“One of Chopinʼs special characteristics is the employment of the diminished chord, especially the chord of the seventh. This frequently occurs in his mazurkas, in which, by the enharmonic use of this chord, he accomplishes a charming return to the chief subject. We must point out a passage in the Etude in A flat, No. 10, op. 10, in which, by an enharmonic change of the ordinary chord of the seventh, the chief melody re-enters on the chord of the six-four, which produces an effect quite bewitching. We meet with similar examples in Schumannʼs Romance (F sharp) and Mendelssohnʼs ‘Songs without Words’ (No. 1, book 2.) Wagner, also, has turned this modulation to the happiest account in his newest operas. “Another of Chopinʼs peculiarities is that he always repeats the chief thought in a new form, and by arabesques or fresh harmonization always gives it an additional interest.” With such an intellectual equipment, of whose greatness he was not himself conscious, Chopin went abroad. Granting that his creative talent developed in after years, and that he daily gained fresh stores of knowledge and experience, we still maintain that, as regards real inspiration, he was never grander or more independent than in his first works. They glow with that inimitable youthful fire, which no one possesses for more than a limited period, but which produces an unfailing delight and an indelible impression. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER VIII. _GERMAN AND ITALIAN MUSIC IN THE YEARS 1827—1831. JOHANN MATUSZYNSKI._ The goal of Chopinʼs travels was Italy, the land still glorious in fame, the land of love, the cradle of the arts. In the home of the great masters, where sweet melodies are heard in every mouth, he hoped to perfect himself in the practice of his art, and to gather fresh thoughts for new works. [Sidenote: POPULARITY OF ITALIAN MUSIC.] In Germany, music had, by the first quarter of the present century, attained a high position; such men as Handel, Glück, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber had enriched the world with masterpieces; all the larger towns possessed a good opera house, and the best singers and instrumentalists were heard in the concert halls. But the _repertoires_ consisted almost exclusively of Italian music, especially of the works of that most prolific writer and universal favourite, Gioacchino Rossini. Mozartʼs operas were rarely heard: “Der Freischütz” was the only German opera that had attained any popularity; “Fidelio” met with so little success that, after one performance in Vienna, it was withdrawn, and, as was then thought, finally.