ried in a trench the
most accomplished composer and performer the world has ever known. It
was a hundred years afterward before the city made tardy amends by
erecting a fitting monument to his memory.

His best monument is his work. The melody that once filled his soul is
yours and mine; for by his art he made us heirs to all that wealth of
love that was never requited, and the dreams, that for him never came
true, are our precious and priceless legacy.

[Illustration: JOHANNES BRAHMS]

JOHANNES BRAHMS

What is music? This question occupied my mind for hours last night
before I fell asleep. The very existence of music is wonderful, I
might even say miraculous. Its domain is between thought and
phenomena. Like a twilight mediator, it hovers between spirit and
matter, related to both, yet differing from each. It is spirit, but
spirit subject to the measurement of time; it is matter, but matter
that can dispense with space.

--_Heine_

JOHANNES BRAHMS

Emerson has said that, next to the man who first voices a great truth,
is the one who quotes it.

Truth is in the air; it belongs to all who can appreciate it; and the
difference between the man who gives a truth expression and the listener
who at once comprehends and repeats it, is very slight. If you
understand what I say, it is because you have thought the same thoughts
yourself--I merely express for you that which you already know. And so
you approve and applaud, not stopping to think that you are applauding
your own thought; and your heart beats fast and you say, "Yes, yes, why
didn't I say that myself!"

All conversation is a sort of communion--an echoing back and forth of
thoughts, feelings and emotions. We clarify our thoughts by expressing
them--no idea is quite your own until you tell it to another.

Music is simply one form of expression. Its province is to impart a
sublime emotion. To give himself is the controlling impulse in the heart
of every artist--to impart to others the joy he feels--this is the
dominant motive in his life.

Hence the poet writes, the artist paints, the sculptor models, the
singer sings, the musician plays--all is expression--a giving voice to
the Silence. But it is all done for others. In ministering to others the
artist ministers to himself. In helping others we help ourselves. We
grow strong through exercise, and only the faculties that are
exercised--that is to say, expre