THE INDUSTRY OF THE COMPOSERS

BEING a musical genius entails a vast amount of hard work. The classified list of Beethoven's compositions given in Grove's Dictionary includes over two hundred and sixty works. Many of these works are groups of pieces, six quartets, three sonatas, twenty-six Welsh songs, and so on. Many of these works are also for the orchestra, or for various combinations of instruments. Any one who has not tried it can have no idea of the immense amount of labor involved in writing an orchestral score, apart from the inspiration and constructive work involved. Beethoven was not naturally prolific. He wrote and re-wrote his works many times before being satisfied with them. His note-book in which he jotted down his ideas has been preserved, and shows that many of his more important works took years to make. Often his melodies were quite commonplace at the beginning, but gradually took shape, form and beauty, just as an ugly block of marble will become a superb work of art under the chisel of a master.

Mendelssohn and Mozart were by nature much more prolific. They worked more rapidly than Beethoven, and both produced many works which are deservedly forgotten. Mozart was often in dire poverty, and was obliged to produce "pot-boilers" to keep the wolf from the door. His great works. however, have stood the test of time well, and will never fail to appeal to at least two classes, those whose taste naturally inclines towards simplicity, and those who have drunk intoxicating draughts of the nectar of Strauss, Wagner, Reger. Debussy and Puccini, only to find at last that they crave for the pure crystal spring of melody which is the source from which the great river of music flows.

Rossini accomplished a vast amount of work. When he was about forty-five years old, however, he decided to do no more composing, and retired after writing his greatest opera, William Tell. The Stabat Mater is the only work which appeared from his pen after that. Schubert wrote freely, but rather by fits and starts. The last year of his life , 1828, included his greatest and longest mass, his first oratorio, his finest piece of chamber music, three pianoforte sonatas, some splendid songs, and his greatest symphony, the one in C.

Probably the most remarkable composer of all, both from the point of originality and from consistent excellence is John Sebastian Bach. It is almost impossible to give a complete list of his works. They include his great Mass in B minor, the Passions according to St. Matthew, St. John and St. Luke (the last of doubtful authenticity), the Christmas Oratorio, about 200 church cantatas. many secular cantatas, orchestral pieces, chamber music, organ music (including many of the most remarkable fugues), the Well-Tempered Clivichord and many other works, and all are stamped with the hall-mark of genius.