After such an expression of opinion one imagines that a critic ought to feel some embarrassment in writing about M. Vincent d’Indy.  And I myself ought to be the more concerned in the matter, for in the number of the review where the above was written the only other opinions expressed with equal conviction belonged to the author of this book.  There is only one thing to be done—­to copy M. d’Indy’s example; for that forsworn enemy of criticism is himself a keen critic.

[Footnote 139:  Revue d’Art dramatique, 5 February, 1899.]

It is not altogether on M. d’Indy’s musical gifts that I want to dwell.  It is known that in Europe to-day he is one of the masters of dramatic musical expression, of orchestral colouring, and of the science of style.  But that is not the end of his attainments; he has artistic originality, which springs from something deeper still.  When an artist has some worth, you will find it not only in his work but in his being.  So we will endeavour to explore M. d’Indy’s being.

M. d’Indy’s personality is not a mysterious one.  On the contrary, it is open and clear as daylight; and we see this in his musical work, in his artistic activities, and in his writings.  To his own writings we may apply the exception of his rule about criticism in favour of a small number of men whose thoughts are interesting even when they are erroneous.  It would be a pity indeed not to know M. d’Indy’s thoughts—­even the erroneous ones; for they let us catch a glimpse, not only of the ideas of an eminent artist, but of certain surprising characteristics of the thought of our time.  M. d’Indy has closely studied the history of his art; but the chief interest of his writings lies rather in their unconscious expression of the spirit of modern art than in what they tell us about the past.

M. d’Indy is not a man hedged in by the boundaries of his art; his mind is open and well fertilised.  Musicians nowadays are no longer entirely absorbed in their notes, but let their minds go out to other interests.  And it is not one of the least interesting phenomena of French music to-day that gives us these learned and thoughtful composers, who are conscious of what they create, and bring to their art a keen critical faculty, like that of M. Saint-Saens, M. Dukas, or M. d’Indy.  From M. d’Indy we have had scholarly editions of Rameau, Destouches, and Salomon de Rossi.  Even in the middle of rehearsals of L’Etranger at Brussels he was working at a reconstruction of Monteverde’s Orfeo.  He has published selections of folk-songs with critical notes, essays on Beethoven’s predecessors, a history of Musical Composition, and debates and lectures.  This fine intellectual culture is not, however, the most remarkable of M. d’Indy’s characteristics, though it may have been the most remarked.  Other musicians share this culture with him; and his real distinction lies in his moral and almost religious qualities, and it is this side of him that gives him an unusual interest for us among other contemporary artists.