The German folk-songs, because they are the best known of all, will here be treated briefly. They have, as we shall so often have occasion to point out, that faculty of concentrating intense and elevated emotion in a simple phrase of a few notes. The great progressions that ring in Bach, the great cadences which thunder forth in the Lutheran chorale--these we feel in all German popular song. The number of these songs is as the sands of the sea. The emotional range is almost that of the human heart itself. The melodic organization is much more complex than in the case of the Italian songs. Sometimes it becomes even austere. But, on the whole, no nation has songs which go so straight to the heart. They are not remarkable for rhythm nor in general for the lighter qualities prized by the French and the north Italians. Their character is, rather, homely and intimate. Some of them reflect the vigorous and rather rough spirits of German youth. More reflect the exaggerated sentimentality of German middle age. Yet this sentimentality, while it is introspective, is never morbid. It is founded deep in the heart of a magnificently healthy people and is no more than the honest expression of a passing mood. From the time of the Minnesingers and their charmingly graceful ditties the idealism of the German people has been revealed in their singing. Frequently this takes on a religious tinge, so that the Lutheran church could adopt true folk-tunes for its hymns without incongruity. Often the spirit of quite secular songs is essentially religious, as in that magnificent song of Silcher’s-- ‘Aennchen von Tharau, mein Reichthum, mein Gut, Du bist mein Leben, mein Fleisch und mein Blut.’ Certainly these songs of Germany can, of all folk-songs, least bear any insincerity or affectation. They seem to be a touchstone for determining genuineness of soul--that quality which the Germans call _Echtheit_. They, above all other songs, demand soundness of musicianship and honesty of method.