20 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
secondary themes are all included in the musical inspiration itself, a 
truth still further developed by Wagner when he insists that a correct 
understanding of the “Melos” (meaning melody in all its phases) is 
alone the true guide to a proper tempo, the one implying and qualifying 
the other; and that a failure to understand the “‘Melos”’ inevitably results 
in a failure to determine the proper tempo. This being true of the the- 
matic material of a composition, how vital and far reaching it is when 
applied to not only the thematic but to the entire musical contents of a 
composition. Viewed from this standpoint those opinions of a composer 
and his compositions—opinions based upon the mere technical rules of 
form—are of little value, and often do much harm owing to their seeming 
value because appearing very scholarly. Schumann once said that most 
critics are either disappointed executants or composers—but we are not 
speaking of critics. 
No great composer ever seriously erred in his form of expression after 
he had mastered the musical and technical material of his art. How 
Beethoven must have enjoyed as a huge joke the learned explanations 
and criticisms of his compositions by those who were still talking about 
the sacred rules of art, who sometimes, like the watchman in Die Meis- 
tersinger, come forth and announce in a peaceful voice that all is well, 
or else like Beckmesser they squeak forth that all is wrong—or something 
to that effect. 
But this inner relation of the composer to his art has a yet deeper 
significance, for in its full development it becomes an exact statement 
of his spiritual insight, and of his attitude toward not only art but life. 
I use the word spiritual in its broad sense. The composer of merely 
light operas or popular piano music could never be pardoned for saying 
that he could write a symphony if he wanted to. If he had the genius to 
compose a symphony no power could hinder him. Even the prospect of 
starvation is no obstacle to genius when it has a great message to the 
world. It is only the man of talent, the mere conversationalist, who is 
always talking about what the public wants and what he must compose 
in order to earn a living. The life of even Beethoven was all too brief, 
and toward its close he exclaimed, “I feel that I have but just begun!’ 
How brief then in reality is the life of a lesser genius than Beethoven— 
