ic idea underlying his sonatas. It would, of course, have been
highly interesting to know the sources of his inspirations, but it is
terrible to think of the consequences which would have ensued.
Composers would have imitated him, and those lacking genius would have
made themselves and their art ridiculous. Berlioz went to extremes,
but his genius saved him; and Schumann, a true poet, though inclined
to superscriptions, kept within very reasonable lines.

It was undoubtedly this poetic basis that so affected the form of
Beethoven's sonatas. The little romances by which Haydn spurred his
imagination were as children's tales compared with the deep thoughts,
the tragic events, and the masterpieces of Plato, Shakespeare, and
Goethe, which in Beethoven sharpened feeling and intensified thought.
The great sonatas of Beethoven are not mere cunningly-devised pieces,
not mere mood-painting; they are real, living dramas.

In aiming at a higher organisation, he actually became a disorganiser.
"All things are growing or decaying," says Herbert Spencer. And in
Beethoven, so far as sonata and sonata-form are concerned, we seem, as
it were, to perceive the beginning of a period of decay.

CHAPTER VIII

TWO CONTEMPORARIES OF BEETHOVEN

I. Weber

The two greatest contemporaries of Beethoven were, undoubtedly, Carl
Maria von Weber and Franz Schubert, and both wrote pianoforte sonatas.
Many other composers of that period--some of them possessed of
considerable talent--devoted themselves to that branch of musical
literature: Steibelt (1764-1823), Woelfl (1772-1812), J.B. Cramer
(1771-1858), J.N. Hummel (1778-1837), F.W.M. Kalkbrenner (1788-1849),
and others. Of these, the first three may be named sonata-makers. The
number which they produced is positively alarming; but it is some
consolation to think that a knowledge of their works is not of
essential importance. Steibelt's sonata in E flat (dedicated to Mme.
Buonaparte) was given once at the Popular Concerts in 1860, and
Woelfl's "Ne plus Ultra" sonata, several times between 1859 and 1873;
not one, however, of the 105 said to have been written by J.B. Cramer
has ever been heard there.[100] Most of these works justly merit the
oblivion into which they have fallen; some are quite second, or even
third rate; others were written merely as show pieces,[101] and are
now, of course, utterly out of date; and many were written for
educational purposes, or to suit popular taste (sona