Brahms was living in Vienna but he was not born there, so the feeling was strong against him when he began to threaten the position of the Viennese, Anton Bruckner, who though nine years older than Brahms, was not recognized so early. There was much in favor of Bruckner. He was a very fine musician. Themes, melodies bubbled forth constantly like an oil-gusher, but he did not know how or when to stop them. If he had only known how to control this continuous flow, he might have been as great a figure as Brahms and the story of his life been different. It is wonderful, however, what he made of himself, for he was a poor schoolmaster and organist who had only his natural gifts to start with, and had little education. But he wrote symphonies by the wholesale and they were so long that they fairly terrified conductors to whom he brought them in the hope of having them performed. He won his point, however, and lived to gain no small amount of recognition. We heard several of his symphonies in America in 1924, the hundredth anniversary of his birth in Ausfelden, Upper Austria. He died in Vienna in 1896. Anton Bruckner wrote during the time of the height of Richard Wagner’s glory and the dawn of Richard Strauss’s fame, and was eleven years younger than Wagner, whom he idolized. MAHLER IN AMERICA Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) enters at this point. It would be difficult to make a definite statement about him, for whatever be said for or against him, is sure to draw argument. He had been a storm-center for many years before his death, and even afterward those who were against him waged war quite as bitterly, while those for him fought more valiantly than ever. America was in the thick of this fight and many friendships of long standing were broken on account of it. Mahler living in New York as recently as 1908–1911 makes us realize the more fully what men of genius have had to suffer. Mahler was a powerful musical genius, with astounding ability to work and amazing skill in handling his massive scores. He died at the age of fifty-one leaving so many symphonies, choral and festival works that it was a wonder how one man could have accomplished that much even had he lived to be a hundred. We marvel at his genius, but do we want to hear often works that last for hours and hours? Some do, who can follow his themes, his amazing treatment of them and his ingenious writing for instruments. Others are fatigued by the length of time he dwells upon one subject and by the length of the work itself, and they sometimes object to his strong contrasts in light and shade. But all this must be left to the future, the scales in which all art is weighed. We should be thankful that America enjoyed the benefits Mahler brought.