250 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



In a general way it can be determined whence and whither came and 

 went this or that period in literature, but the different historical phases of 

 art, especially music, are less easily identified with those larger social 

 conditions to which Hterature owes so much. Not only this, but the so- 

 called meaning of music is a subjective phenomenon quite independent 

 of outward events. 



Historically, it is almost impossible to criticise music except from the 

 standpoint of the present, for at different times the same music has pro- 

 duced different effects. The subject of form can be somewhat definitely 

 considered, but in its truest sense form is innate and not an outward appli- 

 cation of rules. It is this latter view of form which ought to be dis- 

 couraged, as it tends to substitute the study of the letter for the spirit of 

 music. It is nobler to play a Bach fugue than to learnedly talk about it. 

 The desire to analyze and reduce to facts, tends to produce insensitive- 

 ness in the realm of the imaginative, resulting in this, that the artistic 

 nature is crushed and superficial learning is recognized in place of the 

 finer artistic feeHng which alone is able to create and interpret art. Art 

 begins where definition ceases, and genius silently works unheedful of the 

 theories and so-called learned opinions on the subject of what music has 

 been, is and ought to be. 



If we are to be just in this matter we must study the attitude of the 

 composer toward his art and the pubhc, and also thoughtfully view those 

 present conditions which so strongly influence composers. Is that attitude 

 serious, is it sincere ? Granting that it is usually both serious and sincere, 

 yet it may not always be right, owing to reasons for which the composer 

 himself cannot be blamed. A less godlike genius than a Beethoven must 

 be swept along by the current of his time. Neither diplomacy nor char- 

 latanism can be forgiven in the world of creative art, but mistakes, the 

 result of misdirected but earnest effort, can be in a measure overlooked. 

 The modern composer has temptations that did not exist in the same 

 sense in the classical period of the eighteenth and early part of the nine- 

 teenth century. The tendency of the classic was upward, while that of 

 the romantic is toward the decadent, and hence the romantic can only be 

 preserved by the force of exceptional creative genius. Such a genius was 

 Schumann. "Attitude" is the word so httle comprehended and yet so 



