It has been said “Thou shalt not masquerade in costumes not of thine own
period,” but the history of art is the history of revivals. Musical
criticism, so far as I can see, is the least intelligent of the
criticisms on this score. Unless a man writes in the exotic style of
Brahms, Wagner, Dvořák and I know not what other Slav, Czech, Teuton or
Hebrew, the critics are sure to accuse him of being an anachronism. The
only man in England who is permitted to write in a style which is in the
main of home growth is the Irish Jew, Sir Arthur Sullivan. If we may go
to a foreign style why may we not go to one of an earlier period? But
surely we may do whatever we like, and the better we like it the better
we shall do it. The great thing is to make sure that we like the style
we choose better than we like any other, that we engraft on it whatever
we hear that we think will be a good addition, and depart from it
wherever we dislike it. If a man does this he may write in the style of
the year one and he will be no anachronism; the musical critics may call
him one but they cannot make him one.