CHAPTER XII.

THE GREATER MASTERS.


"In spite of all, I have never interrupted the study of music."
--_Palestrina._

An opera writer of Italy, named Giovanni Pacini, once said that to
study the writings of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven "lightens the mind
of a student, since the classics are a continuous development of the
most beautiful and simple melodies," and we sometimes hear it said
that great men are they who dare to be simple. In our Talks thus far
we have learned one important fact, which is, that music is truth
expressed out of the heart. Of course we know that to be in the heart
it must be felt, and to be expressed we must know a great deal about
writing. Now we are able to imagine quite well what a great master is
in music. As Pacini says, his melodies will be simple and beautiful,
and as we ourselves know, his simple melodies will be an expression of
truth out of the heart.

But to go only as far as this would not be enough. Many can write
simply and well, and truthfully, yet not as a master. There must be
something else. When we have found out what that something else is we
shall understand the masters better and honor them more.

Everywhere in the history of music we read of what men have been