r orchid in the fields, unhampered by
strings and wires, and connected solely with its stalk and the
surrounding green leaves. Many of Chopin's compositions are so short
that they can hardly be likened unto flowers, but only to buds. Yet is
not a rosebud a thousand times more beautiful than a full-blown rose?

One more consideration. The psychology of the sonata form is false.
Men and women do not feel happy for ten minutes as in the opening
allegro of a sonata, then melancholy for another ten minutes, as in
the following adagio, then frisky, as in the scherzo, and finally,
fiery and impetuous for ten minutes as in the finale. The movements of
our minds are seldom so systematic as this. Sad and happy thoughts and
moods chase one another incessantly and irregularly, as they do in the
compositions of Chopin, which, therefore, are much truer echoes of our
modern romantic feelings than the stiff and formal classical sonatas.
And thus it is, that Chopin's habitual neglect of the sonata form,
instead of being a defect, reveals his rare artistic subtlety and
grandeur. It was natural that a Pole should vindicate for music this
emotional freedom of movement, for the Slavic mind is especially prone
to constant changes of mood. Nevertheless, as soon as Chopin had shown
the way, other composers followed eagerly in the new path, and in the
present day the sonata may be regarded as obsolete. Few contemporary
composers have written more than one or two--merely in order to show
that they can do so if they want to; and even Brahms, the high priest
of the conservatives, has, in his later period, devoted himself more
and more exclusively to shorter modern forms in his pianoforte music.

Strictly speaking, Chopin was not the first who tried to get away from
the sonata. Beethoven, though he remained faithful to it, felt its
fetters, as is shown by his numerous poetic licenses. Schubert wrote
"Moments Musicals," Mendelssohn, "Songs without Words," Weber,
Polonaises, and Field, Nocturnes. But these were merely straws which
indicated in which direction Chopin's genius would sweep the field and
clear the musical atmosphere. His polonaises and nocturnes are vastly
superior to those of Weber and Field; and his poetic preludes, his
romantic ballads, his lovely berceuse, his amorous mazurkas, are new
types in art which have often been imitated but never equalled. Only
in one field did Chopin have a dangerous rival among his predecessors,
namely, i