And that is the secret of his personality and his value to
us; he brings to our artistic unrest a little of the light and sweetness
of other times. His compositions are like fragments of another world.
[Footnote 136: _Harmonie et Melodie_.]
[Footnote 137: C. Saint-Saens, _Portraits et Souvenirs_.]
"From time to time," he said, in speaking of _Don Giovanni_, "in the
sacred earth of Hellene we find a fragment, an arm, the debris of a
torso, scratched and damaged by the ravages of time; it is only the
shadow of the god that the sculptor's chisel once created; but the charm
is somehow still there, the sublime style is radiant in spite of
everything."[138]
And so with this music. It is sometimes a little pale, a little too
restrained; but in a phrase, in a few harmonies, there will shine out a
clear vision of the past.
[Footnote 138: _Portraits et Souvenirs_.]
VINCENT D'INDY
"I consider that criticism is useless, I would even say that it is
harmful.... Criticism generally means the opinion some man or other
holds about another person's work. How can that opinion help
forward the growth of art? It is interesting to know the ideas,
even the erroneous ideas, of geniuses and men of great talent, such
as Goethe, Schumann, Wagner, Sainte-Beuve, and Michelet, when they
wish to indulge in criticism; but it is of no interest at all to
know whether Mr.
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