IV. MUSIC AND MORALS, 141

V. ITALIAN AND GERMAN VOCAL STYLES, 183

VI. GERMAN OPERA IN NEW YORK, 233




I

CHOPIN

THE GREATEST GENIUS OF THE PIANOFORTE


Leipsic, the centre of the world's music trade, exports about one
hundred thousand dollars' worth of music to America every year. I do
not know how much of this sum is to be placed to the account of
Chopin, but a leading music dealer in New York told me that he sold
three times as many of Chopin's compositions as of any other romantic
or classical composer. This seems to indicate that Chopin is popular.
Nevertheless, I believe that what Liszt wrote in 1850, a year after
the death of Chopin--that his fame was not yet as great as it would be
in the future--is as true to-day as it was forty years ago. Chopin's
reputation has been constantly growing, and yet many of his deepest
and most poetic compositions are almost unknown to amateurs, not to
speak of the public at large. A few of his least characteristic pieces
are heard in every parlor, generally in a wofully mutilated condition,