n his mind; and he seems sometimes
to hesitate between them. He has arranged these forms into three
principal classes, which seem to him to be models of musical art: the
decorative art of the singers of plain-song, the architectural art of
Palestrina and his followers, and the expressive art of the great
Italians of the seventeenth century.[158] But in doing this is not his
eclecticism trying to reconcile arts that are naturally disunited?
Again, we must remember that M. d'Indy has had direct or indirect
contact with some of the greatest musical personalities of our time:
with Wagner, Liszt, Brahms, and Cesar Franck.

[Footnote 158: _Tribune de Saint-Gervais_ November, 1900.]

And he has been readily attracted by them; for he is not one of those
egotistic geniuses whose thoughts are fixed on his own interests, nor
has he one of those carnivorous minds that sees nothing, looks for
nothing, and relishes nothing, unless it may be afterwards useful to it.
His sympathies are readily with others, he is happy in giving homage to
their greatness, and quick to appreciate their charm. He speaks
somewhere of the "irresistible need of transformation" that every artist
feels.[159] But in order to escape being overwhelmed by conflicting
elements and interests, one should have great force of feeling or will,
in order to be able to eliminate what is not necessary, and choose out
and transform what is. M. d'Indy eliminates hardly anything; he makes
use of it. In his music he exercises the qualities of an army general:
understanding of his purpose and the patience to attain it, a perfect
knowledge of the means at his disposal, the spirit of order, and command
over his work and himself. Despite the variety of the materials he
employs, the whole is always clear. One might almost reproach him with
being too clear; he seems to simplify too much.

Nothing helps one to grasp the essence of M. d'Indy's personality more
than his last dramatic work. His personality shows itself plainly in all
his compositions, but nowhere is it more evident than in
_L'Etranger_.[160]

[Footnote 159: _Id._, September, 1899.]

[Footnote 160: _L'Etranger_, "action musicale" in two acts. Poem and
music by M. Vincent d'Indy. Played for the first time at Brussels in the
Theatre de la Monnaie, 7 January, 1903. The quotations from the drama,
whose poetry is not as good as its music, are taken from the score.]

The scene of _L'Etranger_ is laid in France, by the sea