No matter how like his father a
man may be we can always tell the two apart; but this once given, so
that he has a clear life of his own, then a strong family likeness to
some one else is no more to be regretted or concealed if it exists
than to be affected if it does not.
It is on these terms alone that attractive music can be written, and
it is a musician's business to write attractive music. He is, as it
were, tenant for life of the estate of and trustee for that school to
which he belongs. Normally, that school will be the one which has
obtained the firmest hold upon his own countrymen. An Englishman
cannot successfully write like a German or a Hungarian, nor is it
desirable that he should try. If, by way of variety, we want German
or Hungarian music we shall get a more genuine article by going
direct to German or Hungarian composers. For the most part, however,
the soundest Englishmen will be stay-at-homes, in spite of their
being much given to summer flings upon the continent. Whether as
writers, therefore, or as listeners, Englishmen should stick chiefly
to Purcell, Handel, and Sir Arthur Sullivan. True, Handel was not an
Englishman by birth, but no one was ever more thoroughly English in
respect of all the best and most distinguishing features of
Englishmen. As a young man, though Italy and Germany were open to
him, he adopted the country of Purcell, feeling it, doubtless, to be,
as far as he was concerned, more Saxon than Saxony itself.
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