We still pause in wonder before the streams of virulent personal abuse and unbridled licence in temper which disgrace the early pages of volumes we now associate with sound and dignified, if somewhat conventional, utterances on the art of Literature as viewed from the table-land of authority. ...
Chopin had shown interest in thefolk musicof the Polish countryside and had received those impressions that later gave an unmistakable national colouring to his work. At theconservatoryhe was put through a solid course of instruction inharmonyand composition; in piano playing he was allowed to deve...