which the melody was clearly articulated. It was by study and by long
practice only that he carried this method to its perfection. Thus in
one of his great fantasias, that from Mozart's "Don Giovanni," the
sentiment of the whole opera was reproduced. Perhaps you do not admire
brilliant variations upon a theme selected from the opera, but in this
performance you are affected by the passionate movement of the entire
work. It is a wonderful epitome. The same respect which he showed for
his audience and for himself, and which made him always a
self-possessed gentleman, he also had for his instrument. De Meyer
seemed to suppose that the full range and power of the piano could not
be developed except by grotesque methods. Other players treat it as if
impatient of its limitations, and resolved to make an orchestra of a
feeble key-board. But Thalberg instinctively apprehended the character
of the instrument, and respected its limitations as well as its
powers, and knew that its utmost resource was attainable by skilled
motion rather than by brute force. Therefore he played with his hands,
and not with his knees and his body. But the force of his fingers was
magical, and the volume of sound that followed was as great as any
player evoked.

Thalberg was a player only, and not, in the sense of Chopin, a
composer. What are called his compositions are arrangements and
adaptations of themes from operas treated to develop them with all the
richness of the instrument. The originality is in the method of
instrumentation, and in this he was original, and is really the
founder of the present piano school. As a player his characteristic
was the cantabile--the singing quality; and this he had beyond all
players. The flowing sweetness of his style is indescribable. There
were many, indeed, who complained of a want of fire, and denied him
that passion without which no work of art is perfect. But it was