composition, which barely takes ten minutes to play, not one or two, but
four or five melodies of admirable richness and originality:--

"I began to laugh, both with pleasure at having discovered such a
treasure, and with annoyance at finding how narrow human judgment is.
Here I counted five themes, all of them plastic and expressive of
personality; of admirable workmanship, varied in form, working up by
degrees to a climax, and then finishing with strong effect. And this
from a composer who was said by critics and the public to be devoid of
creative power! From that day on there has been for me another great
citizen in the republic of art."[74]

[Footnote 74: _Musikführer_, 29 November, 1903.]

Before this, Berlioz had written in 1864:--

"It is quite easy for others to convince themselves that, without
even limiting me to take a very short melody as the theme of a
composition--as the greatest musicians have often done--I have
always endeavoured to put a wealth of melody into my compositions.
One may, of course, dispute the worth of these melodies, their
distinction, originality, or charm--it is not for me to judge
them--but to deny their existence is either unfair or foolish. They
are often on a large scale; and an immature or short-sighted
musical vision may not clearly distinguish their form; or, again,
they may be accompanied by secondary melodies which, to a limited
vision, may veil the form of the principal ones. Or, lastly,
shallow musicians may find these melodies so unlike the funny
little things that they call melodies, that they cannot bring
themselves to give the same name to both."[75]