Or is supermusic always grand, sad, noble, or emotional? There must be another violent head shaking here. The air from _Oberon, Ocean, thou mighty monster_, is so grand that scarcely a singer can be found today capable of interpreting it, although many sopranos puff and steam through it, for all the world like pinguid gentlemen climbing the stairs to the towers of Notre Dame. The _Fifth Symphony_ of Beethoven is both grand and noble; probably no one will be found who will deny that it is supermusic, but Mahler's _Symphony of the Thousand_ is likewise grand and noble, and futile and bombastic to boot. _Or sai chi l'onore_ is a grand air, but _Robert je t'aime_ is equally grand in intention, at least. _Der Tod und das Madchen_ is sad; so is _Les Larmes_ in _Werther_.... But a very great deal of supermusic is neither grand nor sad. Haydn's symphonies are usually as light-hearted and as light-waisted as possible. Mozart's _Figaro_ scarcely seems to have a care. Listen to Beethoven's _Fourth_ and _Eighth Symphonies_, _Il Barbiere_ again, _Die Meistersinger_.... But do not be misled: Massenet's _Don Quichotte_ is light music; so is Mascagni's _Lodoletta_.... Is music to be prized and taken to our hearts because it is contrapuntal and complex? We frequently hear it urged that Bach (who was more or less forgotten for a hundred years, by the way) was the greatest of composers and his music is especially intricate. He is the one composer, indeed, who can _never_ be played with one finger! But poor unimportant forgotten Max Reger also wrote in the most complicated forms; the great Gluck in the simplest. Gluck, indeed, has even been considered weak in counterpoint and fugue. Meyerbeer, it is said, was also weak in counterpoint and fugue. Is he therefor to be regarded as the peer of Gluck? Is Mozart's _G minor Symphony_ more important (because it is more complicated) than the same composer's, _Batti, Batti_?