LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE BRAHMS AT THE PIANO Title From a charcoal drawing by W. von Beckerath GRIEG 49 DVOŘÁK 73 SAINT-SAËNS 99 FRANCK 123 TSCHAÏKOWSKY 151 BRAHMS 175 I INTRODUCTION THE APPRECIATION OF MUSIC I INTRODUCTION THE APPRECIATION OF MUSIC However interesting may be the study of an art through the personalities of the artists who have produced it, and such study, since art is a mode of human expression, is indeed essential, it must be supplemented by at least some general knowledge of the long continuous evolution in which the work of the most brilliant individual is but a moment, a phase. The quality of a man's work in art, and especially, as will be seen in a moment, in music, depends not alone on the depth of his character and the force of his talent, but also largely on the technical resources he owes to others, on the means for expressing himself that he finds ready to his hand. Whatever his personal powers or limitations, the value of his work will be determined not more by these than by the helps and hindrances of his artistic inheritance.