composed it subsequently. Although an excellent imitator in the way
of mimicry, he lacked the talent of imitating musical thought and
character; at any rate, there are no traces of it in his works. The
cause of this lack of talent lies, of course, in the strength of his
subjectivism in the first place, and of his nationalism in the second. I
said the Bolero was published four years before his visit to Spain. But
how many years before this visit was it composed? I think a good many
years earlier; for it has so much of his youthful style about it, and
not only of his youthful style, but also of his youthful character--by
which I mean that it is less intensely poetic. It is not impossible that
Chopin was instigated to write it by hearing the Bolero in Auber's "La
Muette de Portici" ("Masaniello"), which opera was first performed on
February 28, 1828. These remarks are thrown out merely as hints. The
second composition which we shall consider will show how dangerous it is
to dogmatise on the strength of internal evidence.

Op. 16, a lightsome Rondeau with a dramatic Introduction, is, like the
Bolero, not without its beauties; but in spite of greater individuality,
ranks, like it, low among the master's works, being patchy, unequal, and
little poetical.

If ever Chopin is not Chopin in his music, he is so in his Variations
brillantes (in B flat major) sur le Rondeau favori: "Je vends des
Scapulaires" de Ludovic, de Herold et Halevy, Op. 12. Did we not know
that he must have composed the work about the middle of 1833, we should
be tempted to class it with the works which came into existence when his
individuality was as yet little developed. [FOOTNOTE: The opera Ludovic,
on which Herold was engaged when he died on January 19, 1833, and which
Halevy completed, was produced in Paris on May 16, 1833. From the German
publishers of Chopin's Op. 12 I learned that it appeared in November,
1833. In the Gazette musicale of January 26, 1834, may be read a review
of it.] But knowing what we do, we can only wonder at the strange
phenomenon. It is as if Chopin had here thrown overboard the Polish
part of his natal inheritance and given himself up unrestrainedly and
voluptuously to the French part. Besides various diatonic runs of an
inessential and purely ornamental character, there is in the finale
actually a plain and full-toned C flat major scale. What other work
of the composer could be pointed out exhibiting the like feature?
Of c