ighest pitch, he
stops, and there is an awakening, as it were, from some wonderful
dream. If afterwards the work be analysed, the pains with which it was
built up can be traced; the powerful effect which it produced will be
found due, not alone to the creative power, the imagination of the
author, but also to his dialectic skill and to his critical faculty.
It is all very well to talk of great works as the fruits of hot
inspiration and not cold intellect. A masterpiece is the outcome of
both; the one provides the material, the other shapes it. Schubert was
an inspired composer, but most of his works, especially those of large
compass, show that he was mastered by moods, not that he was master of
them. It may be said that many who can appreciate beautiful music have
not the bump of intellect strongly developed, and would not therefore
be affected by any such shortcomings; that they would simply enjoy the
music. That is very likely, but here we are analysing and comparing;
and neither the beauty nor even grandeur of the music, nor the effect
which it might produce on certain minds, concerns us. There are many
persons who have had no technical training, but who possess a true
sense of order, proportion, and gradation; and such instinctively feel
that Schubert's sonatas, in spite of their many striking qualities,
are not so great as those of Beethoven. We have referred more than
once to the Popular Concert catalogue, which is a very fair
thermometer of public taste. One can see how seldom the Schubert
sonatas are performed in comparison with those of his great
contemporary. But to refer specially to the three last sonatas now
under notice. The one in B flat (No. 3) was played by Mr. Leonard
Borwick, it is true, on the 3rd February 1894, but the previous date
of performance was 16th January 1882. No. 2, in A, was last given in
1882, and No. 1 has not been heard since 1879.

The Allegro of the C minor sonata opens with a bold theme, and an
energetic transition passage leads to the dominant of the relative
major key. Of the soft second theme Schubert seems so fond, that he is
loth to quit it; he repeats it in varied form, and still after that,
it is heard in minor. This unnecessarily lengthens the exposition
section, which, in addition, has the repeat mark. The development
section is rather vague, but the coda is impressive: the long
descending phrase and the sad repeated minor chords at the close
suggest exhaustion after fie