MUSICAL COMPOSITION

INFLUENCES IN INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC 157and, mirabile dictu, Dussek (The Sufferings of the Queenof France). From this somewhat obscure stock descendedthe first notable men who sowed in thisdebateable ground, Berlioz and Liszt. Realism wasthe ground principle of it, and as realism advanced,idealism retreated. Sundry composers of the highestidealistic aims occasionally played with the fascinatingsiren, such as Spohr, Mendelssohn, Schumann, SterndaleBennett, but they none of them allowed realism to domore than peep in on rare occasions. If the braying ofthe ass is reproduced in Mendelssohn's MidsummerNight's Dream overture, it must not be forgotten thatthe work was written for the theatre, where the acting ofthe play would explain it. The concert-overtures ofthe same composer are labelled with the names of thepersons and things which suggested them, but they arethe very reverse of realistic, and would be equallysatisfying as pure music without any title at all Theattractiveness of writing programme-music, such assymphonic poems and the like, lies in the comparativefreedom from set form and difficult development ofideas which it holds out to the beginner. It is easierto write than absolute music, just as so-called freecounterpoint is easier than strict. It imports the moreunshackled type of stage-music into the domain ofconcert-music. It suggests the broad and easy path ofinventing whole series of themes instead of the narrowand laborious path of developing a few. But thebeginner who first chooses the easy way will rarely beable to retrace his steps or to face the difficultiesof the narrow one. It is only the master of allkinds of form who can make it subservient to hisends; he only can effectively dictate his orders to