"His work is especially noteworthy for simplicity of construction
and for the way the scheme is worked out," the Count went on. "Most
composers make use of the orchestral parts in a vague, incoherent way,
combining them for a merely temporary effect; they do not persistently
contribute to the whole mass of the movement by their steady and regular
progress. Beethoven assigns its part to each tone-quality from the
first. Like the various companies which, by their disciplined movements,
contribute to winning a battle, the orchestral parts of a symphony
by Beethoven obey the plan ordered for the interest of all, and are
subordinate to an admirably conceived scheme.

"In this he may be compared to a genius of a different type. In Walter
Scott's splendid historical novels, some personage, who seems to have
least to do with the action of the story, intervenes at a given moment
and leads up to the climax by some thread woven into the plot."

"_E vero_!" remarked Gambara, to whom common sense seemed to return in
inverse proportion to sobriety.

Andrea, eager to carry the test further, for a moment forgot all his
predilections; he proceeded to attack the European fame of Rossini,
disputing the position which the Italian school has taken by storm,
night after night for more than thirty years, on a hundred stages in
Europe. He had undertaken a hard task. The first words he spoke raised
a strong murmur of disapproval; but neither the repeated interruptions,
nor exclamations, nor frowns, nor contemptuous looks, could check this
determined advocate of Beethoven.

"Compare," said he, "that sublime composer's works with what by common
consent is called Italian music. What feebleness of ideas, what limpness
of style! That monotony of form, those commonplace cadenzas, those
endless bravura passages introduced at haphazard irrespective of the
dramatic situation, that recurrent _crescendo_ that Rossini brought
into vogue, are now an integral part of every composition; those vocal
fireworks result in a sort of babbling, chattering, vaporous mucic,
of which the sole merit depends on the greater or less fluency of the
singer and his rapidity of vocalization.

"The Italian school has lost sight of the high mission of art. Instead
of elevating the crowd, it has condescended to the crowd; it has won its
success only by accepting the suffrages of all comers, and appealing to
the vulgar minds which constitute the majority. Such a success is