his style to the exclusion of the intensity and bold dramatic
power that characterize much of his music to a marked degree.
Though of frail physique,[212] and though living in an environ-
ment which tended to overdevelop his fastidious nature, Chopin
had a fiery soul, which would assert itself with unmistakable
force. His music by no means consists solely of melting moods
or languorous sighs; he had a keen instinct for the dissonant
element (witness passages in the G minor Ballade); he was a
daring harmonic innovator; and much of his music is surcharged
with tragic significance. A born stylist, he nevertheless did not
avoid incessant labor to secure the acme of finish. So perfect
in his works is the balance between substance and treatment,
that they make a direct appeal to music-lovers of every nation.
In listening to Chopin we are never conscious of turgidity, of
diffuseness, of labored treatment of material. All is direct, pel-
lucid; poetic thoughts are presented in a convincingly beautiful
manner. He was a great colorist as well, and in his work we must
recognize the fact that color in music is as distinct an achieve-
ment of the imagination as profound thought or beauty of line.
Chopin’s position in regard to program music is an interesting
subject for speculation. Few of his works bear specifically de-
scriptive titles; and it is well known that he had little sympathy
with the extreme tendencies of Berlioz and Liszt. Yet there is,
in general, something more than an abstract presentation of mu-
sical material, however beautiful. The varied moods aroused by
the Ballades and Nocturnes, the actual pictures we see in the
Polonaises, must have had their counterpart in definite subjec-
tive experiences in the life of the composer, and so from a broad
psychological standpoint—even in the absence of explanatory
titles—we may call Chopin a thoroughly romantic tone-poet;
indeed, as Balzac says, “a soul which rendered itself audible.”
[Footnote 212: He was born of a Polish mother and a French
father, and these mixed strains of blood account fundamentally
for the leading characteristics of his music. From the former
strain came the impassioned, romantic and at times chivalrous
moods, prominent in all Polish life and art; and from the lat-
ter the grace, charm and finish which we rightly associate with
the French nature. For side-lights on Chopin’s intimacy with
George Sand see the well-known essays by Henry James and
René Doumic.]
As Chopin composed so idiomatically for his chosen instrument,