Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/111

Rh the first Lexicons, Dictionaries and Histories of Musicians by Walther and Mattheson. Compare, with the delight which the artists of the new period derive from describing themselves, the indifference of a Bach or a Händel, who does not even reply to the series of biographical queries sent him by Mattheson. It was not that Bach and Händel were less proud than Telemann, Holzbauer and their like. They were very much prouder. But their pride was to display their art and conceal their personality. The new period no longer distinguishes one from the other. Art becomes the reflection of personality. Telemann, anticipating his critics, excuses himself, at the close of his 1718 narrative, for having said too much about himself. He would not have it thought, he says, that he was seeking to praise himself:

"I can bear witness before the whole world that apart from the legitimate self-respect which everyone should possess I have no foolish pride. All those who know me will bear me out in this. If I speak a great deal about my work it is not to aggrandize myself; for it is a law to which all are subject that nothing can be attained without toil. …

But my intention has been to show those who wish to study music that one cannot go far in this inexhaustible science without a mighty effort…"

He therefore believes, as people in his time did believe, that his life may be as interesting and as useful to the student as his work. But apart from all these motives he takes infinite pleasure in writing of himself. His ingenuous confessions are full of