]

[Footnote 113:  Letter written to M. Levin, the correspondent of the Boersen-Courier of Berlin, 9 September, 1901.]

Such independence is rare at any time; but it is very rare in our day, when the power of public opinion is tyrannical; and it is rarest of all in France, where artists are perhaps more sociable than in other countries.  Of all qualities in an artist it is the most precious; for it forms the foundation of his character, and is the guarantee of his conscience and innate strength.  So we must not hide it under a bushel.

* * * * *

The significance of M. Saint-Saens in art is a double one, for one must judge him from the inside as well as the outside of France.  He stands for something exceptional in French music, something which was almost unique until just lately:  that is, a great classical spirit and a fine breadth of musical culture—­German culture, we must say, since the foundation of all modern art rests on the German classics.  French music of the nineteenth century is rich in clever artists, imaginative writers of melody, and skilful dramatists; but it is poor in true musicians, and in good and solid workmanship.  Apart from two or three splendid exceptions, our composers have too much the character of gifted amateurs who compose music as a pastime, and regard it, not as a special form of thought, but as a sort of dress for literary ideas.  Our musical education is superficial:  it may be got for a few years, in a formal way, at a Conservatoire, but it is not within reach of all; the child does not breathe music as, in a way, he breathes the atmosphere of literature and oratory; and although nearly everyone in France has an instinctive feeling for beautiful writing, only a very few people care for beautiful music.  From this arise the common faults and failings in our music.  It has remained a luxurious art; it has not become, like German music, the poetical expression of the people’s thought.

To bring this about we should need a combination of conditions that are very rare in France; though such conditions went to the making of Camille Saint-Saens.  He had not only remarkable natural talent, but came of a family of ardent musicians, who devoted themselves to his education.  At five years of age he was nourished on the orchestral score of Don Juan;[114] as a little boy

    “De dix ans, delicat, frele, le teint jaunet,
    Mais confiant, naif, plein d’ardeur et de joie,"[115]

he “measured himself against Beethoven and Mozart” by playing in a public concert; at sixteen years of age he wrote his Premiere Symphonie.  As he grew older he soaked himself in the music of Bach and Haendel, and was able to compose at will after the manner of Rossini, Verdi, Schumann, and Wagner.[116] He has written excellent music in all styles—­the Grecian style, and that of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.  His compositions are of every kind:  masses, grand operas, light operas, cantatas, symphonies, symphonic poems; music for the orchestra, the organ, the piano, the voice, and chamber music.  He is the learned editor of Gluck and Rameau; and is thus not only an artist, but an artist who can talk about his art.  He is an unusual figure in France—­one would have thought rather to find his home in Germany.