Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/142

 136 Heine's " Buck Le Grand " vibrations of the strings we would feel the atmosphere of heavy melancholy brooding over the composition. In the sudden transi- tion from nervous tortured melodies into eccentric runs, and in the abrupt breaking of magnificent climaxes into crazy dissonances and anarchic rhythms we would divine the artist's despair over the inability of his artistic medium to compass the infinite. Final- ly, could we imagine the composer conducting the first perform- ance of his masterpiece, we would see him, arrived at the end, throw up his hands in frantic despair and, with sardonic humor gleaming in his eye, without a moment's pause, plunge headlong into the next number on the programme a trivial light opera air which brings from the gallery thunders of applause. HERMANN J. WEIGAND. University of Michigan.