Note 2 — PREFACE

I omit the idea, the musical suggestion of which is a feat of genius, independent of style. The apprehension and exhibition of the mood is generally considered a simple matter, but really it affords a wide field for subtlety of interpretation. I have, for the sake of simplicity, assumed that in their choral music the older musicians altogether disregarded the speech inflection of the phrase; but this is not quite true, and since, especially in such words as they usually set, the speech inflection is often uncertain and unimportant, or altogether a nonentity, and would very well correspond with almost any simple musical expression of the mood, this distinction between ancients and moderns cannot always be seen, or will appear only as a difference of degree.