szt, has done so much to enlarge
the sonorous and coloristic possibilities of the instrument. Here
again Weber's fame rests more upon his influence than upon lasting
achievement; as to the importance of this influence, however, there
can be no doubt.

[Footnote 188: Perhaps the whirligig of time may restore them; who can
say?]

The student will be repaid for informing[189] himself as fully as
possible concerning Weber's career and artistic ideals, for he was a
genuine though early exponent of Romantic tendencies. Of marked
versatility, of no mean literary skill and of such social magnetism
and charm that he might properly be considered a man of the world, as
well as an artist, Weber was thus enabled to do pioneer work in
raising the standard of musicianship and in bringing the art of music
and ordinary, daily life into closer touch.

[Footnote 189: The life in Grove's Dictionary is well worth while;
there are essays by Krehbiel and others and, above all, the
biographical and critical accounts in the two French series: _Les
Musiciens Celebres_, and _Les Maitres de la Musique_.]

CHAPTER XIII

SCHUMANN AND MENDELSSOHN

In distinction from pioneers like Schubert, slightly tinged with
Romanticism, and Weber who, though versatile, was somewhat lacking in
creative vigor, Schumann (1810-1856) stands forth as the definite,
conscious spokesman of the Romantic movement in German art just as
Berlioz was for art in France. He was endowed with literary gifts of a
high order, had a keen critical and historical sense and wrote freely
and convincingly in support of his own views and in generous
recognition of the ideals of his contemporaries. Many of his swans, to
be sure, proved later to be geese, and it is debatable how much good
was done by his rhapsodic praise to young Brahms; whether in fact he
did not set before the youngster a chimerical ideal impossible of
attainment. Schumann early came under the influence of Jean Paul
Richter, that incarnation of German Romanticism, whom he placed on the
same high plane as Shakespeare and Beethoven. An intimate appreciation
of much that is fantastic and whimsical in Schumann is possible only
through acquaintance with the work of this Jean Paul. Schumann's first
compositions were for the pianoforte--in fact his original
ambition[190] was to be a pianoforte virtuoso--and to-day his
permanent significance depends on the spontaneity in conception and
the freedom of form manifeste