“ Danger that the free course of Art may be paralysed by a soulless mannerism, worthy only of the meanest copyist. Danger, on the other hand, of a reaction, which will be all the more violent and unreasonable in proportion to the amount of provocation needed to excite it. Should the cry of the revolutionary party be for Melody, it will not be for Melody of that heavenly form which true genius alone can produce, but for the vulgar twang with which we have long been threatened, and of which we have already endured far more than enough. ”

“ No man could have called up the new emotions of the M.N.D. Overture, the wonderful pictures of the Hebrides, or the pathetic distress of the lovely Melusina, without genius of the highest order. But his genius had not been subjected to those fiery trials which seem necessary to ensure its abiding possession of the depths of the human heart. 'My music,' says Schubert, 'is the product of my genius and my misery; and that which I have written in my greatest distress is that which the world seems to like best.' Now Mendelssohn was nevermore than temporarily unhappy. ”

“ The time immediately following Bach had no sympathy with the depth and individuality of his genius. True, his pupils and sons revered him as a consummate and inimitable contrapuntist and a masterly composer, and with true instinct set themselves to collect and copy all his existing works for piano and organ which they could procure. But with their generation all real interest in this mighty genius vanished, and it is not too much to say that within forty years after Bach's death, his fame, though still unapproachable, had become a mere historic tradition. ”

“ The mental and moral horizon of the music grows upon us with each renewed hearing. The different movements—like the different particles of each movement—have as close a connection with one another as the acts of a tragedy, and a characteristic significance to be understood only in relation to the whole; each work is in the full sense of the word a revelation. Beethoven speaks a language no one has spoken before, and treats of things no one has dreamt of before: yet it seems as though he were speaking of matters long familiar, in one's mother tongue ”

“ It is impossible not to feel in all his music the master's joy in his power over his materials; and the satisfaction afforded by a study of his works is mainly based on a perception of this even balance between thought and expression, showing as it does, the extent, while it defines the limits, of his sphere as a composer. He was not tormented, like his pupil Jommelli, by the unequal conflict between prophetic glimpses of new phases of art, far beyond the power of his own limited genius to grasp or realise, and a science too superficial to do justice to ancient forms. ”

“ Will the revolutionary spirit which is now working such radical changes in the construction of the Opera affect the Oratorio also? Will the neglect of Counterpoint, the contempt for Fugue, the hatred of Polyphony, which so many young Musicians—and not young ones only—are rapidly learning to regard as signs of 'progress,' undermine the very foundations of Sacred Music to such an extent as to render the production of new and worthy works impossible? Is there genius enough in the world to strike out an entirely new conception, and learning enough to ensure its successful embodiment? ”

“ Even to those who, like the writer, only heard him after he had passed his zenith, it is a thing never to be forgotten. Perhaps the maturity of the taste and expression made up for a little falling off in the voice. His delivery of opera and oratorio music—his favourite pieces from Euryanthe, Jean de Paris, Le Chaperon rouge, and Le Philtre; or the part of Elijah, or certain special airs of Bach—was superb in taste, feeling, and execution; but it was the Lieder of Schubert and Schumann that most peculiarly suited him, and these he delivered in a truly remarkable way. ”

“ The history of our own English Carols has not yet been exhaustively treated; nor has their Music received the attention it deserves. In no part of the world has the recurrence of Yule-Tide been welcomed with greater rejoicings than in England; and, as a natural consequence, the Christmas Carol has obtained a firm hold, less upon the taste than the inmost affections of the People. Not to love a Carol is to proclaim oneself a churl. Yet, not one of our great Composers seems to have devoted his attention to this subject. We have no English Noëls like those of Eustache du Caurroy. ”

“ Starting from the vantage of symphonic music, he asserts that we may hope to rise to the level of Greek tragedy: our theatre can be made to embody our ideal of life. From the Opera at its best a Drama can be evolved that shall express the vast issues and complex relations of modern life and thought, as the Greek stage expressed the life and thought of Greece.
The theatre is the centre of popular culture. For good or for evil it exerts the chief influence—from it the arts, as far as they affect the people, take their cue. Practically its power is unlimited. ”

“ A work of Art is great in proportion, and only in proportion, to its truth. The moment its conceptions cease to be natural, it ceases to be worthy of our regard. 'Die Zauberflöte' is true to Nature, from its first note to its last; and the hand of the greatest of modern Masters is as clearly perceptible in the tinkle of Papageno's 'Glockenspiel,' as in the grandest contrapuntal triumph of the last Finale. ”

“ I dislike everything that requires a verbal explanation beyond the actual sounds. For instance, the middle of Berlioz's touching scene d'amour in his 'Romeo and Juliet' is meant by him to reproduce in musical phrases the lines about the lark and the nightingale in Shakspeare's balcony-scene, but it does nothing of the sort—it is not intelligible as music. Berlioz added to, altered, and spoilt his work. This so-called Symphonie dramatique of Berlioz's as it now stands is neither fish nor flesh—strictly speaking it is no symphony at all. There is no unity of matter, no unity of style. ”

“ We in no wise depreciate the merits of either Composer when we say that the one was the High Priest of the Sublime, and the other the Father of Modern Beauty. Each excelled in his own way, and each way was in itself perfect. Handel could no more have written 'The Creation' than Haydn could have written 'Israel in Egypt'; nor could any one but Haydn have written 'The Seasons'—another work full of delicious imagery, and, if more sæcular in its character than 'The Creation,' only just so much so as was necessary in order to bring the Music into closer harmony with the subject. ”

“ MANIER, (Ger.) , lit. 'manner'; derived, like our word 'manner,' through the French manière, a manner, and manier, to handle, from the Latin manus, a hand. It has two entirely distinct meanings, one dealing with the æsthetics of music, the other with its technicalities. In the first of these connections the word signifies 'mannerism,' or the faulty adherence to some peculiarity in style, bringing such peculiarity into undue prominence. It is the abuse of individuality, without which quality no composer can be truly great. The German word is always used in this sense of reproach ”

“ The essence of true Song, as Schubert clearly saw, is deep, concentrated emotion, enthralling words and music alike, and suffusing them with its own hues. Full of poetry himself, he could enter into the very heart and mind of the poet, and write, as it were, with his own identity merged in another's. So wide was the range of his sympathetic intuition that he took songs of different kinds from all the great German poets, and widely as their styles varied, so did his treatment. Some demanded a simple strophic form; some a change of melody for every stanza ”

“ Enough that Francesco Schira is a composer of the genuine Italian type; Italian by birth he is also Italian by predilection—a true child of the sunny land to which we owe Piccinni, Cimarosa, Paisiello, Rossini, Bellini and Verdi. His music, while revealing the hand of one who has thoroughly mastered the principles of his art, is free from all pretence, relying upon its unaffected simplicity and grace for the impression it seldom fails to create. ”

“ Nearer akin to the warm but contemplative enthusiasm of Schumann than to the passionate spontaneity of Schubert, Franz's songs are anything but cold, nor do they in any case smell of the lamp; they are reticent rather than outspoken, timid rather than bold, pathetic without conscious pathos, eloquent without studied rhetoric; always true, giving more than they seem to give, saying more than they seem to say; frequently naïf yet far from trivial, here and there profound, rarely ecstatic or voluptuous, not once perverse or dry or commonplace. ”

“ Coming now to modern times, we find a perfect mania for giving names to pieces—showing the bias of popular taste. Every concert overture must have a title, whether it be programme-music or not. Every 'drawing-room' piece, every waltz or galop, must have its distinctive name, till we cease to look for much descriptiveness in any music. It cannot be said that all Mendelssohn's overtures are programme-music. ”

“ In estimating the position in his art of Sterndale Bennett (by this double name he has always been best known among writers and discoursers on music) , it must be admitted that his genius had not that irresistible sweep and sway which compels the admiration even of the crowd, and utters things which sink deep into the souls of men. He can hardly be reckoned among the great musical poets of the world, and it would be both unwise and uncritical to claim that place for him. ”

“ It is much to be regretted that the more modern composers have lost sight of the true bearing of the Scherzo so completely. Mendelssohn indeed has given it an elfish fairy character, but though this is admirable in the 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' it is perhaps a little out of place elsewhere. Lightness and airy grace his Scherzos possess to admiration, in common with his Capriccios, which they closely resemble; but the musical humour which vents itself in unexpected rhythms and impudent upstartings of themes in strange places, neither he nor any later composer seems to have had an idea of. ”

“ Their beauty of tone is not so easily reached as in the case of many other makers. Their vibrations increase in warmth, the more the player, discovering their richness and variety, seeks from the instrument a sympathetic echo of his own emotions: so much so that they seem to be living beings, and become as it were the player's personal familiars—as if Stradivari had breathed a soul into them, in a manner achieved by no other master. ”

“ Tartini's fame rests on threefold ground. He was one of the greatest violinists of all time, an eminent composer, and a scientific writer on musical physics. To gain an idea of his style of playing we must turn to the testimony of his contemporaries. They all agree in crediting him with those qualities which make a great player: a fine tone, unlimited command of fingerboard and bow, enabling him to overcome the greatest difficulties with complete ease; perfect intonation in double-stops, and a most brilliant shake and double-shake, which he executed equally well with all fingers. ”

“ Turning away from Beethoven we must remark, as we have done under Scherzo, that humour in music is rarely to be found elsewhere. Gaiety, liveliness, we find abundantly in Haydn and Mozart, piquant gracefulness in Schubert, Mendelssohn and composers of the French school, a certain grotesqueness occasionally in Schumann, Dvořák and Rubinstein; but in vain do we seek for those sudden contrasts of mood and matter which are the essence of humour. ”

“ At times the master would seat himself at the piano and play, but this supreme pleasure could never be counted upon. It was noticeable that this most unselfish of geniuses was never more strict or more terrible than when a Beethoven sonata was brought to him, whereas he would listen to the execution of his own compositions with indulgent patience—a characteristic trait. Yet Liszt's thoughts often dwelt upon his great choral works, and he was heard to declare that sacred music had become to him the only thing worth living for. ”

“ If there is excitement to be got up at any particular point there must be something real in the bustle and vehemence; something intense enough to justify it, or else it will be mere vanity; the cleverness of the fingers disguising the emptiness of the soul,—a fit accompaniment to 'the clatter of dishes at a princely table,' as Wagner says, but not Music. Such is the vital germ from which spring the real peculiarities and individualities of Beethoven's instrumental compositions. ”

“ Next we witness a savage brawl breaking out between rival knights, and hear the clash of swords as they rush together. And in and out all the time the spirit-world is weaving its invisible threads. Each of these situations Weber could fit with its appropriate expression, as no one else had ever been able to do before him, for he it was indeed who created the musical language for them. And it is on these situations, so varied, and so well contrasted, but all steeped in glow and fragrance, that the main interest of the opera is concentrated. ”

“ In the bright constellation of Neapolitan composers Leo shines as a brilliant star. To a complete command of science and of the art of vocal writing he united freshness and originality of thought, and perhaps in no composer are the germs of modern fancy so happily blent with the purity and dignity of the old Roman writers. His ideas, if not sublime, are noble; always sound and healthy ”

“ The popular music of Portugal bears a close affinity to that of Spain, especially in dance tunes. But there are clearly marked differences. The Portuguese is more pensive and tranquil than the fiery, excitable Spaniard; and as national music never fails to be more or less a reflection of national character, there is a vein of repose and subdued melancholy, and an absence of exaggeration in Portuguese music, such as are seldom, if ever, found in the more vivacious and stirring music of Spain. ”

“ If Palestrina is superior to Vittoria, as Beethoven is to Schubert, yet as Schubert has many points of excellence which form a fitting complement to those of Beethoven, so Vittoria has certain points of excellence more characteristic and more valuable than those of Anerio and Soriano, which mark him out as the fitting complement to Palestrina. If Vittoria has not the science, the variety, the boldness, the perfect originality of Palestrina, yet in him depth of feeling comes to more direct and immediate expression. ”

“ The Eighteenth Period of our history takes us once more, and for the last time, to Italy, where we find the work of Cimarosa followed up by one of the most brilliant geniuses the world has ever known. While Weber was studiously developing the Romantic School in Germany, Rossini was introducing unheard-of changes—not always for the better, but always striking and effective—into the inmost constitution of Italian Art, and carrying them out with such trenchant vigour, and on so extensive a scale, that he may be said to have entirely remodelled both the Opera Seria and the Opera Buffa. ”

“ Just so, through the disguises of the Symphony, one kept hearing "Spohr, Spohr" in every corner of the room.' Hence there is considerable sameness—nay, monotony, in his works. Be it oratorio or concerto, opera or string-quartet—he treats them all very much in the same manner, and it is not so much the distinctive styles peculiar to these several forms of music that we find, as Spohr's peculiar individuality impressed upon all of them. He certainly was not devoid of originality—in fact his style and manner are so entirely his own that no composer is perhaps so absolutely unmistakeable as he is. ”