rich moneylender, the first _Concerts populaires de musique classique_.
Unhappily, says M. Saint-Saens, Pasdeloup, even up to 1870, made an
almost exclusive selection of German classical works. He raised an
impenetrable barrier before the young French school, and the only French
works he played were symphonies by Gounod and Gouvy, and the overtures
of _Les Francs-Juges_ and _La Muette_. It was impossible to set up a
rival society against him; and an exclusive monopoly in music was,
therefore, held by him. According to M. Saint-Saens he was a mediocre
musician, and had, in spite of his passion for music, "immense
incapacity." In _Harmonie et Melodie_ M. Saint-Saens says: "The few
chamber-music societies that existed were also closed to all new-comers;
their programmes only contained the names of undisputed celebrities, the
writers of classic symphonies. In those times one had really to be
devoid of all common sense to write music."

A new generation was growing up, however,--a generation that was serious
and thoughtful, that was more attracted by pure music than by the
theatre, that was filled with a burning desire to found a national art.
To this generation M. Saint-Saens and M. Vincent d'Indy belong. The war
of 1870 strengthened these ideas about music, and, while the war was
still raging, there sprang from them the _Societe Nationale de Musique_.

One must speak of this society with respect, for it was the cradle and
sanctuary of French art.[215] All that was great in French music from
1870 to 1900 found a home there. Without it, the greater part of the
works that are the honour of our music would never have been played;
perhaps they would not ever have been written. The Society possessed the
rare merit of being able to anticipate public opinion by ten or eleven
years, and in some ways it has formed the public mind and obliged it to
honour those whom the Society had already recognised as great musicians.

[Footnote 215: The facts which follow are taken from the archives of the
_Societe Nationale de Musique_, and have been given me by M. Pierre de
Breville, the Society's secretary.]

The two founders of the Society were Romaine Bussine, professor of
Singing at the Conservatoire, and M. Camille Saint-Saens. And, following
their initiative, Cesar Franck, Ernest Guiraud, Massenet, Garcin,
Gabriel Faure, Henri Duparc, Theodore Dubois, and Taffanel, joined
forces with them, and at a meeting on 25 February, 1871, agreed t