life of nature in animals, birds, trees and flowers. Let us ever
remember that the imagination also has its products and the
themes of a symphony may certainly be considereditschildren.
The public often seems to have slight idea of the sanctity and
mystery of a musical idea. Composers are considered people
with a kind of “knack” in writing down notes. In reality, a musi-
cal idea is as wonderful a thing as we can conceive—a miracle of
life and yet intangible, ethereal. The composer apparently cre-
ates something out of nothing, pure fancy being wrought into
terms of communication. Since the close of the Romantic period
proper, the Symphonic composers of universal recognition have
been Brahms, Franck, Tchaikowsky, d’Indy, Sibelius, Bruckner,
Mahler, Dvo[vr]ák, Elgar, and a few lesser men of the Russian
and French schools. Their works carry still further the prin-
ciples which can be traced from Beethoven down through the
Romantic School,i.e., the chief themes are of a highly subjec-
tive nature, often in fact being treated like actual characters in
a drama; and great freedom is shown in regard to mood and or-
der of the usual symphonic movements—this being particularly
true of Mahler and Bruckner. A distinct feature of interest in
the work of Tchaikowsky, Dvo[vr]ák and Sibelius is the introduc-
tion of exotic types of melody and rhythm, drawn from national
sources. Thus Tchaikowsky, who said that he wished all his in-
strumental music to sound like a glorified Russian folk-song, uses
rhythms of 5 and (in his chamber music) 7 beats a measure, with
frequent touches of old modal harmony. Dvo[vr]ák founds his
harmony and modulations on the exceedingly chromatic scale
of the Bohemians; and his piquant and dashing rhythms could
come only from a nation which has no less than forty national
dances. In listening to Sibelius, we are conscious of the wild
sweep of the wind, of unchained forces of nature; and there are
the same traits of virile strength and grim dignity which have
made the Kalevala, Finland’s national poem, one of the great
epics of the world. Although Brahms never lets us forget that he
is a Teuton, there are frequent traces in his compositions of the
Hungarian element—so dear to all the Viennese composers—as
well as of German folk-songs; and the most artistic treatment we
have of Hungarian rhythms is found in his two sets of Hungarian
dances.
It is manifestly beyond the scope of a single book to treat com-
prehensively each of the symphonists in the list just cited, so I
shall dwell chiefly upon the characteristics of Brahms, Franck,