 the unity of the tune as a whole is unimpeachable4 ,the melody of the song ,la ,captive 7see ,figure ,,xxvi7 is most fascinating in its irregular regularity1 in the perfect naturalness with which three-measure and two-measure groups alternate and intertwine4 ,in fact1 ,berlioz is a master of what in poetry we call versification4 ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,xxvi4 ,his skill in orchestration is notorious4 ,berlioz claims attention first and foremost1 says one critic1 as a master of orchestration1 perhaps the most ingenious and versatile among all modern composers2#cd and another ranks him with ,beethoven1 ,wagner1 and ,dvok as one of the four greatest masters of instrumentation the world has ever seen4#ce ,unfortunately even in this department he could not entirely resist that craving for sensationalism which was the characteristic vice of his temperament2 so that his name has become associated in many minds with merely noisy or eccentric effects that are far from representing him at his best4 ,he loved to pile ,pelion upon ,ossa1 scored his ,requiem for sixteen trombones1 sixteen trumpets1 five ophicleides1 twelve horns1 eight pairs of kettle-drums1 two bass drums1 and a gong1 in addition to the usual resources1 and told with pride of its having frightened one of the listeners into a fit4 ,he was frequently rallied for what ,mr4 ,nordau would call his megalomania4 ,prince ,metternich1 he tells us in his memoirs1 said to me one day3 ',are you not the man1 monsieur1 who composes music for five hundred performers8' ,to which ,i replied3 ',not always1 monseigneur2 ,i sometimes write for four hundred and fifty4' ,love of the bizarre and the unusual led him often to employ rare instruments1 or to use the ordinary ones in freakish ways4 ,the harp1 the ,english horn1 and the cornet figure frequently in his scores1 and he likes to direct that the horns be put in bags1 that the cymbal be suspended and struck with a stick1 that the drums be played with sticks covered with sponge4 ,in one instance he ventures a duet between a piccolo and a bass trombone4 ,he describes1 in a letter from ,germany1 a trick by which a trombone player sounds four tones at once1 and adds in all seriousness3 ,acousticians ought to explain this new phenomenon in the resonance of sonorous tubes2 we musicians ought to study it thoroughly and turn it to account when the opportunity presents itself4 ,he was one of the earliest and most indefatigable champions of the valve horns and trumpets made by ,sax of ,paris1 and also1 by a less happy inspiration1 made propaganda for the cornet pistons1 which is in comparison with its noble cousin1 the trumpet1 a most vulgar instrument4 ,he was a daring1 but not always a cautious1 innovator1 frequently seeming to set a higher value upon novelty than upon inherent worth4 ,illustration3 score ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,xxvii4 ,his real claim to distinction as a master of the orchestra1 however1 rests not upon his extravagances1 but upon his wonderfully delicate1 unerring instinct for the capacities of the common instruments for tone color1 both alone and in combination4 ,it has been well said of him that he thought orchestrally1 that with him the tone color was an essential part of the original design4 ,the themes of the ,dance of ,sprites and the ,dance of ,sylphs1 in the ,damnation of ,faust 7see ,figure ,,xxvii71 are not merely tunes1 in the generic sense of the word1 adaptable to any medium2 the first is distinctively a piccolo tune1 the second a violin melody4 ,this instinctive sense of what each member of the orchestral family can best do gives ,berlioz's sound-mass an unrivalled clarity1 felicity1 and distinction2 it enables him to solve every problem that arises in a quite unconventional way1 proceeding1 without regard to tradition1 to the precise timbre he has imagined1 with the economy and certainty of a master4 ,his scores are apt to look rather empty1 because he allows so many instruments to remain silent2 but they do not sound empty1 for each tone is placed where it will tell to the utmost1 yet without blurring any other4 ,the two dances just mentioned are models of this kind of discretion1 as also is the ,ball ,scene in the ,symphonie ,fantastique1 in which the variety of the combinations obtained from a few instruments is surprising4 ,first the violins alone play the tune1 accompanied by the other strings 7page #cg in the full score72 then 7page #ci7 the accompaniment is shared between the strings on the first beat of the measure1 two harps on the second beat1 and the wood wind on the third2 next 7page #db7 second violins1 violas1 and 'cellos unite on the melody1 the wood wind and a cornet emphasize the accent1 the first violin embroiders a delicate turn at the end of each measure1 and the basses pluck insistent eighth-notes2 and finally all the wood wind and the harps take up the tune 7at page #dg7 to an accompaniment of horns and harps4 ,the marvel of it is that all these tonal schemes are of such a perfect elasticity1 such a brilliant lightness2 this is musical champagne1 that makes most other scores seem vapid and heavy1 like wine too long uncorked4 ,the same intellectual ingenuity1 curiously dissociated from emotional earnestness1 which made ,berlioz so clever a melodist and so inimitable a master of orchestral effects1 enabled him also to achieve those innovations in the general scheme and intention of instrumental music on which his historical importance mainly depends4 ,by discerning that1 although the principle of coherence in all classical and lyrico-romantic music was the interplay and logical evolution of melodies or themes1 that is1 of purely musical elements1 yet a composition might be unified rather by the interplay of characters and events1 or in other words of dramatic motives1 of which the music was merely representative1 he opened the way for ,liszt and the modern program composers4 ,he thus became the pioneer of that realistic movement which in our own day has assumed such prominence1 providing1 as early as #ahcj1 in the ,symphonie ,fantastique1 which is essentially a realistic work1 with program and leading motives1 the prototype of many famous modern masterpieces4 ,the most striking1 and to us nowadays the most familiar1 of all applications of this scheme of dramatic form is of course that of ,wagner in his music-dramas4 ,so far as ,wagner's art was conscious it was planned entirely from the dramatic point of view4 ,in the matter of tune he laid stress on emotive expression1 to borrow once more ,m4 ,goblot's term1 rather than on symmetry of form1 discarding regular phrase-balance and definite metre in favor of a loosely knit recitative1 quickly responsive to all changes of mood1 which he called infinite melody4 ,so far as definite musical figures appeared at all1 they were conceived1 not as having any intrinsic value1 but as standing for extra-musical ideas3 that is1 they were not subjects or themes1 they were leading-motives4 ,the larger forms underwent a similar modification2 the ,italian aria1 consisting of a melody1 a second contrasting melody1 and a repetition of the first1 was discarded1 in spite of its architectonic beauty1 as being undramatic1 since action never repeats itself1 but ceaselessly changes4 ,even in purely instrumental pieces the principle of coherence became the imitation of a natural series of events or ideas4 ,one looks in vain1 in the ,funeral ,march in ,gtterdmmerung1 for the kind of thematic development which makes so splendidly organic the ,funeral ,march of ,beethoven's ,eroica ,symphony2 the unity of ,wagner's piece depends on its being the narration of the events in the life of a single hero1 ,siegfried4 ,the ,prelude to ,lohengrin1 though incidentally a masterpiece of purely musical structure1 was conceived as a tone-picture of the descent from heaven1 and the return thither1 of an angel host bearing the ,holy ,grail4 ,a more extreme case is the ,prelude to the ,rheingold1 in which there is no musical structure at all1 the whole piece being written upon one unchanging harmony2 the motive there is entirely pictorial4 ,finally1 the descriptive and imitative elements in expression are prominent in such characteristic ,wagnerian passages as the fire-music and the ,waldweben4 ,wagner has thus become the standard instance of a musician dominated by a dramatic ideal1 and has proved conclusively the powers of music associated with action4 ,but this music associated with action1 it must be noted1 is not1 strictly speaking1 any longer music at all1 but a new art1 to which its creator gave the name of music-drama3 it appeals not only to the ear through sounds1 but to the eye through scenery and actors1 and to the understanding through language4 ,to apply the principles which naturally dominate so composite an art as this to the writing of pure instrumental music is a daring and a questionable innovation1 which we owe to ,berlioz and ,liszt4 ,it is one thing to compose in this style a work to be played1 sung1 and acted in an opera-house1 and quite another to cut from the same stuff a symphony to be performed by staid musicians in conventional dress in the concert-room4 ,that ,wagner himself was well aware of the difference is shown by a passage in his essay on ,liszt's ,symphonic ,poems1 striking enough to be quoted at some length4 ,i pardon everybody1 says the great music-dramatist1 who has doubted the benefit of a new art-form for instrumental music1 for ,i must own to having so fully shared that doubt as to join those who saw in our program-music a most unedifying spectacle--whereby ,i felt the drollness of my situation1 as ,i myself was classed among just the program-musicians1 and cast into one pot with them4 ,whilst listening to the best of this sort 444 it had always happened that ,i so completely lost the musical thread that by no manner of exertion could ,i re-find and knit it up again4 ,this occurred to me quite recently with the love-scene1 so entrancing in its principal motives1 of our friend ,berlioz's ',romeo and ,juliet ,symphony'2 the great fascination which had come over me during the development of the chief motive was dispelled in the further course of the movement1 and sobered down to an undeniable malaise2 ,i discovered at once that1 while ,i had lost the musical thread 7i4e4 the logical and lucid play of definite motives71 ,i now had to hold on to scenic motives not present before my eye1 nor even so much as indicated in the program4444 ,the musician looks quite away from the incidents of ordinary life1 entirely upheaves its details and its accidents1 and sublimates whatever lies within it to its quintessence of emotional content--to which alone can music give a voice1 and music only4 ,a true musical poet1 therefore1 would have presented ,berlioz with this scene in a thoroughly compact ideal form4 ,wagner here puts his finger on the chief points of weakness in ,berlioz's ingenious scheme4 ,the lack of what he calls the musical thread1 and defines most concisely as the logical and lucid play of definite motives1 is indeed a most serious defect1 as we have already seen in the case of the ,symphonie ,fantastique4 ,because of it1 the composer's best effects seem fragmentary and uncordinated2 however we enjoy his brilliant1 affecting1 or powerful moments1 we miss the sense of inexorable progress1 of deliberate accumulation of force1 of efflorescence of melodic germs as slow and as steady as a process of nature1 which is so overwhelming in the music of ,bach and ,beethoven4 ,his music is almost always interesting rather than beautiful2 he lets our attention dissipate itself upon picturesque details1 instead of seizing and concentrating it by the grandeur of his design1 the symmetry of his forms1 the logic of their evolution4 ,his structures1 considered as wholes1 however massive and imposing1 are fundamentally incoherent2 his rhythms1 for all their ingenuity1 are over-whimsical1 restless2 his harmony is often awkward1 strained1 non-sequacious4 ,he cares less for purity than for pungency of style1 and seems to be entirely unconscious of the large alloy of incongruity and anticlimax that adulterates his finest conceptions4 ,these shortcomings were by no means accidental2 their cause lay deep in his peculiar temperament4 ,berlioz's disposition1 says one of his critics with penetration1#cf was instinctively somewhat inclined to the grotesque2 he had not that inborn reverence for the proprieties of nature which is the secret of the highest art achievement4 ,he set his individuality 444 above immutable law4 ,indeed1 ,berlioz had more than the usual share of the romanticist's indifference to abstract beauty in art1 and of the romanticist's impatience of the discipline which alone gives command of it4 ,when he was a boy he showed on every occasion his unquestioning intolerance of prescriptive right2 he dismissed ,lesueur's harmony as antediluvian1 and ,reicha's counterpoint as barbarous4 ,when he was a man he frankly expressed his boredom at the most perfect of musical forms3 ,a theme without a fugue1 he writes in one of his letters1 is rare good luck2 in another he exclaims1 ,may ,god preserve you from fugues with four themes on a choral62 and his attitude towards ,bach1 the touchstone of all musical taste1 is in strange contrast with that of ,schumann1 ,mendelssohn1 ,chopin1 and indeed almost all of his great contemporaries4 ,when ,i was in ,st4 ,petersburg1 he tells us1 they played me a triple concerto of ,bach's4444 ,i do not think they intended to annoy me4 ,in the light of such a confession we are not surprised to find him1 in the famous passage in the autobiography wherein he sets forth his pretensions as a composer1 making no claim to the highest qualities1 to grandeur1 restraint1 poise1 proportion1 beauty1 but contenting himself with the words1 ,the dominant qualities of my music are passionate expression1 internal fire1 rhythmic animation1 and unexpected changes4 ,on the other hand1 if he was in some degree forced into the dramatic vein by deficiencies on the musical side1 he had also some strong positive qualifications for the work he undertook4 ,a degree of literary cultivation rare among musicians gave him a large choice of motives to draw upon4 ,the symphony1 ,romeo and ,juliet1 the overture1 ,king ,lear1 the opera1 ,beatrice and ,benedict1 the ,tempest fantasia in ,lelio1 and some minor pieces1 all owe their inspiration to ,shakespeare2 ,byron is drawn upon for the ,corsair overture and the symphony1 ,harold in ,italy1 and ,scott for the overtures1 ,waverley and ,rob ,roy2 ,goethe for ,the ,damnation of ,faust2 the autobiography of ,benvenuto ,cellini for the overture which bears his name1 and ,virgil's neid for the opera1 ,the ,trojans at ,carthage4 ,it is true that both in his choice and his utilization of texts he was often characteristically perverse4 ,he considered ,thomas ,moore one of the great pathetic poets of the world2 he garbled ,romeo and ,juliet2 he placed ,faust in ,hungary in order to introduce the ,rakoczy ,march2 he made the demons in ,faust sing in ,swedenborg's infernal language--,irimiru ,karabrao6 ,has6 ,has6 ,tradioun ,marexil firtrudinx burrudix 4442 in his own programs he perpetrated1 with entire gravity1 the most mirth-provoking medleys of the sublime and the ridiculous4 ,yet in spite of his lack of humor1 and even at times of ordinary common sense1 he brought to the planning and execution of his fantastic conceptions an extraordinary cleverness4 ,berlioz is1 however1 even as a dramatist1 open to severe criticism1 the nature of which is again suggested by ,wagner4 ,in pointing out that in the absence of a purely musical thread one has to hold on to scenic motives not present to the eye1 nor even so much as indicated in the program1 ,wagner touches upon one of the ineradicable defects of all program-music1 its ambiguity4 ,doubtless it is quite possible1 and mildly amusing1 to follow1 on hearing the ,symphonie ,fantastique1 the general outlines of the story1 but did ,berlioz suppose that any one would be able to recognize in his music1 otherwise often unintelligible1 the details of the plot8 ,if so1 he was certainly overrating the descriptive powers of sound1 and placing too much dependence on the definiteness of a medium which is by nature vague and indeterminate4 ,he was himself conscious of the difficulty2 but with his usual arrogance he attributed it1 not to any shortcoming in his own art1 but to his audience's lack of imagination4 ,to the sixth division of the score of ,romeo and ,juliet he appends this foot-note3 ,the public has no imagination2 pieces which address themselves solely to the imagination have consequently no public4 ,the following instrumental scene is in this predicament1 and ,i think it should be suppressed except when the symphony is to be heard by an audience of the lite1 to whom the fifth act of ,shakespeare's tragedy1 with ,garrick's dnoement1 is extremely familiar1 and whose poetic sentiment is very elevated4 ,the thought that possibly a piece of music should not address itself solely to the pictorial imagination does not seem to have occurred to him4 ,when ,berlioz's music does not fail of its effect through being ambiguous1 it is very apt to lose itself in triviality2 indeed1 this1 as we have already seen1#cg is one of the imminent dangers besetting all program-music4 ,why is it that we are rather more inclined to smile than to shudder at the piled-up horrors of the ,witches' ,sabbath8 ,why does the elaborate machinery which ,berlioz assembles in order to stun us leave us so often rather amused or bored8 ,why is it that we enjoy more than we resent that parody of his style perpetrated by ,arnal1 in which we are asked to understand from the second repetition of the first allegro how my hero ties his cravat8 ,is it not that there is involved in the programmistic method a subtle insult to our intelligence1 that we instinctively rebel against the use of musical tones1 by nature so uniquely expressive of inner verities1 for the mere delineation of external objects8 ,wagner seems to think so when1 in the last part of his criticism1 he says that the musician looks quite away from the incidents of ordinary life 444 and sublimates whatever lies within it to its quintessence of emotional-content4 ,bourget certainly thinks so when he commands the artist1 ,sois belle et tais-toi4 ,this highest simplicity of the great creative artist1 who ignores the accidents and the externals of life1 who looks into his heart and writes1 was just what ,berlioz1 with all his mobile intelligence1 all his ingenuity1 all his earnest aspiration1 could never achieve4 ,there was in him a perversity of temper1 a disharmony between the emotional and the intellectual nature1 a lack of the sense of proportion or the sense of humor1 which made it impossible4 ,the natural seemed to him jejune2 the simple1 vulgar2 the impulsive1 crude4 ,to be elaborate1 theatrical1 calculated1 was a necessity of his highly artificial imagination4 ,just as in his love affairs he was never following an unsophisticated passion1 but forever masquerading as an ideal hero1 and as in his essays and autobiography he never chronicled1 but always dramatized1 so in his compositions he could not bring himself to express spontaneous intuitions in nave forms1 but built up elaborate programs with all the ingenuity of his tireless and resourceful intelligence4 ,all life appeared to him as a magnificent glittering spectacle in which he was playing a leading rle2 and whether he loved or hated1 whether he suffered or enjoyed1 whether he succeeded or failed1 he hugged close to his ,gallic heart the consciousness that he was acting well1 and that he had an audience4 ,like the firemen of ,beauvais1 he had1 too1 the ineffable satisfaction of placarding the heavens1 in his autobiography1 with the inspiring legend1 ,honneur aux victimes du devoir4 ,the boast in his case1 nevertheless1 was far from an empty one2 not the least strange element in his strangely mixed character was the real heroism1 the splendid faith1 with which he clung to an artistic ideal which was received with contempt or indifference on every side4 ,in his devotion to an unpopular cause1 through a lifetime of difficulties1 he was a true martyr4 ,his career1 after his return from ,rome to ,paris in #ahcb1 was one long uphill fight1 not only for recognition1 but for a bare livelihood4 ,his accounts of his hated labors as a feuilletonist1 up to the time when1 by a generous gift from ,paganini1 he was freed from such servitude1 are among the sincerest and most pathetic pages in his writings4 ,he never won the appreciation from his countrymen that his vain1 sensitive1 and thoroughly ,parisian nature most craved4 ,realizing1 about #ahdj1 that a man is never a prophet in his own country1 he reluctantly sought abroad the support denied him at home1 and in a series of tours in ,germany1 ,austria1 ,russia1 and ,england met with a large measure of success4 ,yet his first care1 after each foreign triumph1 was to know what they thought of it in ,paris--and alas6 they never thought about it at all4 ,tardily1 in #ahef1 already over fifty years old1 he obtained a fauteuil in the ,academy1 and was appointed ,librarian of the ,conservatoire4 ,but the cheering effect of this recognition was clouded by the fiasco1 in #ahfc1 of the opera on which he had been working for years1 ,les ,troyens ,carthage4 ,this blow broke his heart4 ,he wrote no more1 and after six years of loneliness and ill-health1 died on ,march #h1 #ahfi4 ,as so often happens1 his funeral orations contained the enthusiastic praises his living ears had craved in vain1 and he was shortly pronounced the greatest of ,french composers4 ,the faith in himself and his art1 which kept him steadfast through all his discouragements and temptations1 which enabled him to persist in a path of almost complete solitude1 which armed him with the sword of conviction and the shield of a good conscience1 was1 as ,mr4 ,apthorp says1 the one pure1 sterling element in a character in which all else was more or less distorted4 ,he was a man of overweening vanity and egotism1 often blind to the needs of those nearest him2 an uncertain friend1 a spiteful enemy1 an intolerable husband2 he could descend to petty deceits and unworthy animosities1 and was willing to sacrifice the most sacred relations on the altar of his dramatic sense4 ,and yet he could say with truth1 ,the love of money has never allied itself in a single instance with my love of art2 ,i have always been ready to make all sorts of sacrifices to go in search of the beautiful1 and insure myself against contact with those paltry platitudes which are crowned by popularity4 ,he had also many minor virtues which1 if not like this precisely heroic1 are nevertheless charming4 ,he was a sprightly narrator1 a witty and keen critic where his prejudices were not involved1 and a taster of life in whom discrimination did not embitter good nature4 ,concerning his achievement as a musician there will always be extreme oppositions of opinion1 so uncompromising was his theory of art1 and so relentless his execution of it4 ,the ultimate problem of whether a realism so thoroughgoing as his is justified by the nature of music will perhaps always remain an open one4 ,but the most recalcitrant critic must admit the greatness of his incidental services to the art which he practised with such headlong perversity4 ,he was a good iconoclast4 ,he helped to break the bonds of a narrow conservatism which was in danger of confining all music to the forms of the symphony and the sonata1 and to the type of expression perfected by the classicists4 ,by his daring imagination he abashed pedantry and opened up vistas of new possibilities4 ,and he was1 at least in one department1 that of orchestration1 a triumphant innovator4 ,by using instruments1 not in traditional1 hackneyed ways1 but with an intuition of their latent possibilities1 he added permanently to the resources of all composers and to the sensitiveness of all listeners4 ,whether1 therefore1 the tendency of all music toward the realistic1 which is so prominent to-day1 and in relation to which he stands as one of the greatest of pioneers1 shall continue indefinitely1 or shall give place to some new movement in another direction1 as certain signs seem to indicate--in any event ,berlioz's place as a contributor to the unresting progress of art is secure4 ,,footnotes3 #cj ,see ,selections from ,berlioz's ,writings1 translated by ,w4 ,f4 ,apthorp1 ,new ,york1 #ahgi1 pp4 #bbh-bfa4 #ca ,see the summary of the program of the ,symphonie ,fantastique at p4 #bd4 #cb ,full score1 ,breitkopf and ,hrtel edition1 p4 #ed4 #cc ,see ,introduction1 p4 #dc4 #cd ,e4 ,dickinson1 ,the ,study of the ,history of ,music1 p4 #bfd4 #ce ,w4 ,h4 ,hadow1 ,studies in ,modern ,music1 p4 #ada4 #cf ,francis ,hueffer1 ,half a ,century of ,music in ,england1 pp4 #bca-bcb4 #cg ,introduction1 p4 #ec4 ,,vii ,,franz ,,liszt ,illustration3 ,,franz ,,liszt ,,vii ,,franz ,,liszt ,a flood of light is thrown upon the opposing aspects of ,franz ,liszt's contradictory character by a story told of a certain occasion on which ,the ,master1 as he loved to be called1 sat for his portrait to the painter ,schaffer4 ,one of those key-stories it is1 dear to biographers1 which condense in single acts or speeches entire facets of personality4 ,in ,paris1 in his youth1 ,liszt went to ,schaffer to have his portrait painted4 ,instinctively he assumed one of those theatrical poses he was in the habit of taking when1 at the end of one of his already famous recitals1 he stood upon the stage receiving the plaudits of his audience4 ,we can readily imagine it3 the head thrown back1 the eyes flashing fire1 the right hand1 perhaps1 thrust between the second and third buttons of the coat1 the left resting on some conveniently composed piece of furniture4 ,but when ,schaffer indicated that this histrionism did not impress him1 ,liszt1 greatly embarrassed1 cried out impulsively1 ,forgive1 dear master1 but you do not know how it spoils one to have been an infant prodigy4 ,here are the two opposing sides of this curious character for once set in a clear antithesis3 on the one hand1 the affectation1 the strut and posture1 the cheap theatricality1 of the prodigy playing to his audience2 on the other1 the frankness1 the magnanimity1 the humility even1 of the true artist4 ,liszt's whole career is one long exhibition of these two attitudes in constant alternation2 he is a mingling in one person of the charlatan and the idealist4 ,born in ,raiding1 a small town in ,hungary1 ,october #bb1 #ahaa1 an only child of ,adam ,liszt1 a ,hungarian1 and ,anna ,lager1 a ,german1 ,franz ,liszt showed at once such extraordinary talent for music that in his tenth year his parents resolved to educate him in ,vienna as a professional musician4 ,after a year and a half in the ,austrian capital1 where the brilliancy of his piano playing and the cleverness of his improvisations attracted much attention1 and where he studied with ,czerny and ,salieri1 he was taken by his parents to ,paris4 ,here1 in the autumn of #ahbc1 only twelve years old1 he took his first plunge into the atmosphere of adulation which was to become to him in later years almost a necessary of life4 ,it was now that he became the petted darling of the fashionable salons of the ,boulevard ,st4 ,germain1 and made the great ladies of ,parisian society forget for a time their lap-dogs and their love-intrigues in order to caress this fascinating composite of the child and the virtuoso4 ,after his first public concert in ,paris1 in ,march1 #ahbd1 he made the round of the boxes1 a sort of triumphal progress across the laps of great ladies1 who wooed him1 we must suppose1 with a discreet mixture of compliments and bonbons4 ,in the following spring he extended his dominion to ,england1 and saw his name in large type on a hand-bill such as nowadays we associate with circuses rather than with concerts4 ,an ,air1 we read1 with ,grand ,variations by ,herz1 will be performed on ,erard's ,new ,patent ,grand ,pianoforte1 by ,,master ,,liszt1 who will likewise perform an ,extempore ,fantasia1 and respectfully request ,two ,written ,themes from any of the ,audience1 upon which he will play his ,variations4 ,there are not wanting signs1 however1 that the artist in ,liszt was already1 with approaching adolescence1 beginning to disdain the spectacular triumphs of the virtuoso4 ,he began to suspect that the praise belongs to the child and not the artist2 the indignity of being advertised as a year or two younger than he really was1 and being carried upon the stage in his manager's arms1 like an infant1 aroused his disgust2 ,i would rather be anything in the world1 he cries1 than a musician in the pay of great folk1 patronized and paid by them like a conjurer or the clever dog ,munito4#ch ,he became more and more reluctant to appear in public1 grew moody and melancholy1 occupied himself with religious meditations1 and even cherished a half-formed desire to withdraw from the brilliant world into monastic solitude4 ,this is the first appearance of a mystical tendency of mind which in later years gained great ascendancy over him1 and finally led him to take orders in the ,roman ,catholic ,church4 ,the event1 however1 which decisively ended1 for the time1 his public piano playing1 was the death1 in ,august1 #ahbg1 of his father1 whose assistance in all practical details was indispensable to his virtuoso tours4 ,the young pianist now settled with his mother in ,paris1 where eight quiet years of piano teaching succeeded the excitement of his adventurous boyhood4 ,his conduct at this crisis illustrates that keen sense of honor which was so agreeable a trait in his character4 ,considering that the money he had accumulated by his many successful concerts was rightfully his mother's1 because of all the sacrifices she had made to his career1 he made it over to her in a lump sum1 and took up teaching for his own livelihood4 ,it was an act of delicate justice1 freely and cheerfully performed4 ,outwardly ,liszt's life now became quite simple and laborious1 almost plodding2 but inwardly it was developing apace1 and ramifying in many directions1 under the provocations of this brilliant and complex ,paris4 ,the ,paris of #ahcj was indeed a surrounding well fitted to encourage the most varied growth in the character of a young man so sensitive to influences1 so complex in mental and moral constitution1 as ,liszt4 ,there was1 on the purely musical side1 the powerful irritant of a public languid and frivolous1 devoted to the showy tinsel of ,kalkbrenner1 ,herz1 ,pixis1 and ,pleyel1 and so indifferent to real music that ,liszt had to coat the pill of a ,beethoven ,concerto with sugary ornamentation to make it go down4 ,such a public was a good stolid quarry for the marksmanship of an enthusiastic artist4 ,in general intellectual life there was1 on the other hand1 a brisk fermentation highly exciting to ,liszt's active mind4 ,paris was a seething pot of ideas1 theories1 heresies1 aspirations1 scepticisms1 individualities4 ,here is a whole fortnight1 he writes in #ahcb1 that my mind and fingers have been working like two lost spirits--,homer1 the ,bible1 ,plato1 ,locke1 ,byron1 ,hugo1 ,lamartine1 ,chteaubriand1 ,beethoven1 ,bach1 ,hummel1 ,mozart1 ,weber1 are all around me4 ,i study them1 meditate on them1 devour them with fury2 besides this ,i practise four to five hours of exercises4444 ,ah1 provided ,i don't go mad1 you will find an artist in me6#ci ,above all1 there was in the ,french romanticism of #ahcj an emotional delirium1 a fever of the sentiments1 which profoundly affected the high-strung young musician4 ,french literary romanticism was in essence an extension into the intellectual world of those principles which had received so striking a political embodiment in the ,french ,revolution of #aghi4 ,about a generation was required for these principles to propagate themselves from the realm of practice into that of theory2 in the ,revolution they appeared as crude instincts2 romanticism refined and systematized them into self-conscious doctrines4 ,the revolutionary mob murdered the aristocrats who oppressed them2 the romanticists proclaimed the effeteness of all arbitrary rules and all traditional ordinances1 whether in life or in art4 ,the revolutionists cried1 in effect1 ,each man for himself1 and the devil take the hindmost2 the romanticists asserted1 more politely but in as anarchic a spirit1 ,the individual alone is sacred2 his development is of greater import than the welfare of society4 ,and if romanticism had its analogue for the ,liberty of the famous formula in its emancipation from traditional law1 and its own version of the ,equality as the sacredness of the individual1 it also had its equivalent for ,fraternity in that somewhat hectic sentiment which usually proved too vaporous to bear the stress of an actual human situation4 ,both movements1 too1 were passionate exaggerations2 they overshot their mark1 and have had to be limited1 qualified1 and restrained by the saner sense of later generations4 ,if romanticism had everywhere this general character of revolt against authority1 assertion of the individual1 and deification of the sentiments1 it is notable that while in ,england it applied its theories chiefly to political and religious life1 and in ,germany to metaphysical realms1 in ,france it concentrated itself largely upon the relations of the sexes4 ,in such typical romantic documents as ,chteaubriand's ,ren and ,george ,sand's ,leone ,leoni1 the traditional bugaboo is marriage 7especially the mariage de convenance1 which indeed was a fair mark for reformers71 the extolled individualism takes the form of free love1 and the sentiments deified are the thrills of the amorous heart4 ,the results of the over-enthusiastic application of these romantic ideas to so complex a matter as sexual relations are sometimes bewildering1 sometimes absurd1 sometimes pathetic4 ,george ,sand's utterances on love and friendship1 for example1 often leave one uncertain whether to laugh or to cry1 so generous is her primary impulse1 so sophistical and topsy-turvy are the conclusions to which it opens the way4 ,when she writes1 ,the greater the crime1 so much the more genuine the love it accomplishes1 our anger at the sophism quickly gives place to pity for the sophist4 ,when we learn that her ideal of friendship between a man and a woman1 or1 as she called it1 camaraderie1 involved unlimited confidential conversations1 we know not which to doubt1 her insight or her good faith4 ,and in all this she is typical of her age and school1 which made a fetich of the demoniac power of love1 and pursued liaisons with a fervor that can only be called religious4 ,the effect of such doctrines as these on a young man like ,liszt may readily be imagined4 ,too keen-minded to be really deceived by the current fallacies1 but at the same time not austere or independent enough to reject what was so universally accepted1 he let himself go with the current1 and half-blindly1 half-ironically1 played the game he saw others playing4 ,almost before he knew it he found that he had staked nothing less than his honor1 and that this game1 begun in a mood of dalliance1 must be played through in sober earnest4 ,the heroine of his love affair was the ,countess d',agoult1 better known by her literary pseudonym of ,daniel ,stern1 a woman of great beauty and fascination1 but apparently consumed by vanity and a thirst for power4 ,in #ahcd1 when her connection with the idolized young musician began1 she was twenty-eight years old1 had been married for six years to the ,count d',agoult1 and had had three children4 ,in the following spring1 ,liszt tried in vain to bring the affair to an end2 finding this impossible1 he accepted the situation with the best grace he could summon1 and entered upon a period of travel with the countess which lasted a decade4 ,three children resulted from this union1 ,daniel1 ,blandine1 and ,cosima1 who became the wife of ,von ,blow1 and later of ,wagner4 ,it is difficult to arrive at a just conception of ,liszt's behavior in this relation1 so conflicting are the available accounts of it4 ,the biography by ,ramann1 for example1 states that he offered marriage1 which the lady indignantly refused on the score of his inferiority in rank4 ,janka ,wohl1 in her ,reminiscences1 on the contrary1 quotes ,liszt's emphatic denial that he ever offered marriage4 ,again1 the very zeal with which his admirers depict the ,countess as hurling herself upon him1 tend to arouse the suspicion of a judicious reader4 ,one thing is certain1 the uncongeniality of the pair was fundamental and cumulative4 ,liszt himself testifies to this in no uncertain way1 and1 one may add1 with more sarcastic animus than is quite to his credit4 ,he reports a conversation in which she expressed a desire to be his inspirer in art1 a desire which he attributes to her vanity4 ,she wished to be my ,beatrice1 he says2 and continues3 ,but ,i told her3 ',you are wrong4 ,it is the ,dantes who create the ,beatrices1 and the real ,beatrices die at the age of eighteen--that is all4' ,louis de ,ronchaud was present at the time4 ',there's the man1' said ,i1 'who would have pleased you4' ,this was ungallant almost to the verge of brutality4 ,that verge was overpassed when ,liszt1 to a request for suggestions as to the title of some souvenirs the countess had been writing1 proposed ,swagger and ,lies4 ,he always spoke of the countess1 says ,janka ,wohl1 with irony4 ,this picture of a disillusion such as inevitably follows a grande passion of the romantic order1 unpleasant as it is1 helps us to a realization of one side of ,liszt1 his cynicism4 ,an ironical bitterness such as often lay just below the saccharine smile of this finished man of the world is one of the most familiar by-products of sentimental romanticism1 one which has been made historically famous by the case of ,byron4 ,it is the reaction of the enthusiast disappointed in unrealizable ideals1 the dreary awakening from overfanciful dreams1 the exaggerated contraction of a heart too long artificially expanded1 the acidity produced by a diet all of sugar4 ,it sounds unpleasantly enough in certain sayings of ,liszt quoted by ,janka ,wohl3 ,women do not believe in a passion which avoids notoriety4 ,misunderstood women are generally women who have been too well understood4 ,madame ,moscheles writes1 in her reminiscences of ,liszt3 ,his high-flying notions are made more interesting by all the arts of dialectics2 but there is a good deal of satire in them1 and that satire is like an ill-tuned chord in conversation4 ,the sugared charm of his most excellent ,french cannot make some of his principles palatable to me4 ,closely connected with this cynicism of ,liszt is another marked trait of his character which at first sight seems to have little connection with it1 but on careful scrutiny is seen to be but another form of reaction against the sentimental interpretation of life with its unsocial lawlessness and its self-defeating egotism4 ,that strong leaning of ,liszt's toward the extreme phases of ,roman ,catholicism1 which made him even in boyhood a mystic and a devoted reader of ,lamennais1 ,ballanche1 and other ecclesiastical writers1 which impelled him later to take orders1 and which inspired the exclusively devotional works of his last years1 what was it but the perverse impulse to escape from the world of a man whom the world has disappointed8 ,monasticism is in large part merely the romanticism of the disillusioned4 ,complete isolation from human pursuits and feelings is in essence quite as antisocial1 quite as wilfully individual1 as the excesses which carry an exhausted spirit to its threshold4 ,liszt's passion for religion1 which has so often puzzled his critics1 was in large degree only the longing for repose of a soul too long overwrought by the religion of passion4 ,it is one of the curiosities of the psychology of temperament that this new mood of ,liszt's1 the mood of mystical passion1 found its aspirations crystallizing1 no less than those of the earlier worldly passion had done1 in a woman4 ,if paganism had for a time summed itself for him in the person of the ,countess d',agoult1 the monastic ,christianity to which he now reacted found its avatar and priestess in the ,princess of ,sayn-,wittgenstein1 a remarkable woman with whom he lived in intimate but what are called platonic relations from #ahdg on4 ,the daughter of a ,polish nobleman1 and the wife of a ,russian field marshal of erratic character whom1 after thrice refusing1 she married without love at seventeen1 she had suffered much1 and like many other sufferers had found her consolation in religion4 ,the story of her relation with ,liszt is a pathetic one4 ,she deserted her husband to follow him to ,weimar1 where he settled as a conductor and composer in #ahdg1 after his many years of wandering as a virtuoso2 for thirteen years she was his secretary1 friend1 and adviser2 in #ahfj she succeeded in getting a divorce from her husband1 whose infidelities were notorious1 only to have it retracted at the last moment by the ,pope4 ,her spirit was so broken by this cruel freak of fate that1 although ,prince ,wittgenstein died four years later1 she never married ,liszt4 ,she died in ,rome in #ahhg1 only six weeks after ,liszt1 leaving in manuscript a treatise in twenty-four volumes entitled ,des ,causes ,intrieures de la ,faiblesse ,extrieure de l'glise1 with directions that it should not be printed for twenty-five years4 ,the subject is one on which she may well have written with passion2 but it is sad to think of this woman consoling herself1 by twenty-four volumes of literary discussion1 for a vital tragedy4 ,during the fourteen years that ,liszt spent in ,weimar as ,music-,director to the ,grand ,duke1 he accomplished an extraordinary amount of work1 in musical and literary composition1 in teaching1 and in making propaganda for struggling composers by performing their works4 ,his cordial interest in other artists1 perhaps the finest trait of his character1 was at this time most strikingly evinced4 ,his baton1 his pen1 and his powerful personal influence were constantly employed in the service of young musicians of merit striving to make themselves known4 ,his efforts in ,wagner's behalf1 especially1 have become famous4 ,by his performance of ,lohengrin at ,weimar in #ahej1 by his articles on four of the music-dramas1 and by his financial aid to the struggling composer during many years1 he did more than any other one man to secure this uncompromising genius a foothold in the world4 ,schumann1 ,chopin1 ,berlioz1 ,raff1 ,franck1 ,saint-,sans1 and a host of less gifted men also owed much to ,liszt2 and his leaving ,weimar was the indirect result of his zealous championship of an unpopular opera by his friend ,peter ,cornelius4 ,it is true that even this benevolence was not quite unalloyed by his besetting egotism4 ,in our mental image of ,liszt dispensing his artistic charity there is always a trace of that bland smile of the professional philanthropist4 ,saint-,sans suggests that ,liszt contemplated1 in his relations with ,wagner1 a sort of alliance of two men of genius1 in which ,wagner should represent the hero of music-drama1 and himself the hero of instrumental music4 ,his rupture with ,brahms1 who did not appreciate his piano sonata1#dj suggests an inability to forget the first person1 excusable perhaps in one so long used to constant adulation1 but still not to be neglected in a delineation of his character4 ,tschakowsky's testimony on the point is very blunt4 ,liszt1 the old ,jesuit1 he writes in a letter1 speaks in terms of exaggerated praise of every work which is submitted to his inspection4 ,he is at heart a good man1 one of the very few great artists who has never known envy2 but he is too much of a ,jesuit to be frank and sincere4 ,and again3 ,liszt was a good fellow1 and ready to respond to every one who paid court to him4 ,but as ,i never toadied to him1 or any other celebrity1 we never got into correspondence4 ,but if the great man had thus his petty vanities1 if he liked to take a toll of self-satisfaction1 so to speak1 out of the gifts he so lavished upon others1 this human weakness did not1 happily1 destroy the efficacy of his many services to music4 ,we have now glanced at three distinct phases in the life of this protean spirit1 three rles successively assumed by him in his triumphal progress across the stage of ,european society4 ,first there was the infant prodigy1 the boy virtuoso1 le petit ,litz1 electrifying vast audiences by his piano playing1 and after his concerts making the round of the boxes4 ,then came the slender1 romantic youth1 ,monsieur ,liszt the piano teacher in the ,paris of #ahcj1 with his polished manners1 his attractive irony1 his devotion to his mother1 and a thousand suspected gallantries to make him interesting to the ladies4 ,and then--the third phase--,liszt without the ,monsieur1 ,liszt of ,weimar1 the conductor and propagandist1 the composer of symphonic poems1 the prophet of poetic instrumental music1 the patron and almoner of ,wagner1 the teacher to whom pupils flocked from all over the world4 ,but now we come to a fourth phase1 stranger1 more seizing to the imagination 7especially the feminine imagination7 than any of the others3 we behold the former man of the world seated in pious solitude in the monastery of ,monte ,mario1 near ,rome1 his personable figure swathed in the long black robe of an ecclesiastical order1 his ingratiating smile touched with a celestial joy1 his thronging thoughts transferred from ,paris to ,paradise4 ,here he sits1 in rapt devotion1 for seven years4 ,he has thrown aside the secular pen1 and writes only masses and oratorios4 ,he has become1 in two words1 the ,abb ,liszt4 ,from his retirement1 however1 he again reappears in the arena of his early triumphs1 in #ahfh2 and from this time until his death in #ahhf1 at one of those ,bayreuth festivals which but for him could not have existed1 we see him in a sort of apotheosis1 making a triumphal progress each year from ,rome to ,weimar and from ,weimar to ,pesth1 the beloved teacher1 the admired composer1 the revered abb1 the distinguished gentleman4 ,phase five1 in which he is named simply ,the ,master1 is thus a sort of composite and bright blending of all the other incarnations4 ,hear the description1 by an eye-witness1 of his appearance at this time3#da ,he is the most interesting and striking man imaginable1 tall and slight1 with deep-set eyes1 shaggy eyebrows1 and iron-gray hair4 ,he wears a long abb's coat1 reaching nearly to his feet4 ,his mouth turns up at the corners1 which gives1 when he smiles1 a most crafty and ,mephistophelean expression4 ,his hands are very narrow1 with long1 slender fingers1 which look as if they had twice as many joints as other people's4 ,they are so flexible and supple that it makes you nervous to look at them4 ,anything like the polish of his manners ,i never saw4 ,when he got up to leave his box1 for instance1 after his adieus to the ladies1 he laid his hand on his heart and made his final bow1 with a quiet courtliness which made you feel that no other way of bowing to a lady was right or proper4 ,his variety of expression is wonderful4 ,one moment his face will look dreamy1 shadowy1 tragic1 the next insinuating1 amiable1 ironic1 sarcastic4 ,all ,weimar adores him4 ,when he goes out1 every one greets him as if he were a king4 ,all ,weimar adores him1--let us confess1 for we can no longer blink the fact1 that there is something nauseous about the atmosphere in which ,liszt lived1 and that we cannot acquit him of a liking for it4 ,does not every man choose1 at least within certain limitations set by fate1 his own environment8 ,was ,liszt entirely indifferent to the attentions of the ,polish countess who received him in a boudoir spread ankle-deep with rose leaves1 or of the four celebrated beauties who had their portraits painted as ,caryatides supporting his bust8#db ,was it the sleep of boredom1 or of comfortable self-satisfaction1 that swathed him on that occasion when he was discovered sitting on a high platform surrounded by all sorts of pianos and harmoniums1 and in full view of six or eight ladies1 several of whom were busy fixing his striking features on canvas8#dc ,was it pure kindness to a young literary woman that prompted him to invite ,janka ,wohl to his house to partake of un rpas trs apptissant1 and to read aloud to him afterwards l'article biographique sur ,f4 ,l4 que nous avons commenc hier8 ,if this same ,janka ,wohl1 who by the way was one of those flattering friends from whom the proverb prays ,heaven to preserve us1 had said to ,beethoven1 or ,schumann1 or ,brahms what she said to ,liszt3 ,the others play pieces beautifully1 but you always play the soul1 the thoughts1 and the sentiments of ,liszt4 ,you transport us into a world which will die with you1 and of which we shall have nothing left but the paradise of recollection--a paradise out of which1 as the poets say1 we cannot be driven--would these great self-forgetful artists have given her such an answer as ,liszt's3 ,come1 come1 it is you who are the poet1 dear child2 but perhaps there is some truth in what you say8 ,no1 if the idealist in ,liszt was often smothered and drugged into lethargy by this miasma of flattery1 it was still within his power to seek a clearer1 more inspiring air4 ,and it was because he did not do so that there grew up beside the idealist in him that other ego of the poseur and charlatan2 and it is his fault as well as his misfortune that posterity will see him1 as a youth1 posturing in ,schaffer's studio1 and1 as an old man1 laying his hand on the left lapel of his abb's coat as he bows to the ladies in his box4 ,these grimaces and airs1 thin masks as they are to the heart of the man1 have unfortunately projected themselves over into his music1 and what is more surprising1 have imposed upon countless listeners1 and even trained critics1 who have somehow failed to discern their artificiality4 ,they are traceable chiefly in the fundamental themes2 for however skilfully a musician may master his technic1 however much he may learn to make of his original ideas by a clever treatment1 he cannot materially alter these ideas themselves1 which are1 so to speak1 the instinctive thoughts of his mind2 in them he stands revealed for what he finally and essentially is4 ,now1 despite all the mental virtuosity with which ,liszt develops his ideas1 a virtuosity as astounding1 and possibly as deceptive1 as the physical virtuosity for which he is more famous1 the ideas themselves are for the most part commonplace4 ,they are not spontaneous expressions of his own feeling1 but studied efforts to impress his audience4 ,they strut and maunder before us just as ,the ,master strutted and maundered1 tossed his hair1 fixed his eyes on heaven1 threw his hands in air1 crouched over the keys1 smiled and almost wept1 before his audience4 ,they are written1 not from the heart1 but to the gallery2 their magniloquence is rhetoric1 their sparkle is of tinsel1 their sentiment is sentimentality4 ,liszt does not alternate1 like ,beethoven1 ,schumann1 ,tschakowsky1 or any composer who is profoundly in earnest1 between manly force and feminine tenderness2 he alternates between empty pomposity and equally empty mawkishness4 ,illustration3 score ,figure ,,xxviii4 ,in these thematic counterfeits of his he makes remarkably plausible imitations of the real thing4 ,take1 for example1 the first theme of his piano sonata in ,b-minor 7,figure ,,xxviii71 a grandiloquent recitative in octaves4 ,this sounds magnificent enough at a first hearing1 with its strongly individualized rhythm1 its staccato notes followed by pauses1 its exciting use of the diminished seventh harmonies2 but on longer acquaintance its theatricality1 its obvious artificiality1 its purely rhetorical effectiveness1 become only too apparent2 like a sentence printed all in italics1 it is impotent through very excess of emphasis4 ,or take the well-known opening motive of the ,e-flat ,piano ,concerto4 ,with its attention-seizing rhythm and its chromatic melody it seems at first fraught with untold meaning1 a fiat1 an edict1 a proclamation4 ,but what does it proclaim8 ,little1 it turns out as we go on1 except that the composer intends to electrify his hearer2 and the hearer1 at first duly astonished1 gradually becomes indifferent4 ,give him a piece of bread1 said ,wagner of ,liszt1 he will cover it with red pepper4 ,so with the main themes of the ,faust and ,dante symphonies4 ,he is too anxious to impress us with the vague emotions1 the indefinable thrills1 of his chromatic harmonies4 ,both themes are so insistently chromatic that the listener's mind becomes satiated1 jaded1 numbed4 ,wagner knew how to manage these things better when1 in his ,pilgrim's ,march1 he relieved the wonderful chromatic passage beginning at the seventeenth measure by setting against it the simple1 strong triad harmonies of the opening4 ,if ,liszt is unrestrained in his use of the italics and points of exclamation of the musical language1 so that his impressiveness generally degenerates into ranting1 when he tries the emotional he fairly wallows4 ,it is hard to find a parallel in any other composer for those passages of his1 fairly redolent with sentimentality1 in which he reiterates1 over and over again1 a single note1 as the poet rolls under his tongue his mistress's name1 or the gourmand1 under his1 a morsel of pat de fois gras4 7,see ,figure ,,xxix1 a and b47 ,it is hard1 in any other composer who has had the advantage of ,german traditions1 to find bits of melody so feebly ,italian1 so sunk in an amiable but insidious sensuality1 as the themes of his ,sonnetto del ,petrarca or his ,album ,leaf no4 #b1 in which he writes with the pen dipped in violet water of a ,donizetti or a ,bellini4 ,his harmonic idiom1 too1 is degraded by a similar sensuality1 however disguised4 ,how else than as proceeding from a love for thrills and swoons can we explain his passion for those chords1 such as diminished sevenths1 minor ninths1 and all manner of chromatically altered chords1 as the theorists call them1 which1 for some reason never yet explained1 exhale mawkishness as some women exhale musk8#dd ,illustration3 score 7a7 ,from the ,piano ,sonata in ,b-minor4 ,illustration3 score 7b7 ,from the ,liebestraum ,no4 #c4 ,figure ,,xxix4 ,it would be interesting1 did it not involve a general discussion here out of place1 to inquire how far the exaggerated expression of ,liszt is due to the lack of spiritual1 moral1 and intellectual balance already noted as characteristic of ,french romanticism4 ,surely there is more than a striking analogy1 there is an actual relation of cause and effect1 were we but learned and keen enough to trace it out1 between the unrestrained individualism of the romanticist1 in politics1 religion1 love--and the hysterical1 unreal feeling of this music4 ,both alike lose poise by taking an over-personal view of life4 ,liszt1 so singly set on being magnificent or heart-rending in passion that he ignores the restraints of good taste1 forgets artistic reserve1 and becomes in turn blustering and craven1 reminds us of ,rousseau1 so in love with his fixed idea of freedom that he undermines the foundations of the social order on which true freedom depends4 ,if ,liszt were quite sincere in his passionate extremes1 we should have to forgive them as on the whole we forgive the often crude grandiloquence of the ,gallic ,berlioz4 ,what makes the ,hungarian artist peculiarly exasperating is the impression of hypocrisy in his heroics that we cannot escape or argue away4 ,he does not really feel these things1 we discern2 he is ogling us1 he is posing for our benefit2 all the while that one of his eyes is so proudly flashing fire1 or so devoutly gazing heavenward1 or so touchingly secreting a tear1 the other is winking at his alter ego1 the ego that sits behind the scenes and pulls the strings4 ,what those ladies to whom he bowed with such an irresistible chivalry1 such a noble humility1 would have felt could they have read the cynical thoughts about women which meanwhile filled his mind1 that we feel when we realize that for all his pompous utterance1 for all his dreamy emotion1 he is in his heart laughing at us for being so obligingly impressed by his rhodomontade4 ,we can forgive1 we can even rather enjoy1 the poseur who is himself in love with his pose1 but not the charlatan who makes capital of our gullibility4 ,liszt shows to far better advantage1 however1 in his manipulation of his ideas than in the ideas themselves2 for whereas in the latter artificiality is a damning fault1 in the former art1 especially such skilful art as his1 is a shining merit4 ,his plan of combining the musical organization of the classicists with the dramatic organization of ,berlioz was an interesting and in some ways a felicitous one4 ,by the use of program and leading motives he secured the advantages of the realistic school3 freedom from the shackles of the strict traditional sonata-form1 and a poetic principle of coherence4 ,by retaining thematic development1 he reinforced this poetic coherence by musical logic1 and avoided to some extent the fragmentary effects into which unmodified realism generally falls4 ,to the thirteen orchestral pieces in which he most strikingly embodied this plan of interlinked dramatic and musical structure he gave the name of ,pomes ,symphoniques1 generally translated as ,symphonic ,poems though more precisely as ,orchestral ,poems4 ,he owes his chief historical importance to his creation of this form1 which he exemplified also on a larger scale in his ,faust and ,dante symphonies4 ,a brief analysis of his most popular symphonic poem1 ,les ,prludes1 will make clear the peculiarities of the type4 ,this work has a program1 taken from ,lamartine's ,mditations potiques1 as follows3-- ,what is our life but a series of ,preludes to that unknown song of which death strikes the first solemn note8 ,love is the enchanted dawn of every life2 but where is the destiny in which the first pleasures of happiness are not interrupted by some storm1 whose deadly breath dissipates its fair illusions1 whose fatal thunderbolt consumes its altar8 ,and where is the soul which1 cruelly wounded1 does not seek1 at the coming of one of these storms1 to calm its memories in the tranquil life of the country8 ,man1 however1 cannot long resign himself to the kindly tedium which has at first charmed him in the companionship of nature1 and when 'the trumpet has sounded the signal of alarms1' he hastens to the post of peril1 whatever may be the strife which calls him to its ranks1 in order to regain in combat the full consciousness of himself and the complete command of his powers4 ,this program1 it will at once be seen1 is far more favorable to musical treatment than ,berlioz's hotch-potches of petty details and wild1 incongruous fancies4 ,it is but slightly narrative and descriptive1 presenting rather such abstract emotional states as music can best depict4 ,and it has a natural symmetry and completeness of its own which the composer has only to reproduce in order to give his music the same desirable qualities4 ,this he does by dividing his piece into six sections1 which might be called ,introduction1 ,love1 ,storm1 ,country ,life1 ,war1 and ,coda or ,conclusion4 ,illustration3 score 7a7 ,illustration3 score 7b7 ,illustration3 score 7c7 ,illustration3 score 7d7 ,illustration3 score 7e7 ,illustration3 score 7f7 ,figure ,,xxx4 ,to this natural poetic structure ,liszt adds a most ingenious musical form1 by basing his entire work on two leading motives 7a and b in ,figure ,,xxx71 which he subjects to all manner of variation1 melodic1 harmonic1 rhythmic1 as opportunity suggests4 ,some of the more important of these variants1 set down in ,figures ,,xxx-,,xxxiii1 deserve careful attention4 ,the work begins with a recitative for strings1 andante 7c71 derived from 7a7 by a modification of rhythm4 ,at page #g of the full orchestral score1 published by ,breitkopf and ,hrtel1 appears another variant of the same theme1 andante maestoso in bass strings and brass 7d74 ,motive 7a7 is sung by the 'cellos1 in very nearly its primitive form1 at page #ac 7e72 in the last measure of this excerpt the very clever echoing of the three characteristic notes of the theme1 in the bass1 marked by asterisks1 should be especially noted4 ,motive 7b71 symbolizing love1 first appears at page #ba1 sensuously set forth by four horns1 strings1 and harp1 is taken up by the wood wind1 and is developed in a powerful climax1 at the end of which appears for a moment the variant of it represented at 7f74 ,thus in the first two sections of the poem are the underlying motives expounded and somewhat developed4 ,section three1 ,storm1 begins 7allegro ma non troppo1 page #cj7 with a very theatrical variant of motive a1 highly characteristic of ,liszt1 in which he resorts to the chromatic scale beloved of all musical storm-makers 7g1 ,figure ,,xxxi71 and later to an endless series of diminished sevenths1 intended for nothing but to make our flesh creep 7h74 ,it is unnecessary to follow out this section in detail2 it is the least interesting of all1 and illustrates that element of claptrap which ,liszt could never entirely eliminate4 ,illustration3 score 7g7 ,illustration3 score 7h7 ,figure ,,xxxi4 ,illustration3 score 7i7 ,illustration3 score 7j7 ,illustration3 score 7k7 ,figure ,,xxxii4 ,the mood now changes again1 and with 7i7 7,figure ,,xxxii71 a charmingly expanded version of motive a1 intrusted to the oboe1 an allegretto pastorale is ushered in1 beginning the fourth section1 ,country ,life4 ,a new theme1 of fascinating grace and freshness 7j71 now enters in the horn1 and is presently combined with motive b in what seems on the whole the most delightful moment1 musically1 of the entire composition 7k74 ,a somewhat lengthy working out of these combined motives follows1 gradually growing more and more agitated1 until1 with an adaptation of the protean motive 7a7 for horns and trumpets1 allegro marziale 7l7 7,figure ,,xxxiii71 the fifth section1 ,war1 is introduced4 ,piccolos and drums become prominent1 and at page #hb of the score even the love motive 7b7 takes on a militant character 7m1 ,figure ,,xxxiii74 ,turmoil now increases steadily until a sort of apotheosis is reached with the rentrance of the majestic passage 7d71 in ,figure ,,xxx1 and the poem comes to an impressive close4 ,illustration3 score 7l7 ,illustration3 score 7m7 ,figure ,,xxxiii4 ,the advantages of such a scheme of form as is exemplified in ,les ,prludes are many2 and they are made the most of by ,liszt1 with his accustomed cleverness and long-headed sense for practical values4 ,for both of the two classes of listeners that make up the average concert audience music made on this recipe has an appropriate appeal4 ,that class1 usually a majority1 which has little ear for music1 but likes to indulge itself in vague dreams1 pictorial imaginings1 and nervous thrills1 finds its account in the program1 follows out with interest the suggestions of the various moods1 such as1 in the present instance1 the amorous1 the stormy1 the pastoral1 the warlike1 and gets its fill1 all along the way1 of brilliant and gorgeous tone-coloring1 exciting rhythms1 sombre1 rich1 or mysterious harmonies4 ,at the same time the minority of true music-lovers have1 as they have not in the works of ,berlioz1 a logical and lucid play of definite motives to enjoy2 they trace with never failing interest the transformations of a few simple themes2 they may entirely forget the program1 and yet have plenty of opportunity for an agreeable activity of attention1 perception1 memory1 and imagination4 ,thus each hearer may pick out from the mass of conglomerate impressions something that appeals to him4 ,there is a fine freedom about the symphonic poem which degenerates into lawlessness only when the composer's skill is insufficient to hold it firmly in hand4 ,it is not1 like the sonata and the symphony1 condemned beforehand to follow a certain course1 to fill a predetermined mould2 it can ramify1 as it proceeds1 in obedience to its own latent possibilities4 ,a development here may be expanded to great length1 an episode or repetition there may be abbreviated to the slightest possible compass2 so long as each link securely engages the next1 so long as there is no break in the coherence of the thread1 the hearer will be satisfied4 ,through all the twists and turns the presence of the fundamental melodies will save him from that sense of mere drifting which was so painful to ,wagner in listening to ,berlioz's ,romeo and ,juliet4 ,the symphonic poem bears1 in fact1 somewhat the same relation to the symphony that rhymed couplets bear to a sonnet1 triolet1 or other conventional verse-form4 ,it exacts little of strict formalism2 but by retaining1 underneath all its free ramification1 certain basic principles of balance and symmetry1 it escapes the pitfall of amorphousness1 and constantly satisfies1 though in unexpected ways1 the radical expectations of the intelligent listener4 ,unfortunately1 however1 ,liszt himself fell short of realizing the finer potentialities of his own device4 ,just as his primal melodies1 as we have already seen1 are usually of a stilted1 rhetorical1 and artificial character1 his treatment of them1 the second but scarcely less important of the processes of composition1 is generally labored2 it is apt to be a clever feat of intelligence1 a sort of mental legerdemain1 rather than a spontaneous germination of idea4 ,what he said of ,chopin's larger works1 that they showed plus de volont que d'inspiration1 is true of his own4 ,his developments are as often distortions as fulfilments1 and among his melodies there are many monsters4 ,plausible1 and even winning1 as are at first sight some of the thematic transformations 7for we are apt to be won by any display of intelligence1 no matter how specious its ends71 on closer inspection they are seen to be mere juggling4 ,the variants of motive 7a71 in ,les ,prludes1 shown at 7c7 and 7d7 in ,figure ,,xxx1 at 7g7 in ,figure ,,xxxi1 and at 7l7 in ,figure ,,xxxiii1 have an unpleasant sub-flavor of artificiality2 analysis reveals their derivation from the parent motive1 but affection1 so to speak1 repudiates them4 ,even more is this the case with 7f7 in ,figure ,,xxx1 and 7m7 in ,figure ,,xxxiii1 which1 though we see that they come from motive b1 we feel to be parodies or caricatures of it1 bearing only a superficial resemblance to it1 and quite devoid of its essential character4 ,such observations make us wonder whether a theme is not truly as inconvertible into anything else as any other individual being1 and whether the kind of thematic transformation1 or deformation1 adopted by ,liszt1 is not after all intrinsically mechanical and inartistic4 ,if the reader will take the trouble to look at some typical example of thematic evolution as it is practised by a master like ,beethoven1 such as the first movement1 for instance1 of the ,eroica ,symphony1#de he will see what a vast difference there is between such inevitable drawing forth of the very soul of a melody1 by a process as august and beyond human whim as the processes of nature1 and the laborious ingenuity of the composer of ,les ,prludes4 ,as in this all-important matter of thematic development1 so is it in other subordinate matters of technic3 ,liszt1 allowing mere ostentation1 immediate effect upon an audience1 to have too large a part in his artistic ideal1 falls thereby into a hundred artificialities4 ,while he was alive the extraordinary magnetism of his personality carried it all off1 by disguising the factitiousness of his methods1 and reinforcing immensely their superficial appeal2 but stripped from himself and scanned in the cold impersonal light of criticism1 his gorgeous artistic accoutrements look thin and tawdry1 and prove to be made1 not of genuine gold1 but of theatrical tinsel4 ,his melody1 when it neither struts nor fawns1 is apt to stagnate4 ,his furiously chromatic harmony gains its effectiveness at the expense of solidity2 by too completely forgetting key-relationship1 on which all genuine harmony must depend1 it falls into chaos1 as the harmony of a master such as ,wagner never does4 ,when it is based on the old ecclesiastical modes instead of on the chromatic scale1 as in many passages of the later religious works1 it is no less a fabrication1 an artifice3 the ,palestrina-like ending of the ,credo in the ,gran ,mass1 for example1 is pseudo-medivalism1 such as no modern composer could write spontaneously4 ,his orchestration1 much praised1 is indeed skilful1 but radically vulgar2 his amorous 'cellos and braying trombones are enemies fatal to artistic moderation and restraint4 ,even in his piano-writing1 so large an element in his fame1 his methods are those of barbarism4 ,he ignores the lesson of fitness that ,chopin might have taught him1 and overstrains the resources of the poor instrument until1 instead of achieving its own unique possibilities1 it becomes a forlorn imitation of an orchestra1 without an orchestra's variety1 sonority1 and grandeur4 ,thus is the virtuoso spirit of ,liszt1 which had thriven on adulation only too well from the days when1 as le petit ,litz1 he made the tour of the boxes1 to those later days when1 as ,the ,master1 he oscillated between ,rome and ,weimar in one prolonged triumph1 responsible for errors of taste and judgment which seriously impair the value of all his work4 ,yet there was in him1 besides the virtuoso who fed on applause and was not superior to charlatanisms when they served his purpose1 quite another being1 who aspired honestly to be a faithful servant of art1 and who brought to the service rare intellectual powers4 ,this was the ,liszt who befriended all worthy composers1 who gave freely of his time1 his money1 and his strength1 whenever he saw merit unacknowledged or genius struggling for bread4 ,this was the ,liszt who kept ,wagner alive until the world could learn to appreciate him1 who sought out ,csar ,franck when he was the obscure organist of ,st4 ,clotilde1 who risked his post as ,kapellmeister in order to produce an opera by his friend ,cornelius4 ,and this was the ,liszt whose keen wit discerned the principles of combined musical and dramatic form on which works intrinsically far superior to his own were later written by ,dvok1 ,smetana1 ,tschakowsky1 ,saint-,sans1 and ,richard ,strauss4 ,whatever his purely musical powers1 his indefatigable and highly cultivated mind and his generous heart enabled him to play an important rle in the history of music4 ,,footnotes3 #ch ,ramann1 ,life of ,liszt1 ,eng4 trans41 ,i1 #bah4 #ci ,letters of ,liszt1 ed4 by ,la ,mara1 ,eng4 trans41 ,i1 #h4 #dj ,brahms is said to have fallen asleep during ,liszt's performance of it4 ,see ,dr4 ,william ,mason's ,memories of a ,musical ,life4 #da ,amy ,fay1 ,music ,study in ,germany4 #db ,janka ,wohl1 ,recollections of ,liszt1 ,eng4 trans41 p4 #i4 #dc ,ibid41 p4 #ahg4 #dd ,see1 as examples of this cloying harmonization1 both excerpts in ,figure ,,xxix1 or almost any of the ,consolations and ,liebestrume4 ,an especially flagrant instance may be found in the ,piano ,sonata in ,b-minor1 edition of ,breitkopf and ,hrtel1 p4 #bi1 the last measure4 #de ,see the present author's ,beethoven and his ,forerunners1 pp4 #caf-cba4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,transcriber',s ,,notes3 ,italic text is denoted by underscores4 ,a number of words in this book have both hyphenated and non-hyphenated variants4 ,for the words with both variants present the one more used has been kept4 ,obvious punctuation and other printing errors have been corrected4