award to his works an estimation of a far higher character, of a
much more earnest nature, than has hitherto been awarded them. A
high rank must be assigned by the future historians of music to
one who distinguished himself in art by a genius for melody so
rare, by such graceful and remarkable enlargements of the
harmonic tissue; and his triumph will be justly preferred to many
of far more extended surface, though the works of such victors
may be played and replayed by the greatest number of instruments,
and be sung and resung by passing crowds of Prime Donne.

In confining himself exclusively to the Piano, Chopin has, in our
opinion, given proof of one of the most essential qualities of a
composer--a just appreciation of the form in which he possessed
the power to excel; yet this very fact, to which we attach so
much importance, has been injurious to the extent of his fame. It
would have been most difficult for any other writer, gifted with
such high harmonic and melodic powers, to have resisted the
temptation of the SINGING of the bow, the liquid sweetness of the
flute, or the deafening swells of the trumpet, which we still
persist in believing the only fore-runner of the antique goddess
from whom we woo the sudden favors. What strong conviction, based
upon reflection, must have been requisite to have induced him to
restrict himself to a circle apparently so much more barren; what
warmth of creative genius must have been necessary to have forced
from its apparent aridity a fresh growth of luxuriant bloom,
unhoped for in such a soil! What intuitive penetration is
repealed by this exclusive choice, which, wresting the different
effects of the various instruments from their habitual domain,
where the whole foam of sound would have broken at their feet,
transported them into a sphere, more limited, indeed, but far