It would occupy too much space were I to enter further into a question which I may in the course of this volume have occasion to allude to again. I will therefore terminate these preliminary observations by stating the position occupied by the three great emancipators of dramatic and instrumental music--Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner--at the time I mention, _circa_ 1832.[2] The first was endeavouring to obtain a hearing for works that were condemned as incoherent and unintelligible, the second had achieved high fame as a pianist, and the third was qualifying for the humble position of "Capellmeister" in a German provincial town. The charge of incoherence was destined to cling to Berlioz even unto the end, whilst the colossal reputation of Liszt as an executant for a long while caused his labours as a creative musician to be underrated. As to Wagner, the number of misrepresentations that he had to live through are too numerous and too well known to mention. Time, however, sets all things right, and the three masters are little by little gaining the position in public estimation to which they are entitled. Ambroise Thomas was born at Metz on the 5th of August 1811, the same year as Liszt. He entered the Paris Conservatoire, of which institution he is at the time I am writing the honoured director, in 1828, and studied there under Zimmerman, Dourlen, and Lesueur;[3] also receiving instructions from Kalkbrenner,[4] and Barbereau.[5] The vein of sentiment which in later years was to be so prominent a feature in his compositions must have been noticeable even at that time, for it is said that his master Lesueur, on being told that the future author of "Mignon" was seventh in the class, remarked: "Thomas est vraiment ma note sensible." (The seventh note of the scale, or what we in England call the leading note, is known in French as "la note sensible.") Having won the "Prix de Rome" in 1832, for a cantata entitled "Herman et Ketty," Ambroise Thomas repaired to Italy, where he spent the following three years according to the usual custom. It must have been about this time that he composed the trio and "Caprices en forme de Valses" for piano, marked respectively Opus 2 and 4, which were appreciated in the following terms by Schumann.[6] "We come to an extremely pleasant composition, a 'salon trio,' during which it is possible to look around without completely losing the musical thread; neither heavy nor light, neither deep nor superficial, not classical, not romantic, but always euphonious and in certain parts full of beautiful melody; for instance, in the soft leading motive of the first movement, which, however, loses a great deal of its charm when it reappears in the major, and even sounds commonplace," etc.