rally drawn to the same media of expression: pianoforte, solo
voices and orchestra. And yet, so dissimilar were the underlying
strains in their temperaments that their compositions, as an
expression of their personalities, show little in common. Schumann, as
we have seen, was fantastic, mystical, a bold, independent thinker,
the quintessence of the Romantic spirit. Mendelssohn, on the other
hand, though not lacking in poetic fancy and warmth, was cautious--a
born conservative; and his early classical training, together with the
opulent circumstances of his life, served as a natural check upon the
freedom of genius. His dazzling precocity--witness the _Midsummer
Night's Dream_ Overture, composed while he was in his seventeenth
year--and a great popular success were surely not the best stimuli to
make him delve into the depths of his imagination. Undoubtedly he did
a valuable service, in his day, in uniting the leading tendencies of
the two schools: the exuberant fancy of the Romantic, and the reserve
and finish of the Classic. He has been aptly called a "Romanticist
with a classical equipment." If any appraisement be necessary to the
detriment of one or the other, it must be conceded that Schumann was
the greater genius. A just estimate of Mendelssohn's work is
difficult, for his career was so meteoric and in his life he was so
overvalued that now, with the opposite swing of the pendulum, he is as
often underrated. He was assuredly a great artist, for what he had to
say was beautifully expressed; the question hinges on the actual worth
of the message. With perfect finish there often goes a lack of power
and objective energy; somewhat the same difference that we feel
between skillful gardening and the free vitality of Nature. Although
Mendelssohn's music delights and charms there is a prevailing lack of
that deep emotion which alone can move the soul. And yet a composer
whom Wagner called "the greatest of landscape painters" and whose best
works have stood the test of time can by no means be scorned. His
descriptive Overtures for orchestra: the _Hebrides_, the _Midsummer
Night's Dream_ and the _Fair Melusine_; his _Variations Serieuses_ for
Pianoforte and some of the _Songs without Words_[205] contain a
genuinely poetic message, flawlessly expressed. As for the pianoforte
music, when the _Songs without Words_ are called "hackneyed" we must
remember that only compositions of truly popular appeal ever have
sufficient vogue t