A preface to the third edition can in the nature of things be little more than a repetition of that to the second. While in one way it is regrettable that the article on Strauss does not carry us further than the Symphonia Domestica, that work, after all, is the most convenient and the most logical closing point for a study of him in all but his very latest activities. It is about seven years now since he launched out upon a new sea with Salome. With that and the operas that followed it he has made a new "period" in his artistic history. The best time, however, for critically appraising what he has done in the theatre will be when he comes out of it, and lets us see what influence his operatic methods and ideals have had on his musical thinking as a whole. He is said to have been engaged for some time on a "Nature" Symphony. The appearance of that or of some other purely instrumental work will give the opportunity for a rounded study of the later Strauss, who has made even his own earlier works seem rather far-off things.

The Appendix to the volume remains as in the second edition. No occasion has been given me to pursue the subject further.

E. N.

Oct. 1913.