Little more than a decade since, the musical world of Germany was dominated by two men who divided between them the allegiance of the intelligent musicians of the Fatherland. If you were not among the Wagnerians you were by that fact enrolled among the partisans of Brahms; to appreciate neither master was to own yourself a hopeless Philistine, but to profess an admiration for both was to adopt a position which was obviously untenable. The war was not the less keenly carried on because there were no such scenes as made memorable the battle of the Gluckists and Piccinists, or that of the admirers of Faustina and Cuzzoni. Every sort of invective and misrepresentation was employed by the journalists who fought in the front ranks of the action, and no doubt some ingenious person will one day collect from the Wagnerian literature a companion volume to the famous dictionary of opprobrious epithets applied to the Bayreuth master by his opponents. It should be clearly understood that the question at issue was chiefly the position of Wagner; the parties were rightly described as Wagnerians and anti-Wagnerians, not as Brahmsians and anti-Brahms. ians or even as Wagnerians and Brahmsians.