The Classical misunderstanding is quite as dangerous. By that I mean the
clinging to superstitions of the past, and the pedantic desire to
enclose art within narrow limits, which still flourish among critics.
Who has not met these censors of music? They will tell you with solid
complacence how far music may go, and where it must stop, and what it
may express and what it must not. They are not always musicians
themselves. But what of that? Do they not lean on the example of the
past? The past! a handful of works that they themselves hardly
understand. Meanwhile, music, by its unceasing growth, gives the lie to
their theories, and breaks down these weak barriers. But they do not see
it, do not wish to see it; since they cannot advance themselves, they
deny progress. Critics of this kind do not think favourably of Berlioz's
dramatic and descriptive symphonies. How should they appreciate the
boldest musical achievement of the nineteenth century? These dreadful
pedants and zealous defenders of an art that they only understand after
it has ceased to live are the worst enemies of unfettered genius, and
may do more harm than a whole army of ignorant people. For in a country
like ours, where musical education is poor, timidity is great in the
presence of a strong, but only half-understood, tradition; and anyone
who has the boldness to break away from it is condemned without
judgment. I doubt if Berlioz would have obtained any consideration at
all from lovers of classical music in France if he had not found allies
in that country of classical music, Germany--"the oracle of Delphi,"
"Germania alma parens,"[2] as he called her. Some of the young German
school found inspiration in Berlioz. The dramatic symphony that he
created flourished in its German form under Liszt; the most eminent
German composer of to-day, Richard Strauss, came under his influence;
and Felix Weingartner, who with Charles Malherbe edited Berlioz's
complete works, was bold enough to write, "In spite of Wagner and Liszt,
we should not be where we are if Berlioz had not lived." This unexpected