le
strength and grim dignity which have made the Kalevala, Finland's
national poem, one of the great epics of the world. Although Brahms
never lets us forget that he is a Teuton, there are frequent traces in
his compositions of the Hungarian element--so dear to all the Viennese
composers--as well as of German folk-songs; and the most artistic
treatment we have of Hungarian rhythms is found in his two sets of
Hungarian dances.

It is manifestly beyond the scope of a single book to treat
comprehensively each of the symphonists in the list just cited, so I
shall dwell chiefly upon the characteristics of Brahms, Franck,
Tchaikowsky and d'Indy as probably the greatest, and touch only
incidentally upon the others, as of somewhat lesser import; though if
anyone take issue with this preference in regard to Mahler and
Bruckner I shall not combat him. For I believe Mahler to be a real
genius; feeling, however, that his wonderful conceptions are sometimes
not expressed in the most convincing manner. There is no doubt that
Mahler has not yet received his bigger part in due valuation, but his
time will surely come. As for Bruckner, we have from him some of the
most elemental and powerful ideas in modern music--witness the dirge
in the _Seventh Symphony_ with its impressive scoring for trombones
and Bayreuth tubas, a movement Beethoven might have signed; although
with the virgin gold there is mixed, it must be confessed, a large
amount of crude alloy, and there are dreary stretches of waste sand.

Johannes Brahms, like Beethoven, with whom his style has many
affinities, was a North-German, born in 1833 in the historic seaport
town of Hamburg.[253] Brahms came of lowly though respectable and
intelligent parents, his father being a double-bass player in one of
the theatre orchestras. That the positiveness of character, so
conspicuous in his famous son, was an inherited trait may be seen from
the following anecdote. The director of the theatre orchestra once
asked father Brahms not to play so loud; whereupon he replied with
dignity, "Herr Kapellmeister, this is my double-bass, I want you to
understand, and I shall play it as loud as I please." The music of
Brahms in its bracing vigor has been appropriately compared to a
mixture of sea air and the timbre of this instrument.

[Footnote 253: Noted as being the original centre of national German
opera and for its associations with the early career of Handel.]

Brahms's mother was a dee