Besides this, the works of the chief German musicians are supported by
tremendous booming of some kind or another: by their _Musikfeste_, by
their critics, their press, and their "Musical Guides" (_Musikfuehrer_),
which are apologetic explanations of their works, scattered abroad in
millions to set the fashion for the sheep-like public. And with all this
a musician grows soon contented with himself, and comes to believe any
favourable opinion about his work. What a difference from Beethoven,
who, all his life, was hammering out the same subjects, and putting his
melodies on the anvil twenty times before they reached their final form.
That is where Mahler is so lacking. His subjects are a rather vulgarised
edition of some of Beethoven's ideas in their unfinished state. But
Mahler gets no further than the rough sketch.
And, lastly, I want to speak of the greatest danger of all that menaces
music in Germany; _there is too much music in Germany_. This is not a
paradox. There is no worse misfortune for art than a super-abundance of
it. The music is drowning the musicians. Festival succeeds festival: the
day after the Strasburg festival there was to be a Bach festival at
Eisenach; and then, at the end of the week, a Beethoven festival at
Bonn.
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