those who would become cultivated
appreciators of Beethoven's masterpieces: the _Life of Beethoven_ by
Alexander Thayer--a great glory to American scholarship; the life in
Grove's Dictionary; the illuminating Biography by d'Indy (in French
and in English); _Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies_ by Grove; the
_Oxford History of Music_, Vol. V; and the essay by Mason in his
_Beethoven and his Forerunners_.[171] We cite, in closing, a
eulogy[172] by Dannreuther--in our opinion the most eloquent ever
written on Beethoven's genius:

"While listening," says Mr. Dannreuther, "to such works as the
Overture to Leonora, the Sinfonia Eroica, or the Ninth Symphony, we
feel that we are in the presence of something far wider and higher
than the mere development of musical themes. The execution in detail
of each movement and each succeeding work is modified more and more by
the prevailing sentiment. A religious passion and elevation are
present in the utterances. The mental and moral horizon of the music
grows upon us with each renewed hearing. The different movements--like
the different particles of each movement--have as close a connection
with one another as the acts of a tragedy, and a characteristic
significance to be understood only in relation to the whole; each work
is in the full sense of the word a revelation. Beethoven speaks a
language no one has spoken before, and treats of things no one has
dreamt of before: yet it seems as though he were speaking of matters
long familiar, in one's mother tongue; as though he touched upon
emotions one had lived through in some former existence.... The warmth
and depth of his ethical sentiment is now felt all the world over, and
it will ere long be universally recognised that he has leavened and
widened the sphere of men's emotions in a manner akin to that in which
the conceptions of great philosophers and poets have widened the
sphere of men's intellectual activity."

[Footnote 171: Suggestive comments from a literary point of view may
also be found in these works: _Studies in the Seven Arts_, Symonds;
_Beethoven_ by Romain Rolland--with an interesting though
ultra-subjective introduction by Carpenter; _The Development of
Symphonic Music_ by T.W. Surette; _Beethoven_ by Walker; _Beethoven_
by Chantavoine in the series _Les Maitres de la Musique_. As to the
three successive "styles" under which Beethoven's works are generally
classified there is an excellent account in Pratt's _History of