The Symphony Since Beethoven

the first, primarily in being more carefully finished in style, and furthermore in a greater precision, to obtain which some wordy passages have been struck out and some supplementary ones have been added. No reader of this edition will suffer under the false impression that I consider the further development of the symphony impossible and speak a good word for programme music only. It is incomprehensible to me how any one could have read this idea into the first edition. There have been complaints, also, that I have overlooked composers. Especially in Paris, where the little book has become known through the translation made by Madame Chevillard, has this criticism been raised against me. Although more names are spoken of here than before, still there are of course many deserving artists who are not mentioned. My book is not a catalogue, and no one should expect to find in it just what he would in the latter. Finally, the question is often put to me with nolittle wit, why I, after writing this book, should have composed two symphonies, and what was my aim in doing this. I will take the trouble here to answer this query with corresponding wit. Aim had I none. Both symphonies were written simply because they came to me. Felix Weingartner. Munich, December, 1900. chapter{Section 4THE SYMPHONY SINCE BEETHOVEN If in wandering through some Alpine valley, while we were standing awestruck before a colossal mountain, whose snow-crowned peak rose shimmering ...