[...]... of the place 3 In fact no MASTERS OF GERMAN MUSIC attempt was made on any other behalf of him as the Of course a musician, and both sides accepted defender of musical orthodoxy position of this kind, or even one of absolute pre-eminence, In England, as everywhere of greatness sensible men know how little in such matters the present of the not any sort of actual criterion is is moment And it ; but Germany... poetic the one of two imagination and dramatic power of the creator of the " music drama," or the freedom, 2 originality, and con- JOHANNES BRAHMS structive genius of the present representative of the classical masters Part of the great debt which English lovers of modern music owe to Hans Richter is on account of having his placed, from the beginning of his concerts in London, the works of Brahms and... As a rule these are in the direction of making the general course of the work clearer and more intelligible in its earlier form it was one of the most difficult of his works, not only \ x 5 MASTERS OF GERMAN MUSIC to but play, changes of occurred is all a character, One understand amount an demonstrates criticism that artists to the rarest of all In kinds theme of of its self- among virtues adagio there... identical with that of Beethoven's great sonata in B flat, op 106 The resemblance saute aux yeux, and has not escaped the notice of the German biographers throws into all the of the greater astonishing originality of ii its master; but it prominence the treatment The MASTERS OF GERMAN MUSIC slow movement, built upon national song, an early is fondness poser's theme of a example of the com- for the... been of the Since the \ composer German up a slightest death of the Wagner of only left one highest rank at the head of musicians, there has gradually sprung feeling of toleration on each side, not for who can conscientiously be numbered among the admirers of the other, but for those claim to both the great masters of the nineteenth century that mankind can things — either And it is latter half of absurd... nearly scattered through Of course, if and ; his works, all them with no niggard hand the only function of music appeal to the lower emotions of the less is to culti- vated classes, then Brahms cannot rank with the great masters at all but in that case the whole ; must be re-arranged, and of musical history Beethoven must be recognised as the Offenbach or the compiler of the ferior of street song merit... admirer of Brahms and Wagner." One can hardly conceive the remark being made by even the most borne of German musicians : It is ; not necessary to go into the Wagner controversy, except for the sake of illustrating the position held by Brahms in the musical world of Germany at the present time desire to bring forward a champion In their in opposi- Wagner, the antagonists of the modern developments of the... in positions of equal honour His doing so has undoubtedly enabled English musicians to free themselves from the prejudices to which many Germans are still subject As an instance of how little the German condition of things can be paralleled among ourselves, the too remark of eminent an centred English musician and somewhat may be self- quoted, who, on hearing of a new appointment on the musical " is... composers, whose weaker works likely have disappeared, there of the will may very remain few beside Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, and, curi- In the case of Mozart ously enough, Chopin and Haydn, it must be remembered that the con- dition of the musical world in their day 7 made MASTERS OF GERMAN MUSIC it imperative upon them to write in and out of season This high name it by one say, is fulfilled and test,... worth really else, popular of and expert impossible to study the is compositions of Brahms as a whole and not to realise that their author personalities in the is whole one of the strongest line of the masters of music If evidence of this without, we have only with which they were wanting from to consider the hostility are received still in some quarters ;/for the existence of a strong opposition implies . every part of the work. J. A. FULLER MAITLAND. London, 1894.