is work?
Does it not rather suggest a Titan in commotion? There was a time when
I spoke of the Fantasia in a less complimentary tone, now I bow down my
head regretfully and exclaim peccavi. The disposition of the composition
may be thus briefly indicated. A tempo di marcia opens the Fantasia--it
forms the porch of the edifice. The dreamy triplet passages of the poco
a poco piu mosso are comparable to galleries that connect the various
blocks of buildings. The principal subject, or accumulation of themes,
recurs again and again in different keys, whilst other subjects appear
only once or twice between the repetitions of the principal subject.

The mazurkas of Chopin are a literature in themselves, said Lenz,
and there is some truth in his saying. They may, indeed, be called
a literature in themselves for two reasons--first, because of their
originality, which makes them things sui generis; and secondly, because
of the poetical and musical wealth of their contents. Chopin, as I have
already said, is most national in the mazurkas and polonaises, for
the former of which he draws not only inspiration, but even rhythmic,
melodic, and harmonic motives from his country's folk-music. Liszt told
me, in a conversation I had with him, that he did not care much for
Chopin's mazurkas. "One often meets in them with bars which might just
as well be in another place." But he added, "And yet as Chopin puts
them, perhaps nobody else could have put them." And mark, those are the
words of one who also told me that when he sometimes played half-an-hour
for his amusement, he liked to resort to Chopin. Moscheles, I suspect,
had especially the mazurkas in his mind when, in 1833, [FOOTNOTE: At
this time the published compositions of Chopin were, of course, not
numerous, but they included the first two books of Mazurkas, Op. 6 and
7.] he said of the Polish master's compositions that he found "much
charm in their originality and national colouring," and that "his
thoughts and through them the fingers stumbled over certain hard,
inartistic modulations." Startling progressions, unreconciled contrasts,
and abrupt changes of mood are characteristic of Slavonic music and
expressive of the Slavonic character. Whether they ought to be called
inartistic or not, we will leave time to decide, if it has not done so
already; the Russian and other Slavonic composers, who are now coming
more and more to the front, seem to be little in doubt as to their
legitima