[Footnote 174: Some very sane comments may be found in
Pratt’sHistory of Music, pp. 427, 501, 502.]
[Footnote 175: “Aclassicis properly a book”—and the same
would be true of a musical composition—“which maintains itself
by that happy coalescence of matter and style, that innate and
requisite sympathy between the thought that gives life and the
form that consents to every mood of grace and dignity, and
which is something neither ancient nor modern, always new and
incapable of growing old.”
Lowell,Among My Books.]
Beginning, however, with Schubert and Weber—the two first
representatives of the romantic group—there is a marked nov-
elty of content and style; and if we drop the terms and con-
fine ourselves to the inner evidence of the music itself, we note
a difference which may be felt and to a certain extent formu-
lated. To take extreme types for the sake of vivid contrast, let
us compare the compositions of Haydn and Mozart with those
of Berlioz and Liszt. In the former there is repose, restraint
and a perfect finish in the structural presentation; a feeling
of serenity comes over us as we listen. In the latter, a pecu-
liar intensity of expression, an attempt to fascinate the listener
by the most intimate kinds of appeal, especially to the senses
and fancy, regardless of any liberties taken with former modes
of treatment. The purely classical composer is always master
of his subject, whereas the romanticist is often carried away
by it. Classical works are objectively beautiful, commending
themselves to everyone like works of nature, or, let us say, like
decorative patterns in pure design. Romantic works are sub-
jective, charged with individuality and demand a sensitive and
sympathetic appreciation on the part of the hearer. It is evi-
dent that many of these tendencies are found clearly outlined in
the works of Beethoven. In fact, as has been said, he was not
only the climax of the classical school, but the founder of the
new era—opening a door, as it were, into the possibilities of a
more intense, specialized form of emotional utterance and a freer
conception of form. These special characteristics were so fully
developed by Beethoven’s successors, Schubert, Weber, Schu-
mann, Chopin,etc. that they are always grouped together as
the Romantic School. A striking feature in this whole Romantic
group is the early flowering of their genius and the shortness of
their lives—Weber, forty years, Schubert, thirty-one, Schumann,