ravelled so widely, so keen was his power of assimilation that
his melodic style embodied and enhanced the best qualities of
contemporary Italian, French and German practice. And yet his innate
genius was of sufficient strength to achieve this result without
lapsing into formal eclecticism. Whatever suggestions he took he made
wholly his own; and his music is nothing if not individual in its
inimitable charm and freshness. Whereas Haydn's music often smacks too
prominently of the soil, with Mozart we have the fine flower of a
broad artistic culture. In his best symphonies and string quartets the
art of music made a distinct advance and began to be capable of
expressing the universal emotions and aspirations of mankind.

The reactive influence--each upon the other--of Haydn (1732-1809) and
Mozart (1756-1791) is a most interesting feature of the period.[122]
By the time Mozart was ripe for his best work Haydn had formulated and
exemplified the main lines of instrumental structure. From this
preparatory work Mozart reaped such an advantage that in his last
compositions there is a spontaneous flowering of genius--a union of
individual content with perfect clarity of style--which has kept them
alive to this day. Haydn's last symphonies, the two Salomon sets
composed for his London tours, show in their turn abundant signs of
the stimulating influence of the younger man. The perennial importance
of form and style cannot be better understood than by recognizing the
fact that both Tchaikowsky and Richard Strauss, two of the most
fearlessly independent of modern composers, have considered Mozart as
their ideal. But even if in Mozart's best works we are not beyond the
preponderating influence of form over substance, they must be judged
on their own intrinsic merits and not with reference to progress made
since--of which, nevertheless, they were an important foundation. His
technique was quite sufficient to express what he had to say. We
seldom feel that the contents are bursting through the form, that the
spirit is too great for the body. Purity of conception and
faultlessness of workmanship were still the desiderata of music. The
world had to wait for a Beethoven before the hearer should be shaken
out of himself by a spiritual power, of which the music at best was
often an inadequate expression. This statement is meant to contain no
disparagement. Because Beethoven was more elemental we must never
belittle the genius of his prede