CHAPTER IV - THE PRESENT

Summary

If I have succeeded in conveying to my readers a general idea of the nature and development of our art, there remains only one thing to be done, in order to enable us to come to a clear understanding respecting the end and means of musical culture. We have to examine the present state of our art, and endeavour to discover its future course of development. Once more—and for the last time—I must bespeak the patience of the more lively amongst my brother artists, who are inclined to look upon every thing as useless which does not promise to lead to an immediate practical result; the more so, as I shall have to direct their attention to many wellknown matters. Let them remember how many hours they have been obliged to spend over their “finger exercises” and “schools of agility!”

There is scarcely any sphere of science or art in which so much has been done, and so many labourers been at work as in music. In Germany, particularly, treasures and stores of all kinds, gathered from all times and all countries, have been accumulated to an almost inconceivable extent. To what purpose shall we apply these treasures, and what shall we do afterwards?

The sources whence all these riches have sprung, supply us with an answer to these questions.

Amongst the sources of musical art, there are two—the national song and church music—which have, at all times, been the most prolific.