Elsner tried his strength and ability in all genres, from oratorio, opera, and symphony, down to pianoforte variations, rondos, and dances, and in none of them did he fail to be pleasing and intelligible, not even where, as especially in his sacred music, he made use—­a sparing use—­of contrapuntal devices, imitations, and fugal treatment.  The naturalness, fluency, effectiveness, and practicableness which distinguish his writing for voices and instruments show that he possessed a thorough knowledge of their nature and capability.  It was, therefore, not an empty rhetorical phrase to speak of him initiating his pupils “a la science du contre-point et aux effets d’une savante instrumentation.”

[Footnote:  “The productions of Elsner,” says Fetis, “are in the style of Paer and Mayer’s music.  In his church music there is a little too much of modern and dramatic forms; one finds in them facility and a natural manner of making the parts sing, but little originality and variety in his ideas.  Elsner writes with sufficient purity, although he shows in his fugues that his studies have not been severe.”]

For the pupils of the Conservatorium he wrote vocal pieces in from one to ten parts, and he composed also a number of canons in four and five parts, which fact seems to demonstrate that he had no ill-will against the scholastic forms.  And now I shall quote a passage from an apparently well-informed writer [footnote:  The writer of the article Elsner in Schilling’s Universal-Lexikon der Tonkunst] (to whom I am, moreover, otherwise indebted in this sketch), wherein Elsner is blamed for certain shortcomings with which Chopin has been often reproached in a less charitable spirit.  The italics, which are mine, will point out the words in question:—­

One forgives him readily [in consideration of the general excellence of his style] the offences against the law of harmonic connection that occur here and there, and the facility with which he sometimes disregards the fixed rules of strict part-writing, especially in the dramatic works, where he makes effect apparently the ultimate aim of his indefatigable endeavours.

The wealth of melody and technical mastery displayed in “The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ” incline Karasowski to think that it is the composer’s best work.  When the people at Breslau praised Elsner’s “Echo Variations” for orchestra, Chopin exclaimed:  “You must hear his Coronation Mass, then only can you judge of him as a composer.”  To characterise Elsner in a few words, he was a man of considerable musical aptitude and capacity, full of nobleness of purpose, learning, industry, perseverance, in short, possessing all qualities implied by talent, but lacking those implied by genius.