[175] "A classic is properly a book"—and the same would be true of a musical composition—"which maintains itself by that happy coalescence of matter and style, that innate and requisite sympathy between the thought that gives life and the form that consents to every mood of grace and dignity, and which is something neither ancient nor modern, always new and incapable of growing old."

Lowell, [Among My Books].

[176] Compare also the definition of genius by Masters in the [Spoon River Anthology]:

"In youth my wings were strong and tireless,
But I did not know the mountains.
In age I knew the mountains
But my weary wings could not follow my vision—
Genius is wisdom and youth."

[177] Schubert was of incredible versatility and fecundity; he literally tried his hand at everything: operas, church-music, ensemble combinations. Since, however, he exercised little power of selection or revision much of this music has become obsolete. The joke is well-known that he could set a theatre notice to music, and his rule for composing was "When I have finished one song I begin another."

[178] For an original, though at times rhapsodic, study of Schubert's vocal style see H.T. Finck's Songs and Song Writers, and the last chapter of the Fifth Volume of the Oxford History.

[179] Schubert did compose a number of Pianoforte Sonatas in the conventional form, but with the exception of the one in A minor they seem diffuse and do not represent him at his best; they certainly have not held their own in modern appeal.

[180] For the account of its exciting discovery in Vienna by Schumann in 1838, after a neglect of ten years, see the life of Schubert in Grove's Dictionary.

[181] For lack of space no one of these compositions is cited in the Supplement, but they are all readily available.

[182] This tendency is prevalent in folk-music, especially that of the Russians and Scandinavians. Schubert, however, was the first to make such systematic and artistic use of the effect. For a beautiful modern example see the Spanish folk-dance by Granados, e.g.,