At the opening of its second era music began to make history, and many painstaking and erudite men have devoted the best years of their lives to collating her records; we are therefore amply supplied with books of reference, which fact would seem to justify me in still further pursuing the path marked out by my individual impressions. My deductions and theories may not always follow beaten paths; indeed, I am only led to discuss the well-known events of this era by the hope that these digressions may afford my readers new points of view, and thus, perhaps, incite them to acquire a more intimate knowledge of the nature of music. Before commencing our explorations I should like to emphasize the theory advanced in Chapter II.,--viz., that the progress of musical evolution is more or less rapid as the quality of its culture environment is better or less well suited to its requirements. Great composers are not eccentric growths, but they are the natural fruits of the conditions into which they are born and in which they create. Acorns thrown upon bare rocks will decay; planted in sands exposed to the violent winds from the sea, they grow into gnarled scrubs; but if they fall into a soil possessing qualities calculated to expand their inherent germs, they become noble oaks, differing in size according to the assertive vitality of their several germs and to the impulses which they receive from earth and sky. These conditions also mould their forms, for their branches reach out for sunlight and rain just as their root-tendrils seek more substantial, but no more necessary, sustenance. This quest gives direction to their growth. The forest giants are like our Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Wagner; they, like these musical giants, tower above their fellows. Our musicians spread their roots out into the past (into the knowledge of what others have achieved), their aspirations are warmed into activity by the sunlight of widely diffused culture, and their creations take form from their surroundings. To illustrate my theory: if Beethoven were now living and composing music, it would necessarily differ as much from that which he did produce, in form and means, as our life conditions and modes differ from those of seventy-five years ago, for such a genius would be quick to feel the presence of new elements in either his material surroundings or art atmosphere.