is passage between the clarinet, oboe
and flute. The Development, based upon the second theme, with some
effective canonic treatment, shows that Schubert was by no means
entirely lacking in polyphonic skill. At any rate he can work wonders
with the horn, for at the close of the Development (measures 134-142)
by the simple device of an octave leap, _ppp_, he veritably transports
the listener, _e.g._

[Music]

The Coda has a dream-like quality all its own.

[Footnote 183: So appropriately called by Berlioz the "heroine of the
orchestra."]

Weber's permanent contribution to musical literature has proved to be
his operas--a form of art not treated in this book. But the whole
nature of his genius was so closely related to the Romantic spirit, as
shown in the intimate connection between literature and music, in his
descriptive powers and his development of the orchestra, that for the
sake of comprehensiveness some familiarity should be gained with the
essential features of his style. Of Weber it may be said with
conviction that there is hardly a composer of acknowledged rank in
whom style, _i.e._, the way and the medium by which musical thought is
presented, so prevails over the substance of the thought itself. There
are few if any of Weber's melodies which are notable for creative
power, and as a harmonist he was lamentably weak. It has been
scathingly said, though with considerable truth, that all his melodies
are based upon an alternation of tonic and dominant chords![184] But
when we consider what his themes are meant to describe, the pictures
they evoke and their orchestral dress, we must acknowledge in Weber
the touch of real poetic genius. To quote Runciman[185]--

"If you look, and look rightly, for the right thing in Weber's music,
disappointment is impossible, though I admit that the man who
professes to find there the great qualities he finds in Mozart,
Beethoven, or any of the giants, must be in a very sad case. Grandeur,
pure beauty, and high expressiveness are alike wanting. Weber's claim
to a place amongst the composers is supported in a lesser degree by
the gifts which he shared, even if his share was small, with the
greater masters of music, than by his miraculous power of vividly
drawing and painting in music the things that kindled his imagination.
Being a factor of the Romantic movement, that mighty rebellion against
the tyranny of a world of footrules and ledgers, he lived in a world
where two and