s of the Fourth. Many consider, however, that Brahms's
orchestral treatment is exactly suited to the seriousness of his
ideas; so it comes down to a question of individual taste. That he had
his own delicate feeling for color and sensuous effect is shown in
many pages of the chamber music, especially in those works for unusual
combinations, _e.g._, the Clarinet Quintet, and the Trio for Violin,
Horn and Pianoforte. No one in modern times has used more eloquently
that romantic instrument, the horn. See, for example, the Coda to the
first movement of the D major Symphony and the slow movement of the
Third Symphony. We must gratefully acknowledge the lasting quality of
his music--without question it wears well. In fact, difficult though
it be to comprehend at a first hearing, the more it is heard, the more
it is enjoyed. Brahms's[257] music is steadily growing in popularity.
His orchestral works and chamber music are applauded to-day, although
twenty-five years ago they were received with apathy and scornful
indifference.

[Footnote 257: For literature on Brahms the following works are
recommended: the comprehensive _Life_ by Fuller-Maitland; the essay in
Hadow's _Studies in Modern Music_; that in Mason's _From Grieg to
Brahms_; that by Spitta in _Studies in Music_ by Robin Grey; the first
essay in _Mezzotints in Modern Music_ by Huneker; the biographical and
critical article in Grove's Dictionary; Chapter IX in Volume 8 of the
_Art of Music_, and Chapter XIII in Volume 2. There are also some
stimulating remarks on Brahms's style in general, and on the attitude
of a past generation towards his work, in those delightful essays, in
2 volumes, _By the Way, About Music_ by the late well-known critic,
W.F. Apthorp.]

As a representative work in each of the four fields in which Brahms
created such masterpieces we have selected, for detailed analysis, the
_First Symphony_, the _Sonata for Violin and Pianoforte in A major_,
the _Ballade in G minor_ and the _Song_, _Meine Liebe ist gruen wie der
Fliederbusch_. All four of Brahms's symphonies may justly be
considered great, each in its own way. For Brahms is not a man with a
single message and has not written one large symphony in different
sections, as, in a broad sense, may be said of Tchaikowsky. The
Second, on account of the spontaneity and direct appeal of its themes,
is undoubtedly the most popular. It contains a first movement of a
quasi-Mendelssohnian suavity and lyric cha