in spite of good
intentions, this meeting of nations resulted in a fight, on musical
ground, between two civilisations and two arts--French art and German
art. For these two arts represent to-day all that is truly alive in
European music.

Such jousts are very stirring, and may be of great service to all
combatants. But, unhappily, France was very indifferent in the matter.
It was the duty of our musicians and critics to attend an international
encounter like this, and to see that the conditions of the combat were
fair. By that I mean our art should be represented as it ought to be, so
that we may learn something from the result. But the French public does
nothing at such a time; it remains absorbed in its concerts at Paris,
where everyone knows everyone else so well that they are not able and do
not dare to criticise freely. And so our art is withering away in an
atmosphere of coteries, instead of seeking the open air and enjoying a
vigorous fight with foreign art. For the majority of our critics would
rather deny the existence of foreign art than try to understand it.
Never have I regretted their indifference more than I did at the
Strasburg festival, where, in spite of the unfavourable conditions in
which French art was represented through our own carelessness, I
realised what its force might have been if we had been interested
spectators in the fight.

* * * * *

Perfect eclecticism had been exercised in the making up of the
programme. One found mixed together the names of Mozart, Wagner, and
Brahms; Cesar Franck and Gustave Charpentier; Richard Strauss and
Mahler. There were French singers like Cazeneuve and Daraux, and French
and Italian virtuosi like Henri Marteau and Ferruccio Busoni, together
with German, Austrian, and Scandinavian artists. The orchestra (the
_Strassbuerger Staedtische Orchester_) and the choir, which was formed of
different _Chorvereine_ of Strasburg, were conducted by Richard Strauss,
Gustav Mahler, and Camille Chevillard. But the names of these famous
_Kapellmeister_ must not let us forget the man who was really the soul
of the concerts--Professor Ernst Muench, of Strasburg, an Alsatian, who
conducted all the rehearsals, and who effaced himself at the last
moment, and left all the honours to the conductors of foreign
orchestras. Professor Muench, who is also organist at Saint-Guillaume,
has done more than anyone else for music in Strasburg, and has trained