ependent self-taught man--and Chopin, as a
pianist, may almost be called one--with distrust in the adequacy of his
self-acquired attainments, and an exaggerated idea of the advantages of
a school education. "I cannot create a new school, because I do not even
know the old one." This may or may not be bad reasoning, but it shows
the attitude of Chopin's mind. It is also possible that he may have
felt the inadequacy and inappropriateness of his technique and style for
other than his own compositions. And many facts in the history of his
career as an executant would seem to confirm the correctness of such a
feeling. At any rate, after what we have read we cannot attribute his
intention of studying under Kalkbrenner to undue self-depreciation. For
did he not consider his own playing as good as that of Herz, and feel
that he had in him the stuff to found a new era in music? But what
was it then that attracted him to Kalkbrenner, and made him exalt this
pianist above all the pianists he had heard? If the reader will recall
to mind what I said in speaking of Mdlles. Sontag and Belleville of
Chopin's love of beauty of tone, elegance, and neatness, he cannot be
surprised at the young pianist's estimate of the virtuoso of whom
Riehl says: "The essence of his nature was what the philologists call
elegantia--he spoke the purest Ciceronian Latin on the piano." As a
knowledge of Kalkbrenner's artistic personality will help to further
our acquaintance with Chopin, and as our knowledge of it is for the
most part derived from the libels and caricatures of well-intentioned
critics, who in their zeal for a nobler and more glorious art overshoot
the mark of truth, it will be worth our while to make inquiries
regarding it.

Kalkbrenner may not inaptly be called the Delille of pianist-composers,
for his nature and fate remind us somewhat of the poet. As to his works,
although none of them possessed stamina enough to be long-lived, they
would have insured him a fairer reputation if he had not published so
many that were written merely for the market. Even Schumann confessed
to having in his younger days heard and played Kalkbrenner's music often
and with pleasure, and at a maturer age continued to acknowledge not
only the master's natural virtuoso amiability and clever manner of
writing effectively for fingers and hands, but also the genuinely
musical qualities of his better works, of which he held the Concerto in
D minor to be the "bloom," a