Few composers have given their best to the ballad form. This is a pity, because no single form of poetry has such a universal and direct appeal as the condensed dramatic story in verse. No type of poetry is more difficult to write with sincerity and human truthfulness. The ballad has remained almost as it was in the beginning, the peculiar property of folk-art. It is, on the other hand, the easiest form for a musician to abuse, the one which tempts most to cheap and clumsy effects. Löwe is one of the few composers who has given his best to the ballad form and, while that best is far inferior to what a first-rate genius would have done, it is too stimulating and suggestive to be absent from any singer’s cultural equipment. FOOTNOTES: [26] Vol. II, chapter VI. [27] Chapter VII. CHAPTER XI BRAHMS, WAGNER, AND LISZT Brahms as a song-writer--Classification of Brahms’ songs; the ‘folk-songs’; analysis of Brahms’ songs--Wagner’s songs; Liszt as a song-writer. I When we come to Brahms we find perhaps the only song-writer besides Schubert whose truly memorable songs number more than fifty. Brahms’ song product is amazing in its richness, its creativeness, its high average of excellence. A modern taste, often misled by mere obvious effectiveness, has pronounced these songs dull. This notion prevails almost universally among the superficial, and many an appreciative critic has joined in the chorus with grudging reservations. The student in particular is likely to be frightened away from the Brahms songs by this bogey of ‘dullness’ as well as by the very considerable difficulty which they offer to the singer who is inadequately prepared. But in most cases those who accept this opinion have never studied the Brahms songs and have not allowed themselves to become familiar with their beauties. Certainly, even though certain temperaments may admit the charge of ‘dullness’ against much of the Brahms symphonic and chamber music, the charge will hold least of all against the songs. Here we find Brahms the romanticist, the composer who was master of the art of obtaining sensuous beauty of melody and richly colored harmony. We must never forget that Brahms was hailed by Schumann as the great continuer of the romantic tradition for which he himself had fought so hard and so well. If, in his maturity, Brahms came to regard form and artistic control at a higher value than his contemporaries did, it was not because his romantic invention became exhausted. From the beginning of his life to the end he was possessed of a rich fund of lovely musical ideas, and his last works (_vide_ the later Rhapsodies and the Gypsy Songs) are even more romantic than the first. Brahms was a ‘classic’ solely because he chose to be. It would perhaps be truest to say that he was romanticist in his musical ideas and classicist in his treatment