re Beethoven argues with Destiny. If all
suggestion of a programme is taken away, the symphony still remains
intelligible and impressive by its harmonious expression of feeling.

[1] _Richard Strauss, eine Charakterskizze_, 1896, Prague.]

[2] _R. Strauss, Essai critique et biologique_, 1898, Brussels.]

[3] _Der Musikfuehrer: Tod und Verklaerung_, Frankfort.]

Many German musicians think that Strauss has reached the highest point
of his work in _Tod und Verklaerung_. But I am far from agreeing with
them, and believe myself that his art has developed enormously as the
result of it. It is true it is the summit of one period of his life,
containing the essence of all that is best in it; but _Heldenleben_
marks the second period, and is its corner-stone. How the force and
fulness of his feeling has grown since that first period! But he has
never re-found the delicate and melodious purity of soul and youthful
grace of his earlier work, which still shines out in _Guntram_, and is
then effaced.

* * * * *

Strauss has directed Wagner's dramas at Weimar since 1889. While
breathing their atmosphere he turned his attention to the theatre, and
wrote the libretto of his opera _Guntram_. Illness interrupted his work,
and he was in Egypt when he took it up again. The music of the first act
was written between December, 1892, and February, 1893, while travelling
between Cairo and Luxor; the second act was finished in June, 1893, in
Sicily; and the third act early in September, 1893, in Bavaria. There
is, however, no trace of an oriental atmosphere in this music. We find
rather the melodies of Italy, the reflection of a mellow light, and a
resigned calm. I feel in it the languid mind of the convalescent, almost
the heart of a young girl whose tears are ready to flow, though she is
smiling a little at her own sad dreams. It seems to me that Strauss must
have a secret affection for this work, which owes its inspiration to
the undefinable impressions of convalescence. His fever fell asleep in
it, and certain passages are full of the caressing touch of nature, and
recall Berlioz's _Les Troyens_. But too often the music is superficial
and conventional, and the tyranny of Wagner makes itself felt--a rare
enough occurrence in Strauss's other works. The poem is interesting;
Strauss has put much of himself into it, and one is conscious of the
crisis that unsettled his broad-minded but often self-satisfied an