Of Germanic music, and its core, Don Satz writes describes one feature:

>Its heroic and militaristic traits are distinctive and greatly appealing.

Don may be onto something.  Just this morning I was listening to a
broadcast of the Missa Solemnis of Beethoven - and yes- there suddenly
appears a MARCH theme -

   da  da dadada  da .

And last night listening to the opus 127 quartet, an unmistakable march
theme.  Mahler is of course, chock full of marches.  Schubert wrote
marches- how about Brahms? But of course the French Berlioz certainly liked
his marches.

Professor Bernard Chasan
Physics Department, Boston University