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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17462-8.txt b/17462-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..080d658 --- /dev/null +++ b/17462-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6982 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Great Italian and French Composers, by George T. Ferris + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Great Italian and French Composers + +Author: George T. Ferris + +Release Date: January 4, 2006 [EBook #17462] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + + +GREAT + +ITALIAN AND FRENCH + +COMPOSERS + +BY + +GEORGE T. FERRIS + + + +Copyright, 1878, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. + + + + +NOTE. + +The task of compressing into one small volume suitable sketches of the +more famous Italian and French composers has been, in view of the extent +of the field and the wealth of material, a somewhat embarrassing one, +especially as the purpose was to make the sketches of interest to +the general music-loving public, and not merely to the critic and +the scholar. The plan pursued has been to devote the bulk of space to +composers of the higher rank, and to pass over those less known with +such brief mention as sufficed to outline their lives and fix their +place in the history of music. In gathering the facts embodied in +these musical sketches, the author acknowledges his obligations to the +following works: Hullah's "History of Modern Music"; Fétis's "Biographie +Universelle des Musiciens"; Clementi's "Biographie des Musiciens"; +Hogarth's "History of the Opera"; Sutherland Edwards's "History of the +Opera"; Schlüter's "History of Music"; Chorley's "Thirty Years' Musical +Reminiscences"; Stendhalls "Vie de Rossini"; Bellasys's "Memorials of +Cherubini"; Grove's "Musical Dictionary"; Crowest's "Musical Anecdotes"; +and the various articles in the standard cyclopædias. + +"The Great Italian and French Composers" is a companion work to "The +Great German Composers," which was published earlier in the series in +which the present volume appears. + + + + +CONTENTS. + +Palestrixa + +Piccini, Paisiello, and Cimarosa + +Rossini + +Donizetti and Bellini + +Verdi + +Cherubini and his Predecessors + +Meiül, Spontini, and Halévy + +Boïeldieu and Auber + +Meyerbeer + +Gounod and Thomas + +Berlioz + + + + +THE GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. + + + + +PALESTRINA. + + +I. + +The Netherlands share other glories than that of having nursed the most +indomitable spirit of liberty known to mediteval Europe. The fine +as well as the industrial arts found among this remarkable people, +distinguished by Erasmus as possessed of the _patientia laboris_, +an eager and passionate culture. The early contributions of the Low +Countries to the growth of the pictorial art are well known to all. But +to most it will be a revelation that the Belgian school of music was the +great fructifying influence of the fifteenth century, to which Italy and +Germany owe a debt not easily measured. The art of interweaving parts +and that science of sound known as counterpoint were placed by this +school of musical scholars and workers on a solid basis, which enabled +the great composers who came after them to build their beautiful tone +fabrics in forms of imperishable beauty and symmetry. For a long time +most of the great Italian churches had Belgian chapel-masters, and +the value of their example and teachings was vital in its relation to +Italian music. + +The last great master among the Belgians, and, after Palestrina, +the greatest of the sixteenth century, was Orlando di Lasso, born in +Hainault, in the year 1520. His life of a little more than three score +years and ten was divided between Italy and Germany. He left the deep +imprint of his severe style, though but a young man, on his Italian +_confrères_, and the young Palestrina owed to him much of the largeness +and beauty of form through which he poured his genius in the creation of +such works as have given him so distinct a place in musical history. The +pope created Orlando di Lasso Knight of the Golden Spur, and sought to +keep him in Italy. Unconcerned as to fame, the gentle, peaceful musician +lived for his art alone, and the flattering expressions of the great +were not so much enjoyed as endured by him. A musical historian, +Heimsoeth, says of him: "He is the brilliant master of the North, +great and sublime in sacred composition, of inexhaustible invention, +displaying much breadth, variety, and depth in his treatment; he +delights in full and powerful harmonies, yet, after all--owing to an +existence passed in journeys, as well as service at court, and occupied +at the same time with both sacred and secular music--he came short of +that lofty, solemn tone which pervades the works of the great master of +the South, Palestrina, who with advancing years restricted himself more +and more to church music." Of the celebrated penitential psalms of Di +Lasso, it is said that Charles IX. of France ordered them to be written +"in order to obtain rest for his soul after the horrible massacre of St. +Bartholomew." Aside from his works, this musician has a claim on +fame through his lasting improvements in musical form and method. He +illuminated, and at the same time closed, the great epoch of Belgian +ascendancy, which had given three hundred musicians of great science +to the times in which they lived. So much has been said of Orlando di +Lasso, for he was the model and Mentor of the greatest of early church +composers, Palestrina. + + +II. + +The melodious and fascinating style, soon to give birth to the +characteristic genius of the opera, was as yet unborn, though dormant. +In Rome, the chief seat of the Belgian art, the exclusive study of +technical skill had frozen music to a mere formula. The Gregorian +chant had become so overladen with mere embellishments as to make the +prescribed church-form difficult of recognition in its borrowed garb, +for it had become a mere jumble of sound. Musicians, indeed, carried +their profanation so far as to take secular melodies as the themes for +masses and motetts. These were often called by their profane titles. So +the name of a love-sonnet or a drinking-song would sometimes be attached +to a miserere. The council of Trent, in 1562, cut at these evils with +sweeping axe, and the solemn anathemas of the church fathers roused the +creative powei's of the subject of this sketch, who raised his art to +an independent national existence, and made it rank with sculpture and +painting, which had already reached their zenith in Leonardo Da Vinci, +Raphael, Correggio, Titian, and Michel Angelo. Henceforth Italian music +was to be a vigorous, fruitful stock. + +Giovanni Perluigui Aloisio da Palestrina was born at Palestrina, the +ancient Præneste, in 1524.* + + * Our composer, as was common with artists and scholars in + those days, took the name of his natal town, and by this he + is known to fame. Old documents also give him the old Latin + name of the town with the personal ending. + +The memorials of his childhood are scanty. We know but little except +that his parents were poor peasants, and that he learned the rudiments +of literature and music as a choir-singer, a starting-point so common in +the lives of great composers. In 1540 he went to Rome and studied in +the school of Goudimel, a stern Huguenot Fleming, tolerated in the papal +capital on account of his superior science and method of teaching, and +afterward murdered at Lyons on the day of the Paris massacre. Palestrina +grasped the essential doctrines of the school without adopting its +mannerisms. At the age of thirty he published his first compositions, +and dedicated them to the reigning pontiff, Julius III. In the formation +of his style, which moved with such easy, original grace within the old +prescribed rules, he learned much from the personal influence and advice +of Orlando di Lasso, his warm friend and constant companion during these +earlier days. + +Several of his compositions, written at this time, are still performed +in Rome on Good Friday, and Goethe and Mendelssohn have left their +eloquent tributes to the impression made on them by music alike simple +and sublime. The pope was highly pleased with Palestrina's noble music, +and appointed him one of the papal choristers, then regarded as a great +honor. But beyond Rome the new light of music was but little known. +The Council of Trent, in their first indignation at the abuse of church +music, had resolved to abolish everything but the simple Gregorian +chants, but the remonstrances of the Emperor Ferdinand and the Roman +cardinals stayed the austere fiat. The final decision was made to rest +on a new composition of Palestrina, who was permitted to demonstrate +that the higher forms of musical art were consistent with the +solemnities of church worship. + +All eyes were directed to the young musician, for the very existence +of his art was at stake. The motto of his first mass, "Illumina oculos +meos," shows the pious enthusiasm with which he undertook his labors. +Instead of one, he composed three six-part masses. The third of these +excited such admiration that the pope exclaimed in raptures, "It is John +who gives us here in this earthly Jerusalem a foretaste of that new song +which the holy Apostle John realized in the heavenly Jerusalem in his +prophetic trance." This is now known as the "mass of Pope Marcel," in +honor of a former patron of Palestrina. + +A new pope, Paul IV., on ascending the pontifical throne, carried his +desire of reforming abuses to fanaticism. He insisted on all the papal +choristers being clerical. Palestrina had married early in life a Roman +lady, of whom all we know is that her name was Lucretia. Four children +had blessed the union, and the composer's domestic happiness became a +bar to his temporal preferment. With two others he was dismissed from +the chapel because he was a layman, and a trifling pension allowed him. +Two months afterward, though, he was appointed chapel-master of St. +John Lateran. His works now succeeded each other rapidly, and different +collections of his masses were dedicated to the crowned heads of Europe. +In 1571 he was appointed chapel-master of the Vatican, and Pope Gregory +XIII. gave special charge of the reform of sacred music to Palestrina. + +The death of the composer's wife, whom he idolized, in 1580, was a blow +from which he never recovered. In his latter days he was afflicted with +great poverty, for the positions he held were always more honorable than +lucrative. Mental depression and physical weakness burdened the last few +years of his pious and gentle life, and he died after a lingering and +severe illness. The register of the pontifical chapel contains this +entry: "February 2, 1594. This morning died the most excellent musician, +Signor Giovanni Palestrina, our dear companion and _maestro di capella_ +of St. Peter's church, whither his funeral was attended not only by all +the musicians of Rome, but by an infinite concourse of people, when his +own 'Libera me, Domine' was sung by the whole college." + +Such are the simple and meagre records of the life of the composer, who +carved and laid the foundation of the superstructure of Italian music; +who, viewed in connection with his times and their limitations, must be +regarded as one of the great creative minds in his art; who shares with +Sebastian Bach the glory of having built an imperishable base for the +labors of his successors. + + +III. + +Palestrixa left a great mass of compositions, all glowing with the fire +of genius, only part of which have been published. His simple life was +devoted to musical labor, and passed without romance, diversion, or +excitement. His works are marked by utter absence of contrast and +color. Without dramatic movement, they are full of melody and majesty, a +majesty serene, unruffled by the slightest suggestion of human passion. +Voices are now and then used for individual expression, but either in +unison or harmony. As in all great church music, the chorus is the key +of the work. The general judgment of musicians agrees that repose and +enjoyment are more characteristic of this music than that of any +other master. The choir of the Sistine chapel, by the inheritance of +long-cherished tradition, is the most perfect exponent of the +Palestrina music. During the annual performance of the "Improperie" and +"Lamentations," the altar and walls are despoiled of their pictures and +ornaments, and everything is draped in black. The cardinals dressed in +serge, no incense, no candles: the whole scene is a striking picture of +trouble and desolation. The faithful come in two by two and bow before +the cross, while the sad music reverberates through the chapel arches. +This powerful appeal to the imagination, of course, lends greater power +to the musical effect. But all minds who have felt the lift and beauty +of these compositions have acknowledged how far they soar above words +and creeds, and the picturesque framework of a liturgy. + +Mendelssohn, in a letter to Zelter on the Palestrina music as heard in +the Sistine chapel, says that nothing could exceed the effect of the +blending of the voices, the prolonged tones gradually merging from one +note and chord to another, softly swelling, decreasing, at last dying +out. "They understand," he writes, "how to bring out and place each +trait in the most delicate light, without giving it undue prominence; +one chord gently melts into another. The ceremony at the same time is +solemn and imposing; deep silence prevails in the chapel, only broken +by the reechoing Greek 'holy,' sung with unvarying sweetness and +expression." The composer Paër was so impressed with the wonderful +beauty of the music and the performance, that he exclaimed, "This is +indeed divine music, such as I have long sought for, and my imagination +was never able to realize, but which, I knew, must exist." + +Palestrina's versatility and genius enabled him to lift ecclesiastical +music out of the rigidity and frivolity characterizing on either +hand the opposing ranks of those that preceded him, and to embody +the religious spirit in works of the highest art. He transposed the +ecclesiastical melody (_canto fermo_) from the tenor to the soprano +(thus rendering it more intelligible to the ear), and created that +glorious thing choir song, with its refined harmony, that noble music +of which his works are the models, and the papal chair the oracle. No +individual preeminence is ever allowed to disturb and weaken the ideal +atmosphere of the whole work. However Palestrina's successors have aimed +to imitate his effects, they have, with the exception of Cherubini, +failed for the most part; for every peculiar genus of art is the result +of innate genuine inspiration, and the spontaneous growth of the age +which produces it. As a parent of musical form he was the protagonist +of Italian music, both sacred and secular, and left an admirable model, +which even the new school of opera so soon to rise found it necessary to +follow in the construction of harmony. The splendid and often licentious +music of the theatre built its most worthy effects on the work of the +pious composer, who lived, labored, and died in an atmosphere of almost +anchorite sanctity. + +The great disciples of his school, Nannini and Allegri, continued his +work, and the splendid "Miserere" of the latter was regarded as such +an inestimable treasure that no copy of it was allowed to go out of the +Sistine chapel, till the infant prodigy, Wolfgang Mozart, wrote it out +from the memory of a single hearing. + + + + +PICCINI, PAISIELLO, AND CIMAROSA + + +I. + +Music, as speaking the language of feeling, emotion, and passion, found +its first full expansion in the operatic form. There had been attempts +to represent drama with chorus, founded on the ancient Greek drama, but +it was soon discovered that dialogue and monologue could not be embodied +in choral forms without involving an utter absurdity. The spirit of +the renaissance had freed poetry, statuary, and painting, from the +monopolizing elaims of the church. Music, which had become a well +equipped and developed science, could not long rest in a similar +servitude. Though it is not the aim of the author to discuss operatic +history, a brief survey of the progress of opera from its birth cannot +be omitted. + +The oldest of the entertainments which ripened into Italian opera +belongs to the last years of the fifteenth century, and was the work +of the brilliant Politian, known as one of the revivalists of Greek +learning attached to the court of Cosmo de' Medici and his son Lorenzo. +This was the musical drama of "Orfeo." The story was written in Latin, +and sung in music principally choral, though a few solo phrases were +given to the principal characters. It was performed at Rome with great +magnificence, and Vasari tells us that Peruzzi, the decorator of the +papal theatre, painted such scenery for it that even the great Titian +was so struck with the _vraisemblance_ of the work that he was not +satisfied until he had touched the canvas to be sure of its not being in +relief. We may fancy indeed that the scenery was one great attraction +of the representation. In spite of spasmodic encouragement by the more +liberally minded pontiffs, the general weight of church influence was +against the new musical tendency, and the most skilled composers were at +first afraid to devote their talents to further its growth. + +What musicians did not dare undertake out of dread of the thunderbolts +of the church, a company of _literati_ at Florence commenced in 1580. +The primary purpose was the revival of Greek art, including music. This +association, in conjunction with the Medicean Academy, laid down the +rule that distinct individuality of expression in music was to be sought +for. As results, quickly came musical drama with recitative (modern form +of the Greek chorus) and solo melody for characteristic parts of the +legend or story. Out of this beginning swiftly grew the opera. Composers +in the new form sprung up in various parts of Italy, though Naples, +Venice, and Florence continued to be its centres. + +Between 1637 and 1700, there were performed three hundred operas at +Venice alone. An account of the performance of "Berenice," composed by +Domenico Freschi, at Padua, in 1680, dwarfs all our present ideas of +spectacular splendor. In this opera there were choruses of a hundred +virgins and a hundred soldiers; a hundred horsemen in steel armor; a +hundred performers on trumpets, cornets, sackbuts, drums, flutes, and +other instruments, on horseback and on foot; two lions led by two Turks, +and two elephants led by two Indians; Berenice's triumphal car drawn +by four horses, and six other cars with spoils and prisoners, drawn by +twelve horses. Among the scenes in the first act was a vast plain +with two triumphal arches; another with pavilions and tents; a square +prepared for the entrance of the triumphal procession, and a forest +for the chase. In the second act there were the royal apartments of +Berenice's temple of vengeance, a spacious court with view of the prison +and a covered way with long lines of chariots. In the third act there +were the royal dressing-room, the stables with a hundred live horses, +porticoes adorned with tapestry, and a great palace in the perspective. +In the course of the piece there were representations of the hunting of +the boar, the stag, and the lions. The whole concluded with a huge globe +descending from the skies, and dividing itself in lesser globes of fire +on which stood allegorical figures of fame, honor, nobility, virtue, and +glory. The theatriccal manager had princes and nobles for bankers and +assistants, and they lavished their treasures of art and money to +make such spectacles as the modern stagemen of London and Paris cannot +approach. + +In Evelyn's diary there is an entry describing opera at Venice in 1645. +"This night, having with my lord Bruce taken our places before, we +went to the opera, where comedies and other plays are represented +in recitative musiq by the most excellent musicians, vocal and +instrumental, with variety of scenes painted and contrived with no +lesse art of perspective, and machines for flying in the aire, and other +wonderful motions; taken together it is one of the most magnificent and +expensive diversions the wit of man can invent. The history was Hercules +in Lydia. The sceanes changed thirteen times. The famous voices, Anna +Rencia, a Roman and reputed the best treble of women; but there was +a Eunuch who in my opinion surpassed her; also a Génoise that in my +judgment sung an incomparable base. They held us by the eyes and ears +till two o'clock i' the morning." Again he writes of the carnival +of 1640: "The comedians have liberty and the operas are open; witty +pasquils are thrown about, and the mountebanks have their stages at +every corner. The diversion which chiefly took me up was three noble +operas, where were most excellent voices and music, the most celebrated +of which was the famous and beautiful Anna Rencia, whom we invited to +a fish dinner after four daies in Lent, when they had given over at the +theatre." Old Evelyn then narrates how he and his noble friend took the +lovely diner out on a junketing, and got shot at with blunderbusses from +the gondola of an infuriated rival. + +Opera progressed toward a fixed status with a swiftness hardly +paralleled in the history of any art. The soil was rich and fully +prepared for the growth, and the fecund root, once planted, shot into +a luxuriant beauty and symmetry, which nothing could check. The Church +wisely gave up its opposition, and henceforth there was nothing to +impede the progress of a product which spread and naturalized itself +in England, France, and Germany. The inventive genius of Monteverde, +Carissimi, Scarlatti (the friend and rival of Handel), Durante, and +Leonardo Leo, perfected the forms of the opera nearly as we have them +today. A line of brilliant composers in the school of Durante and Leo +brings us down through Pergolesi, Derni, Terradiglias, Jomelli, Traetta, +Ciccio di Majo, Galuppi, and Giuglielmi, to the most distinguished of +the early Italian composers, Nicolo Piccini, who, mostly forgotten +in his works, is principally known to modern fame as the rival of the +mighty Gluck in that art controversy which shook Paris into such bitter +factions. Yet, overshadowed as Piccini was in the greatness of his +rival, there can be no question of his desert as the most brilliant +ornament and exponent of the early operatic school. No greater honor +could have been paid to him than that he should have been chosen as +their champion by the _Italianissimi_ of his day in the battle royal +with such a giant as Gluck, an honor richly deserved by a composer +distinguished by multiplicity and beauty of ideas, dramatic insight, and +ardent conviction. + + +II. + +Niccolo Piccini, who was not less than fifty years of age when he left +Naples for the purpose of outrivaling Gluck, was born at Bari, in the +kingdom of Naples, in 1728. His father, also a musician, had destined +him for holy orders, but Nature made him an artist. His great delight +even as a little child was playing on the harpsichord, which he quickly +learned. One day the bishop of Bari heard him playing and was amazed +at the power of the little _virtuoso_. "By all means, send him to a +conservatory of music," he said to the elder Piccini. "If the vocation +of the priesthood brings trials and sacrifices, a musical career is +not less beset with obstacles. Music demands great perseverance and +incessant labor. It exposes one to many chagrins and toils." + +By the advice of the shrewd prelate, the precocious boy was placed at +the school of St. Onofrio at the age of fourteen. At first confided to +the care of an inferior professor, he revolted from the arid teachings +of a mere human machine. Obeying the dictates of his daring fancy, +though hardly acquainted with the rudiments of composition, he +determined to compose a mass. The news got abroad that the little +Niccolo was working on a grand mass, and the great Leo, the chief of the +conservatory, sent for the trembling culprit. + +"You have written a mass?" he commenced. + +"Excuse me, sir, I could not help it," said the timid boy. + +"Let me see it." + +Niccolo brought him the score and all the orchestral parts, and Leo +immediately went to the concert-room, assembled the orchestra, and +gave them the parts. The boy was ordered to take his place in front and +conduct the performance, which he went through with great agitation. + +"I pardon you this time," said the grave maestro, at the end; "but, if +you do such a thing again, I will punish you in such a manner that you +will remember it as long as you live. Instead of studying the +principles of your art, you give yourself up to all the wildness of your +imagination; and, when you have tutored your ill-regulated ideas into +something like shape, you produce what you call a mass, and no doubt +think you have produced a masterpiece." + +When the boy burst into tears at this rebuke, Leo clasped him in his +arms, told him he had great talent, and after that took him under +his special instruction. Leo was succeeded by Durante, who also loved +Piccini, and looked forward to a future greatness for him. He was wont +to say the others were his pupils, but Piccini was his son. After +twelve years spent in the conservatory, Piccini commenced an opera. The +director of the principal Neapolitan theatre said to Prince Vintimille, +who introduced the young musician, that his work was sure to be a +failure. + +"How much can you lose by his opera," the prince replied, "supposing it +be a perfect fiasco?" The manager named the sum. + +"There is the money, then," replied Piccini's generous patron, handing +him a purse. "If the 'Dorme Despetose' (the name of the opera) should +fail, you may keep the money, but otherwise return it to me." + +The friends of Lagroscino, the favorite composer of the day, were +enraged when they heard that the next new work was to be from an obscure +youth, and they determined to hiss the performance. So great, however, +was the delight of the public with the freshness and beauty of Piccini's +music, that even those who came to condemn remained to applaud. The +reputation of the composer went on increasing until he became the +foremost name of musical Italy, for his fertility of production was +remarkable; and he gave the theatres a brilliant succession of comic and +serious works. In 1758 he produced at Rome his "Alessandro nell' Indie," +whose success surpassed all that had preceded it, and two years later +a still finer masterpiece, "La Buona Figluola," written to a text +furnished by the poet Goldoni, and founded on the story of Richardson's +"Pamela." This opera was produced at every playhouse on the Italian +peninsula in the course of a few years. A pleasant _mot_ by the Duke of +Brunswick is worth preserving in this connection. Piccini had married a +beautiful singer named Vicenza Sibilla, and his home was very happy. One +day the German prince visited Piccini, and found him rocking the cradle +of his youngest child, while the eldest was tugging at the paternal +coat-tails. The mother, being _en déshabille_, ran away at the sight +of a stranger. The duke excused himself for his want of ceremony, and +added, "I am delighted to see so great a man living in such simplicity, +and that the author of 'La Bonne Fille' is such a good father." +Piccini's placid and pleasant life was destined, however, to pass into +stormy waters. + +His sway over the stage and the popular preference continued until +1773, when a clique of envious rivals at Rome brought about his first +disaster. The composer was greatly disheartened, and took to his bed, +for he was ill alike in mind and body. The turning-point in his career +had come, and he was to enter into an arena which taxed his powers in a +contest such as he had not yet dreamed of. His operas having been +heard and admired in France, their great reputation inspired the +royal favorite, Mme. du Barry, with the hope of finding a successful +competitor to the great German composer, patronized by Marie Antoinette. +Accordingly, Piccini was offered an indemnity of six thousand francs, +and a residence in the hotel of the Neapolitan ambassador. When the +Italian arrived in Paris, Gluck was in full sway, the idol of the court +and public, and about to produce his "Armide." + +Piccini was immediately commissioned to write a new opera, and he +applied to the brilliant Marmontel for a libretto. The poet rearranged +one of Quinault's tragedies, "Roland," and Piccini undertook the +difficult task of composing music to words in a language as yet unknown +to him. Marcnontel was his unwearied tutor, and he writes in his +"Memoirs" of his pleasant yet arduous task: "Line by line, word by word, +I had everything to explain; and, when he had laid hold of the meaning +of a passage, I recited it to him, marking the accent, the prosody, +and the cadence of the verses. He listened eagerly, and I had the +satisfaction to know that what he heard was carefully noted. His +delicate ear seized so readily the accent of the language and the +measure of the poetry, that in his music he never mistook them. It was +an inexpressible pleasure to me to see him practice before my eyes an +art of which before I had no idea. His harmony was in his mind. He wrote +his airs with the utmost rapidity, and when he had traced its designs, +he filled up all the parts of the score, distributing the traits of +harmony and melody, just as a skillful painter would distribute on his +canvas the colors, lights, and shadows of his picture. When all this +was done, he opened his harpsichord, which he had been using as his +writing-table; and then I heard an air, a duet, a chorus, complete in +all its parts, with a truth of expression, an intelligence, a unity +of design, a magic in the harmony, which delighted both my ear and my +feelings." + +Piccini's arrival in Paris had been kept a close secret while he was +working on the new opera, but Abbé du Rollet ferreted it out, and +acquainted Gluck, which piece of news the great German took with +philosophical disdain. Indeed, he attended the rehearsal of "Roland;" +and when his rival, in despair over his ignorance of French and the +stupidity of the orchestra, threw down the baton in despair, Gluck took +it up, and by his magnetic authority brought order out of chaos +and restored tranquillity, a help as much, probably, the fruit of +condescension and contempt as of generosity. + +Still Gluck was not easy in mind over this intrigue of his enemies, and +wrote a bitter letter, which was made public, and aggravated the war +of public feeling. Epigrams and accusations flew back and forth like +hailstones.* + + * See article on Gluck in "Great German Composers." + +"Do you know that the Chevalier (Gluck's title) has an Armida and +Orlando in his portfolio?" said Abbé Arnaud to a Piccinist. + +"But Piccini is also at work on an Orlando," was the retort. + +"So much the better," returned the abbé, "for then we shall have an +Orlando and also an Orlandino," was the keen answer. + +The public attention was stimulated by the war of pamphlets, lampoons, +and newspaper articles. Many of the great _literati_ were Piccinists, +among them Marmontel, La Harpe, D'Alembert, etc. Suard du Rollet and +Jean Jacques Rousseau fought in the opposite ranks. Although the nation +was trembling on the verge of revolution, and the French had just lost +their hold on the East Indies; though Mirabeau was thundering in the +tribune, and Jacobin clubs were commencing their baleful work, soon to +drench Paris in blood, all factions and discords were forgotten. +The question was no longer, "Is he a Jansenist, a Molinist, an +Encyclopædist, a philosopher, a free-thinker?" One question only was +thought of: "Is he a Gluckist or Piccinist?" and on the answer often +depended the peace of families and the cement of long-established +friendships. + +Piccini's opera was a brilliant success with the fickle Parisians, +though the Gluckists sneered at it as pretty concert music. The retort +was that Gluck had no gift of melody, though they admitted he had the +advantage over his rival of making more noise. The poor Italian was so +much distressed by the fierce contest that he and his family were in +despair on the night of the first representation. He could only say +to his weeping wife and son: "Come, my children, this is unreasonable. +Remember that we are not among savages; we are living with the politest +and kindest nation in Europe. If they do not like me as a musician, they +will at all events respect me as a man and a stranger." To do justico +to Piccini, a mild and timid man, he never took part in the controversy, +and always spoke of his opponent with profound respect and admiration. + + +III. + +Marie Antoinette, whom Mme. du Barry and her clique looked on as +Piccini's enemy, astonished both cabals by appointing Piccini her +singing-master, an unprofitable honor, for he received no pay, and was +obliged to give costly copies of his compositions to the royal family. +He might have quoted from the Latin poet in regard to this favor from +Marie Antoinette, whose faction in music, among other names, was known +as the Greek party, "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes." * + + * I fear the Greeks, though offering gifts. + +Beaumarchais, the brilliant author of "Figaro," had found the same +inconvenience when acting as court teacher to the daughters of Louis XV. +The French kings were parsimonious except when lavishing money on their +vices. + +The action of the dauphiness, however, paved the way for a +reconciliation between Piccini and Gluck. Berton, the manager of the +opera, gave a luxurious banquet, and the musicians, side by side, +pledged each other in libations of champagne. Gluck got confidential +in his cups. "These French," he said, "are good enough people, but they +make me laugh. They want us to write songs for them, and they can't +sing." In fact the quarrel was not between the musicians but their +adherents. In his own heart Piccini knew his inferiority to Gluck. + +De Vismes, Berton's successor, proposed that both should write operas on +the same subject, "Iphigenia in Tauris," and gave him a libretto. "The +French public will have for the first time," he said, "the pleasure of +hearing two operas on the same theme, with the same incidents, the +same characters, but composed by two great masters of totally different +schools." + +"But," objected the alarmed Italian, "if Gluck's opera is played first, +the public will be so delighted that they will not listen to mine." + +"To avoid that catastrophe," said the director, "we will play yours +first." + +"But Gluck will not permit it." + +"I give you my word of honor," said De Vismes, "that your opera shall be +put in rehearsal and brought out as soon as it is finished." + +Before Piccini had finished his opera, he heard that his rival was +back from Germany with his "Iphigenia" completed, and that it was in +rehearsal. The director excused himself on the plea of its being a royal +command. Gluck's work was his masterpiece, and produced an unparalleled +sensation among the Parisians. Even his enemies were silenced, and La +Harpe said it was the _chef d'oeuvre_ of the world. Piccini's work, +when produced, was admired, but it stood no chance with the profound, +serious, and wonderfully dramatic composition of his rival. + +On the night of the first performance Mile. Laguerre, to whom Piccini +had trusted the rôle of Iphigenia, could not stand straight from +intoxication. "This is not 'Iphigenia in Tauris,'" said the witty Sophie +Arnould, "but 'Iphigenia in champagne.'" She compensated afterward +though by singing the part with exquisite effect. + +While the Gluck-Piccini battle was at its height, an amateur who was +disgusted with the contest returned to the country and sang the praises +of the birds and their gratuitous performances in the following epigram: + + "La n'est point d'art, d'ennui scientifique; + Piccini, Gluck, n'ont point noté les airs. + Nature seule en dicta la musique, + Et Marmontel n'en a pas fait les vers." + +The sentiment of this was probably applauded by the many who were +wearied of the bitter recriminations, which degraded the art which they +professed to serve. + +During the period when Gluck and Piccini were composing for the French +opera, its affairs flourished liberally under the sway of De Vismes. +Gluck, Piccini, and Rameau wrote serious operas, while Piccini, +Sacchini, Anfossi, and Paisiello composed comic operas. The ballet +flourished with unsurpassed splendor, and on the whole it may be said +that never has the opera presented more magnificence at Paris than +during the time France was on the eve of the Reign of Terror. The +gay capital was thronged with great singers, the traditions of whose +artistic ability compare favorably with those of a more recent period. + +The witty and beautiful Sophie Arnould, who had a train of princes at +her feet, was the principal exponent of Gluck's heroines, while Mile. +La-guerre was the mainstay of the Piccinists. The rival factions made +the names of these charming and capricious women their war-cries not +less than those of the composers. The public bowed and cringed before +these idols of the stage. Gaétan Vestris, the first of the family, known +as the "Dieu de la Danse," and who held that there were only three great +men in Europe, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Voltaire, and himself, +dared to dictate even to Gluck. "Write me the music of a chaconne, +Monsieur Gluek," said the god of dancing. + +"A chaconne!" said the enraged composer. "Do you think the Greeks, whose +manners we are endeavoring to depict, knew what a chaconne was?" + +"Did they not?" replied Vestris, astonished at this news, and in a tone +of compassion continued, "then they are much to be pitied." + +Vestris did not obtain his ballet music from the obdurate German; but, +when Piccini's rival "Iphigènie en Tauride" was produced, such beautiful +dance measures were furnished by the Italian composer as gave Vestris +the opportunity for one of his greatest triumphs. + + +IV. + +The contest between Gluck and Piccini, or rather the cabals who adopted +the two musicians as their figure-heads, was brought to an end by the +death of the former. An attempt was made to set up Sacchini in his +place, but it proved unavailing, as the new composer proved to be quite +as much a follower of the prevailing Italian method as of the new school +of Gluck. The French revolution swept away Piccini's property, and he +retired to Italy. Bad fortune pursued him, however. Queen Caroline of +Naples conceived a dislike to him and used her influence to injure his +career, out of a fit of wounded vanity. + +"Do you not think I remember my sister, Marie Antoinette?" queried the +somewhat ill-favored queen. Piccini, embarrassed but truthful, replied: +"Your majesty, there maybe a family likeness, but no resemblance." A +fatality attended him even to Venice. In 1792 he was mobbed and his +house burned, because the populace regarded him as a republican, for +he had a French son-in-law. Some partial musical successes, however, +consoled him, though they flattered his _amour propre_ more than they +benefited his purse. On his return to Naples he was subjected to a +species of imprisonment during four years, for royal displeasure in +those days did not confine itself merely to lack of court favor. Reduced +to great poverty, the composer who had been the favorite of the rich and +great for so many years knew often the actual pangs of hunger, and eked +out his subsistence by writing conventual psalms, as payment for the +broken food doled out by the monks. + +At last he was released, and the tenor, David, sent him funds to pay his +journey to Paris. Napoleon, the first consul, received him cordially in +the Luxembourg palace. + +"Sit down," said he to Piccini, who remained standing, "a man of your +greatness stands in no one's presence." His reception in Paris was, +in fact, an ovation. The manager of the opera gave him a pension of +twenty-four hundred francs, a government pension was also accorded, and +he was appointed sixth inspector at the Conservatory. But the benefits +of this pale gleam of wintry sunshine did not long remain. He died at +Passy in the year 1800, and was followed to the grave by a great throng +of those who loved his beautiful music and admired his gentle life. + +In the present day Gluck appears to have vanquished Piccini, because +occasionally an opera of the former is performed, while Piccini's works +are only known to the musical antiquarian. But even the marble temples +of Gluck are moss-grown and neglected, and that great man is known to +the present day rather as one whose influence profoundly colored and +changed the philosophy of opera, than through any immediate acquaintance +with his productions. The connoisseurs of the eighteenth century found +Piccini's melodies charming, but the works that endure as masterpieces +are not those which contain the greatest number of beauties, but those +of which the form is the most perfect. Gluck had larger conceptions +and more powerful genius than his Italian rival, but the latter's +sweet spring of melody gave him the highest place which had so far been +attained in the Italian operatic school. + +"Piccini," says M. Genguèné, his biographer, "was under the middle size, +but well made, with considerable dignity of carriage. His countenance +was very agreeable. His mind was acute, enlarged, and cultivated. Latin +and Italian literature was familiar to him when he went to France, and +afterward he became almost as well acquainted with French literature. He +spoke and wrote Italian with great purity, but among his countrymen +he preferred the Neapolitan dialect, which he considered the most +expressive, the most difficult and the most figurative of all languages. +He used it principally in narration, with a gayety, a truth, and a +pantomimic expression after the manner of his country, which delighted +all his friends, and made his stories intelligible even to those who +knew Italian but slightly." + +As a musician Piccini was noticeable, according to the judgment of his +best critics, for the purity and simplicity of his style. He always +wished to preserve the supremacy of the voice, and, though he well knew +how to make his instrumentation rich and effective, he was a resolute +opponent to the florid and complex accompaniments which were coming into +vogue in his day. His recorded opinion on this subject may have some +interest for the musicians of the present day: "Were the employment +which Nature herself assigns to the instruments of an orchestra +preserved to them, a variety of effects and a series of infinitely +diversified pictures would be produced. But they are all thrown in at +once and used incessantly, and they thus overpower and indurate the +ear, without presenting any picture to the mind, to which the ear is +the passage. I should be glad to know how they will arouse it when it +is accustomed to this uproar, which will soon happen, and of what new +witchcraft they will avail themselves.... It is well known what occurs +to palates blunted by the use of spirituous liquors. In a few +months everything may be learned which is necessary to produce these +exaggerated effects, but it requires much time and study to be able to +excite genuine emotion." Piccini followed strictly the canons of the +Italian school; and, though far inferior in really great qualities to +his rival Gluck, his compositions had in them so much of fluent grace +and beauty as to place him at the head of his predecessors. Some curious +critics have indeed gone so far as to charge that many of the finest +arias of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini owe their paternity to this +composer, an indictment not uncommon in music, for most of the great +composers have rifled the sweets of their predecessors without scruple. + + +V. + +Paisiello and Cimarosa, in their style and processes of work, seem to +have more nearly caught the mantle of Piccini than any others, though +they were contemporaries as well as successors. Giovanni Paisiello, +born in 1741, was educated, like many other great musicians, at the +conservatory of San Onofrio. During his early life he produced a great +number of pieces for the Italian theatres, and in 1776 accepted the +invitation of Catherine to became the court composer at St. Petersburgh, +where he remained nine years and produced several of his best operas, +chief among them, "Il Barbiere di Seviglia" (a different version of +Beaumarchais's celebrated comedy from that afterward used by Rossini). + +The empress was devotedly attached to him and showed her esteem in many +signal ways. On one occasion, while Paisiello was accompanying her in +a song, she observed that he shuddered with the bitter cold. On this +Catherine took off her splendid ermine cloak, decorated with clasps of +brilliants, and threw it over her tutor's shoulders. In a quarrel which +Paisiello had with Marshal Beloseloky, the temporary favorite of the +Russian Messalina, her favor was shown in a still more striking way. The +marshal had given the musician a blow, on which Paisiello, a very large, +athletic man, drubbed the Russian general most unmercifully. The latter +demanded the immediate dismissal of the composer for having insulted a +dignitary of the empire. Catherine's reply was similar to the one made +by Francis the First of France in a parallel case about Leonardo da +Vinci: "I neither can nor will attend to your request;' you forgot your +dignity when you gave an unoffending man and a great artist a blow. Are +you surprised that he should have forgotten it too? As for rank, it is +in my power to make fifty marshals, but not one Paisiello." + +Some years after his return to Italy, he was engaged by Napoleon as +chapel-master; for that despot ruled the art and literature of his times +as autocratically as their politics. Though Paisiello did not wish to +obey the mandate, to refuse was ruin. The French ruler had already +shown his favor by giving him the preference over Cherubim in several +important musical contests, for the latter had always displayed stern +independence of courtly favor. On Paisiello's arrival in Paris, several +lucrative appointments indicated the sincerity of Napoleon's intentions. +The composer did not hesitate to stand on his rights as a musician +on all occasions. When Napoleon complained of the inefficiency of the +chapel service, he said, courageously: "I can't blame people for doing +their duty carelessly, when they are not justly paid." The cunning +Italian knew how to flatter, though, when occasion served. He once +addressed his master as "Sire." + +"'Sire,' what do you mean?" answered the first consul. "I am a general +and nothing more." + +"Well, General," continued the composer, "I have come to place myself at +your majesty's orders." + +"I must really beg you," rejoined Napoleon, "not to address me in this +manner." + +"Forgive me, General," said Paisiello. "But I cannot give up the habit +I have contracted in addressing sovereigns, who, compared with you, are +but pigmies. However, I will not forget your commands, and, if I have +been unfortunate enough to offend, I must throw myself on your majesty's +indulgence." + +Paisiello received ten thousand francs for the mass written for +Napoleon's coronation, and one thousand for all others. As he produced +masses with great rapidity, he could very well afford to neglect +operatic writing during this period. His masses were pasticcio work made +up of pieces selected from his operas and other compositions. This could +be easily done, for music is arbitrary in its associations. Love songs +of a passionate and sentimental cast were quickly made religious by +suitable words. Thus the same melody will depict equally well the rage +of a baffled conspirator, the jealousy of an injured husband, the grief +of lovers about to part, the despondency of a man bent on suicide, the +devotion of the nun, or the rapt adoration of worship. A different text +and a slight change in time effect the marvel, and hardly a composer +has disdained to borrow from one work to enrich another. His only opera +composed in Paris, "Proserpine," was not successful. + +Failure of health obliged Paisiello to return to Naples, when he +again entered the service of the king. Attached to the fortunes of the +Bonaparte family, his prosperity fell with theirs. He had been crowned +with honors by all the musical societies of the world, but his pensions +and emoluments ceased with the fall of Joachim Murat from the Neapolitan +throne. He died June 5,1816, and the court, which neglected him living, +gave him a magnificent funeral. + +"Paisiello," says the Chevalier Le Sueur, "was not only a great +musician, but possessed a large fund of general information. He was +well versed in the dead languages, acquainted with all branches of +literature, and on terms of friendship with the most distinguished +persons of the age. His mind was noble and above all mean passions; he +neither knew envy nor the feeling of rivalry.... He composed," says the +same writer, "seventy-eight operas, of which twenty-seven were serious, +and fifty-one comic, eight _intermezzi_, and an immense number of +cantatas, oratorios, masses, etc.; seven symphonies for King Joseph of +Spain, and many miscellaneous pieces for the court of Russia." + +Paisiello's style, according to Fétis, was characterized by great +simplicity and apparent facility. His few and unadorned notes, full of +grace, were yet deep and varied in their expression. In his simplicity +was the proof of his abundance. It was not necessary for him to have +recourse to musical artifice and complication to conceal poverty of +invention. His accompaniments were similar in character, clear and +picturesque, without pretense of elaboration. The latter not only +relieved and sustained the voice, but were full of original effects, +novel to his time. He was the author, too, of important improvements in +instrumental composition. He introduced the viola, clarinet, and bassoon +into the orchestra of the Italian opera. Though, voluminous both in +serious and comic opera, it was in the latter that he won his chief +laurels. His "Pazza per Amore" was one of the great Pasta's favorites, +and Catalani added largely to her reputation in the part of _La +Frascatana_. Several of Paisiello's comic operas still keep a dramatic +place on the German stage, where excellence is not sacrificed to +novelty. + + +VI. + +A still higher place must be assigned to another disciple and follower +of the school perfected by Piccini, Dominic Cimarosa, born in Naples +in 1754. His life down to his latter years was an uninterrupted flow of +prosperity. His mother, an humble washerwomen, could do little for her +fatherless child, but an observant priest saw the promise of the lad, +and taught him till he was old enough to enter the Conservatory of +St. Maria di Loretto. His early works showed brilliant invention and +imagination, and the young Cimarosa, before he left the Conservatory, +had made himself a good violinist and singer. He worked hard, during a +musical apprenticeship of many years, to lay a solid foundation for +the fame which his teachers prophesied for him from the onset. Like +Paisiello, he was for several years attached to the court of Catherine +II. of Russia. He had already produced a number of pleasing works, +both serious and comic, for the Italian theatres, and his faculty of +production was equaled by the richness and variety of his scores. +During a period of four years spent at the imperial court of the North, +Cimarosa produced nearly five hundred works, great and small, and +only left the service of his magnificent patroness, who was no less +passionately fond of art than she was great as a ruler and dissolute as +a woman, because the severe climate affected his health, for he was a +typical Italian in his temperament. + +He was arrested in his southward journey by the urgent persuasions of +the Emperor Leopold, who made him chapel-master, with a salary of twelve +thousand florins. The taste for the Italian school was still paramount +at the musical capital of Austria. Though such composers as Haydn, +Salieri, and young Mozart, who had commenced to be welcomed as an +unexampled prodigy, were in Vienna, the court preferred the suave and +shallow beauties of Italian music to their own serious German school, +which was commencing to send down such deep roots into the popular +heart. + +Cimarosa produced "Il Matrimonio Segreto" (The Secret Marriage), +his finest opera, for his new patron. The libretto was founded on a +forgotten French operetta, which again was adapted from Garrick and +Colman's "Clandestine Marriage." The emperor could not attend the first +representation, but a brilliant audience hailed it with delight. Leopold +made amends, though, on the second night, for he stood in his box, and +said, aloud: + +"Bravo, Cimarosa, bravissimo! The whole opera is admirable, delightful, +enchanting! I did not applaud, that I might not lose a single note of +this masterpiece. You have heard it twice, and I must have the same +pleasure before I go to bed. Singers and musicians pass into the next +room. Cimarosa will come, too, and preside at the banquet prepared for +you. When you have had sufficient rest, we will begin again. I +encore the whole opera, and in the mean while let us applaud it as it +deserves." + +The emperor gave the signal, and, midst a thunderstorm of plaudits, the +musicians passed into their midnight feast. There is no record of any +other such compliment, except that to the Latin dramatist, Plautus, +whose "Eunuchus" was performed twice on the same day. + +Yet the same Viennese public, six years before, had actually hissed +Mozart's "Nozze di Figaro," which shares with Rossini's "Il Barbiere" +the greatest rank in comic opera, and has retained, to this day, its +perennial freshness and interest. Cimarosa himself did not share the +opinion of his admirers in respect to Mozart. A certain Viennese painter +attempted to flatter him, by decrying Mozart's music in comparison with +his own. The following retort shows the nobility of genius: "I, sir? +What would you call the man who would seek to assure you that you were +superior to Raphael?" Another acute rejoinder, on the respective merits +of Mozart and Cimarosa, was made by the French composer, Grétry, in +answer to a criticism by Napoleon, when first consul, that great man +affecting to be a _dilettante_ in music: + +"Sire, Cimarosa puts the statue on the theatre and the pedestal in the +orchestra, instead of which Mozart puts the statue in the orchestra and +the pedestal on the theatre." + +The composer's hitherto brilliant career was doomed to a gloomy close. +On returning to Naples, at the Emperor Leopold's death, Cimarosa +produced several of his finest works, among which musical students place +first: "Il Matrimonio per Susurro," "La Penelope," "L'Olimpiade," "II +Sacrificio d'Abramo," "Gli Amanti Comici," and "Gli Orazi." These were +performed almost simultaneously in the theatres of Paris, Naples, and +Vienna. Cimarosa attached himself warmly to the French cause in Italy, +and when the Bourbons finally triumphed the musician suffered their +bitterest resentment. He narrowly escaped with his life, and languished +for a long time in a dungeon, so closely immured that it was for a long +time believed by his friends that his head had fallen on the block. + +At length released, he quitted the Neapolitan territory, only to die at +Venice, in a few months, "in consequence," Stendhal says, in his "Life +of Rossini," "of the barbarous treatment he had met with in the prison +into which he had been thrown by Queen Caroline." He died January 11, +1801. + +Cimarosa's genius embraced both the tragic and comic schools of +composition. He may be specially called a genuine master of musical +comedy. He was the finest example of the school perfected by Piccini, +and was indeed the link between the old Italian opera and the new +development of which Rossini is such a brilliant exponent. Schluter, in +his "History of Music," says of him: "Like Mozart, he excels in +those parts of an opera which decide its merits as a work of art, the +_ensembles_ and _finale_. His admirable, and by no means antiquated +opera, 'Il Matrimonio Segreto' (the charming offspring of his 'secret +marriage' with the Mozart opera) is a model of exquisite and graceful +comedy. The overture bears a striking resemblance to that of 'Figaro,' +and the instrumentation of the whole opera is highly characteristic, +though not so prominent as in Mozart. Especially delightful are the +secret love-scenes, written evidently _con amore_, the composer having +practised them many a time in his youth." + +This opera is still performed in many parts of Europe to delighted +audiences, and is ranked by competent critics as the third finest +comic opera extant, Mozart and Rossini only surpassing him in their +masterpieces. It was a great favorite with Lablache, and its magnificent +performance by Grisi, Mario, Tamburini, and the king of bassos, is a +gala reminiscence of English and French opera-goers. + +We quote an opinion also from another able authority: "The drama of 'Gli +Orazi' is taken from Corneille's tragedy 'Les Horaces.' The music is +full of noble simplicity, beautiful melody, and strong expression. In +the airs dramatic truth is never sacrificed to vocal display, and the +concerted pieces are grand, broad, and effective. Taken as a whole, the +piece is free from antiquated and obsolete forms; and it wants nothing +but an orchestral score of greater fullness and variety to satisfy +the modern ear. It is still frequently performed in Germany, though +in France and England, and even in its native country, it seems to be +forgotten." + +Cardinal Consalvi, Cimarosa's friend, caused splendid funeral honors to +be paid to him at Rome. Canova executed a marble bust of him, which was +placed in the gallery of the Capitol. + + + + +ROSSINI. + + +I. + +The "Swan of Pesaro" is a name linked with some of the most charming +musical associations of this age. Though forty years silence made +fruitless what should have been the richest creative period of Rossini's +life, his great works, poured forth with such facility, and still +retaining their grasp in spite of all changes in public opinion, stamp +him as being the most gifted composer ever produced by a country so +fecund in musical geniuses. The old set forms of Italian opera had +already yielded in large degree to the energy and pomp of French +declamation, when Rossini poured into them afresh such exhilaration and +sparkle as again placed his country in the van of musical Europe. +With no pretension to the grand, majestic, and severe, his fresh and +delightful melodies, flowing without stint, excited alike the critical +and the unlearned into a species of artistic craze, a mania which has +not yet subsided. The stiff and stately Oublicheff confesses, with many +compunctions of conscience, that, when listening for the first time to +one of Rossini's operas, he forgot for the time being all that he had +ever known, admired, played, or sung, for he was musically drunk, as if +with champagne. Learned Germans might shake their heads and talk about +shallowness and contrapuntal rubbish, his _crescendo_ and _stretto_ +passages, his tameness and uniformity even in melody, his want of +artistic finish; but, as Richard Wagner, his direct antipodes, frankly +confesses in his "Oper und Drama," such objections were dispelled +by Rossini's opera-airs as if they were mere delusions of the fancy. +Essentially different from Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Haydn, or even +Weber, with whom he has some affinities, he stands a unique figure in +the history of art, an original both as man and musician. + +Gioacchino Rossini was the son of a town-trumpeter and an operatic +singer of inferior rank, born in Pesaro, Romagna, February 29, 1792. The +child attended the itinerant couple in their visits to fairs and musical +gatherings, and was in danger, at the age of seven, of becoming +a thorough-paced little vagabond, when maternal alarm trusted his +education to the friendly hands of the music-master Prinetti. At this +tender age even he had been introduced to the world of art, for he sang +the part of a child at the Bologna opera. + +"Nothing," said Mme. Georgi-Righetti, "could be imagined more tender, +more touching, than the voice and action of this remarkable child." + +The young Rossini, after a year or two, came under the notice of the +celebrated teacher Tesei, of Bologna, who gave him lessons in pianoforte +playing and the voice, and obtained him a good place as boy-soprano +at one of the churches. He now attracted the attention of the Countess +Perticari, who admired his voice, and she sent him to the Lyceum to +learn fugue and counterpoint at the feet of a very strict Gamaliel, +Padre Mallei. The youth was no dull student, and, in spite of his +capricious indolence, which vexed the soul of his tutor, he made such +rapid progress that at the age of sixteen he was chosen to write the +cantata, annually awarded to the most promising student. Success greeted +the juvenile effort, and thus we see Rossini fairly launched as a +composer. Of the early operas which he poured out for five years it is +not needful to speak, except that one of them so pleased the austere +Marshal Massena that he exempted the composer from conscription. +The first opera which made Rossini's name famous through Europe was +"Tancredi," written for the Venetian public. To this opera belongs the +charming "Di tanti palpiti," written under the following circumstances: +Mme. Melanotte, the _prima donna_, took the whim during the final +rehearsal that she would not sing the opening air, but must have +another. Rossini went home in sore disgust, for the whole opera was +likely to be put off by this caprice. There were but two hours before +the performance, he sat waiting for his macaroni, when an exquisite air +came into his head, and it was written in five minutes. + +After his great success he received offers from almost every town in +Italy, each clamoring to be served first. Every manager was required +to furnish his theatre with an opera from the pen of the new idol. For +these earlier essays he received a thousand francs each, and he wrote +five or six a year. Stendhall, Rossini's spirited biographer, gives +a picturesque account of life in the Italian theatres at this time, a +status which remains in some of its features to-day: + +"The mechanism is as follows: The manager is frequently one of the most +wealthy and considerable persons of the little town he inhabits. He +forms a company consisting of _prima donna, tenoro, basso cantante, +basso buffo_, a second female singer, and a third _basso_. The +_libretto_, or poem, purchased for sixty or eighty francs from some +lucky son of the muses, who is generally a half-starved abbé, the +hanger-on of some rich family in the neighborhood. The character of the +parasite, so admirably painted by Terence, is still to be found in all +its glory in Lombardy, where the smallest town can boast of some five or +six families of some wealth. + +"A _maestro_, or composer, is then engaged to write a new opera, and +he is obliged to adapt his own airs to the voices and capacity of the +company. The manager intrusts the care of the financial department to +a _registrario_, who is generally some pettifogging attorney, who holds +the position of his steward. The next thing that generally happens is +that the manager falls in love with the _prima donna_; and the progress +of this important amour gives ample employment to the curiosity of the +gossips. + +"The company thus organized at length gives its first representation, +after a month of cabals and intrigues, which furnish conversation for +the town. This is an event in the simple annals of the town, of the +importance of which the residents of large places can form no idea. +During months together a population of eight or ten thousand people do +nothing but discuss the merit of the forthcoming music and singers +with the eager impetuosity which belongs to the Italian character and +climate. The first representation, if successful, is generally followed +by twenty or thirty more of the same piece, after which the company +breaks up.... From this little sketch of theatrical arrangements in +Italy some idea may be formed of the life which Rossini led from 1810 to +1816." Between these years he visited all the principal towns, remaining +three or four months at each, the idolized guest of the _dilettanti_ +of the place. Rossini's idleness and love of good cheer always made +him procrastinate his labors till the last moment, and placed him in +dilemmas from which only his fluency of composition extricated him. His +biographer says: + +"The day of performance is fast approaching, and yet he cannot resist +the pressing invitations of these friends to dine with them at the +tavern. This, of course, leads to a supper, the champagne circulates +freely, and the hour of morning steals on apace. At length a +compunctious visiting shoots across the mind of the truant composer. He +rises abruptly; his friends insist on seeing him home; and they parade +the silent streets bareheaded, shouting in chorus whatever comes +uppermost, perhaps a portion of a _miserere_, to the great scandal of +pious Catholics tucked snugly in their beds. At length he reaches +his lodging, and shutting himself up in his chamber is, at this, to +every-day mortals, most ungenial hour, visited by some of his most +brilliant inspirations. These he hastily scratches down on scraps +of paper, and next morning arranges them, or, in his own phrase, +instruments them, amid the renewed interruptions of his visitors. At +length the important night arrives. The _maestro_ takes his place at +the pianoforte. The theatre is overflowing, people having flocked to the +town from ten leagues distance. Every inn is crowded, and those unable +to get other accommodations encamp around the theatre in their various +vehicles. All business is suspended, and, during the performances, the +town has the appearance of a desert. The passions, the anxieties, the +very life of a whole population are centered in the theatre." + +Rossini would preside at the first three representations, and, after +receiving a grand civic banquet, set out for the next place, his +portmanteau fuller of music-paper than of other effects, and perhaps +a dozen sequins in his pocket. His love of jesting during these gay +Bohemian wanderings made him perpetrate innumerable practical jokes, +not sparing himself when he had no more available food for mirth. On one +occasion, in traveling from Ancona to Reggio, he passed himself off for +a musical professor, a mortal enemy of Rossini, and sang the words of +his own operas to the most execrable music, in a cracked voice, to show +his superiority to that donkey, Rossini. An unknown admirer of his was +in such a rage that he was on the point of chastising him for slandering +the great musician, about whom Italy raved. + +Our composer's earlier style was quite simple and unadorned, a fact +difficult for the present generation, only acquainted with the florid +beauties of his later works, to appreciate. Rossini only followed +the traditions of Italian music in giving singers full opportunity to +embroider the naked score at their own pleasure. He was led to change +this practice by the following incident. The tenor-singer Velluti was +then the favorite of the Italian theatres, and indulged in the most +unwarrantable tricks with his composers. During the first performance +of "L'Aureliano," at Naples, the singer loaded the music with such +ornaments that Rossini could not recognize the offspring of his own +brains. A fierce quarrel ensued between the two, and the composer +determined thereafter to write music of such a character that the most +stupid singer could not suppose any adornment needed. From that time the +Rossini music was marked by its florid and brilliant embroidery. Of the +same Velluti, spoken of above, an incident is told, illustrating the +musical craze of the country and the period. A Milanese gentleman, +whose father was very ill, met his friend in the street--"Where are you +going?" "To the Scala to be sure." "How! your father lies at the point +of death." "Yes! yes! I know, but Velluti sings to-night." + + +II. + +An important step in Rossini's early career was his connection with the +widely known impresario of the San Carlo, Naples, Barbaja. He was under +contract to produce two new operas annually, to rearrange all old +scores, and to conduct at all of the theatres ruled by this manager. He +was to receive two hundred ducats a month, and a share in the profits of +the bank of the San Carlo gambling-saloon. His first opera composed here +was "Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra," which was received with a +genuine Neapolitan _furore_. Rossini was feted and caressed by the +ardent _dilettanti_ of this city to his heart's content, and was such an +idol of the "fickle fair" that his career on more than one occasion +narrowly escaped an untimely close, from the prejudice of jealous +spouses. The composer was very vain of his handsome person, and boasted +of his _escapades d'amour_. Many, too, will recall his _mot_, spoken to +a beauty standing between himself and the Duke of Wellington: "Madame, +how happy should you be to find yourself placed between the two greatest +men in Europe!" + +One of Rossini's adventures at Naples has in it something of romance. He +was sitting in his chamber, humming one of his own operatic airs, when +the ugliest Mercury he had ever seen entered and gave him a note, then +instantly withdrew. This, of course, was a tender invitation, and an +assignation at a romantic spot in the suburb. On arriving Rossini +sang his _aria_ for a signal, and from the gate of a charming park +surrounding a small villa appeared his beautiful and unknown inamorata. +On parting it was agreed that the same messenger should bring notice of +the second appointment. Rossini suspected that the lady, in disguise, +was her own envoy, and verified the guess by following the light-footed +page. He then discovered that she was the wife of a wealthy Sicilian, +widely noted for her beauty, and one of the reigning toasts. On renewing +his visit, he had barely arrived at the gate of the park, when a +carbine-bullet grazed his head, and two masked assailants sprang toward +him with drawn rapiers, a proceeding which left Rossini no option but to +take to his heels, as he was unarmed. + +During the composer's residence at Naples he was made acquainted with +many of the most powerful princes and nobles of Europe, and his name +became a recognized factor in European music, though his works were +not widely known outside of his native land. His reputation for genius +spread by report, for all who came in contact with the brilliant, +handsome Rossini were charmed. That which placed his European fame on +a solid basis was the production of "Il Barbiere di Seviglia" at Rome +during the carnival season of 1816. + +Years before Rossini had thought of setting the sparkling comedy of +Beaumarchais to music, and Sterbini, the author of the _libretto_ used +by Paisiello, had proposed to rearrange the story. Rossini, indeed, had +been so complaisant as to write to the older composer for permission to +set fresh music to the comedy; a concession not needed, for the plays +of Metastasio had been used by different musicians without scruple. +Paisiello intrigued against the new opera, and organized a conspiracy to +kill it on the first night. Sterbini made the libretto totally different +from the other, and Rossini finished the music in thirteen days, during +which he never left the house. "Not even did I get shaved," he said to a +friend. "It seems strange that through the 'Barber' you should have gone +without shaving." "If I had shaved," Rossini explained, "I should have +gone out; and, if I had gone out, I should not have come back in time." + +The first performance was a curious scene. The Argentina Theatre was +packed with friends and foes. One of the greatest of tenors, Garcia, the +father of Malibran and Pauline Viardot, sang Almaviva. Rossini had been +weak enough to allow Garcia to sing a Spanish melody for a serenade, for +the latter urged the necessity of vivid national and local color. The +tenor had forgotten to tune his guitar, and in the operation on the +stage a string broke. This gave the signal for a tumult of ironical +laughter and hisses. The same hostile atmosphere continued during the +evening. Even Madame Georgi-Righetti, a great favorite of the Romans, +was coldly received by the audience. In short, the opera seemed likely +to be damned. + +When the singers went to condole with Rossini, they found him enjoying a +luxurious supper with the gusto of the _gourmet_ that he was. Settled +in his knowledge that he had written a masterpiece, he could not be +disturbed by unjust clamor. The next night the fickle Romans made ample +amends, for the opera was concluded amid the warmest applause, even from +the friends of Paisiello. + +Rossini's "Il Barbiere," within six months, was performed on nearly +every stage in Europe, and received universally with great admiration. +It was only in Paris, two years afterward, that there was some coldness +in its reception. Every one said that after Paisiello's music on the +same subject it was nothing, when it was suggested that Paisiello's +should be revived. So the St. Petersburg "Barbiere" of 1788 was +produced, and beside Rossini's it proved so dull, stupid, and antiquated +that the public instantly recognized the beauties of the work which they +had persuaded themselves to ignore. Yet for this work, which placed the +reputation of the young composer on a lofty pedestal, he received only +two thousand francs. + +Our composer took his failures with great phlegm and good nature, based, +perhaps, on an invincible self-confidence. When his "Sigismonde" had +been hissed at Venice, he sent his mother a _fiasco_ (bottle). In +the last instance he sent her, on the morning succeeding the first +performance, a letter with a picture of a _fiaschetto_ (little bottle). + + +III. + +The same year (1816) was produced at Naples the opera of "Otello," which +was an important point of departure in the reforms introduced by Rossini +on the Italian stage. Before speaking further of this composer's career, +it is necessary to admit that every valuable change furthered by him had +already been inaugurated by Mozart, a musical genius so great that he +seems to have included all that went before, all that succeeded him. It +was not merely that Rossini enriched the orchestration to such a degree, +but, revolting from the delay of the dramatic movement, caused by +the great number of arias written for each character, he gave large +prominence to the concerted pieces, and used them where monologue had +formerly been the rule. He developed the basso and baritone parts, +giving them marked importance in serious opera, and worked out the +choruses and finales with the most elaborate finish. + +Lord Mount Edgcumbe, a celebrated connoisseur and admirer of the old +school, wrote of these innovations, ignoring the fact that Mozart had +given the weight of his great authority to them before the daring young +Italian composer: + +"The construction of these newly-invented pieces is essentially +different from the old. The dialogue, which used to be carried on in +recitative, and which, in Metastasio's operas, is often so beautiful +and interesting, and now cut up (and rendered unintelligible if it +were worth listening to) into _pezzi concertati_, or long singing +conversations, which present a tedious succession of unconnected, +ever-changing motives, having nothing to do with each other; and if a +satisfactory air is for a moment introduced, which the ear would like +to dwell upon, to hear modulated, varied, and again returned to, it is +broken off, before it is well understood, by a sudden transition in an +entirely different melody, time, and key, and recurs no more, so that +no impression can be made, or recollection of it preserved. Single songs +are almost exploded.... Even the _prima donna_, who formerly would have +complained at having less than three or four airs allotted to her, is +now satisfied with having one single _cavatina_ given to her during the +whole opera." + +In "Otello," Rossini introduced his operatic changes to the Italian +public, and they were well received; yet great opposition was manifested +by those who clung to the time-honored canons. Sigismondi, of the Naples +Conservatory, was horror-stricken on first seeing the score of this +opera. The clarionets were too much for him, but on seeing third and +fourth horn-parts, he exclaimed: "What does the man want? The greatest +of our composers have always been contented with two. Shades of +Pergolesi, of Leo, of Jomelli! How they must shudder at the bare +thought! Four horns! Are we at a hunting-party? Four horns! Enough to +blow us to perdition!" Donizetti, who was Sigismondi's pupil, also tells +an amusing incident of his preceptor's disgust. He was turning over a +score of "Semiramide" in the library, when the _maestro_ came in and +asked him what music it was. "Rossini's," was the answer. Sigismondi +glanced at the page and saw 1. 2. 3. trumpets, being the first, second, +and third trumpet parts. Aghast, he shouted, stuffing his fingers in +his ears, "One hundred and twenty-three trumpets! _Corpo di Cristo!_ +the world's gone mad, and I shall go mad too!" And so he rushed from the +room, muttering to himself about the hundred and twenty-three trumpets. + +The Italian public, in spite of such criticism, very soon accepted the +opera of "Otello" as the greatest serious opera ever written for their +stage. It owed much, however, to the singers who illustrated its rôles. +Mme. Colbran, afterward Rossini's wife, sang Desdemona, and Davide, +Otello. The latter was the predecessor of Rubini as the finest singer of +the Rossinian music. He had the prodigious compass of three octaves; +and M. Bertin, a French critic, says of this singer, so honorably linked +with the career of our composer: "He is full of warmth, _verve_, energy, +expression, and musical sentiment; alone he can fill up and give life to +a scene; it is impossible for another singer to carry away an audience +as he does, and, when he will only be simple, he is admirable. He is the +Rossini of song; he is the greatest singer I ever heard." Lord Byron, +in one of his letters to Moore, speaks of the first production at Milan, +and praises the music enthusiastically, while condemning the libretto as +a degradation of Shakespeare. + +"La Cenerentola" and "La Gazza Ladra" were written in quick succession +for Naples and Milan. The former of these works, based on the old +Cinderella myth, was the last opera written by Rossini to illustrate the +beauties of the contralto voice, and Madame Georgi-Righetti, the early +friend and steadfast patroness of the musician during his early days of +struggle, made her last great appearance in it before retiring from the +stage. In this composition, Rossini, though one of the most affluent +and rapid of composers, displays that economy in art which sometimes +characterized him. He introduced in it many of the more beautiful airs +from his earlier and less successful works. He believed on principle +that it was folly to let a good piece of music be lost through being +married to a weak and faulty libretto. The brilliant opera of "La +Gazza Ladra," set to the story of a French melodrama, "La Pie Voleuse," +aggravated the quarrel between Paer, the director of the French opera, +and the gifted Italian. Paer had designed to have written the music +himself, but his librettist slyly turned over the poem to Rossini, who +produced one of his masterpieces in setting it. The audience at La Scala +received the work with the noisiest demonstrations, interrupting the +progress of the drama with constant cries of "_Bravo! Maestro!" "Viva +Rossini!"_ The composer afterward said that acknowledging the calls of +the audience fatigued him much more than the direction of the opera. +When the same work was produced four years after in London, under Mr. +Ebers's management, an incident related by that _impresario_ in his +"Seven Years of the King's Theatre" shows how eagerly it was received by +an English audience. + +"When I entered the stage door, I met an intimate friend, with a long +face and uplifted eyes. 'Good God! Ebers, I pity you from my soul. This +ungrateful public,' he continued. 'The wretches! Why! my dear sir, they +have not left you a seat in your own house.' Relieved from the fears he +had created, I joined him in his laughter, and proceeded, assuring him +that I felt no ill toward the public for their conduct toward me." + +Passing over "Armida," written for the opening of the new San Carlo +at Naples, "Adelaida di Borgogna," for the Roman Carnival of 1817, +and "Adina," for a Lisbon theatre, we come to a work which is one of +Rossini's most solid claims on musical immortality, "Mosé in Egitto," +first produced at the San Carlo, Naples, in 1818. In "Mosé," Rossini +carried out still further than ever his innovations, the two principal +rôles--_Mosé, and Faraoni_--being assigned to basses. On the first +representation, the crossing of the Red Sea moved the audience to +satirical laughter, which disconcerted the otherwise favorable reception +of the piece, and entirely spoiled the final effects. The manager was at +his Avit's end, till Tottola, the librettist, suggested a prayer for the +Israelites before and after the passage of the host through the cleft +waters. Rossini instantly seized the idea, and, springing from bed in +his night-shirt, wrote the music with almost inconceivable rapidity, +before his embarrassed visitors recovered from their surprise. The same +evening the magnificent _Dal tuo stellato soglio_ ("To thee, Great +Lord") was performed with the opera. + +Let Stendhall, Rossini's biographer, tell the rest of the story: "The +audience was delighted as usual with the first act, and all went well +till the third, when, the passage of the Red Sea being at hand, the +audience as usual prepared to be amused. The laughter was just beginning +in the pit, when it was observed that Moses was about to sing. He began +his solo, the first verse of a prayer, which all the people repeat in +chorus after Moses. Surprised at this novelty, the pit listened and +the laughter entirely ceased. The chorus, exceedingly fine, was in the +minor. Aaron continues, followed by the people. Finally, Eleia addresses +to Heaven the same supplication, and the people respond. Then all fall +on their knees and repeat the prayer with enthusiasm; the miracle is +performed, the sea is opened to leave a path for the people protected +by the Lord. This last part is in the major. It is impossible to imagine +the thunders of applause that resounded through the house: one would +have thought it was coming down. The spectators in the boxes, standing +up and leaning over, called out at the top of their voices, '_Bello, +bello! O che hello!_', I never saw so much enthusiasm nor such a +complete success, which was so much the greater, inasmuch as the people +were quite prepared to laugh.... I am almost in tears when I think of +this prayer. This state of things lasted a long time, and one of its +effects was to make for its composer the reputation of an assassin, +for Dr. Cottogna is said to have remarked: 'I can cite to you more than +forty attacks of nervous fever or violent convulsions on the part of +young women, fond to excess of music, which have no other origin than +the prayer of the Hebrews in the third act, with its superb change of +key.'" Thus by a stroke of genius, a scene which first impressed the +audience as a piece of theatrical burlesque, was raised to sublimity by +the solemn music written for it. + +M. Bochsa some years afterward produced "Mosé" as an oratorio in London, +and it failed. A new libretto, however, "Pietro L'Eremito,"* again +transformed the music into an opera. + + * The same music was set to a poem founded on the first + crusade, all the most effective situations being + dramatically utilized for the Christian legend. + +Ebers tells us that Lord Sefton, a distinguished connoisseur, only +pronounced the general verdict in calling it the greatest of serious +operas, for it was received with the greatest favor. A gentleman of high +rank was not satisfied with assuring the manager that he had deserved +well of his country, but avowed his determination to propose him for +membership at the most exclusive of aristocratic clubs--White's. + +"La Donna del Lago," Rossini's next great work, also first produced at +the San Carlo during the Carnival of 1820, though splendidly performed, +did not succeed well the first night. The composer left Naples the same +night for Milan, and coolly informed every one _en route_ that the +opera was very successful, which proved to be true when he reached his +journey's end, for the Neapolitans on the second night reversed their +decision into an enthusiasm as marked as their coldness had been. + +Shortly after this Rossini married his favorite _prima donna_, Madame +Colbran. He had just completed two of his now forgotten operas, "Bianca +e Faliero," and "Matilda di Shabran," but did not stay to watch their +public reception. He quietly took away the beautiful Colbran, and at +Bologne was married by the archbishop. Thence the freshly-wedded couple +visited Vienna, and Rossini there produced his "Zelmira," his wife +singing the principal part. One of the most striking of this composer's +works in invention and ingenious development of ideas, Carpani says +of it: "It contains enough to furnish not one but four operas. In this +work, Rossini, by the new riches which he draws from his prodigious +imagination, is no longer the author of 'Otello,' 'Tancredi,' 'Zoraide,' +and all his preceding works; he is another composer, new, agreeable, +and fertile, as much as at first, but with more command of himself, more +pure, more masterly, and, above all, more faithful to the interpretation +of the words. The forms of style employed in this opera according +to circumstances are so varied, that now we seem to hear Gluck, now +Traetta, now Sacchini, now Mozart, now Handel; for the gravity, the +learning, the naturalness, the suavity of their conceptions, live and +blossom again in 'Zelmira.' The transitions are learned, and inspired +more by considerations of poetry and sense than by caprice and a mania +for innovation. The vocal parts, always natural, never trivial, give +expression to the words without ceasing to be melodious. The great +point is to preserve both. The instrumentation of Rossini is really +incomparable by the vivacity and freedom of the manner, by the variety +and justness of the coloring." Yet it must be conceded that, while this +opera made a deep impression on musicians and critics, it did not please +the general public. It proved languid and heavy with those who could not +relish the science of the music and the skill of the combinations. Such +instances as this are the best answer to that school of critics, +who have never ceased clamoring that Rossini could write nothing but +beautiful tunes to tickle the vulgar and uneducated mind. + +"Semiramide," first performed at the Fenice theatre in Venice on +February 3, 1823, was the last of Rossini's Italian operas, though it +had the advantage of careful rehearsals and a noble caste. It was not +well received at first, though the verdict of time places it high among +the musical masterpieces of the century. In it were combined all of +Rossini's, ideas of operatic reform, and the novelty of some of the +innovations probablv accounts for the inability of his earlier public to +appreciate its merits. Mme. Rossini made her last public appearance in +this great work. + + +IV. + +Henceforward the career of the greatest of the Italian composers, the +genius who shares with Mozart the honor of having impressed himself more +than any other on the style and methods of his successors, was to +be associated with French music, though never departing from his +characteristic quality as an original and creative mind. He modified +French music, and left great disciples on whom his influence was +radical, though perhaps we may detect certain reflex influences in his +last and greatest opera, "William Tell." But of this more hereafter. + +Before finally settling in the French capital, Rossini visited London, +where he was received with great honors. "When Rossini entered,"* says +a writer in a London paper of that date, "he was received with loud +plaudits, all the persons in the pit standing on the seats to get a +better view of him. + + * His first English appearance in public was at the King's + Theatre on the 24th of January, 1824, when he conducted his + own opera, "Zelmira." + +He continued for a minute or two to bow respectfully to the audience, +and then gave the signal for the overture to begin. He appeared stout +and somewhat below the middle height, with rather a heavy air, and a +countenance which, though intelligent, betrayed none of the vivacity +which distinguishes his music; and it was remarked that he had more of +the appearance of a sturdy, beef-eating Englishman, than a fiery and +sensitive native of the south." + +The king, George IV., treated Rossini with peculiar consideration. On +more than one occasion he walked with him arm-in-arm through a crowded +concert-hall to the conductor's stand. Yet the composer, who seems +not to have admired his English Majesty, treated the monarch with much +independence, not to say brusqueness, on one occasion, as if to signify +his disdain of even royal patronage. At a grand concert at St. James's +Palace, the king said, at the close of the programme, "Now, Rossini, +we will have one piece more, and that shall be the _finale_." The other +replied, "I think, sir, we have had music enough for one night," and +made his bow. + +He was an honored guest at the most fashionable houses, where his +talents as a singer and player were displayed with much effect in an +unconventional, social way. Auber, the French composer, was present on +one of these occasions, and indicates how great Rossini could have been +in executive music had he not been a king in the higher sphere. "I shall +never forget the effect," writes Auber, "produced by his lightning-like +execution. When he had finished I looked mechanically at the ivory +keys. I fancied I could see them smoking." Rossini was richer by seven +thousand pounds by this visit to the English metropolis. Though he had +been under engagement to produce a new opera as well as to conduct those +which had already made him famous, he failed to keep this part of his +contract. Passages in his letters at this time would seem to indicate +that Rossini was much piqued because the London public received his +wife, to whom he was devotedly attached, with coldness. Notwithstanding +the beauty of her face and figure, and the greatness of her style both +as actress and singer, she was pronounced _passée_ alike in person +and voice, with a species of brutal frankness not uncommon in English +criticism. + +When Rossini arrived in Paris he was almost immediately appointed +director of the Italian Opera by the Duc de Lauriston. With this and the +Académie he remained connected till the revolution of 1830. "Le Siège +de Corinthe," adapted from his old work, "Maometto II.," was the first +opera presented to the Parisian public, and, though admired, did not +become a favorite. The French _amour propre_ was a little stung when it +was made known that Rossini had simply modified and reshaped one of his +early and immature productions as his first attempt at composition in +French opera. His other works for the French stage were "Il Viaggio a +Rheims," "Le Comte Ory," and "Guillaume Tell." + +The last-named opera, which will ever be Rossini's crown of glory as a +composer, was written with his usual rapidity while visiting the château +of M. Aguado, a country-seat some distance from Paris. This work, one of +the half-dozen greatest ever written, was first produced at the Académie +Royale on August 3, 1829. In its early form of libretto it had a run of +fifty-six representations, and was then withdrawn from the stage; and +the work of remodeling from five to three acts, and other improvements +in the dramatic framework, was thoroughly carried out. In its new form +the opera blazed into an unprecedented popularity, for of the greatness +of the music there had never been but one judgment. Fétis, the eminent +critic, writing of it immediately on its production, said, "The work +displays a new man in an old one, and proves that it is in vain to +measure the action of genius," and follows with, "This production opens +a new career to Rossini," a prophecy unfortunately not to be realized, +for Rossini was soon to retire from the field in which he had made such +a remarkable career, while yet in the very prime of his powers. + +"Guillaume Tell" is full of melody, alike in the solos and the massive +choral and ballet music. It runs in rich streams through every part of +the composition. The overture is better known to the general public +than the opera itself, and is one of the great works of musical art. +The opening andante in triple time for the five violoncelli and double +basses at once carries the hearer to the regions of the upper Alps, +where amid the eternal snows Nature sleeps in a peaceful dream. We +perceive the coming of the sunlight, and the hazy atmosphere clearing +away before the newborn day. In the next movement the solitude is +all dispelled. The raindrops fall thick and heavy, and a thunderstorm +bursts. But the fury is soon spent, and the clouds clear away. The +shepherds are astir, and from the mountain-sides come the peculiar +notes of the "Ranz des Vaches" from their pipes. Suddenly all is changed +again. + +Trumpets call to arms, and with the mustering battalions the music +marks the quickstep, as the shepherd patriots march to meet the +Austrian chivalry. A brilliant use of the violins and reeds depicts +the exultation of the victors on their return, and closes one of the +grandest sound-paintings in music. + +The original cast of "Guillaume Tell" included the great singers then +in Paris, and these were so delighted with the music, that the morning +after the first production they assembled on the terrace before his +house and performed selections from it in his honor. + +With this last great effort Rossini, at the age of thirty-seven, may +be said to have retired from the field of music, though his life was +prolonged for forty years. True, he composed the "Stabat Mater" and the +"Messe Solennelle," but neither of these added to the reputation won +in his previous career. The "Stabat Mater," publicly performed for the +first time in 1842, has been recognized, it is true, as a masterpiece; +but its entire lack of devotional solemnity, its brilliant and showy +texture, preclude its giving Rossini any rank as a religious composer. + +He spent the forty years of his retirement partly at Bologna, partly at +Passy, near Paris, the city of his adoption. His hospitality welcomed +the brilliant men from all parts of Europe who loved to visit him, and +his relations with other great musicians were of the most kindly and +cordial character. His sunny and genial nature never knew envy, and +he was quick to recognize the merits of schools opposed to his own. He +died, after intense suffering, on November 13, 1868. He had been some +time ill, and four of the greatest physicians in Europe were his almost +constant attendants. The funeral of "The Swan of Pesaro," as he was +called by his compatriots, was attended by an immense concourse, and his +remains rest in Père-Lachaise. + + +V. + +Moscheles, the celebrated pianist, gives us some charming pictures of +Rossini in his home at Passy, in his diary of 1860. He writes: "Felix +[his son] had been made quite at home in the villa on former occasions. +To me the _parterre salon_, with its rich furniture, was quite new, and +before the _maestro_ himself appeared we looked at his photograph in a +circular porcelain frame, on the sides of which were inscribed the names +of his works. The ceiling is covered with pictures illustrating scenes +out of Palestrina's and Mozart's lives; in the middle of the room stands +a Pleyel piano. When Rossini came in he gave me the orthodox Italian +kiss, and was effusive of expressions of delight at my reappearance, +and very complimentary on the subject of Felix. In the course of our +conversation he was full of hard-hitting truths on the present study and +method of vocalization. 'I don't want to hear anything more of it,' he +said; 'they scream. All I want is a resonant, full-toned voice, not +a screeching voice. I care not whether it be for speaking or singing, +everything ought to sound melodious.'" So, too, Rossini assured +Moscheles that he hated the new school of piano-players, saying the +piano was horribly maltreated, for the performers thumped the keys as +if they had some vengeance to wreak on them. When the great player +improvised for Rossini, the latter says: "It is music that flows from +the fountain-head. There is reservoir water and spring water. The former +only runs when you turn the cock, and is always redolent of the vase; +the latter always gushes forth fresh and limpid. Nowadays people +confound the simple and the trivial; a _motif_ of Mozart they would call +trivial, if they dared." + +On other occasions Moscheles plays to the _maestro_, who insists on +having discovered barriers in the "humoristic variations," so boldly do +they seem to raise the standard of musical revolution; his title of the +"Grand Valse" he finds too unassuming. "Surely a waltz with some angelic +creature must have inspired you, Moscheles, with this composition, and +_that_ the title ought to express. Titles, in fact, should pique the +curiosity of the public." "A view uncongenial to me," adds Moscheles; +"however, I did not discuss it.... A dinner at Rossini's is calculated +for the enjoyment of a 'gourmet,' and he himself proved to be the one, +for he went through the very select _menu_ as only a connoisseur would. +After dinner he looked through my album of musical autographs with the +greatest interest, and finally we became very merry, I producing my +musical jokes on the piano, and Felix and Clara figuring in the duet +which I had written for her voice and his imitation of the French +horn. Rossini cheered lustily, and so one joke followed another till we +received the parting kiss and 'good night.'... At my next visit, +Rossini showed me a charming 'Lied oline Worte,' which he composed only +yesterday; a graceful melody is embodied in the well-known technical +form. Alluding to a performance of 'Semiramide,' he said with a +malicious smile, 'I suppose you saw the beautiful decorations in it?' He +has not received the Sisters Marchisio for fear they should sing to +him, nor has he heard them in the theatre; he spoke warmly of Pasta, +Lablache, Rubini, and others, then he added that I ought not to look +with jealousy upon his budding talent as a pianoforte-player, but that, +on the contrary, I should help to establish his reputation as such in +Leipsic. He again questioned me with much interest about my intimacy +with Clementi, and, calling me that master's worthy successor, he said +he should like to visit me in Leipsic, if it were not for those dreadful +railways, which he would never travel by. All this in his bright and +lively way; but when we came to discuss Chevet, who wishes to supplant +musical notes by ciphers, he maintained in an earnest and dogmatic +tone that the system of notation, as it had developed itself since +Pope Gregory's time, was sufficient for all musical requirements. He +certainly could not withhold some appreciation for Chevet, but refused +to indorse the certificate granted by the Institute in his favor; the +system he thought impracticable. + +"The never-failing stream of conversation flowed on until eleven +o'clock, when I was favored with the inevitable kiss, which on this +occasion was accompanied by special farewell blessings." + +Shortly after Moscheles had left Paris, his son forwarded to him most +friendly messages from Rossini, and continues thus: "Rossini sends you +word that he is working hard at the piano, and, when you next come +to Paris, you shall find him in better practice.... The conversation +turning upon German music, I asked him 'which was his favorite among the +great masters?' Of Beethoven he said: 'I take him twice a week, Haydn +four times, and Mozart every day. You will tell me that Beethoven is a +Colossus who often gives you a dig in the ribs, while Mozart is always +adorable; it is that the latter had the chance of going very young to +Italy, at a time when they still sang well.' Of Weber he says, 'He has +talent enough, and to spare' (Il a du talent à revendre, celui-là). He +told me in reference to him, that, when the part of 'Tancred' was sung +at Berlin by a bass voice, Weber had written violent articles not only +against the management, but against the composer, so that, when Weber +came to Paris, he did not venture to call on Rossini, who, however, let +him know that he bore him no grudge for having made these attacks; on +receipt of that message Weber called and they became acquainted. + +"I asked him if he had met Byron in Venice? 'Only in a restaurant,' was +the answer, 'where I was introduced to him; our acquaintance, therefore, +was very slight; it seems he has spoken of me, but I don't know what he +says.' I translated for him, in a somewhat milder form, Byron's words, +which happened to be fresh in my memory: 'They have been crucifying +Othello into an opera; the music good but lugubrious, but, as for the +words, all the real scenes with Iago cut out, and the greatest nonsense +instead, the handkerchief turned into a billet-doux, and the first +singer would not black his face--singing, dresses, and music very good.' +The _maestro_ regretted his ignorance of the English language, and said, +'In my day I gave much time to the study of our Italian literature. +Dante is the man I owe most to; he taught me more music than all my +music-masters put together, and when I wrote my 'Otello,' I would +introduce those lines of Dante--you know the song of the gondolier. +My librettist would have it that gondoliers never sang Dante, and but +rarely Tasso, but I answered him, 'I know all about that better than +you, for I have lived in Venice and you haven't. Dante I must and will +have.'" + + +VI. + +An ardent disciple of Wagner sums up his ideas of the mania for +the Rossini music, which possessed Europe for fifteen years, in the +following: "Rossini, the most gifted and spoiled of her sons [speaking +of Italy] sallied forth with an innumerable army of Bacchantic melodies +to conquer the world, the Messiah of joy, the breaker of thought and +sorrow. Europe, by this time, had tired of the empty pomp of French +declamation. It lent but too willing an ear to the new gospel, and +eagerly quaffed the intoxicating potion, which Rossini poured out in +inexhaustible streams." This very well expresses the delight of all the +countries of Europe in music which for a long time almost monopolized +the stage. + +The charge of being a mere tune-spinner, the denial of invention, depth, +and character, have been common watchwords in the mouths of critics +wedded to other schools. But Rossini's place in music stands unshaken by +all assaults. The vivacity of his style, the freshness of his melodies, +the richness of his combinations, made all the Italian music that +preceded him pale and colorless. No other writer revels in such luxury +of beauty, and delights the ear with such a succession of delicious +surprises in melody. + +Henry Chorley, in his "Thirty Years' Musical Recollections," rebukes the +bigotry which sees nothing good but in its own kind: "I have never been +able to understand why this [referring to the Rossinian richness of +melody] should be contemned as necessarily false and meretricious--why +the poet may not be allowed the benefit of his own period and time--why +a lover of architecture is to be compelled to swear by the _Dom_ +at Bamberg, or by the Cathedral at Monreale--that he must abhor and +denounce Michel Angelo's church or the Baths of Diocletian at Rome--why +the person who enjoys 'Il Barbiere' is to be denounced as frivolously +faithless to Mozart's 'Figaro'--and as incapable of comprehending +'Fidelio,' because the last act of 'Otello' and the second of 'Guillaume +Tell' transport him into as great an enjoyment of its kind as do +the duet in the cemetery between 'Don Juan' and 'Leporello' and the +'Prisoners' Chorus.' How much good, genial pleasure has not the world +lost in music, owing to the pitting of styles one against the other! +Your true traveler will be all the more alive to the beauty of Nuremberg +because he has looked out over the 'Golden Shell' at Palermo; nor +delight in Rhine and Danube the less because he has seen the glow of a +southern sunset over the broken bridge at Avignon." + +As grand and true as are many of the essential elements in the Wagner +school of musical composition, the bitterness and narrowness of spite +with which its upholders have pursued the memory of Rossini is equally +offensive and unwarrantable. Rossini, indeed, did not revolutionize +the forms of opera as transmitted to him by his predecessors, but he +reformed and perfected them in various notable ways. Both in comic +and serious opera, music owes much to Rossini. He substituted genuine +singing for the endless recitative of which the Italian opera before him +largely consisted; he brought the bass and baritone voices to the front, +banished the pianoforte from the orchestra, and laid down the principle +that the singer should deliver the notes written for him without +additions of his own. He gave the chorus a much more important part than +before, and elaborated the concerted music, especially in the _finales_, +to a degree of artistic beauty before unknown in the Italian opera. +Above all, he made the operatic orchestra what it is to-day. Every new +instrument that was invented Rossini found a place for in his brilliant +scores, and thereby incurred the warmest indignation of all writers +of the old school. Before him the orchestras had consisted largely of +strings, but Rossini added an equally imposing clement of the brasses +and reeds. True, Mozart had forestalled Rossini in many if not all these +innovations, a fact which the Italian cheerfully admitted; for, with +the simple frankness characteristic of the man, he always spoke of his +obligations to and his admiration of the great German. To an admirer who +was one day burning incense before him, Rossini said, in the spirit of +Cimarosa quoted elsewhere: "My 'Barber' is only a bright farce, but in +Mozart's 'Marriage of Figaro' you have the finest possible masterpiece +of musical comedy." + +With all concessions made to Mozart as the founder of the forms of +modern opera, an equally high place must be given to Rossini for the +vigor and audacity with which he made these available, and impressed +them on all his contemporaries and successors. Though Rossini's +self-love was flattered by constant adulation, his expressions of +respect and admiration for such composers as Mozart, Gluck, Beethoven, +and Cherubini display what a catholic and generous nature he possessed. +The judgment of Ambros, a severe critic, whose bias was against Rossini, +shows what admiration was wrung from him by the last opera of the +composer: "Of all that particularly characterizes Rossini's early operas +nothing is discoverable in 'Tell;' there is none of his usual mannerism; +but, on the contrary, unusual richness of form and careful finish of +detail, combined with grandeur of outline. Meretricious embellishment, +shakes, runs, and cadences are carefully avoided in this work, which is +natural and characteristic throughout; even the melodies have not the +stamp and style of Rossini's earlier times, but only their graceful +charm and lively coloring." + +Rossini must be allowed to be unequaled in genuine comic opera, and +to have attained a distinct greatness in serious opera, to be the most +comprehensive and at the same time the most national composer of Italy, +to be, in short, the Mozart of his country. After all has been admitted +and regretted--that he gave too little attention to musical science; +that he often neglected to infuse into his work the depth and passion of +which it was easily capable; that he placed too high a value on merely +brilliant effects _ad captandum vulgus_--there remains the fact that his +operas embody a mass of imperishable music, which will live with the +art itself. Musicians of every country now admit his wondrous grace, +his fertility and freshness of invention, his matchless treatment of the +voice, his effectiveness in arrangement of the orchestra. He can +never be made a model, for his genius had too much spontaneity and +individuality of color. But he impressed and modified music hardly less +than Gluck, whose tastes and methods were entirely antagonistic to his +own. That he should have retired from the exercise of his art while in +the full flower of his genius is a perplexing fact. No stranger story +is recorded in the annals of art with respect to a genius who filled +the world with his glory, and then chose to vanish, "not unseen." On +finishing his crowning stroke of genius and skill in "William Tell," he +might have said with Shakespeare's enchanter, Prospero: + + ".... But this magic I here abjure; and when I have required + Some heavenly music (which even now I do) + To work mine end upon their senses that + This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff-- + Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, + And, deeper than did ever plummet sound, I'll drown my book." + +A bright English critic, whose style is as charming as his judgments are +good, says, in his study of the Donizetti music: "I find myself thinking +of his music as I do of Domenichino's pictures of 'St. Agnes' and the +'Rosario' in the Bologna gallery, of the 'Diana' in the Borghese Palace +at Rome, as pictures equable and skillful in the treatment of their +subjects, neither devoid of beauty of form nor of color, but which +make neither the pulse quiver nor the eye wet; and then such a sweeping +judgment is arrested by a work like the 'St. Jerome' in the Vatican, +from which a spirit comes forth so strong and so exalted, that the +beholder, however trained to examine, and compare, and collect, finds +himself raised above all recollections of manner by the sudden ascent +of talent into the higher world of genius. Essentially a second-rate +composer,* Donizetti struck out some first-rate things in a happy hour, +such as the last act of 'La Favorita.'" + + * Mr. Chorley probably means "second-rate" as compared with + the few very great names, which can be easily counted on the + fingers. + +Both Donizetti and Bellini, though far inferior to their master in +richness of resources, in creative faculty and instinct for what may +be called dramatic expression in pure musical form, were disciples of +Rossini in their ideas and methods of work. Milton sang of Shakespeare-- + + "Sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, + "Warbles his native wood-notes wild!" + +In a similar spirit, many learned critics have written of Rossini, and +if it can be said of him in a musical sense that he had "little Latin +and less Greek," still more true is it of the two popular composers +whose works have filled so large a space in the opera-house of the last +thirty years, for their scores are singularly thin, measured by the +standard of advanced musical science. Specially may this be said of +Bellini, in many respects the greater of the two. There is scarcely +to be found in music a more signal example to show that a marked +individuality may rest on a narrow base. In justice to him, however, it +may be said that his early death prevented him from doing full justice +to his powers, for he had in him the material out of which the great +artist is made. Let us first sketch the career of Donizetti, the author +of sixty-four operas, besides a mass of other music, such as cantatas, +ariettas, duets, church music, etc., in the short space of twenty-six +years. + +Gàetano Donizetti was born at Bergamo, September 25, 1798, his father +being a man of moderate fortune.* + + * Admirers of the author of "Don Pasquale" and "Lucia" may + be interested in knowing that Donizetti was of Scotch + descent. His grandfather was a native of Perthshire, named + Izett. The young Scot was beguiled by the fascinating tongue + of a recruiting-sergeant into his Britannic majesty's + service, and was taken prisoner by General La Hoche during + the latter's invasion of Ireland. Already tired of a + private's life, he accepted the situation, and was induced + to become the French general's private secretary. + Subsequently he drifted to Italy, and married an Italian + lady of some rank, denationalizing his own name into + Donizetti. The Scottish predilections of our composer show + themselves in the music of "Don Pasquale," noticeably in + "Com' e gentil;" and the score of "Lucia" is strongly + flavored by Scottish sympathy and minstrelsy. + +Receiving a good classical education, the young Gäetano had three +careers open before him: the bar, to which the will of his father +inclined; architecture, indicated by his talent for drawing; and music, +to which he was powerfully impelled by his own inclinations. His +father sent him, at the age of seventeen, to Bologna to benefit by the +instruction of Padre Mattel, who had also been Rossini's master. The +young man showed no disposition for the heights of musical science as +demanded by religious composition, and, much to his father's disgust, +avowed his determination to write dramatic music. Paternal anger, for +the elder Donizetti seems to have had a strain of Scotch obstinacy and +austerity, made the youth enlist as a soldier, thinking to find time for +musical work in the leisure of barrack-life. His first opera, "Enrico +di Borgogna," was so highly admired by the Venetian manager, to whom, it +was offered, that he induced friends of his to release young Donizetti +from his military servitude. He now pursued musical composition with a +facility and industry which astonished even the Italians, familiar with +feats of improvisation. In ten years twenty-eight operas were produced. +Such names as "Olivo e Pasquale," "La Convenienze Teatrali," "Il +Borgomaestro di Saardam," "Gianni di Calais," "L'Esule di Roma," "Il +Castello di Kenilworth," "Imelda di Lambertazzi," have no musical +significance, except as belonging to a catalogue of forgotten titles. +Donizetti was so poorly paid that need drove him to rapid composition, +which could not wait for the true afflatus. + +It was not till 1831 that the evidence of a strong individuality was +given, for hitherto he had shown little more than a slavish imitation +of Rossini. "Anna Bolena" was produced at Milan and gained him great +credit, and even now, though it is rarely sung even in Italy, it is +much respected as a work of art as well as of promise. It was first +interpreted by Pasta and Rubini, and Lablache won his earliest London +triumph in it. "Marino Faliero" was composed for Paris in 1835, and +"L'Elisir d'Amore," one of the most graceful and pleasing of Donizetti's +works, for Milan in 1832. "Lucia di Lammermoor," based on Walter Scott's +novel, was given to the public in 1835, and has remained the most +popular of the composer's operas. _Edgardo_ was written for the great +French tenor, Duprez, _Lucia_ for Persiani. + +Donizetti's kindness of heart was illustrated by the interesting +circumstances of his saving an obscure Neapolitan theatre from ruin. +Hearing that it was on the verge of suspension and the performers +in great distress, the composer sought them out and supplied their +immediate wants. The manager said a new work from the pen of Donizetti +would be his salvation. "You shall have one within a week," was the +answer. + +Lacking a subject, he himself rearranged an old French vaudeville, and +within the week the libretto was written, the music composed, the parts +learned, the opera performed, and the theatre saved. There could be no +greater proof of his generosity of heart and his versatility of talent. +In these days of bitter quarreling over the rights of authors in their +works, it may be amusing to know that Victor Hugo contested the rights +of Italian librettists to borrow their plots from French plays. When +"Lucrezia Borgia," composed for Milan in 1834, was produced at Paris +in 1840, the French poet instituted a suit for an infringement of +copyright. He gained his action, and "Lucrezia Borgia" became "La +Rinegata," Pope Alexander the Sixth's Italians being metamorphosed into +Turks.* + + * Victor Hugo did the same thing with Verdi's "Ernani," and + other French authors followed with legal actions. The matter + was finally arranged on condition of an indemnity being paid + to the original French dramatists. The principle involved + had been established nearly two centuries before. In a + privilege granted to St. Amant in 1653 for the publication + of his "Moïse Sauvé," it was forbidden to extract from that + epic materials for a play or poem. The descendants of + Beaumarchais fought for the same concession, and not very + long ago it was decided that the translators and arrangers + of "Le Nozze di Figaro" for the Théâtre Lyrique must share + their receipts with the living representatives of the author + of "Le Mariage de Figaro." + +"Lucrezia Borgia," which, though based on one of the most dramatic of +stories and full of beautiful music, is not dramatically treated by the +composer, seems to mark the distance about half way between the styles +of Rossini and Verdi. In it there is but little recitative, and in the +treatment of the chorus we find the method which Verdi afterward came to +use exclusively. When Donizetti revisited Paris in 1840 he produced in +rapid succession "I Martiri," "La Fille du Regiment," and "La Favorita." +In the second of these works Jenny Lind, Sontag, and Alboni won bright +triumphs at a subsequent period. + + +II. + +"La Favorita," the story of which was drawn from "L'Ange de Nigida," +and founded in the first instance on a French play, "Le Comte de +Commingues," was put on the stage at the Académie with a magnificent +cast and scenery, and achieved a success immediately great, for as +a dramatic opera it stands far in the van of all the composer's +productions. The whole of the grand fourth act, with the exception of +one cavatina, was composed in three hours. Donizetti had been dining at +the house of a friend, who was engaged in the evening to go to a ball. +On leaving the house, his host, with profuse apologies, begged +the composer to stay and finish his coffee, of which Donizetti was +inordinately fond. The latter sent out for music paper, and, finding +himself in the vein for composition, went on writing till the completion +of the work. He had just put the final stroke to the celebrated "_Viens +dans un autre patrie_" when his friend returned at one in the morning +to congratulate him on his excellent method of passing the time, and to +hear the music sung for the first time from Donizetti's own lips. + +After visiting Rome, Milan, and Vienna, for which last city he wrote +"Linda di Chamouni," our composer returned to Paris, and in 1843 wrote +"Don Pasquale" for the Theatre Italien, and "Don Sebastian" for +the Académie. Its lugubrious drama was fatal to the latter, but the +brilliant gayety of "Don Pasquale," rendered specially delightful by +such a magnificent cast as Grisi, Mario, Tamburini, and Lablache, made +it one of the great art attractions of Paris, and a Fortunatus purse for +the manager. The music of this work perhaps is the best ever written by +Donizetti, though it lacks the freshness and sentiment of his "Elisir +d'Amore," which is steeped in rustic poetry and tenderness like a rose +wet with dew. The production of "Maria di Rohan" in Vienna the same +year, an opera with some powerful dramatic effects and bold music, gave +Ronconi the opportunity to prove himself not merely a fine buffo singer, +but a noble tragic actor. In this work Donizetti displays that rugged +earnestness and vigor so characteristic of Verdi; and, had his life been +greatly prolonged, we might have seen him ripen into a passion and power +at odds with the elegant frivolity which for the most part tainted +his musical quality. Donizetti's last opera, "Catarina Comaro" the +sixty-third one represented, was brought out at Naples in the year 1844 +without adding aught to his reputation. Of this composer's long list of +works only ten or eleven retain any hold on the stage, his best serious +operas being "La Favorita," "Linda," "Anna Bolena," "Lucrezia Borgia," +and "Lucia;" the finest comic works, "L'Elisir d'Amore," "La Fille du +Regiment," and "Don Pasquale." + +In composing Donizetti never used the pianoforte, writing with great +rapidity and never making corrections. Yet curious to say, he could +not do anything without a small ivory scraper by his side, though never +using it. It was given him by his father when commencing his career, +with the injunction that, as he was determined to become a musician, he +should make up his mind to write as little rubbish as possible, advice +which Donizetti sometimes forgot. + +The first signs of the malady, which was the cause of the composer's +death, had already shown themselves in 1845. Fits of hallucination and +all the symptoms of approaching derangement displayed themselves with +increasing intensity. An incessant worker, overseer of his operas on +twenty stages, he had to pay the tax by which his fame became his ruin. +It is reported that he anticipated the coming scourge, for during the +rehearsals of "Don Sebastian" he said, "I think I shall go mad yet." +Still he would not put the bridle on his restless activity. At last +paralysis seized him, and in January, 1846, he was placed under the +care of the celebrated Dr. Blanche at Ivry. In the hope that the mild +influence of his native air might heal his distempered brain, he was +sent to Bergamo, in 1848, but died in his brother's arms April 8th. +The inhabitants of the Peninsula were then at war with Austria, and +the bells that sounded the knell of Donizetti's departure mingled their +solemn peals with the roar of the cannon fired to celebrate the victory +of Goïto. + +His faithful valet, Antoine, wrote to Adolphe Adam, describing his +obsequies: "More than four thousand persons," he relates, "were present +at the ceremony. The procession was composed of the numerous clergy of +Bergamo, the most illustrious members of the community and its environs, +and of the civic guard of the town and the suburbs. The discharge of +musketry, mingled with the light of three or four thousand torches, +presented a fine effect; the whole was enhanced by the presence of +three military bands and the most propitious weather it was possible to +behold. The young gentlemen of Bergamo insisted on bearing the remains +of their illustrious fellow-townsman, although the cemetery was a league +and a half from the town. The road was crowded its whole length by +people who came from the surrounding country to witness the procession; +and to give due praise to the inhabitants of Bergamo, never, hitherto, +had such great honors been bestowed upon any member of that city." + + +III. + +The future author of "Norma" and "La Sonnambula," Bellini, took his +first lessons in music from his father, an organist at Catania.* + + * Bellini was born in 1802, nine years after his + contemporary and rival, Donizetti, and died in 1835, + thirteen years before. + +He was sent to the Naples Conservatory by the generosity of a noble +patron, and there was the fellow-pupil of Mercadante, a composer who +blazed into a temporary lustre which threatened to outshine his fellows, +but is now forgotten except by the antiquarian and the lover of church +music. Bellini's early works, for he composed three before he was +twenty, so pleased Barbaja, the manager of the San Carlo and La Scala, +that he intrusted the youth with the libretto of "Il Pirata," to be +composed for representation at Florence. The tenor part was written for +the great singer, Rubini, whose name has no peer among artists, since +male sopranos were abolished by the outraged moral sense of society. +Rubini retired to the country with Bellini, and studied, as they were +produced, the simple touching airs with which he so delighted the public +on the stage. + +La Scala rang with plaudits when the opera was produced, and Bellini's +career was assured. "I Capuletti" was his next successful opera, +performed at Venice in 1829, but it never became popular out of Italy. + +The significant period of Bellini's life was in the year 1831, which +produced "La Sonnambula," to be followed by "Norma" the next season. +Both these were written for and introduced before the Neapolitan public. +In these works he reached his highest development, and by them he is +best known to fame. The opera-story of "La Sonnambula," by Romani, +an accomplished writer and scholar, is one of the most artistic and +effective ever put into the hands of a composer. M. Scribe had already +used the plot both as the subject of a vaudeville and a chorégraphie +drama; but in Romani's hands it became a symmetrical story full of +poetry and beauty. The music of this opera, throbbing with pure melody +and simple emotion, as natural and fresh as a bed of wild flowers, went +to the heart of the universal public, learned and unlearned; and, in +spite of its scientific faults, it will never cease to delight future +generations, as long as hearts beat and eyes are moistened with human +tenderness and sympathy. And yet, of this work an English critic wrote, +on its first London presentation: + +"Bellini has soared too high; there is nothing of grandeur, no touch of +true pathos in the common-place workings of his mind. He cannot reach +the _opera semiseria_; he should confine his powers to the musical +drama, the one-act _opera buffa_." But the history of art-criticism is +replete with such instances. + +"Norma" was also a grand triumph for the young composer from the outset, +especially as the lofty character of the Druid priestess was sung by +that unapproachable lyric tragedienne, the Siddons of the opera, Madame +Pasta. Bellini is said to have had this queen of dramatic song in +his mind in writing the opera, and right nobly did she vindicate his +judgment, for no European audience afterward but was thrilled and +carried away by her masterpiece of acting and singing in this part. + +Bellini himself considered "Norma" his _chef d'oeuvre_. A beautiful +Parisienne attempted to extract from his reluctant lips his preference +of his own works. The lady finally overcame his evasions by the query: +"But if you were out at sea, and should be shipwrecked--" "Ah!" he +cried, without allowing her to finish. "I would leave all the rest and +try to save 'Norma.'" + +"I Puritani" was composed for and performed at Paris in 1834, by that +splendid quartette of artists, Grisi, Rubini, Tamburini, and Lablache. +Bellini compelled the singers to execute after _his_ style. While Rubini +was rehearsing the tenor part, the composer cried out in rage: "You put +no life into your music. Show some feeling. Don't you know what love +is?" Then changing his tone: "Don't you know your voice is a goldmine +that has not been fully explored? You are an excellent artist, but that +is not sufficient. You must forget yourself and represent _Gualtiero_. +Let's try again." The tenor, stung by the admonition, then gave the part +magnificently. After the success of "I Puritani," the composer received +the Cross of the Legion of Honor, an honor then not often bestowed. +The "Puritani" season is still remembered, it is said, with peculiar +pleasure by the older connoisseurs of Paris and London, as the +enthusiasm awakened in musical circles has rarely been equaled. + +Bellini had placed himself under contract to write two new works +immediately, one for Paris, the other for Naples, and retired to the +villa of a friend at Puteaux to insure the more complete seclusion. +Here, while pursuing his art with almost sleepless ardor, he was +attacked by his fatal malady, intestinal fever. + +"From his youth up," says his biographer Mould, "Vincenzo's eagerness in +his art was such as to keep him at the piano night and day, till he was +obliged forcibly to leave it. The ruling passion accompanied him through +his short life, and by the assiduity with which he pursued it brought on +the dysentery which closed his brilliant career, peopling his last +hours with the figures of those to whom his works owed so much of their +success." + +During the moments of delirium which preceded his death, he was +constantly speaking of Lablache, Tamburini, and Grisi; and one of his +last recognizable impressions was that he was present at a brilliant +representation of his last opera at the Salle Favart. His earthly career +closed September 23, 1835, at the age of thirty-one. + +On the eve of his interment, the Théâtre Italien reopened with the +"Puritani." It was an occasion full of solemn gloom. Both the +musicians and audience broke from time to time into sobs. Tamburini, in +particular, was so oppressed by the death of his young friend that his +vocalization, generally so perfect, was often at fault, while the faces +of Grisi, Rubini, and Lablache too plainly showed their aching hearts. + +Rossini, Cherubini, Paer, and Carafa had charge of the funeral, and M. +Habeneck, _chef d'orchestre_ of the Académie Royale, of the music. The +next remarkable piece on the funeral programme was a _Lacrymosa_ for +four voices without accompaniment, in which the text of the Latin +hymn was united to the beautiful tenor melody in the third act of +the "Puritani." This was executed by Rubini, Ivanoff, Tamburini, and +Lablache. The services were performed at the Church of the Invalides, +and the remains were interred in Père Lachaise. + +Rossini had ever shown great love for Bellini, and Rosario Bellini, +the stricken father, wrote to him a touching letter, in which, after +speaking of his grief and despair, the old man said: + +"You always encouraged the object of my eternal regret in his labors; +you took him under your protection, you neglected nothing that could +increase his glory and his welfare. After my son's death, what have +you not done to honor my son's name and render it dear to posterity? I +learned this from the newspapers; and I am penetrated with gratitude for +your excessive kindness as well as for that of a number of distinguished +artists, which also I shall never forget. Pray, sir, be my interpreter, +and tell these artists that the father and family of Bellini, as well as +of our compatriots of Catania, will cherish an imperishable recollection +of this generous conduct. I shall never cease to remember how much you +did for my son. I shall make known everywhere, in the midst of my tears, +what an affectionate heart belongs to the great Rossini, and how kind, +hospitable, and full of feeling are the artists of France." + +Bellini was affable, sincere, honest, and affectionate. Nature gave him +a beautiful and ingenuous face, noble features, large, clear blue eyes, +and abundant light hair. His countenance instantly won on the regards +of all that met him. His disposition was melancholy; a secret depression +often crept over his most cheerful hours. We are told there was a +tender romance in his earlier life. The father of the lady he loved, +a Neapolitan judge, refused his suit on account of his inferior social +position. When Bellini became famous the judge wished to make amends, +but Bellini's pride interfered. Soon after the young lady, who loved him +unalterably, died, and it was said the composer never recovered from the +shock. + + +IV. + +Donizetti and Bellini were peculiarly moulded by the great genius of +Rossini, but in their best works they show individuality, color, and +special creative activity. The former composer, one of the most affluent +in the annals of music, seemed to become more fresh in his fancies +with increased production. He is an example of how little the skill and +touch, belonging to unceasing work, should be despised in comparison +with what is called inspiration. Donizetti arrived at his freshest +creations at a time when there seemed but little left for him except the +trite and threadbare. There are no melodies so rich and well fancied as +those to be found in his later works; and in sense of dramatic form +and effective instrumentation (always a faulty point with Donizetti) he +displayed great progress at the last. It is, however, a noteworthy fact, +that the latest Italian composers have shown themselves quite weak +in composing expressly for the orchestra. No operatic overture since +"William Tell" has been produced by this school of music, worthy to be +rendered in a concert-room. + +Donizetti lacked the dramatic instinct in conceiving his music. In +attempting it he became hollow and theatric; and beautiful as are the +melodies and concerted pieces in "Lucia," where the subject ought to +inspire a vivid dramatic nature with such telling effects, it is in the +latter sense one of the most disappointing of operas. + +He redeemed himself for the nonce, however, in the fourth act of "La +Favorita," where there is enough musical and dramatic beauty to condone +the sins of the other three acts. The solemn and affecting church chant, +the passionate romance for the tenor, the great closing duet in which +the ecstasy of despair rises to that of exaltation, the resistless +sweep of the rhythm--all mark one of the most effective single acts ever +written. He showed himself here worthy of companionship with Rossini and +Meyerbeer. + +In his comic operas, "L'Elisir d'Amore," "La Fille du Regiment," and +"Don Pasquale," there is a continual well-spring of sunny, bubbling +humor. They are slight, brilliant, and catching, everything that +pedantry condemns, and the popular taste delights in. Mendelssohn, the +last of the German classical composers, admired "L'Elisir" so much that +he said he would have liked to have written it himself. It may be said +that while Donizetti lacks grand conceptions, or even great heauties +for the most part, his operas contain so much that is agreeable, so many +excellent opportunities for vocal display, such harmony between sound +and situation, that he will probably retain a hold on the stage when +much greater composers are only known to the general public by name. + +Bellini, with less fertility and grace, possessed far more +picturesqueness and intensity. His powers of imagination transcended his +command over the working tools of his art. Even more lacking in exact +and extended musical science than Donizetti, he could express what came +within his range with a simple vigor, grasp, and beauty, which make +him a truly dramatic composer. In addition to this, a matter which many +great composers ignore, Bellini had extraordinary skill in writing music +for the voice, not that which merely gave opportunity for executive +trickery and embellishment, but the genuine accents of passion, pathos, +and tenderness, in forms best adapted to be easily and effectively +delivered. + +He had no flexibility, no command over mirthful inspiration, such as +we hear in Mozart, Rossini, or even Donizetti. But his monotone is in +sublile rapport with the graver aspects of nature and life. Chorley sums +up this characteristic of Bellini in the following words: + +"In spite of the inexperience with which the instrumental score is +filled up, the opening scene of 'Norma' in the dim druidical wood +bears the true character of ancient sylvan antiquity. There is daybreak +again--a fresh tone of reveille--in the prelude to 'I Puritani.' If +Bellini's genius was not versatile in its means of expression, if it had +not gathered all the appliances by which science fertilizes Nature, it +beyond all doubt included appreciation of truth, no less than instinct +for beauty." + + + + +VERDI. + + +I. + +In 1872 the Khédive of Egypt, an oriental ruler, whose love of western +art and civilization has since tangled him in economic meshes to escape +from which has cost him his independence, produced a new opera with +barbaric splendor of appointments, at Grand Cairo. The spacious theatre +blazed with fantastic dresses and showy uniforms, and the curtain rose +on a drama which gave a glimpse to the Arabs, Copts, and Francs present +of the life and religion, the loves and hates of ancient Pharaonic +times, set to music by the most celebrated of living Italian composers. + +That an eastern prince should have commissioned Giuseppe Verdi to write +"Aida" for him, in his desire to emulate western sovereigns as a patron +of art, is an interesting fact, but not wonderful or significant. + +The opera itself was freighted, however, with peculiar significance as +an artistic work, far surpassing that of the circumstances which gave it +origin, or which saw its first production in the mysterious land of the +Nile and Sphinx. + +Originally a pupil, thoroughly imbued with the method and spirit of +Rossini, though never lacking in original quality, Verdi as a young man +shared the suffrages of admiring audiences with Donizetti and Bellini. +Even when he diverged widely from his parent stem and took rank as the +representative of the melodramatic school of music, he remained true to +the instincts of his Italian training. + +The remarkable fact is that Verdi, at the age of fifty-eight, when it +might have been safely assumed that his theories and preferences were +finally crystallized, produced an opera in which he clasped hands with +the German enthusiast, who preached an art system radically opposed to +his own and lashed with scathing satire the whole musical cult of the +Italian race. + +In "Aida" and the "Manzoni Mass," written in 1873, Verdi, the leader +among living Italian composers, practically conceded that, in the long, +bitterly fought battle between Teuton and Italian in music, the former +was the victor. In the opera we find a new departure, which, if not +embodying all the philosophy of the "new school," is stamped with its +salient traits, viz.: The subordination of all the individual effects +to the perfection and symmetry of the whole; a lavish demand on all the +sister arts to contribute their rich gifts to the heightening of the +illusion; a tendency to enrich the harmonic value in the choruses, the +concerted pieces, and the instrumentation, to the great sacrifice of the +solo pieces; the use of the heroic and mythical element as a theme. + +Verdi, the subject of this interesting revolution, has filled a very +brilliant place in modern musical art, and his career has been in some +ways as picturesque as his music. + +Verdi's parents were literally hewers of wood and drawers of water, +earning their bread, after the manner of Italian peasants, at a small +settlement called La Roncali, near Busseto, where the future composer +was born on October 9, 1814. + +His earliest recollections were with the little village church, where +the little Giuseppe listened with delight to the church organ, for, as +with all great musicians, his fondness for music showed itself at a very +early age. The elder Verdi, though very poor, gratified the child's love +of music when he was about eight by buying a small spinet, and placing +him under the instruction of Provesi, a teacher in Busseto. The boy +entered on his studies with ardor, and made more rapid progress than the +slender facilities which were allowed him would ordinarily justify. + +An event soon occurred which was destined to wield a lasting influence +on his destiny. He one day heard a skillful performance on a fine piano, +while passing by one of the better houses of Busseto. From that time +a constant fascination drew him to the house; for day after day he +lingered and seemed unwilling to go away lest he should perchance lose +some of the enchanting sounds which so enraptured him. The owner of +the premises was a rich merchant, one Antonio Barezzi, a cultivated +and high-minded man, and a passionate lover of music withal. 'Twas his +daughter whose playing gave the young Verdi such pleasure. + +Signor Barezzi had often seen the lingering and absorbed lad, who +stood as if in a dream, oblivious to all that passed around him in the +practical work-a-day world. So one day he accosted him pleasantly and +inquired why he came so constantly and stayed so long doing nothing. + +"I play the piano a little," said the boy, "and I like to come here and +listen to the fine playing in your house." + +"Oh! if that is the case, come in with me that you may enjoy it more +at your ease, and hereafter you are welcome to do so whenever you feel +inclined." + +It may be imagined the delighted boy did not refuse the kind invitation, +and the acquaintance soon ripened into intimacy, for the rich merchant +learned to regard the bright young musician with much affection, which +it is needless to say was warmly returned. Verdi was untiring in study +and spent the early years of his youth in humble quiet, in the midst of +those beauties of nature which have so powerful an influence in molding +great susceptibilities. At his seventeenth year he had acquired as much +musical knowledge as could be acquired at a place like Busseto, and he +became anxious to go to Milan to continue his studies. The poverty of +his family precluding any assistance from this quarter, he was obliged +to find help from an eleemosynary fund then existing in his native town. +This was an institution called the Monte di Pietà, which offered yearly +to four young men the sum of twenty-five _lire_ a month each, in order +to help them to an education; and Verdi, making an application and +sustained by the influence of his friend the rich merchant, was one of +the four whose good fortune it was to be selected. + +The allowance thus obtained with some assistance from Barezzi enabled +the ambitious young musician to go to Milan, carrying with him some +of his compositions. When he presented himself for examination at the +conservatory, he was made to play on the piano, and his compositions +examined. The result fell on his hopes like a thunder-bolt. The pedantic +and narrow-minded examiners not only scoffed at the state of his musical +knowledge, but told him he was incapable of becoming a musician. To +weaker souls this would have been a terrible discouragement, but to his +ardor and self-confidence it was only a challenge. Barezzi had equal +confidence in the abilities of his _protégé_, and warmly encouraged him +to work and hope. Verdi engaged an excellent private teacher and pursued +his studies with unflagging energy, denying himself all but the barest +necessities, and going sometimes without sufficient food. + +A stroke of fortune now fell in his way; the place of organist fell +vacant at the Busseto church, and Verdi was appointed to fill it. He +returned home, and was soon afterward married to the daughter of the +benefactor to whom he owed so much. He continued to apply himself with +great diligence to the study of his art, and completed an opera early +in 1839. He succeeded in arranging for the production of this work, +"L'Oberto, Conte de San Bonifacio," at La Scala, Milan; but it excited +little comment and was soon forgotten, like the scores of other shallow +or immature compositions so prolifically produced in Italy. + +The impresario, Merelli, believed in the young composer though, for +he thought he discovered signs of genius. So he gave him a contract to +write three operas, one of which was to be an _opera buffa_, and to be +ready in the following autumn. With hopeful spirits Verdi set to work +on the opera, but that year of 1840 was to be one of great trouble and +trial. Hardly had he set to work all afire with eagerness and hope, +when he was seized with severe illness. His recovery was followed by the +successive sickening of his two children, who died, a terrible blow to +the father's fond heart. Fate had the crowning stroke though still to +give, for the young mother, agonized by this loss, was seized with a +fatal inflammation of the brain. Thus within a brief period Verdi was +bereft of all the sweet consolations of home, and his life became a +burden to him. Under these conditions he was to write a comic opera, +full of sparkle, gayety, and humor. Can we wonder that his work was a +failure? The public came to be amused by bright, joyous music, for it +was nothing to them that the composer's heart was dead with grief at his +afflictions. The audience hissed "Un Giorno di Regno," for it proved +a funereal attempt at mirth. So Verdi sought to annul the contract. To +this the impresario replied: "So be it, if you wish; but, whenever you +want to write again on the same terms, you will find me ready." + +To tell the truth, the composer was discouraged by his want of success, +and wholly broken down by his numerous trials. He now withdrew from all +society, and, having hired a small room in an out-of-the-way part of +Milan, passed most of his time in reading the worst books that could +be found, rarely going out, unless occasionally in the evening, never +giving his attention to study of any kind, and never touching the piano. +Such was his life from October, 1840, to January, 1841. One evening, +early in the new year, while out walking, he chanced to meet Merelli, +who took him by the arm; and, as they sauntered toward the theatre, the +impresario told him that he was in great trouble, Nicolai, who was to +write an opera for him, having refused to accept a _libretto_ entitled +"Nabucco." + +To this Verdi replied: + +"I am glad to be able to relieve you of your difficulty. Don't you +remember the libretto of 'Il Proscritto,' which you procured for me, and +for which I have never composed the music? Give that to Nicolai in place +of 'Nabucco.'" + +Merelli thanked him for his kind offer, and, as they reached the +theatre, asked him to go in, that they might ascertain whether the +manuscript of "Il Proscritto" was really there. It was at length found, +and Verdi was on the point of leaving, when Merelli slipped into his +pocket the book of "Nabucco," asking him to look it over. For want +of something to do, he took up the drama the next morning and read it +through, realizing how truly grand it was in conception. But, as a lover +forces himself to feign indifference to his coquettish _innamorata_, so +he, disregarding his inclinations, returned the manuscript to Merelli +that same day. + +"Well?" said Merelli, inquiringly. + +"Musicabilissimo!" he replied; "full of dramatic power and telling +situations!" + +"Take it home with you, then, and write the music for it." + +Verdi declared that he did not wish to compose, but the worthy +impresario forced the manuscript on him, and persisted that he should +undertake the work. The composer returned home with the libretto, but +threw it on one side without looking at it, and for the next five months +continued his reading of bad romances and yellow-covered novels. + +The impulse of work soon came again, however. One beautiful June day the +manuscript met his eye, while looking listlessly over some old papers. +He read one scene and was struck by its beauty. The instinct of musical +creation rushed over him with irresistible force; he seated himself at +the piano, so long silent, and began composing the music. The ice was +broken. Verdi soon entered into the spirit of the work, and in three +months "Nabucco" was entirely completed. Merelli gladly accepted it, and +it was performed at La Scala in the spring of 1842. As a result Verdi +was besieged with petitions for new works from every impresario in +Italy. + + +II. + +From 1812 to 1851 Verdi's busy imagination produced a series of operas, +which disputed the palm of popularity with the foremost composers of his +time. "I Lombardi," brought out at La Scala in 1843; "Ernani," at Venice +in 1844; "I Due Foscari," at Rome in 1844; "Giovanna D'Arco," at Milan, +and "Alzira," at Naples in 1845; "Attila," at Venice in 1846; and +"Macbetto," at Florence in 1847, were--all of them--successful works. +The last created such a genuine enthusiasm that he was crowned with a +golden aurel-wreath and escorted home from the theatre by an enormous +crowd. "I Masnadieri" was written for Jenny Lind, and performed first +in London in 1847 with that great singer, Gardoni, and Lablache, in the +cast. His next productions were "Il Corsaro," brought out at Trieste +in 1848; "La Battaglia di Legnano" at Rome in 1849; "Luisa Miller" at +Naples in the same year; and "Stiffelio" at Trieste in 1850. By this +series of works Verdi impressed himself powerfully on his age, but in +them he preserved faithfully the color and style of the school in which +he had been trained. But he had now arrived at the commencement of his +transition period. A distinguished French critic marks this change in +the following summary: "When Verdi began to write, the influences of +foreign literature and new theories on art had excited Italian +composers to seek a violent expression of the passions, and to leave +the interpretation of amiable and delicate sentiments for that of sombre +flights of the soul. A serious mind gifted with a rich imagination, +Verdi became the chief of the new school. His music became more intense +and dramatic; by vigor, energy, _verve_, a certain ruggedness and +sharpness, by powerful effects of sound, he conquered an immense +popularity in Italy, where success had hitherto been attained only by +the charm, suavity, and abundance of the melodies produced." + +In "Rigoletto," produced in Venice in 1851, the full flowering of his +genius into the melodramatic style was signally shown. The opera story +adapted from Victor Hugo's "Le Roi s'amuse" is itself one of the most +dramatic of plots, and it seemed to have fired the composer into music +singularly vigorous, full of startling effects and novel treatment. Two +years afterward were brought out at Rome and Venice respectively two +operas, stamped with the same salient qualities, "Il Trovatore" and +"La Traviata," the last a lyric adaptation of Dumas _fils's_ "Dame +aux Camélias." These three operas have generally been considered his +masterpieces, though it is more than possible that the riper judgment of +the future will not sustain this claim. Their popularity was such that +Verdi's time was absorbed for several years in their production at +various opera-houses, utterly precluding new compositions. Of his later +operas may be mentioned "Les Vêpres Siciliennes," produced in Paris in +1855; "Un Ballo in Maschera," performed at Rome in 1859; "La Forza del +Destino," written for St. Petersburg, where it was sung in 1863; "Don +Carlos," produced in London in 1867; and "Aida" in Grand Cairo in +1872. When the latter work was finished, Verdi had composed twenty-nine +operas, beside lesser works, and attained the age of fifty-seven. + +Verdi's energies have not been confined to music. An ardent patriot, he +has displayed the deepest interest in the affairs of his country, and +taken an active part in its tangled politics. After the war of 1859 he +was chosen a member of the Assembly of Parma, and was one of the most +influential advocates for the annexation to Sardinia. Italian unity +found in him a passionate advocate, and, when the occasion came, his +artistic talent and earnestness proved that they might have made a +vigorous mark in political oratory as well as in music. + +The cry of "Viva Verdi" often resounded through Sardinia and Italy, and +it was one of the war-slogans of the Italian war of liberation. This +enigma is explained in the fact that the five letters of his name are +the initials of those of Vittorio Emanuele Rè D'Italia. His private +resources were liberally poured forth to help the national cause, and in +1861 he was chosen a deputy in Parliament from Parma. Ten years later he +was appointed by the Minister of Public Instruction to superintend the +reorganization of the National Musical Institute. + +The many decorations and titular distinctions lavished on him show the +high esteem in which he is held. He is a member of the Legion of Honor, +corresponding member of the French Academy of Fine Arts, grand cross +of the Prussian order of St. Stanislaus, of the order of the Crown of +Italy, and of the Egyptian order of Osmanli. He divides his life between +a beautiful residence at Genoa, where he overlooks the waters of the +sparkling Mediterranean, and a country villa near his native Busseto, +a house of quaint artistic architecture, approached by a venerable, +moss-grown stone bridge, at the foot of which are a large park and +artificial lake. When he takes his evening walks, the peasantry, who are +devotedly attached to him, unite in singing choruses from his operas. + +In Verdi's bedroom, where alone he composes, is a fine piano--of which +instrument, as well as of the violin, he is a master--a modest library, +and an oddly-shaped writing-desk. Pictures and statuettes, of which he +is very fond, are thickly strewn about the whole house. Verdi is a +man of vigor' ous and active habits, taking an ardent interest in +agriculture. But the larger part of his time is taken up in composing, +writing letters, and reading works on philosophy, politics, and history. +His personal appearance is very distinguished. A tall figure with sturdy +limbs and square shoulders, surmounted by a finely-shaped head; abundant +hair, beard, and mustache, whose black is sprinkled with gray; dark-gray +eyes, regular features, and an earnest, sometimes intense, expression +make him a noticeable-looking man. Much sought after in the brilliant +society of Florence, Rome, and Paris, our composer spends most of his +time in the elegant seclusion of home. + + +III. + +Verdi is the most nervous, theatric, sensuous composer of the present +century. Measured by the highest standard, his style must be criticised +as often spasmodic, tawdry, and meretricious. He instinctively adopts +a bold and eccentric treatment of musical themes; and, though there are +always to be found stirring movements in his scores as well as in his +opera stories, he constantly offends refined taste by sensation and +violence. + +With a redundancy of melody, too often of the cheap and shallow kind, he +rarely fails to please the masses of opera-goers, for his works enjoy +a popularity not shared at present by any other composer. In Verdi a +sudden blaze of song, brief spirited airs, duets, trios, etc., take +the place of the elaborate and beautiful music, chiseled into order and +symmetry, which characterizes most of the great composers of the past. +Energy of immediate impression is thus gained at the expense of that +deep, lingering power, full of the subtile side-lights and shadows of +suggestion, which is the crowning benison of great music. He stuns the +ear and captivates the senses, but does not subdue the soul. + +Yet, despite the grievous faults of these operas, they blaze with gems, +and we catch here and there true swallow-flights of genius, that the +noblest would not disown. With all his puerilities there is a mixture +of grandeur. There are passages in "Ernani," "Rigoletto," "Traviata," +"Trovatore," and "Aida," so strong and dignified, that it provokes a +wonder that one with such capacity for greatness should often descend +into such bathos. + +To better illustrate the false art which mars so much of Verdi's +dramatic method, a comparison between his "Rigoletto," so often claimed +as his best work, and Rossini's "Otello" will be opportune. The air sung +by _Gilda_ in the "Rigoletto," when she retires to sleep on the eve of +the outrage, is an empty, sentimental yawn; and in the quartet of +the last act, a noble dramatic opportunity, she ejects a chain of +disconnected, unmusical sobs, as offensive as _Violetta's_ consumptive +cough. _Desdemona's_ agitated air, on the other hand, under Rossini's +treatment, though broken short in the vocal phrase, is magnificently +sustained by the orchestra, and a genuine passion is made consistently +musical; and then the wonderful burst of bravura, where despair and +resolution run riot without violating the bounds of strict beauty in +music--these are master-strokes of genius restrained by art. + +In Verdi, passion too often misses intensity and becomes hysterical. +He lacks the elements of tenderness and humor, but is frequently +picturesque and charming by his warmth and boldness of color. His +attempts to express the gay and mirthful, as for instance in the +masquerade music of "Traviata" and the dance music of "Rigoletto," are +dreary, ghastly, and saddening; while his ideas of tenderness are apt +to take the form of mere sentimentality. Yet generalities fail in +describing him, for occasionally he attains effects strong in their +pathos, and artistically admirable; as, for example, the slow air for +the heroine, and the dreamy song for the gypsy mother in the last act +of "Trovatore." An artist who thus contradicts himself is a perplexing +problem, but we must judge him by the habitual, not the occasional. + +Verdi is always thoroughly in earnest, never frivolous. He walks on +stilts indeed, instead of treading the ground or cleaving the air, +but is never timid or tame in aim or execution. If he cannot stir the +emotions of the soul he subdues and absorbs the attention against +even the dictates of the better taste; while genuiue beauties gleaming +through picturesque rubbish often repay the true musician for what he +has undergone. + +So far this composer has been essentially representative of melodramatic +music, with all the faults and virtues of such a style. In "Aida," +his last work, the world remarked a striking change. The noble +orchestration, the power and beauty of the choruses, the sustained +dignity of treatment, the seriousness and pathos of the whole work, +reveal how deeply new purposes and methods have been fermenting in the +composer's development. Yet in the very prime of his powers, though +no longer young, his next work ought to settle the value of the hopes +raised by the last. + + + + +CHERUBINI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. + +I. + +In France, as in Italy, the regular musical drama was preceded by +mysteries, masks, and religious plays, which introduced short musical +parts, as also action, mechanical effects, and dancing. The ballet, +however, where dancing was the prominent feature, remained for a long +time the favorite amusement of the French court until the advent of Jean +Baptiste Lulli. The young Florentine, after having served in the king's +band, was promoted to be its chief, and the composer of the music of +the court ballets. Lulli, born in 1633, was bought of his parents +by Chevalier de Guise, and sent to Paris as a present to Mlle, de +Montpensier, the king's niece. His capricious mistress, after a year +or two, deposed the boy of fifteen from the position of page to that of +scullion; but Count Nogent, accidentally hearing him sing and struck by +his musical talent, influenced the princess to place him under the care +of good masters. Lulli made such rapid progress that he soon commenced +to compose music of a style superior to that before current in +divertissements of the French court. + +The name of Philippe Quinault is closely associated with the musical +career of Lulli; for to the poet the musician was indebted for his best +librettos. Born at Paris in 1636, Quinault's genius for poetry displayed +itself at an early age. Before he was twenty he had written several +successful comedies. Though he produced many plays, both tragedies and +comedies, well known to readers of French poetry, his operatic poems are +those which have rendered his memory illustrious. He died on November +29,1688. It is said that during his last illness he was extremely +penitent on account of the voluptuous tendency of his works. All his +lyrical dramas are full of beauty, but "Atys," "Phaeton," "Isis," and +"Armide" have been ranked the highest. "Armide" was the last of the +poet's efforts, and Lulli was so much in love with the opera, when +completed, that he had it performed over and over again for his own +pleasure without any other auditor. When "Atys" was performed first in +1676, the eager throng began to pour in the theatre at ten o'clock in +the morning, and by noon the building was filled. The King and the Count +were charmed with the work in spite of the bitter dislike of Boileau, +the Aristarchus of his age. "Put me in a place where I shall not be able +to hear the words," said the latter to the box-keeper; "I like Lulli's +music very much, but have a sovereign contempt for Quinault's words." +Lulli obliged the poet to write "Armide" five times over, and the +felicity of his treatment is proved by the fact that Gluck afterward set +the same poem to the music which is still occasionally sung in Germany. + +Lulli in the course of his musical career became so great a favorite +with the King that the originally obscure kitchen-boy was ennobled. He +was made one of the King's secretaries in spite of the loud murmurs of +this pampered fraternity against receiving into their body a player +and a buffoon. The musician's wit and affability, however, finally +dissipated these prejudices, especially as he was wealthy and of +irreproachable character. + +The King having had a severe illness in 1686, Lulli composed a "Te Deum" +in honor of his recovery. When this was given, the musician, in beating +time with great ardor, struck his toe with his baton. This brought on a +mortification, and there was great grief when it was announced that he +could not recover. The Princes de Vendôme lodged four thousand pistoles +in the hands of a banker, to be paid to any physician who would cure +him. Shortly before his death his confessor severely reproached him for +the licentiousness of his operas, and refused to give him absolution +unless he consented to burn the score of "Achille et Polyxène," which +was ready for the stage. The manuscript was put into the flames, and +the priest made the musician's peace with God. One of the young princes +visited him a few days after, when he seemed a little better. + +"What, Baptiste," the former said, "have you burned your opera? You were +a fool for giving such credit to a gloomy confessor and burning good +music." + +"Hush, hush!" whispered Lulli with a satirical smile on his lip. "I +cheated the good father. I only burned a copy." + +He died singing the words, "Il faut mourir, pécheur, il faut mourir" to +one of his own opera airs. + +Lulli was not only a composer, but created his own orchestra, trained +his artists in acting and singing, and was machinist as well as +ballet-master and music-director. He was intimate with Corneille, +Molière, La Fontaine, and Boileau; and these great men were proud to +contribute the texts to which he set his music. He introduced female +dancers into the ballet, disguised men having hitherto served in this +capacity, and in many essential ways was the father of early French +opera, though its foundation had been laid by Cardinal Mazarin. He +had to fight against opposition and cabals, but his energy, tact, and +persistence made him the victor, and won the friendship of the leading +men of his time. Such of his music as still exists is of a pleasing and +melodious character, full of vivacity and lire, and at times indicates +a more deep and serious power than that of merely creating catching +and tuneful airs. He was the inventor of the operatic overture, and +introduced several new instruments into the orchestra. Apart from his +splendid administrative faculty, he is entitled to rank as an original +and gifted, if not a great, composer. + +A lively sketch of the French opera of this period is given by Addison +in No. 29 of the "Spectator." "The music of the French," he says, "is +indeed very properly adapted to their pronunciation and accent, as their +whole opera wonderfully favors the genius of such a gay, airy people. +The chorus in which that opera abounds gives the parterre frequent +opportunities of joining in concert with the stage. This inclination of +the audience to sing along with the actors so prevails with them that +I have sometimes known the performer on the stage to do no more in a +celebrated song than the clerk of a parish church, who serves only +to raise the psalm, and is afterward drowned in the music of the +congregation. Every actor that comes on the stage is a beau. The queens +and heroines are so painted that they appear as ruddy and cherry-cheeked +as milkmaids. The shepherds are all embroidered, and acquit themselves +in a ball better than our English dancing-masters. I have seen a couple +of rivers appear in red stockings; and Alpheus, instead of having +his head covered with sedge and bulrushes, making love in a fair, +full-bottomed periwig, and a plume of feathers; but with a voice so +full of shakes and quavers, that I should have thought the murmur of a +country brook the much more agreeable music. I remember the last opera +I saw in that merry nation was the 'Rape of Proserpine,' where Pluto, +to make the more tempting figure, puts himself in a French equipage, and +brings Ascalaphus along with him as his _valet de chambre_. This is what +we call folly and impertinence, but what the French look upon as gay and +polite." + + +II. + +The French musical drama continued without much chance in the hands of +the Lulli school (for the musician had several skillful imitators and +successors) till the appearance of Jean Philippe Rameau, who inaugurated +a new era. This celebrated man was born in Auvergne in 1683, and was +during his earlier life the organist of the Clermont cathedral church. +Here he pursued the scientific researches in music which entitled him +in the eyes of his admirers to be called the Newton of his art. He had +reached the age of fifty without recognition as a dramatic composer, +when the production of "Hippolyte et Aricie" excited a violent feud +by creating a strong current of opposition to the music of Lulli. He +produced works in rapid succession, and finally overcame all obstacles, +and won for himself the name of being the greatest lyric composer which +France up to that time had produced. His last opera, "Les Paladins," was +given in 1760, the composer being then seventy-seven. + +The bitterness of the art-feuds of that day, afterward shown in the +Gluck-Piccini contest, was foreshadowed in that waged by Rameau against +Lulli, and finally against the Italian newcomers, who sought to take +possession of the French stage. The matter became a natioual quarrel, +and it was considered an insult to France to prefer the music of an +Italian to that of a Frenchman--an insult which was often settled by the +rapier point, when tongue and pen had failed as arbitrators. The subject +was keenly debated by journalists and pamphleteers, and the press +groaned with essays to prove that Rameau was the first musician in +Europe, though his works were utterly unknown outside of France. Perhaps +no more valuable testimony to the character of these operas can be +adduced than that of Baron Grimm: + +"In his operas Rameau has overpowered all his predecessors by dint of +harmony and quantity of notes. Some of his choruses are very fine. +Lulli could only sustain his vocal psalmody by a simple bass; Rameau +accompanied almost all his recitatives with the orchestra. These +accompaniments are generally in bad taste; they drown the voice rather +than support it, and force the singers to scream and howl in a manner +which no ear of any delicacy can tolerate. We come away from an opera +of Rameau's intoxicated with harmony and stupefied with the noise of +voice and instruments. His taste is always Gothic, and, whether his +subject is light or forcible, his style is equally heavy. He was not +destitute of ideas, but did not know what use to make of them. In his +recitatives the sound is continually in opposition to the sense, though +they occasionally contain happy declamatory passages.... If he had +formed himself in some of the schools of Italy, and thus acquired a +notion of musical style and hahits of musical thought, he never would +have said (as he did) that all poems were alike to him, and that he +could set the 'Gazette de France' to music." + +From this it may be gathered that Rameau, though a scientific and +learned musician, lacked imagination, good taste, and dramatic +insight--qualities which in the modern lyric school of France have been +so preeminent. It may be admitted, however, that he inspired a taste for +sound musical science, and thus prepared the way for the great Gluck, +who to all and more of Rameau's musical knowledge united the grand +genius which makes him one of the giants of his art. + +Though Rameau enjoyed supremacy over the serious opera, a great +excitement was created in Paris by the arrival of an Italian company, +who in 1752 obtained permission to perform Italian burlettas and +intermezzi at the opera-house. The partisans of the French school took +alarm, and the admirers of Lulli and Rameau forgot their bickerings to +join forces against the foreign intruders. The battle-field was strewed +with floods of ink, and the literati pelted each other with ferocious +lampoons. + +Among the literature of this controversy, one pamphlet has an +imperishable place, Rousseau's famous "Lettre sur la Musique Française," +in which the great sentimentalist espoused the cause of Italian music +with an eloquence and acrimony rarely surpassed. The inconsistency of +the author was as marked in this as in his private life. Not only did he +at a later period become a great advocate of Gluck against Piocini, +but, in spite of his argument that it was impossible to compose music to +French words, that the language was quite unfit for it, that the French +never had music and never would, he himself had composed a good deal +of music to French words and produced a French opera, "Le Devin du +Village." Diderot was also a warm partisan of the Italians. Pergolesi's +beautiful music having been murdered by the French orchestra players at +the Grand Opera-House, Diderot proposed for it the following witty and +laconic inscription: "Hic Marsyas Apollinem."* + + * Here Marsyas flayed Apollo. + +Rousseau's opera, "Le Devin du Village," was performed with considerable +success, in spite of the repugnance of the orchestral performers, +of whom Rousseau always spoke in terms of unmeasured contempt, to do +justice to the music. They burned Rousseau in effigy for his scoffs. +"Well," said the author of the "Confessions," "I don't wonder that they +should hang me now, after having so long put me to the torture." + +The eloquence and abuse of the wits, however, did not long impair the +supremacy of Rameau; for the Italian company returned to their own +land, disheartened by their reception in the French capital. Though this +composer commenced so late in life, he left thirty-six dramatic works. +His greatest work was "Castor et Pollux." Thirty years later Grimm +recognized its merits by admitting, in spite of the great faults of the +composer, "It is the pivot on which the glory of French music turns." +When Louis XIV. offered Rameau a title, he answered, touching his breast +and forehead, "My nobility is here and here." This composer marked a +step forward in French music, for he gave it more boldness and freedom, +and was the first really scientific and well-equipped exponent of +a national school. His choruses were full of energy and fire, his +orchestral effects rich and massive. He died in 1764, and the mortuary +music, composed by himself, was performed by a double orchestra and +chorus from the Grand Opera. + + +III. + +A distinguished place in the records of French music must be assigned to +André Ernest Grétry, born at Liege in 1741. His career covered the +most important changes in the art as colored and influenced by national +tastes, and he is justly regarded as the father of comic opera in his +adopted country. His childish life was one of much severe discipline and +tribulation, for he was dedicated to music by his father, who was first +violinist in the college of St. Denis when he was only six years old. He +afterward wrote of this time in his "Essais sur la Musique": "The hour +for the lesson afforded the teacher an opportunity to exercise his +cruelty. He made us sing each in turn, and woe to him who made the least +mistake; he was beaten unmercifully, the youngest as well as the oldest. +He seemed to take pleasure in inventing torture. At times he would place +us on a short round stick, from which we fell head over heels if we made +the least movement. But that which made us tremble with fear was to +see him knock down a pupil and beat him; for then we were sure he would +treat some others in the same manner, one victim being insufficient to +gratify his ferocity. To maltreat his pupils was a sort of mania with +him; and he seemed to feel that his duty was performed in proportion to +the cries and sobs which he drew forth." + +In 1759 Grétry went to Rome, where he studied counterpoint for five +years. Some of his works were received favorably by the Roman public, +and he was made a member of the Philharmonic Society of Bologna. Pressed +by pecuniary necessity, Grétry determined to go to Paris; but he stopped +at Geneva on the route to earn money by singing-lessons. Here he met +Voltaire at Ferney. "You are a musician and have genius," said the great +man; "it is a very rare thing, and I take much interest in you." In +spite of this, however, Voltaire would not write him the text for an +opera. The philosopher of Ferney feared to trust his reputation with an +unknown musician. When Grétry arrived in Paris he still found the same +difficulty, as no distinguished poet was disposed to give him a libretto +till he had made his powers recognized. After two years of starving and +waiting, Marmontel gave him the text of "The Huron," which was brought +out in 1769 and well received. Other successful works followed in rapid +succession. + +At this time Parisian frivolity thought it good taste to admire the +rustic and naive. The idyls of Gessner and the pastorals of Florian +were the favorite reading, and Watteau the popular painter. Gentlefolks, +steeped in artifice, vice, and intrigue, masked their empty lives under +the as sumption of Arcadian simplicity, and minced and ambled in the +costumes of shepherds and shepherdesses. Marie Antoinette transformed +her chalet of Petit Trianon into a farm, where she and her courtiers +played at pastoral life--the farce preceding the tragedy of the +Revolution. It was the effort of dazed society seeking change. Grétry +followed the fashionable bent by composing pastoral comedies, and +mounted on the wave of success. + +In 1774 "Fausse Magie" was produced with the greatest applause. Rousseau +was present, and the composer waited on him in his box, meeting a most +cordial reception. On their way home after the opera, Grétry offered +his new friend his arm to help him over an obstruction. Rousseau with +a burst of rage said, "Let me make use of my own powers," and +thenceforward the sentimental misanthrope refused to recognize the +composer. About this time Grétry met the English humorist Hales, who +afterward furnished him with many of his comic texts. The two combined +to produce the "Jugement de Midas," a satire on the old style of music, +which met with remarkable popular favor, though it was not so well +received by the court. + +The crowning work of this composer's life was given to the world in +1785. This was "Richard Coeur de Lion," and it proved one of the great +musical events of the period. Paris was in ecstasies, and the judgment +of succeeding generations has confirmed the contemporary verdict, as +it is still a favorite opera in France and Germany. The works afterward +composed by Grétry showed decadence in power. Singularly rich in fresh +and sprightly ideas, he lacked depth and grandeur, and failed to suit +the deeper and sounder taste which Cherubini and Méhul, great followers +in the footsteps of Gluck, gratified by a series of noble masterpieces. +Grétry's services to his art, however, by his production of comic +operas full of lyric vivacity and sparkle, have never been forgotten nor +underrated. His bust was placed in the opera-house during his lifetime, +and he was made a member of the French Academy of Fine Arts and +Inspector of the Conservatory. Grétry possessed qualities of heart which +endeared him to all, and his death in 1813 was the occasion of a +general outburst of lamentation. Deputations from the theatres and +the Conservatory accompanied his remains to the cemetery, where Méhul +pronounced an eloquent eulogium. In 1828 a nephew of Grétry caused the +heart of him who was one of the glorious sons of Liege to be returned to +his native city. + +Grétry founded a school of musical composition in France which has since +been cultivated with signal success, that of lyric comedy. The efforts +of Lulli and Rameau had been turned in another direction. The former had +done little more than set courtly pageants to music, though he had +done this with great skill and tact, enriching them with a variety +of concerted and orchestral pieces, and showing much fertility in the +invention alike of pathetic and lively melodies. Rameau followed in the +footsteps of Lulli, but expanded and crystallized his ideas into a more +scientific form. He had indeed carried his love of form to a radical +extreme. Jean Jacques Rousseau, who extended his taste for nature and +simplicity to music, blamed him severely as one who neglected genuine +natural tune for far-fetched harmonies, on the ground that "music is a +child of nature, and has a language of its own for expressing emotional +transports, which can not be learned from thorough bass rules." Again +Rousseau, in his forcible tract on French music, says of Rameau, from +whose school Grétry's music was such a significant departure: + +"One must confess that M. Rameau possesses very great talent, much fire +and euphony, and a considerable knowledge of harmonious combinations and +effects; one must also grant him the art of appropriating the ideas of +others by changing their character, adorning and developing them, and +turning them around in all manner of ways, On the other hand, he shows +less facility in inventing new ones. Altogether he has more skill than +fertility, more knowledge than genius, or rather genius smothered +by knowledge, but always force, grace, and very often a beautiful +_cantileana_. His recitative is not as natural but much more varied than +that of Lulli; admirable in a few scenes, but bad as a rule." Rousseau +continues to reproach Rameau with a too powerful instrumentation, +compared with Italian simplicity, and sums up that nobody knew better +than Rameau how to conceive the spirit of single passages and to produce +artistic contrasts, but that he entirely failed to give his operas +"a happy and much-to-be-desired unity." In another part of the quoted +passage Rousseau says that Rameau stands far beneath Lulli in _esprit_ +and artistic tact, but that he is often superior to him in dramatic +expression. + +A clear understanding of the musical position of Rameau is necessary to +fully appreciate the place of Grétry, his antithesis as a composer. +For a short time the popularity of Rameau had been shaken by an Italian +opera company, called by the French _Les Bouffons_, who had created a +genuine sensation by their performance of airy and sparkling operettas, +entirely removed in spirit from the ponderous productions of the +prevailing school. Though the Italian comedians did not meet with +permanent success, the suave charm of their music left behind it +memories which became fruitful.* + + * In its infancy Italian comic opera formed the _intermezzo_ + between the acts of a serious opera, and--similar to the + Greek sylvan drama which followed the tragic trilogy--was + frequently a parody on the piece which preceded it; though + more frequently still (as in Pergolcsi's "Serra Padrona") it + was not a satire on any particular subject, but designed to + heighten the ideal artistic effect of the serious opera by + broad comedy. Having acquired a complete form on the boards + of the small theatres, it was transferred to the larger + stage. Though it lacked the external splendor and consummate + vocalization of the elder sister, its simpler forms endowed + it with a more characteristic rendering of actual life. + +It furnished the point of departure for the lively and facile genius +of Grétry, who laid the foundation stones of that lyric comedywhich has +flourished in France with so much luxuriance. From the outset merriment +and humor were by no means the sole object of the French comic opera, +as in the case of its Italian sister. Grétry did not neglect to turn the +nobler emotions to account, and by a judicious admixture of sentiment +he gave an ideal coloring to his works, which made them singularly +fascinating and original. Around Grétry flourished several disciples and +imitators, and for twenty years this charming hybrid between opera and +vaudeville engrossed French musical talent, to the exclusion of other +forms of composition. It was only when Gluck * appeared on the scene, +and by his commanding genius restored serious opera to its supremacy, +that Grotry's repute was overshadowed. From this decline in public +favor he never fully recovered, for the master left behind him gifted +disciples, who embodied his traditions, and were inspired by his lofty +aims--preeminently so in the case of Cherubini, perhaps the greatest +name in French music. While French comic opera, since the days of +Grétry, has become modified in some of its forms, it preserves the +spirit and coloring which he so happily imparted to it, and looks back +to him as its founder and lawgiver. + + *See article on "Gluck," in "The Great German Composers" + (a companion volume to this), in which his connection with + French music is discussed. + + +IV. + +One of the most accomplished of historians and critics, Oulibischeff, +sums up the place of Cherubini in musical art in these words: "If on the +one hand Gluck's calm and plastic grandeur, and on the other the tender +and voluptuous charm of the melodies of Piccini and Zacchini, had suited +the circumstances of a state of society sunk in luxury and nourished +with classical exhibitions, this could not satisfy a society shaken to +the very foundations of its faith and organization. The whole of the +dramatic music of the eighteenth century must naturally have appeared +cold and languid to men whose minds were profoundly moved with troubles +and wars; and even at the present day the word languor best expresses +that which no longer touches us in the operas of the last century, +without even excepting those of Mozart himself. What we require for the +pictures of dramatic music is larger frames, including more figures, +more passionate and moving song, more sharply marked rhythms, greater +fullness in the vocal masses, and more sonorous brilliancy in the +instrumentation. All these qualities are to be found in 'Lodoi'ska' +and 'Les Deux Journées'; and Cherubini may not only be regarded as the +founder of the modern French opera, but also as that musician who, after +Mozart, has exerted the greatest general influence on the tendency of +the art. An Italian by birth and the excellence of his education, which +was conducted by Sarti, the great teacher of composition; a German by +his musical sympathies as well as by the variety and profundity of his +knowledge; and a Frenchman by the school and principles to which we +owe his finest dramatic works, Cherubini strikes me as being the most +accomplished musician, if not the greatest genius, of the nineteenth +century." + +Again the English composer Macfarren observes: "Cherubini's position +is unique in the history of his art; actively before the world as +a composer for threescore years and ten, his career spans over more +vicissitudes in the progress of music than that of any other man. +Beginning to write in the same year with Cimarosa, and even earlier than +Mozart, and being the contemporary of Verdi and Wagner, he witnessed +almost the origin of the two modern classical schools of France and +Germany, their rise to perfection, and, if not their decline, the +arrival of a time when criticism would usurp the place of creation, and +when to propound new rules for art claims higher consideration than +to act according to its ever unalterable principles. His artistic life +indeed was a rainbow based on the two extremes of modern music which +shed light and glory on the great art-cycle over which it arched.... +His excellence consists in his unswerving earnestness of purpose, in +the individuality of his manner, in the vigor of his ideas, and in the +purity of his harmony." + +"Such," says M. Miel, "was Cherubim; a colossal and incommensurable +genius, an existence full of days, of masterpieces, and of glory. +Among his rivals he found his most sincere appreciators. The Chevalier +Seyfried has recorded, in a notice on Beethoven, that that grand +musician regarded Cherubini as the first of his contemporary composers. +We will add nothing to this praise: the judgment of such a rival is, for +Cherubini, the voice itself of posterity." + +Luigi Carlo Zanobe Salvadore Maria Cherubini was born at Florence on +September 14, 1700, the son of a harpsichord accompanyist at the Pergola +Theatre. Like so many other great composers, young Cherubini displayed +signs of a fertile and powerful genius at an early age, mastering the +difficulties of music as if by instinct. At the age of nine he was +placed under the charge of Felici, one of the best Tuscan professors of +the day; and four years afterward he composed his first work, a mass. +His creative instinct, thus awakened, remained active, and he produced +a series of compositions which awakened no little admiration, so that he +was pointed at in the streets of Florence as the young prodigy. When he +was about sixteen the attention of the Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany was +directed to him, and through that prince's liberality he was enabled +to become a pupil of the most celebrated Italian master of the age, +Giuseppe Sarti, of whom he soon became the favorite pupil. Under the +direction of Sarti, the young composer produced a series of operas, +sonatas, and masses, and wrote much of the music which appeared under +the maestro's own name--a practice then common in the music and painting +schools of Italy. At the age of nineteen Cherubini was recognized as +one of the most learned and accomplished musicians of the age, and his +services were in active demand at the Italian theatres. In four years +he produced thirteen operas, the names and character of which it is not +necessary now to mention, as they are unknown except to the antiquary +whose zeal prompts him to defy the dust of the Italian theatrical +libraries. Halévy, whose admiration of his master led him to study these +early compositions, speaks of them as full of striking beauties, and, +though crude in many particulars, distinguished by those virile and +daring conceptions which from the outset stamped the originality of the +man. + +Cherubini passed through Paris in 1784, while the Gluck-Piccini +excitement was yet warm, and visited London as composer for the Royal +Italian Opera. Here he became a constant visitor in courtly circles, and +the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Queensbury, and other noble amateurs, +conceived the warmest admiration for his character and abilities. For +some reason, however, his operas written for England failed, and +he quitted England in 1786, intending to return to Italy. But the +fascinations of Paris held him, as they have done so many others, +noticeably so among the great musicians; and what was designed as a +flying visit became a life-long residence, with the exception of brief +interruptions in Germany and Italy, whither he went to fill professional +engagements. + +Cherubini took up his residence with his friend Viotti, who introduced +him to the Queen, Marie Antoinette, and the highest society of the +capital, then as now the art-center of the world. He became an intimate +of the brilliant salons of Mme. de Polignac, Mme. d'Etiolés, Mme. de +Richelieu, and of the various bright assemblies where the wit, rank, and +beauty of Paris gathered in the days just prior to the Revolution. The +poet Marmontel became his intimate friend, and gave him the opera story +of "Demophon" to set to music. It was at this period that Cherubini +became acquainted with the works of Haydn, and learned from him how to +unite depth with lightness, grace with power, jest with earnestness, and +toying with dignity. + +A short visit to Italy for the carnival of 1788 resulted in the +production of the opera of "Ifigenia in Aulide" at La Scala, Milan. +The success was great, and this work, the last written for his native +country, was given also at Florence and Parma with no less delight and +approbation on the part of the public. Had Cherubini died at this time, +he would have left nothing but an obscure name for Fétis's immense +dictionary. Unlike Mozart and Schubert, who at the same age had reached +their highest development, this robust and massive genius ripened +slowly. With him as with Gluck, with whom he had so many affinities, +a short life would have been fatal to renown. His last opera showed a +turning point in his development. Halévy, his great disciple, speaks of +this period as follows: "He is already more nervous; there peeps out +I know not exactly how much of force and virility of which the Italian +musicians of his day did not know or did not seek the secret. It is the +dawn of a new day. Cherubini was preparing himself for the combat. Gluck +had accustomed France to the sublime energy of his masterpieces. Mozart +had just written 'Le Nozze di Figaro' and 'Don Giovanni.' He must not +lag behind. He must not be conquered. In that career which he was about +to dare to enter, he met two giants. Like the athlete who descends into +the arena, he anointed his limbs and girded his loins for the fight." + + +V. + +Marmontel had furnished the libretto of an opera to Cherubini, and the +composer shortly after his return from Turin to Paris had it produced at +the Royal Academy of Music. Vogel's opera on the same text, "Demophon," +was also brought out, but neither one met with great success. +Cherubini's work, though full of vigor and force, wanted color and +dramatic point. He was disgusted with his failure, and resolved +to eschew dramatic music; so for the nonce he devoted himself to +instrumental music and cantata. Two works of the latter class, "Amphion" +and "Circe," composed at this time, were of such excellence as to retain +a permanent hold on the French stage. Cherubini, too, became director of +the Italian opera troupe, "Les Bouffons," organized under the patronage +of Léonard, the Queen's performer, and exercised his taste for +composition by interpolating airs of his own into the works of the +Italian composers, which were then interesting the French public as +against the operas of Rameau. + +"At this time," we are told by Laf age, "Cherubini had two distinct +styles, one of which was allied to Paisiello and Cimarosa by the grace, +elegance, and purity of the melodic forms; the other, which attached +itself to the school of Gluck and Mozart, more harmonic than melodious, +rich in instrumental details." This manner was the then unappreciated +type of a new school destined to change the forms of musical art. + +In 1790 the Revolution broke out and rent the established order +of things into fragments. For a time all the interests of art were +swallowed up in the frightful turmoil which made Paris the center of +attention for astonished and alarmed Europe. Cherubini's connection had +been with the aristocracy, and now they were fleeing in a mad panic or +mounting the scaffold. His livelihood became precarious, and he suffered +severely during the first five years of anarchy. His seclusion was +passed in studying music, the physical sciences, drawing, and botany; +and his acquaintance was wisely confined to a few musicians like +himself. Once, indeed, his having learned the violin as a child was the +means of saving his life. Independently venturing out at night, he was +arrested by a roving band of drunken _Sansculottes_, who were seeking +musicians to conduct their street chants. Somebody recognized Cherubini +as a favorite of court circles, and, when he refused to lead their +obscene music, the fatal cry, "The Royalist, the Royalist!" buzzed +through the crowd. At this critical moment another kidnapped player +thrust a violin in Cherubini's hands and persuaded him to yield. So +the two musicians marched all day amid the hoarse yells of the drunken +revolutionists. He was also enrolled in the National Guard, and obliged +to accompany daily the march of the unfortunate throngs who shed their +blood under the axe of the guillotine. Cherubini would have fled from +these horrible surroundings, but it was difficult to evade the vigilance +of the French officials; he had no money; and he would not leave the +beautiful Cécile Tourette, to whom he was affianced. + +One of the theatres opened during the revolutionary epoch was the +Théâtre Feydeau. The second opera performed was Cherubini's "Lodoïska" +(1791), at which he had been laboring for a long time, and which was +received throughout Europe with the greatest enthusiasm and delight, not +less in Germany than in France and Italy. The stirring times aroused a +new taste in music, as well as in politics and literature. The dramas of +Racine and the operas of Lulli were akin. No less did the stormy +genius of Schiller find its counterpart in Beethoven and Cherubini. The +production of "Lodoïska" was the point of departure from which the great +French school of serious opera, which has given us "Robert le Diable," +"Les Huguenots," and "Faust," got its primal value and significance. Two +men of genius, Gluck and Grétry, had formed the taste of the public in +being faithful to the accents of nature. The idea of reconciling this +taste, founded on strict truth, with the seductive charm of the Italian +forms, to which the French were beginning to be sensible, suggested to +Cherubini a system of lyric drama capable of satisfying both. Wagner +himself even says, in his "Tendencies and Theories," speaking of +Cherubini and his great co-laborers Méhul and Spontini: "It would be +difficult to answer them, if they now perchance came among us and asked +in what respect we had improved on their mode of musical procedure." + +"Lodoïska," which cast the old Italian operas into permanent oblivion, +and laid the foundation of the modern French dramatic school in music, +has a libretto similar to that of "Fidelio" and Grétry's "Coeur de Lion" +combined, and was taken from a romance of Faiblas by Fillette Loraux. +The critics found only one objection: the music was all so beautiful +that no breathing time was granted the listener. In one year the opera +was performed two hundred times, and at short intervals two hundred more +representations took place. + +The Revolution culminated in the crisis of 1793, which sent the King to +the scaffold. Cherubini found a retreat at La Chartreuse, near Rouen, +the country seat of his friend, the architect Louis. Here he lived in +tranquillity, and composed several minor pieces and a three-act opera, +never produced, but afterward worked over into "Ali Baba" and "Faniska." +In his Norman retreat Cherubini heard of the death of his father, and +while suffering under this infliction, just before his return to Paris +in 1794, he composed the opera of "Elisa." This work wras received +with much favor at the Feydeau theatre, though it did not arouse the +admiration called out by "Lodoïska." + +In 1795 the Paris Conservatory was founded, and Cherubini appointed +one of the five inspectors, as well as professor of counterpoint, his +associates being Lesueur, Grétry, Gossec, and Méhul. The same year +also saw him united to Cécile Tourette, to whom he had been so long and +devotedly attached. Absorbed in his duties at the Conservatory he +did not come before the public again till 1797, when the great tragic +masterpiece of "Médée" was produced at the Feydeau theatre. "Lodoïska" +had been somewhat gay; "Elisa," a work of graver import, followed; +but in "Médée" was attained the profound tragic power of Gluck and +Beethoven. Hoffman's libretto was indeed unworthy of the great music, +but this has not prevented its recognition by musicians as one of the +noblest operas ever written. It has probably been one of the causes, +however, why it is so rarely represented at the present time, its +overture alone being well known to modern musical audiences. This opera +has been compared by critics to Shakespeare's "King Lear," as being a +great expression of anguish and despair in their more stormy phases. +Chorley tells us that, when he first saw it, he was irresistibly +reminded of the lines in Barry Cornwall's poem to Pasta: + + "Now thou art like some winged thing that cries + Above some city, flaming fast to death." + +The poem which Chorley quotes from was inspired by the performance of +the great Pasta in Simone Mayer's weak musical setting of the fable of +the Colchian sorceress, which crowded the opera-houses of Europe. The +life of the French classical tragedy, too, was powerfully assisted by +Rachel. Though the poem on which Cherubini worked was unworthy of his +genius, it could not be from this or from lack of interest in the theme +alone that this great work is so rarely performed; it is because there +have been not more than three or four actresses in the last hundred +years combining the great tragic and vocal requirements exacted by the +part. If the tragic genius of Pasta conld have been united with the +voice of a Catalani, made as it were of adamant and gold, Cherubini's +sublime musical creation would have found an adequate interpreter. +Mdlle. Tietjens, indeed, has been the only late dramatic singer who +dared essay so difficult a task. Musical students rank the instrumental +parts of this opera with the organ music of Bach, the choral fugues +of Handel, and the symphonies of Beethoven, for beauty of form and +originality of ideas. + +On its first representation, on the 13th of March, 1797, one of the +journals, after praising its beauty, professed to discover imitations +of Méhul's manner in it. The latter composer, in an indignant rejoinder, +proclaimed himself and all others as overshadowed by Cherubini's genius: +a singular example of artistic humility and justice. Three years after +its performance in Paris, it was given at Berlin and Vienna, and stamped +by the Germans as one of the world's great musical masterpieces. This +work was a favorite one with Schubert, Beethoven, and Weber, and +there have been few great composers who have not put on record their +admiration of it. + +As great, however, as "Médée" is ranked, "Les Deux Journées,"* produced +in 1800, is the opera on which Cherubim's fame as a dramatic composer +chiefly rests. + + * In German known as "Die Wassertràger," in English "The + Water-Carriers." + +Three hundred consecutive performances did not satisfy Paris; and +at Berlin and Frankfort, as well as in Italy, it was hailed with +acclamation. Bouilly was the author of the opera-story, suggested by the +generous action of a water-carrier toward a magistrate who was related +to the author. The story is so interesting, so admirably written, that +Goethe and Mendelssohn considered it the true model for a comic opera. +The musical composition, too, is nearly faultless in form and replete +with beauties. In this opera Cherubini anticipated the reforms of +Wagner, for he dispensed with the old system which made the drama a web +of beautiful melodies, and established his musical effects for the most +part by the vigor and charm of the choruses and concerted pieces. It +has been accepted as a model work by composers, and Beethoven was in the +habit of keeping it by him on his writing-table for constant study and +reference. + +Spohr in his autobiography says: "I recollect, when the 'Deux Journées' +was performed for the first time, how, intoxicated with delight and +the powerful impression the work had made on me, I asked on that very +evening to have the score given me, and sat over it the whole night; +and that it was that opera chiefly that gave me my first impulse to +composition." Weber, in a letter from Munich written in 1812, says: +"Fancy my delight when I beheld lying upon the table of the hotel the +play-bill with the magic name _Armand_. I was the first person in the +theatre, and planted myself in the middle of the pit, where I waited +most anxiously for the tones which I knew beforehand would elevate and +inspire me. I think I may assert boldly that 'Les Deux Journées' is a +really great dramatic and classical work. Everything is calculated so +as to produce the greatest effect; all the various pieces are so much in +their proper place that you can neither omit one nor make any addition +to them. The opera displays a pleasing richness of melody, vigorous +declamation, and all-striking truth in the treatment of situations, ever +new, ever heard and retained with pleasure." Mendelssohn, too, writing +to his father of a performance of this opera, speaks of the enthusiasm +of the audience as extreme, as well as of his own pleasure as surpassing +anything he had ever experienced in a theatre. Mendelssohn, who never +completed an opera, because he did not find until shortly before +his death a theme which properly inspired him to dramatic creation, +corresponded with Planché, with the hope of getting from the latter a +libretto which should unite the excellences of "Fidelio" with those of +"Les Deux Journées." He found, at last, a libretto, which, if it did not +wholly satisfy him, at least overcame some of his prejudices, in a story +based on the Rhine myth of Lorelei. A fragment of it only was finished, +and the finale of the first act is occasionally performed in England. + + +VI. + +Before Napoleon became First Consul, he had been on familiar terms with +Cherubini. The soldier and the composer were seated in the same box +listening to an opera by the latter. Napoleon, whose tastes for music +were for the suave and sensuous Italian style, turned to him and said: +"My dear Cherubini, you are certainly an excellent musician; but really +your music is so noisy and complicated that I can make nothing of it;" +to which Cherubini replied: "My dear general, you are certainly an +excellent soldier; but in regard to music you must excuse me if I +don't think it necessary to adapt my music to your comprehension." This +haughty reply was the beginning of an estrangement. Another illustration +of Cherubini's sturdy pride and dignity was his rejoinder to Napoleon, +when the latter was praising the works of the Italian composers, and +covertly sneering at his own. "Citizen General," he replied, "occupy +yourself with battles and victories, and allow me to treat according to +my talent an art of which you are grossly ignorant." Even when Napoleon +became Emperor, the proud composer never learned "to crook the pregnant +hinges of his knee" to the man before whom Europe trembled. + +On the 12th of December, 1800, a grand performance of "The Creation" +took place at Paris. Napoleon on his way to it narrowly escaped being +killed by an infernal machine. Cherubini was one of the deputation, +representing the various corporations and societies of Paris, who waited +on the First Consul to congratulate him upon his escape. Cherubini kept +in the background, when the sarcasm, "I do not see Monsieur Cherubini," +pronounced in the French way, as if to indicate that Cherubini was not +worthy of being ranked with the Italian composers, brought him promptly +forward. "Well," said Napoleon, "the French are in Italy." "Where would +they not go," answered Cherubini, "led by such a hero as you?" This +pleased the First Consul, who, however, soon got to the old musical +quarrel. "I tell you I like Paisiello's music immensely; it is soft and +tranquil. You have much talent, but there is too much accompaniment." +Said Cherubini, "Citizen Consul, I conform myself to French taste." + +"Your music," continued the other, "makes too much noise. Speak to me +in that of Paisiello; that is what lulls me gently." "I understand," +replied the composer; "you like music which doesn't stop you from +thinking of state affairs." This witty rejoinder made the arrogant +soldier frown, and the talk suddenly ceased. + +As a result of this alienation Cherubini found himself persistently +ignored and ill-treated by the First Consul. In spite of his having +produced such great masterpieces, his income was very small, apart from +his pay as Inspector of the Conservatory. The ill will of the ruler of +France was a steady check to his preferment. When Napoleon established +his consular chapel in 1802, he invited Paisiello from Naples to become +director at a salary of 12,000 francs a year. It gave great umbrage to +the Conservatory that its famous teachers should have been slighted for +an Italian foreigner, and musical circles in Paris were shaken by petty +contentions. Paisiello, however, found the public indifferent to his +works, and soon wearied of a place where the admiration to which he had +been accustomed no longer flattered his complacency. He resigned, and +his position was offered to Méhul, who is said to have declined it +because he regarded Cherubini as far more worthy of it, and to have +accepted it only on condition that his friend could share the duties and +emoluments with him. Cherubini, fretted and irritated by his condition, +retired for a time from the pursuit of his art, and devoted himself to +flowers. The opera of "Anacreon," a powerful but unequal work, which +reflected the disturbance and agitation of his mind, was the sole fruit +of his musical efforts for about four years. + +While Cherubini was in the deepest depression--for he had a large +family depending on him and small means with which to support them--a +ray of sunshine came in 1805 in the shape of an invitation to compose +for the managers of the opera at Vienna. His advent at the Austrian +capital produced a profound sensation, and he received a right royal +welcome from the great musicians of Germany. The aged Haydn, Hummel, +and Beethoven became his warm friends with the generous freemasonry of +genius, for his rank as a musician was recognized throughout Europe. + +The war which broke out after our musician's departure from Paris +between France and Austria ended shortly in the capitulation of Ulm, +and the French Emperor took up his residence at Schônbrunn. Napoleon +received Cherubini kindly when he came in answer to his summons, and +it was arranged that a series of twelve concerts should be given +alternately at Schonbrunn and Vienna. The pettiness which entered into +the French Emperor's nature in spite of his greatness continued to be +shown in his ebullitions of wrath because Cherubini persisted in holding +his own musical views against the imperial opinion. Napoleon, however, +on the eve of his return to France, urged him to accompany him, offering +the long-coveted position of musical director; but Cherubini was under +contract to remain a certain length of time at Vienna, and he would not +break his pledge. + +The winter of 1805 witnessed two remarkable musical events at the +Austrian capital, the production of Beethoven's "Fidelio" and the last +great opera written by Cherubini, "Faniska." Haydn and Beethoven were +both present at the latter performance. The former embraced Cherubini +and said to him, "You are my son, worthy of my love." Beethoven +cordially hailed him as "the first dramatic composer of the age." It is +an interesting fact that two such important dramatic compositions should +have been written at the same time, independently of each other; that +both works should have been in advance of their age; that they should +have displayed a striking similarity of style; and that both should +have suffered from the reproach of the music being too learned for the +public. The opera of "Faniska" is based on a Polish legend of great +dramatic beauty, which, however, was not very artistically treated +by the librettist. Mendelssohn in after years noted the striking +resemblance between Beethoven and our composer in the conception +and method of dramatic composition. In one of his letters to Edouard +Devrient he says, speaking of "Fidelio": "On looking into the score, +as well as on listening to the performance, I everywhere perceive +Cherubim's dramatic style of composition. It is true that Beethoven did +not ape that style, but it was before his mind as his most cherished +pattern." The unity of idea and musical color between "Faniska" and +"Fidelio" seems to have been noted by many critics both of contemporary +and succeeding times. + +Cherubini would gladly have written more for the Viennese, by whom +he had been so cordially treated; but the unsettled times and his +homesickness for Paris conspired to take him back to the city of his +adoption. He exhausted many efforts to find Mozart's tomb in Vienna, and +desired to place a monument over his neglected remains, but failed to +locate the resting-place of one he loved so much. Haydn, Beethoven, +Hummel, Salieri, and the other leading composers reluctantly parted +with him, and on April 1, 1806, his return to Paris was celebrated by +a brilliant fête improvised for him at the Conservatory. Fate, however, +had not done with her persecutions, for fate in France took the shape of +Napoleon, whose hostility, easily aroused, was implacable; who aspired +to rule the arts and letters as he did armies and state policy; who +spared neither Cherubini nor Madame de Staël. Cherubini was neglected +and insulted by authority, while honors were showered on Méhul, Grétry, +Spontini, and Lesueur. He sank into a state of profound depression, and +it was even reported in Vienna that he was dead. He forsook music and +devoted himself to drawing and botany. Had he not been a great musician, +it is probable he would have excelled in pictorial art. One day the +great painter David entered the room where he was working in crayon on a +landscape of the Salvator Rosa style. So pleased was the painter that he +cried, "Truly admirable! Courage!" In 1808 Cherubini found complete +rest in a visit to the country-seat of the Prince de Chimay in Belgium, +whither he was accompanied by his friend and pupil Auber. + + +VII. + +With this period Cherubini closed his career practically as an operatic +composer, though several dramatic works were produced subsequently, and +entered on his no less great sphere of ecclesiastical composition. +At Chimay for a while no one dared to mention music in his presence. +Drawing and painting flowers seemed to be his sole pleasure. At last the +president of the little music society at Chimay ventured to ask him to +write a mass for St. Cecilia's feast day. He curtly refused, but +his hostess noticed that he was agitated by the incident,'as if his +slumbering instincts had started again into life. One day the Princess +placed music paper on his table, and Cherubini on returning from his +walk instantly began to compose, as if he had never ceased it. It is +recorded that he traced out in full score the "Kyrie" of his great +mass in F during the intermission of a single game of billiards. Only +a portion of the mass was completed in time for the festival, but, +on Cherubini's return to Paris in 1809, it was publicly given by an +admirable orchestra, and hailed with a great enthusiasm, that soon +swept through Europe. It was perceived that Cherubini had struck out +for himself a new path in church music. Fétis, the musical historian, +records its reception as follows: "All expressed an unreserved +admiration for this composition of a new order, whereby Cherubini +has placed himself above all musicians who have as yet written in +the concerted style of church music. Superior to the masses of Haydn, +Mozart, and Beethoven, and the masters of the Neapolitan school, that of +Cherubini is as remarkable for originality of idea as for perfection in +art." Picchiante, a distinguished critic, sums up the impressions made +by this great work in the following eloquent and vigorous passage: "All +the musical science of the good age of religious music, the sixteenth +century of the Christian era, was summed up in Palestrina, who +flourished at that time, and by its aid he put into form noble and +sublime conceptions. With the grave Gregorian melody, learnedly +elaborated in vigorous counterpoint and reduced to greater clearness and +elegance without instrumental aid, Palestrina knew how to awaken among +his hearers mysterious, grand, deep, vague sensations, that seemed +caused by the objects of an unknown world, or by superior powers in +the human imagination. With the same profound thoughtfulness of the old +Catholic music, enriched by the perfection which art has attained in two +centuries, and with all the means which a composer nowadays can make +use of, Cherubini perfected another conception, and this consisted in +utilizing the style adapted to dramatic composition when narrating the +church text, by which means he was able to succeed in depicting man in +his various vicissitudes, now rising to the praises of Divinity, now +gazing on the Supreme Power, now suppliant and prostrate. So that, while +Palestrina's music places God before man, that of Cherubini places man +before God." Adolphe Adam puts the comparison more epigrammatically in +saying: "If Palestrina had lived in our own times, he would have been +Cherubini." The masters of the old Roman school of church music had +received it as an emanation of pure sentiment, with no tinge of human +warmth and color. Cherubini, on the contrary, aimed to make his music +express the dramatic passion of the words, and in the realization of +this he brought to bear all the resources of a musical science unequaled +except perhaps by Beethoven. The noble masses in F and D were also +written in 1809 and stamped themselves on public judgment as no less +powerful works of genius and knowledge. + +Some of Cherubini's friends in 1809 tried to reconcile the composer +with the Emperor, and in furtherance of this an opera was written +anonymously, "Pimmalione." Napoleon was delighted, and even affected to +tears. Instantly, however, that Cherubini's name was uttered, he became +dumb and cold. Nevertheless, as if ashamed of his injustice, he sent +Cherubini a large sum of money, and a commission to write the music for +his marriage ode. Several fine works followed in the next two years, +among them the Mass in D, regarded by some of his admirers as his +ecclesiastical masterpiece. Miel claims that in largeness of design and +complication of detail, sublimity of conception and dramatic intensity, +two works only of its class approach it, Beethoven's Mass in D and +Niedermeyer's Mass in D minor. + +In 1811 Halévy, the future author of "La Juive," became Cherubini's +pupil, and a devoted friendship ever continued between the two. The +opera of "Les Abencérages" was also produced, and it was pronounced +nowise inferior to "Médée" and "Les Deux Journées." Mendelssohn many +years afterward, writing to Moscheles in Paris, asked: "Has Onslow +written anything new? And old Cherubini? There's a matchless fellow! +I have got his 'Abencérages,' and can not sufficiently admire the +sparkling fire, the clear original phrasing, the extraordinary delicacy +and refinement with which it is written, or feel grateful enough to the +grand old man for it. Besides, it is all so free and bold and spirited." +The work would have had a greater immediate success, had not Paris been +in profound gloom from the disastrous results of the Moscow campaign and +the horrors of the French retreat, where famine and disease finished the +work of bayonet and cannon-ball. + +The unsettled and disheartening times disturbed all the relations of +artists. There is but little record of Cherubini for several years. A +significant passage in a letter written in 1814, speaking of several +military marches written for a Prussian band, indicates the occupation +of Paris by the allies and Napoleon's banishment in Elba. The period of +"The Hundred Days" was spent by Cherubini in England; and the world's +wonder, the battle of Waterloo, was fought, and the Bourbons were +permanently restored, before he again set foot in Paris. The restored +dynasty delighted to honor the man whom Napoleon had slighted, and gifts +were showered on him alike by the Court and by the leading academies of +Europe. The walls of his studio were covered with medals and diplomas; +and his appointment as director of the King's chapel (which, however, he +refused unless shared with Lesueur, the old incumbent) placed him above +the daily demands of want. So, at the age of fifty-five, this great +composer for the first time ceased to be anxious on the score of his +livelihood. Thenceforward the life of Cherubini was destined to flow +with a placid current, its chief incidents being the great works in +church music, which he poured forth year after year, to the admiration +and delight of the artistic world. These remarkable masses, by their +dramatic power, greatness of design, and wealth of instrumentation, +excited as much discussion and interest throughout Europe as the operas +of other composers. That written in 1816, the C minor requiem mass, is +pronounced by Berlioz to be the greatest work of this description ever +composed. + +We get some pleasant glimpses of Cherubini as a man during this serene +autumn of his life. Spohr tells us how cordially Cherubini, +generally regarded as an austere and irritable man, received him. +The world-renowned master, accustomed to handle instruments in great +orchestral masses, was not familiar with the smaller compositions known +as chamber music, in which the Germans so excelled. He was greatly +delighted when the youthful Spohr turned his attention to this form of +music, and he insisted on the latter directing little concerts over and +over again at his house. + +In 1821 Moscheles writes in his diary, apropos of Cherubini and his +artistic surroundings: "I spent the evening at Ciceri's, son in-law of +Isabey, the famous painter, where I was introduced to one of the most +interesting circles of artists. In the first room were assembled the +most famous painters, engaged in drawing several things for their own +amusement. In the midst of these was Cherubim, also drawing. I had the +honor, like every one newly introduced, of having my portrait taken in +caricature. Bégasse took me in hand and succeeded well. In an adjoining +room were musicians and actors, among them Ponchard, Levasseur, Dugazon, +Panseron, Mlle, de Munck, and Mme. Livère, of the Theatre Français. The +most interesting of their performances, which I attended merely as +a listener, was a vocal quartet by Cherubini, performed under his +direction. Later in the evening, the whole party armed itself with +larger or smaller 'mirlitons' (reed-pipe whistles), and on these small +monotonous instruments, sometimes made of sugar, they played, after +the fashion of Russian horn music, the overture to 'Demophon,' +two frying-pans representing the drums." On the 27th of March this +"mirliton" concert was repeated at Ciceri's, and on this occasion +Cherubini took an active part. Moscheles relates of that evening: +"Horace Vernet entertained us with his ventriloquizing powers, M. Salmon +with his imitation of a horn, and Dugazon actually with a mirliton solo. +Lafont and I represented the classical music, which, after all, held its +own." + +The distinguished pianist, in further pleasant gossip about Cherubini, +tells us of hearing the first performance of a pasticcio opera, composed +by Cherubini, Paër, Berton, Boïeldieu, and Kreutzer, in honor of the +christening of the Duke of Bordeaux. Of the part written by Cherubini he +speaks in the warmest praise, and says quizzically of the composer: +"His squeaky sharp little voice was sometimes heard in the midst of his +conducting, and interrupted my state of ecstasy caused by his presence +and composition." + +In 1822 Cherubini became Director of the reestablished Conservatory, +that institution having fallen into some decay, and displayed great +administrative power and grasp of detail in bringing order out of chaos. +His vigilance and experience, seconded by an able staff of professors, +including the foremost musical names of France, soon made the +Conservatory what it has since re? mained, the greatest musical college +of the world. He was incessant in the performance of his duties, and +spared neither himself nor his staff of professors to build up the +institution. His spirit communicated itself both to masters and pupils. +Ten o'clock every morning saw him at his office, and interviews even +with the great were timed watch in hand. This law of order even prompted +him to rebuke the Minister of Fine Arts severely when one day that +functionary met an appointment tardily. Fétis tells us: "To his new +functions he brought the most scrupulous exactitude of duty, that spirit +of order which he possessed during the whole of his life, and an entire +devotion to the prosperity of the establishment. Severe and exacting +toward the professors and servants as he was with himself, he brought +with him little love in his connections with the artists placed under +his authority." His official duties finished, this incessant worker +occupied his time with original composition, or copying out the scores +of other composers from memory. + +Though habitually cold and severe in his manner during these latter +years, there was a spring of playful tenderness beneath. One day a child +of great talent was brought by his father, a poor man, to see Cherubini. +The latter's first exclamation was: "This is not a nursing hospital for +infants." Relenting somewhat, he questioned the boy, and soon discovered +his remarkable talents. The same old man was charmed and caressed the +youngster, saying, "Bravo, my little friend! But why are you here, and +what can I do for you?" "A thing that is very easy, and which would make +me very happy," was the reply; "put me into the Conservatory." "It's a +thing done," said Cherubini; "you are one of us." He afterward said to +his friends playfully: "I had to be careful about pushing the questions +too far, for the baby was beginning to prove that he knew more about +music than I did myself." + +His merciless criticism of his pupils did not surpass his own modesty +and diffidence. One day, when a symphony of Beethoven was about to be +played at a concert, just prior to one of his own works, he said, "Now I +am going to appear as a very small boy indeed." The mutual affection of +Cherubini and Beethoven remained unabated through life, as is shown by +the touching letter written by the latter just before his death, but +which Cherubini did not receive till after that event. The letter was as +follows: + +Vienna, March 15,1823. + +Highly esteemed Sir: I joyfully take advantage of this opportunity to +address you. + +I have done so often in spirit, as I prize your theatrical works beyond +others. The artistic world has only to lament that in Germany, at least, +no new dramatic work of yours has appeared. Highly as all your works +are valued by true connoisseurs, still it is a great loss to art not to +possess any fresh production of your great genius for the theatre. + +True art is imperishable, and the true artist feels heartfelt pleasure +in grand works of genius, and that id what enchants me when I hear a new +composition of yours; in fact, I take greater interest in it than in my +own; in short, I love and honor you. Were it not that my continued bad +health stops my coming to see you in Paris, with what exceeding delight +would I discuss questions of art with you! Do not think that this is +meant merely to serve as an introduction to the favor I am about to ask +of you. I hope and feel sure that you do not for a moment suspect me of +such base sentiments. I recently completed a grand solemn Mass, and have +resolved to offer it to the various European courts, as it is not my +intention to publish it at present. I have therefore asked the King of +France, through the French embassy here, to subscribe to this work, and +I feel certain that his Majesty would at your recommendation agree to do +so. + +My critical situation demands that I should not solely fix my eyes upon +heaven, as is my wont; on the contrary, it would have me fix them also +upon earth, here below, for the necessities of life. + +Whatever may be the fate of my request to you, I shall for ever continue +to love and esteem you; and you for ever remain of all my contemporaries +that one whom I esteem the most. + +If you should wish to do me a very great favor, you would effect this by +writing to me a few lines, which would solace me much. Art unites all; +how much more, then, true artists! and perhaps you may deem me worthy of +being included in that number. + +With the highest esteem, your friend and servant, + +LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN. + +LUDWIG CHERUBINI. + + +Cherubini's admiration of the great German is indicated in an anecdote +told by Professor Ella. The master rebuked a pupil who, in referring +to a performance of a Beethoven symphony, dwelt mostly on the executive +excellence: "Young man, let your sympathies be first wedded to the +creation, and be you less fastidious of the execution; accept the +interpretation, and think more of the creation of these musical works +which are written for all time and all nations, models for imitation and +above all criticism." + + +VIII. + +As a man Cherubini presented himself in many different aspects. +Extremely nervous, _brusque_, irritable, and absolutely independent, he +was apt to offend and repel. But under his stern reserve of character +there beat a warm heart and generous sympathies. This is shown by the +fact that, in spite of the unevenness of his temper, he was almost +worshiped by those around him. Auber, Halévy, Berton, Boïeldieu, Méhul, +Spontini, and Adam, who were so intimately associated with him, speak of +him with words of the warmest affection. Halévy, indeed, rarely alluded +to him without tears rushing to his eyes; and the slightest term of +disrespect excited his warmest indignation. It is recorded that, after +rebuking a pupil with sarcastic severity, his fine face would relax with +a smile so affectionate and genial that his whilom victim could feel +nothing but enthusiastic respect. Without one taint of envy in his +nature, conscious of his own extraordinary powers, he was quick to +recognize genius in others; and his hearty praise of the powers of +his rivals shows how sound and generous the heart was under his +irritability. His proneness to satire and power of epigram made him +enemies, but even these yielded to the suavity and fascination which +alternated with his bitter moods. His sympathies were peculiarly open +for young musicians. Mendelssohn and Liszt were stimulated by his warm +and encouraging praise when they first visited Paris; and even Berlioz, +whose turbulent conduct in the Conservatory had so embittered him at +various times, was heartily applauded when his first great mass was +produced. Arnold gives us the following pleasant picture of Cherubini: + +"Cherubini in society was outwardly silent, modest, unassuming, +pleasing, obliging, and possessed of the finest manners. At the same +time, he who did not know that he was with Cherubini would think +him stern and reserved, so well did the composer know how to conceal +everything, if only to avoid ostentation. He truly shunned brag or +speaking of himself. Cherubini's voice was feeble, probably from +narrow-chestedness, and somewhat hoarse, but was otherwise soft and +agreeable. His French was Italianized.... His head was bent forward, +his nose was large and aquiline; his eyebrows were thick, black, +and somewhat bushy, overshadowing his eyes. His eyes were dark, and +glittered with an extraordinary brilliancy that animated in a wonderful +way the whole face. A thin lock of hair came over the center of his +forehead, and somehow gave to his countenance a peculiar softness." + +The picture painted by Ingres, the great artist, now in the Luxembourg +gallery, represents the composer with Polyhymnia in the background +stretching out her hand over him. His face, framed in waving silvery +hair, is full of majesty and brightness, and the eye of piercing luster. +Cherubini was so gratified by this effort of the painter that he sent +him a beautiful canon set to wrords of his own. Thus his latter years +were spent in the society of the great artists and wits of Paris, +revered by all, and recognized, after Beethoven's death, as the musical +giant of Europe. Rossini, Meyerbeer, Weber, Schumann--in a word, the +representatives of the most diverse schools of composition--bowed +equally before this great name. Rossini, who was his antipodes in genius +and method, felt his loss bitterly, and after his death sent Cherubini's +portrait to his widow with these touching words: "Here, my dear madam, +is the portrait of a great man, who is as young in your heart as he is +in my mind." + +Actively engaged as Director of the Conservatory, which he governed with +consummate ability, his old age was further employed in producing that +series of great masses which rank with the symphonies of Beethoven. His +creative instinct and the fire of his imagination remained unimpaired +to the time of his death. Mendelssohn in a letter to Moscheles speaks +of him as "that truly wonderful old man, whose genius seems bathed +in immortal youth." His opera of "Ali Baba," composed at seventy-six, +though inferior to his other dramatic works, is full of beautiful and +original music, and was immediately produced in several of the principal +capitals of Europe; and the second Requiem mass, written in his +eightieth year, is one of his masterpieces. + +On the 12th of March, 1842, the old composer died, surrounded by his +affectionate family and friends. His fatal illness had been brought on +in part by grief for the death of his son-in-law, M. Tureas, to whom he +was most tenderly attached. His funeral was one of great military and +civic magnificence, and royalty itself could not have been honored +with more splendid obsequies. The congregation of men great in arms +and state, in music, painting, and literature, who did honor to the +occasion, has rarely been equaled. His own noble Requiem mass, composed +the year before his death, was given at the funeral services in the +church of St. Roch by the finest orchestra and voices in Europe. Similar +services were held throughout Europe, and everywhere the opera-houses +were draped in black. Perhaps the death of no musician ever called forth +such universal exhibitions of sorrow and reverence. + +Cherubini's life extended from the early part of the reign of Louis XVI. +to that of Louis Philippe, and was contemporaneous with many of the +most remarkable events in modern history. The energy and passion which +convulsed society during his youth and early manhood undoubtedly had +much to do in stimulating that robust and virile quality in his mind +which gave such character to his compositions. The fecundity of his +intellect is shown in the fact that he produced four hundred and thirty +works, out of which only eighty have been published. In this catalogue +there are twenty-five operas and eleven masses. + +As an operatic composer he laid the foundation of the modern French +school. Uniting the melody of the Italian with the science of the +German, his conceptions had a dramatic fire and passion which were, +however, free from anything appertaining to the sensational and +meretricious. His forms were indeed classically severe, and his style is +defined by Adolphe Adam as the resurrection of the old Italian school, +enriched by the discoveries of modern harmony. Though he was the creator +of French opera as we know it now, he was free from its vagaries +and extravagances. He set its model in the dramatic vigor and +picturesqueness, the clean-cut forms, and the noble instrumentation +which mark such masterpieces as "Faniska," "Alédée," "Les Deux +Journées," and "Lodoïska." The purity, classicism, and wealth of ideas +in these works have always caused them to be cited as standards of ideal +excellence. The reforms in opera of which Gluck was the protagonist, and +Wagner the extreme modern exponent, characterize the dramatic works +of Cherubini, though he keeps them within that artistic limit which a +proper regard for melodic beauty prescribes. In the power and propriety +of musical declamation his operas are conceded to be without a +superior. His overtures hold their place in classical music as ranking +with the best ever written, and show a richness of resource and +knowledge of form in treating the orchestra which his his contemporaries +admitted were only equaled by Beethoven. + +Cherubini's place in ecclesiastical music is that by which he is best +known to the musical public of to-day; for his operas, owing to the +immense demands they make on the dramatic and vocal resources of the +artist, are but rarely presented in France, Germany, and England, and +never in America. They are only given where music is loved on account +of its noble traditions, and not for the mere sake of idle and luxurious +amusement. As a composer of masses, however, Cherubini's genius is +familiar to all who frequent the services of the Roman Church. His +relation to the music of Catholicism accords with that of Sebastian Bach +to the music of Protestantism. Haydn, Mozart, and even Beethoven, +are held by the best critics to be his inferiors in this form of +composition. His richness of melody, sense of dramatic color, and +great command of orchestral effects, gave him commanding power in the +interpretation of religious sentiments; while an ardent faith inspired +with passion, sweetness, and devotion what Place styles his "sublime +visions." Miel, one of his most competent critics, writes of him in this +eloquent strain: "If he represents the passion and death of Christ, the +heart feels itself wounded with the most sublime emotion; and when +he recounts the 'Last Judgment' the blood freezes with dread at the +redoubled and menacing calls of the exterminating angel. All those +admirable pictures that the Raphaels and Michael Angelos have painted +with colors and the brush, Cherubini brings forth with the voice and +orchestra." In brief, if Cherubini is the founder of a later school +of opera, and the model which his successors have always honored and +studied if they have not always followed, no less is he the chief of +a later, and by common consent the greatest, school of modern church +music. + + + + +MÉHUL, SPONTINI, AND HALÉVY. + +I. + +The influence of Gluck was not confined to Cherubini, but was hardly +less manifest in molding the style and conceptions of Méhul and +Spontini,* who held prominent places in the history of the French opera. + + * It is a little singular that some of the most + distinguished names in the annals of French music were + foreigners. Thus Gluck was a German, as also was Meyerbeer, + while Cherubini and Spontini were Italians. + +Henri Etienne Méhul was the son of a French soldier stationed at the +Givet barracks, where he was born June 24, 1763. His early love of music +secured for him instructions from the blind organist of the Franciscan +church at that garrison town, under whom he made astonishing progress. +He soon found he had outstripped the attainments of his teacher, and +contrived to place himself under the tuition of the celebrated Wilhelm +Hemser, who was organist at a neighboring monastery. Here Méhul spent a +number of happy and useful years, studying composition with Hemser and +literature with the kind monks, who hoped to persuade their young charge +to devote himself to ecclesiastical life. + +Méhul's advent in Paris, whither he went at the age of sixteen, soon +opened his eyes to his true vocation, that of a dramatic composer. The +excitement over the contest between Gluck and Piccini was then at its +height, and the youthful musician was not long in espousing the side of +Gluck with enthusiasm. He made the acquaintance of Gluck accidentally, +the great ehevalier interposing one night to prevent his being ejected +from the theatre, into one of whose boxes Méhul had slipped without +buying a ticket. Thence forward the youth had free access to the opera, +and the friendship and tuition of one of the master minds of the age. + +An opera, "Cora et Alonzo," had been composed at the age of twenty and +accepted at the opera; but it was not till 1790 that he got a hearing in +the comic opera of "Euphrasque et Coradin," composed under the direction +of Gluck. This work was brilliantly successful, and "Stratonice," which +anpeared two years afterward, established his reputation. The French +critics describe both these early works as being equally admirable in +melody, orchestral accompaniment, and dramatic effect. The stormiest +year of the revolution was not favorable to operatic composition, and +Méhul wrote but little music except pieces for republican festivities, +much to his own disgust, for he was by no means a warm friend of the +republic. + +In 1797 he produced his "Le Jeune Henri," which nearly caused a riot in +the theatre. The story displeased the republican audience, who hissed +and hooted till the turmoil compelled the fall of the curtain. They +insisted, however, on the overture, which is one of great beauty, +being performed over and over again, a compliment which has rarely been +accorded to any composer. Méhul's appointment as inspector and professor +in the newly organized Conservatory, at the same time with Cherubini, +left him but little leisure for musical composition; but he found time +to write the spectacular opera "Adrian," which was fiercely condemned by +a republican audience, not as a musical failure, but because their alert +and suspicious tempers suspected in it covert allusions to the dead +monarchy. Even David, the painter, said he would set the torch to the +opera-house rather than witness the triumph of a king. In 1806 Méhul +produced the opera "Uthal," a work of striking vigor founded on an +Ossianic theme, in which he made the innovation of banishing the violins +from the orchestra, substituting therefor the violas. + +It was in "Joseph," however, composed in 1807, that this composer +vindicated his right to be called a musician of great genius, and +entered fully into a species of composition befitting his grand style. +Most of his contemporaries were incapable of appreciating the greatness +of the work, though his gifted rival Cherubini gave it the warmest +praise. In Germany it met with instant and extended success, and it is +one of the few French operas of the old school which still continue to +be given on the German stage. In England it is now frequently sung as an +oratorio. It is on this remarkable work that Méhul's lasting reputation +as a composer rests outside of his own nation. The construction of +the opera of "Joseph" is characterized by admirable symmetry of form, +dramatic power, and majesty of the choral and concerted passages, +while the sustained beauty of the orchestration is such as to challenge +comparison with the greatest works of his contemporaries. Such at +least is the verdict of Fétis, who was by no means inclined to be +over-indulgent in criticising Méhul. The fault in this opera, as in all +of Méhul's works, appears to have been a lack of bright and graceful +melody, though in the modern tendencies of music this defect is rapidly +being elevated into a virtue. + +The last eight years of Méhul's life were depressed by melancholy and +suffering, proceeding from pulmonary disease. He resigned his place in +the Conservatory, and retired to a pleasant little estate near Paris, +where he devoted himself to raising flowers, and found some solace in +the society of his musical friends and former pupils, who were assiduous +in their attentions. Finally becoming dangerously ill, he went to the +island of Hyères to find a more genial climate. But here he pined for +Paris and the old companionships, and suffered more perhaps by fretting +for the intellectual cheer of his old life than he gained by balmy air +and sunshine. He writes to one of his friends after a short stay at +Hyères: "I have broken up all my habits; I am deprived of all my old +friends; I am alone at the end of the world, surrounded by people whose +language I scarcely understand; and all this sacrifice to obtain a +little more sun. The air which best agrees with me is that which I +breathe among you." He returned to Paris for a few weeks only, to +breathe his last on October 18, 1817, aged fifty-four. + +Méhul was a high-minded and benevolent man, wrapped up in his art, +and singularly childlike in the practical affairs of life. Abhorring +intrigue, he was above all petty jealousies, and even sacrificed the +situation of chapel-master under Napoleon, because he believed it should +have been given to the greatest of his rivals, Cherubini. When he +died Paris recognized his goodness as a man as well as greatness as a +musician by a touching and spontaneous expression of grief, and funeral +honors were given him throughout Europe. In 1822 his statue was crowned +on the stage of the Grand Opera, at a performance of his "Valentine de +Rohan." Notwithstanding his early death, he composed forty-two operas, +and modern musicians and critics give him a notable place among those +who were prominent in building up a national stage. A pupil and disciple +of Gluck, a cordial co-worker with Cherubini, he contributed largely to +the glory of French music, not only by his genius as a composer, but +by his important labors in the reorganization of the Conservatory, +that nursery which has fed so much of the highest musical talent of the +world. + + +II. + +Luigi Gaspardo Pacifico Spontini, born of peasant parents at Majolati, +Italy, November 14, 1774, displayed his musical passion at an early age. +Designed for holy orders from childhood, his priestly tutors could not +make him study; but he delighted in the service of the church, with its +or^an and choir effects, for here his true vocation asserted itself. He +was wont, too, to hide in the belfry, and revel in the roaring orchestra +of metal, when the chimes were rung. On one occasion a stroke of +lightning precipitated him from his dangerous perch to the floor below, +and the history of music nearly lost one of its great lights. The bias +of his nature was intractable, and he was at last permitted to study +music, at first under the charge of his uncle Joseph, the cure of Jesi, +and finally at the Naples Conservatory, where he was entered at the age +of sixteen. + +His first opera, "I Puntigli delle Donne," was composed at the age of +twenty-one, and performed at Rome, where it was kindly received. The +French invasion unsettled the affairs of Italy, and Spontini wandered +somewhat aimlessly, unable to exercise his talents to advantage till he +went to Paris in 1803, where he found a large number of brother Italian +musicians, and a cordial reception, though himself an obscure and +untried youth. He produced several minor works on the French stage, +noticeably among them the one-act opera of "Milton," in which he stepped +boldly out of his Italian mannerism, and entered on that path afterward +pursued with such brilliancy and boldness. Yet, though his talents began +to be recognized, life was a trying struggle, and it is doubtful if he +could have overcome the difficulties in his way when he was ready to +produce "La Vestale," had he not enlisted the sympathies of the +Empress Josephine, who loved music, and played the part of patroness as +gracefully as she did all others. + +By Napoleon's order "La Vestale" was rehearsed against the wish of the +manager and critics of the Academy of Music, and produced December 15, +1807. Previous to this some parts of it had been performed privately +at the Tuileries, and the Emperor had said: "M. Spontini, your opera +abounds in fine airs and effective duets. The march to the place of +execution is admirable. You will certainly have the great success you +so well deserve." The imperial prediction was justified by consecutive +performances of one hundred nights. His next work, "Fernand Cortez," +sustained the impression of genius earned for him by its predecessor. +The scene of the revolt is pronounced by competent critics to be one of +the finest dramatic conceptions in operatic music. + +In 1809 Spontini married the niece of Erard, the great pianoforte-maker, +and was called to the direction of the Italian opera; but he retained +this position only two years, from the disagreeable conditions he had to +contend with, and the cabals that were formed against him. The year 1814 +witnessed the production of "Pelage," and two years later "Les Dieux +Rivaux" was composed, in conjunction with Persuis, Berton, and Kreutzer; +but neither work attracted much attention. The opera of "Olympic," +worked out on the plan of "La Vestale" and "Cortez," was produced in +1819. Spontini was embittered by its poor success, for he had built many +hopes on it, and wrought long and patiently. That he was not in his best +vein, and like many other men of genius was not always able to estimate +justly his own work, is undeniable; for Spontini, contrary to the +opinion of his contemporaries and of posterity, regarded this as his +best opera. His acceptance of the Prussian King's offer to become +musical director at Berlin was the result of his chagrin. Here he +remained for twenty years. "Olympic" succeeded better at Berlin, though +the boisterousness of the music seems to have called out some sharp +strictures even among the Berlinese, whose penchant for noisy operatic +effects was then as now a butt for the satire of the musical wits. +Apropos of the long run of "Olympic" at Berlin, an amusing anecdote +is told on the authority of Castel-Blaze. A wealthy amateur had become +deaf, and suffered much from his deprivation of the enjoyment of his +favorite art. After trying many physicians, he was treated in a novel +fashion by his latest doctor. "Come with me to the opera this evening," +wrote down the doctor. "What's the use? I can't hear a note," was the +impatient rejoinder. "Never mind," said the other; "come, and you will +see something at all events." So the twain repaired to the theatre to +hear Spontini's "Olympie." All went well till one of the overwhelming +finales, which happened to be played that evening more _fortissimo_ +than usual. The patient turned around beaming with delight, exclaiming, +"Doctor, I can hear." As there was no reply, the happy patient again +said, "Doctor, I tell you, you have cured me." A blank stare alone met +him, and he found that the doctor was as deaf as a post, having fallen +a victim to his own prescription. The German wits had a similar joke +afterward at Halévy's expense. The "Punch" of Vienna said that Halévy +made the brass play so loudly that the French horn was actually blown +quite straight. + +Among the works produced at Berlin were "Nurmahal," in 1825; "Alcidor," +the same year; and in 1829, "Agnes von Hohenstaufen." Various other new +works were given from time to time, but none achieved more than a brief +hearing. Spontini's stiff-necked and arrogant will kept him in continual +trouble, and the Berlin press aimed its arrows at him with incessant +virulence: a war which the composer fed by his bitter and witty +rejoinders, for he was an adept in the art of invective. Had he not been +singularly adroit, he would have been obliged to leave his post. But +he gloried in the disturbance he created, and was proof against the +assaults of his numerous enemies, made so largely by his having come +of the French school, then as now an all-sufficient cause of Teutonic +dislike. Spontini's unbending intolerance, however, at last undermined +his musical supremacy, so long held good with an iron hand; and an +intrigue headed by Count Brühl, intendant of the Royal Theatre, at last +obliged him to resign after a rule of a score of years. His influence on +the lyric theatre of Berlin, however, had been valuable, and he had the +glory of forming singers among the Prussians, who until his time had +thought more of cornet-playing than of beautiful and true vocalization. +The Prussian King allowed him on his departure a pension of 16,000 +francs. + +When Spontini returned to Paris, though he was appointed member of the +Academy of Fine Arts, he was received with some coldness by the musical +world. He had no little difficulty in getting a production of his +operas; only the Conservatory remained faithful to him, and in their +hall large audiences gathered to hear compositions to which the +opera-house denied its stage. New idols attracted the public, and +Spontini, though burdened with all the orders of Europe, was obliged to +rest in the traditions of his earlier career. A passionate desire to see +his native land before death made him leave Paris in 1850, and he went +to Majolati, the town of his birth, where he died after a residence of a +few months. His cradle was his tomb. + + +III. + +A well-known musical critic sums up his judgment of Halévy in these +words: "If in France a contemporary of Louis XIV., an admirer of Racine, +could return to us, and, full of the remembrance of his earthly career +under that renowned monarch, he should wish to find the nobly pathetic, +the elevated inspiration, the majestic arrangements of the olden times +upon a modern stage, we would not take him to the Theatre Français, but +to the Opera on the day in which one of Halévy's works was given." + +Unlike Méhul and Spontini, with whom in point of style and method Halévy +must be associated, he was not in any direct sense a disciple of Gluck, +but inherited the influence of the latter through his great successor +Cherubini, of whom Halévy was the favorite pupil and the intimate +friend. Fromental Halévy, a scion of the Hebrew race, which has +furnished so many geniuses to the art world, left a deep impress on +his times, not simply by his genius and musical knowledge, which was +profound, varied, and accurate, but by the elevation and nobility which +lifted his mark up to a higher level than that which we accord to +mere musical gifts, be they ever so rich and fertile. The motive that +inspired his life is suggested in his devout saying that music is an +art that God has given us, in which the voices of all nations may unite +their prayers in one harmonious rhythm. + +Halévy was a native of Paris, born May 27, 1799. He entered the +Conservatory at the age of eleven years, where he soon attracted the +particular attention of Cherubini. When he was twenty the Institute +awarded him the grand prize for the composition of a cantata; and he +also received a government pension which enabled him to dwell at Rome +for two years, assiduously cultivating his talents in composition. +Halévy returned to Paris, but it was not till 1827 that he succeeded +in having an opera produced. This portion of his life was full of +disappointment and chilled ambitions; for, in spite of the warm +friendship of Cherubini, who did everything to advance his interests, he +seemed to make but slow progress in popular estimation, though a number +of operas were produced. + +Halévy's full recognition, however, was found in the great work of "La +Juive," produced February 23, 1835, with lavish magnificence. It is said +that the managers of the Opera expended 150,000 francs in putting it +on the stage. This opera, which surpasses all his others in passion, +strength, and dignity of treatment, was interpreted by the greatest +singers in Europe, and the public reception at once assured the composer +that his place in music was fixed. Many envious critics, however, +declaimed against him, asserting that success was not the legitimate +desert of the opera, but of its magnificent presentation. Halévy +answered his detractors by giving the world a delightful comic opera, +"L'Éclair," which at once testified to the genuineness of his musical +inspiration and the versatility of his powers, and was received by the +public with even more pleasure than "La Juive." + +Halévy's next brilliant stroke (three unsuccessful works in the mean +while having been written) was "La Reine de Chypre," produced in 1841. +A somewhat singular fact occurred during the performance of this opera. +One of the singers, every time he came to the passage, + + Ce mortel qu'on remarque + Tient-il Plus que nous de la Parque + Le fil? + +was in the habit of fixing his eyes on a certain proscenium box wherein +were wont to sit certain notabilities in politics and finance. As +several of these died during the first run of the work, superstitious +people thought the box was bewitched, and no one cared to occupy it. Two +fine works, "Charles VI." and "Le Val d'Andorre," succeeded at intervals +of a few years; and in 1849 the noble music to Æschylus's "Prometheus +Bound" was written with an idea of reproducing the supposed effects of +the enharmonic style of the Greeks. + +Halévy's opera of "The Tempest," written for London, and produced in +1850, rivaled the success of "La Juive." Balfe led the orchestra, and +its popularity caused the basso Lablache to write the following epigram: + + The "Tempest" of Halévy + Differs from other tempests. + These rain hail, + That rains gold. + +The Academy of Fine Arts elected the composer secretary in 1854, and +in the exercise of his duties, which involved considerable literary +composition, Halévy showed the same elegance of style and good taste +which marked his musical writings. He did not, however, neglect his own +proper work, and a succession of operas, which were cordially received, +proved how unimpaired and vigorous his intellectual faculties remained. + +The composer's death occurred at Nice, whither he had gone on account of +failing strength, March 17, 1862. His last moments were cheered by +the attentions of his family and the consolations of philosophy and +literature, which he dearly loved to discuss with his friends. His +ruling passion displayed itself shortly before his end in characteristic +fashion. Trying in vain to reach a book on the table, he said: "Can I do +nothing now in time?" On the morning of his death, wishing to be turned +on his bed, he said to his daughter, "Lay me down like a gamut," at +each movement repeating with a soft smile, "Do, re, mi," etc., until the +change was made. These were his last words. + +The celebrated French critic Sainte-Beuve pays a charming tribute to +Halévy, whom he knew and loved well: + +"Halévy had a natural talent for writing, which he cultivated and +perfected by study, by a taste for reading which he always +gratified in the intervals of labor, in his study, in public +conveyances--everywhere, in fine, when he had a minute to spare. He +could isolate himself completely in the midst of the various noises of +his family, or the conversation of the drawing-room if he had no part in +it. He wrote music, poetry, and prose, and he read with imperturbable +attention while people around him talked. + +"He possessed the instinct of languages, was familiar with German, +Italian, English, and Latin, knew something of Hebrew and Greek. He was +conversant with etymology, and had a perfect passion for dictionaries. +It was often difficult for him to find a word; for on opening the +dictionary somewhere near the word for which he was looking, if his eye +chanced to fall on some other, no matter what, he stopped to read that, +then another and another, until he sometimes forgot the word he sought. +It is singular that this estimable man, so fully occupied, should at +times have nourished some secret sadness. Whatever the hidden wound +might be, none, not even his most intimate friends, knew what it was. +He never made any complaint. Halévy's nature was rich, open and +communicative. He was well organized, accessible to the sweets of +sociability and family joys. In fine, he had, as one may say, too many +strings to his bow to be very unhappy for any length of time. To define +him practically, I would say he was a bee that had not lodged himself +completely in his hive, but was seeking to make honey elsewhere too." + + +IV. + +MÉHUL labored successfully in adapting the noble and severe style of +Gluck to the changing requirements of the French stage. The turmoil and +passions of the revolution had stirred men's souls to the very roots, +and this influence was perpetuated and crystallized in the new forms +given to French thought by Napoleon's wonderful career. Méhul's +musical conceptions, which culminated in the opera of "Joseph," were +characterized by a stir, a vigor, and largeness of dramatic movement, +which came close to the familiar life of that remarkable period. His +great rival Cherubini, on the other hand, though no less truly dramatic +in fitting musical expression to thought and passion, was so austere +and rigid in his ideals, so dominated by musical form and an accurate +science which would concede nothing to popular prejudice and ignorance, +that he won his laurels, not by force of the natural flow of popular +sympathy, but by the sheer might of his genius. Cherubini's severe works +made them models and foundation stones for his successors in French +music; but Méhul familiarized his audiences with strains dignified yet +popular, full of massive effects and brilliant combinations. The people +felt the tramp of the Napoleonic armies in the vigor and movement of his +measures. + +Spontini embodied the same influences and characteristics in still +larger degree, for his musical genius was organized on a more massive +plan. Deficient in pure graceful melody alike with Méhul, he delighted +in great masses of tone and vivid orchestral coloring. His music was +full of the military fire of his age, and dealt for the most part with +the peculiar tastes and passions engendered by a condition of chronic +warfare. Therefore dramatic movement in his operas was always of the +heroic order, and never touched the more subtile and complex elements +of life. Spontini added to the majestic repose and ideality of the Gluck +music-drama (to use a name now naturalized in art by Wagner) the keenest +dramatic vigor. Though he had a strong command of effects by his power +of delineation and delicacy of detail, his prevalent tastes led him to +encumber his music too often with overpowering military effects, alike +tonal and scenic. Riehl, a great German critic, says: "He is more +successful in the delineation of masses and groups than in the portrayal +of emotional scenes; his rendering of the national struggle between the +Spaniards and Mexicans in 'Cortez' is, for example, admirable. He +is likewise most successful in the management of large masses in +the instrumentation. In this respect he was, like Napoleon, a great +tactician." In "La Vestale" Spontini attained his _chef-d'oeuvre_. +Schülter in his "History of Music" gives it the following encomium: "His +portrayal of character and truthful delineation of passionate emotion +in this opera are masterly indeed. The subject of 'La Vestale' (which +resembles that of 'Norma,' but how differently treated!) is tragic and +sublime as well as intensely emotional. Julia, the heroine, a prey to +guilty passion; the severe but kindly high priestess; Licinius, the +adventurous lover, and his faithful friend Cinna; pious vestals, +cruel priests, bold warriors, and haughty Romans, are represented with +statuesque relief and finish. Both these works, 'La Vestale' (1802) +and 'Cortez' (1809), ire among the finest that have been written for the +stage; they are remarkable for naturalness and sublimeness, qualities +lost sight of in the noisy instrumentation of his later works." + +Halévy, trained under the influences of Cherubini, was largely inspired +by that great master's musical purism and reverence for the higher laws +of his art. Halévy's powerful sense of the dramatic always influenced +his methods and sympathies. Not being a composer of creative +imagination, however, the melodramatic element is more prominent than +the purely tragic or comic. His music shows remarkable resources in the +production of brilliant and captivating though always tasteful effects, +which rather please the senses and the fancy than stir the heart and +imagination. Here and there scattered through his works, notably so +in "La Juive," are touches of emotion and grandeur; but Halévy must +be characterized as a composer who is rather distinguished for the +brilliancy, vigor, and completeness of his art than for the higher +creative power, which belongs in such preeminent degree to men like +Rossini and Weber, or even to Auber, Meyerbeer, and Gounod. It is +nevertheless true that Halévy composed works which will retain a high +rank in French art. "La Juive," "Guido," "La Reine de Chypre," and +"Charles VI." are noble lyric dramas, full of beauties, though it is +said they can never be seen to the best advantage off the French stage. +Halévy's genius and taste in music bear much the same relation to the +French stage as do those of Verdi to the Italian stage; though the +former composer is conceded by critics to be a greater purist in musical +form, if he rarely equals the Italian composer in the splendid bursts +of musical passion with which the latter redeems so much that is +meretricious and false, and the charming melody which Verdi shares with +his countrymen. + + + + +BOÏELDIEU AND AUBER. + + +I. + +The French school of light opera, founded by Givtry, reached its +greatest perfection in the authors of "La Dame Blanche" and "Fra +Diavolo," though to the former of these composers must be accorded the +peculiar distinction of having given the most perfect example of this +style of composition. François Adrien Boïeldieu, the scion of a Norman +family, was born at Rouen, December 16, 1775. He received his early +musical training at the hands of Broche, a great musician and the +cathedral organist, but a drunkard and brutal taskmaster. At the age of +sixteen he had become a good pianist and knew something of composition. +At all events his passionate love of the theatre prompted him to try his +hand at an opera, which was actually performed at Rouen. The revolution +which made such havoc with the clergy and their dependents ruined +the Boïeldieu family (the elder Boïeldieu had been secretary of the +archiépiscopal diocese), and young François, at the age of nineteen, was +set adrift on the world, his heart full of hope and his ambition bent +on Paris, whither he set his feet. Paris, however, proved a stern +stepmother at the outset, as she always has been to the struggling and +unsuccessful. He was obliged to tune pianos for his living, and was glad +to sell his brilliant _chansons_, which afterward made a fortune for his +publisher, for a few francs apiece. + +Several years of hard work and bitter privation finally culminated in +the acceptance of an opera, "La Famille Suisse," at the Théâtre Faydeau +in 1796, where it was given on alternate nights with Cherubini's +"Médée." Other operas followed in rapid succession, among which may be +mentioned "La Dot de Suzette" (1798) and "Le Calife de Bagdad" (1800). +The latter of these was remarkably popular, and drew from the severe +Cherubim the following rebuke: "Malheureux! Are you not ashamed of such +undeserved triumph?" Boïeldieu took the brusque criticism meekly and +preferred a request for further instruction from Cherubini--a proof +of modesty and good sense quite remarkable in one who had attained +recognition as a favorite with the musical public. Boïeldieu's three +years' studies under the great Italian master were of much service, for +his next work, "Ma Tante Aurore," produced in 1803, showed noticeable +artistic progress. + +It was during this year that Boïeldieu, goaded by domestic misery +(for he had married the danseuse Clotilde Mafleuray, whose notorious +infidelity made his name a byword), exiled himself to Russia, even then +looked on as an El Dorado for the musician, where he spent eight years +as conductor and composer of the Imperial Opera. This was all but a +total eclipse in his art-life, for he did little of note during the +period of his St. Petersburg career. + +He returned to Paris in 1811, where he found great changes. Méhul and +Cherubini, disgusted with the public, kept an obstinate silence; and +Nicolo was not a dangerous rival. He set to work with fresh zeal, and +one of his most charming works, "Jean de Paris," produced in 1812, was +received with a storm of delight. This and "La Dame Blanche" are the two +masterpieces of the composer in refined humor, masterly delineation, +and sustained power both of melody and construction. The fourteen years +which elapsed before Boïeldieu's genius took a still higher flight +were occupied in writing works of little value except as names in a +catalogue. The long-expected opera "La Dame Blanche" saw the light in +1825, and it is to-day a stock opera in Europe, one Parisian theatre +alone having given it nearly 2,000 times. Boïeldieu's latter years were +uneventful and unfruitful. He died in 1834 of pulmonary disease, the +germs of which were planted by St. Petersburg winters. "Jean de Paris" +and "La Dame Blanche" are the two works, out of nearly thirty operas, +which the world cherishes as masterpieces. + + +II. + +Daniel François Esprit Auber was born at Caen, Normandy, January 29, +1784. He was destined by his parents for a mercantile career, and was +articled to a French firm in London to perfect himself in commercial +training. As a child he showed his passion and genius for music, a fact +so noticeable in the lives of most of the great musicians. He composed +ballads and romances at the age of eleven, and during his London life +was much sought after as a musical prodigy alike in composition and +execution. In consequence of the breach of the treaty of Amiens in +1804, he was obliged to return to Paris, and we hear no more of the +counting-room as a part of his life. His resetting of an old libretto +in 1811 attracted the attention of Cherubini, who impressed himself +so powerfully on French music and musicians, and the master offered to +superintend his further studies, a chance eagerly seized by Auber. To +the instruction of Cherubini Auber owed his mastery over the technical +difficulties of his art. Among the pieces written at this time was +a mass for the Prince of Chimay, of which the prayer was afterward +transferred to "Masaniello." The comic opera "Le Séjour Militaire," +produced in 1813, when Auber was thirty, was really his début as a +composer. It was coldly received, and it was not till the loss of +private fortune set a sharp spur to his creative activity that he set +himself to serious work. "La Bergère Châtelaine," produced in 1820, +was his first genuine success, and equal fortune attended "Emma" in the +following season. + +The duration and climax of Auber's musical career were founded on his +friendship and, artistic alliance with Scribe, one of the most fertile +librettists and playwrights of modern times. To this union, which lasted +till Scribe's death, a great number of operas, comic and serious, owe +their existence: not all of equal value, but all evincing the apparently +inexhaustible productive genius of the joint authors. The works on which +Auber's claims to musical greatness rest are as follows: "Leicester," +1822; "Le Maçon," 1825, the composer's _chef-d'ouvre_ in comic opera; "La +Muette de Portici," otherwise "Masaniello," 1828; "Fra Piavolo," 1830; +"Lestocq," 1835; "Le Cheval do Ihonze," 1835; "L'Ambassadrice," 1836; +"Le Domino Noir," 1837; "Les Diamants de la Couronne," 1841; "Carlo +Braschi," 1842; "Haydée," 1847; "L'Enfant Prodigue," 1850; "Zerline," +1851, written for Madame Alboni; "Manon Lescaut," 1856; "La Fiancée du +Roi de Garbe," 1867; "Le Premier Jour de Bonheur," 1868; and "Le Rêve +d'Amour," 1869. The last two works were composed after Auber had passed +his eightieth year. + +The indifference of this Anacreon of music to renown is worthy of +remark. He never attended the performance of his own pieces, and +disdained applause. The highest and most valued distinctions were +showered on him; orders, jeweled swords, diamond snuffboxes, were poured +in from all the courts of Europe. Innumerable invitations urged him to +visit other capitals, and receive honor from imperial hands. But Auber +was a true Parisian, and could not be induced to leave his beloved city. +He was a Member of the Institute, Commander of the Legion of Honor, +and Cherubini's successor as Director of the Conservatory. He enjoyed +perfect health up to the day of his death in 1871. Assiduous in his +duties at the Conservatory, and active in his social relations, which +took him into the most brilliant circles of an extended period, covering +the reigns of Napoleon I., Charles X., Louis Philippe, and Napoleon +III., he yet always found time to devote several hours a day to +composition. Auber was a small, delicate man, yet distinguished in +appearance, and noted for wit. His _bons mots_ were celebrated. While +directing a musical _soirée_ when over eighty, a gentleman having taken +a white hair from his shoulder, he said laughingly, "This hair must +belong to some old fellow who passed near me." + +A good anecdote is told _à propos_ of an interview of Auber with Charles +X. in 1830. "Masaniello," a bold and revolutionary work, had just been +produced, and stirred up a powerful popular ferment. "Ah, M. Auber," +said the King, "you have no idea of the good your work has done me." +"How, sire?" "All revolutions resemble each other. To sing one is +to provoke one. What can I do to please you?" "Ah, sire! I am not +ambitious." "I am disposed to name you director of the court concerts. +Be sure that I shall remember you. But," added he, taking the artist's +arm with a cordial and confidential air, "from this day forth you +understand me well, M. Auber, I expect you to bring out the 'Muette' but +_very seldom_." It is well known that the Brussels riots of 1830, which +resulted in driving the Dutch out of the country, occurred immediately +after a performance of this opera, which thus acted the part of +"Lillibulero" in English political annals. It is a striking coincidence +that the death of the author of this revolutionary inspiration, May 13, +1871, was partly caused by the terrors of the Paris Commune. + + +III. + +Boïeldieu and Auber are by far the most brilliant representatives of the +French school of Opéra Comique. The work of the former which shows his +genius at its best is "La Dame Blanche." It possesses in a remarkable +degree dramatic _verve_, piquancy of rhythm, and beauty of structure. +Mr. Franz Hueffer speaks of this opera as follows: + +"Peculiar to Boïeldieu is a certain homely sweetness of melody which +proves its kinship to that source of all truly national music, the +popular song. The 'Dame Blanche' might be considered as the artistic +continuation of the _chanson_, in the same sense as Weber's 'Der +Freischtitz' has been called a dramatized _Volkslied_. With regard +to Boïeldieu's work, this remark indicates at the same time a strong +development of what has been described as the 'amalgamating force of +French art and culture'; for it must be borne in mind that the subject +treated is Scotch. The plot is a compound of two of Scott's novels: the +'Monastery' and 'Guy Mannering.' Julian, _alias_ George Brown, comes +to his paternal castle unknown to himself. He hears the songs of his +childhood, which awaken old memories in him; but he seems doomed to +misery and disappointment, for on the day of his return his hall and +his broad acres are to become the property of a villain, the unfaithful +steward of his own family. Here is a situation full of gloom and sad +foreboding. But Scribe and Boïeldieu knew better. Their hero is a +dashing cavalry officer, who makes love to every pretty woman he comes +across, the 'White Lady of Avenel' among the number. Yet no one who has +witnessed the impersonation of George Brown by the great Roger can +have failed to be impressed with the grace and noble gallantry of the +character." + +The tune of "Robin Adair," introduced by Boïeldieu and described as "le +chant ordinaire de la tribu d'Avenel," would hardly be recognized by a +genuine Scotchman; but what it loses in homely vigor it has gained in +sweetness. The musician's taste is always gratified in Boïeldieu's two +great comic operas by the grace and finish of the instrumentation, and +the carefully composed _ensembles_, while the public is delighted with +the charming ballads and songs. The airs of "La Dame Blanche" are more +popular in classic Germany than those of any other opera. Boïeldieu may +then be characterized as the composer who carried the French operetta +to its highest development, and endowed it in the fullest sense with all +the grace, sparkle, dramatic symmetry, and gamesome touch so essentially +the heritage of the nation. + +Auber's position in art may be defined as that of the last great +representative of French comic opera, the legitimate successor of +Boïeldieu, whom he surpasses in refinement and brilliancy of individual +effects, while he is inferior in simplicity, breadth, and that firm +grasp of details which enables the composer to blend all the parts into +a perfect whole. In spite of the fact that "La Muette," Auber's greatest +opera, is a romantic and serious work, full of bold strokes of +genius that astonish no less than they please, he must be held to be +essentially a master in the field of operatic comedy. In the great opera +to which allusion has been made the passions of excited public feeling +have their fullest sway, and heroic sentiments of love and devotion are +expressed in a manner alike grand and original. The traditional forms +of the opera are made to expand with the force of the feeling bursting +through them. But this was the sole flight of Auber into the higher +regions of his art, the offspring of the thoroughly revolutionized +feeling of the time (1828), which within two years shook Europe with +such force. Aside from this outcome of his Berserker mood, Auber is +a charming exponent of the grace, brightness, and piquancy of French +society and civilization. If rarely deep, he is never dull, and no +composer has given the world more elegant and graceful melodies of +the kind which charm the drawing-room and furnish a good excuse for +young-lady pianism. + +The following sprightly and judicious estimate of Auber by one of the +ablest of modern critics, Henry Chorley, in the main lixes him in his +right place: + +"He falls short of his mark in situations of profound pathos (save +perhaps in the sleep-song of 'Masaniello'). He is greatly behind his +Italian brethren in those mad scenes which they so largely affect. He is +always light and piquant for voices, delicious in his treatment of the +orchestra, and at this moment of writing--though I believe the patriarch +of opera-writers (born, it is said, in 1784), having begun to compose +at an age when other men have died exhausted by precocious labor--is +perhaps the lightest-hearted, lightest-handed man still pouring out +fragments of pearl and spangles of pure gold on the stage.... With all +this it is remarkable as it is unfair, that among musicians--when +talk is going around, and this person praises that portentous piece +of counterpoint, and the other analyzes some new chord the uoliness of +which has led to its being neglected by former composers--the name of +this brilliant man is hardly if ever heard at all. His is the next name +among the composers belonging to the last thirty years which should be +heard after that of Rossini, the number and extent of the works produced +by him taken into account, and with these the beauties which they +contain." + + + + +MEYERBEER. + + +I. + +Few great names in art have been the occasion of such diversity of +judgment as Giacomo Meyerbeer, whose works fill so large a place in +French music. By one school of critics he is lauded beyond all measure +as one whose scientific skill and gorgeous orchestration are only +equaled by his richness of melody and genius for dramatic and scenic +effects; "by far the greatest composer of recent years;" by another +class we hear him stigmatized as "the very caricature of the universal +Mozart... the Cosmopolitan Jew, who hawks his wares among all nations +indifferently, and does his best to please customers of every kind." The +truth lies between the two, as is wont to be the case in such extremes +of opinion. Meyerbeer's remarkable talent so nearly approaches genius +as to make the distinction a difficult one. He can not be numbered among +those great creative artists who by force of individuality have molded +musical epochs and left an undying imprint on their own and succeeding +ages. On the other hand, his remarkable power of combining the resources +of the lyric stage in a grand mosaic of all that can charm the eye and +car, of wedding rich and gorgeous music with splendid spectacle, gives +him a unique place in music; for, unlike Wagner, whose ideas of stage +necessities are no less exacting, Meyerbeer aims at no reforms in lyric +music, but only to develop the old forms to their highest degree of +effect, under conditions that shall gratify the general artistic sense. +To accomplish this, he spares no means either in or out of music. Though +a German, there is but little of the Teutonic _genre_ in the music of +Weber's fellow pupil. When at the outset he wrote for Italy, he showed +but little of that easy Assomption of the genius of Italian art which +many other foreign composers have attained. It was not till he formed +his celebrated art partnership with Scribe, the greatest of librettists, +and succeeded in opening the gates of the Grand Opera of Paris with all +its resources, more vast than exist anywhere else, that Meyerbeer found +his true vocation, the production of elaborate dramas in music of the +eclectic school. He inaugurated no clearly defined tendencies in his +art; he distinctively belongs to no national school of music; but his +long and important connection with the French lyric stage classifies him +unmistakably with the composers of this nation. + +The subject of this sketch belonged to a family of marked ability. Jacob +Beer was a rich Jewish banker of Berlin, highly honored for his robust +intellect and scholarly culture as well as his wealth. William, one of +the sons, became a distinguished astronomer; another, Michael, achieved +distinction as a dramatic poet; while the eldest, Jacob, was the +composer, who gained his renown under the Italianized name of Giacomo +Meyerbeer, a part of the surname having been adopted from that of the +rich banker Meyer, who left the musician a great fortune. + +Meyerbeer was born at Berlin, September 5, 1794, and was a musical +prodigy from his earliest years. When only four years old he would +repeat on the piano the airs he heard from the hand-organs, composing +his own accompaniment. At five he took lessons of Lanska, a pupil of +Clementi, and at six he made his appearance at a concert. Three years +afterward the critics spoke of him as one of the best pianists in +Berlin. He studied successively under the greatest masters of the time, +Clemcnti, Bernhard Anselm Weber, and Abbé Vogler. While in the latter's +school at Darmstadt, he had for fellow pupils Carl von Weber, Winter, +and Gansbachcr. Every morning the abbé called together his pupils after +mass, gave them some theoretical instruction, then assigned each one a +theme for composition. There was great emulation and friendship between +Meyerbeer and Weber, which afterward cooled, however, owing to Weber's +disgust at Meyerbeer's lavish catering to an extravagant taste. Weber's +severe and bitter criticisms were not forgiven by the Franco-German +composer. + +Meyerbeer's first work was the oratorio "Gott und die Natur," which was +performed before the Grand Duke with such success as to gain for him +the appointment of court composer. Meyerbeer's concerts at Darmstadt +and Berlin were brilliant exhibitions; and Moscheles, no mean judge, has +told us that if Meyerbeer had devoted himself to the piano, no performer +in Europe could have surpassed him. By advice of Salieri, whom Meyerbeer +met in Vienna, he proceeded to Italy to study the cultivation of +the voice; for he seems in early life to have clearly recognized how +necessary it is for the operatic composer to understand this, though, +in after-years, he treated the voice as ruthlessly in many of his most +important arias and scenas as he would a brass instrument. He arrived in +Vienna just as the Rossini madness was at its height, and his own blood +was fired to compose operas _à la Rossini_ for the Italian theatres. +So he proceeded with prodigious industry to turn out operas. In 1818 he +wrote "Romilda e Costanza" for Padua; in 1819, "Semiramide" for Turin; +in 1820, "Emma di Resburgo" for Venice; in 1822, "Margherita d'Anjou" +for Milan; and in 1823, "L'Esule di Granata," also for Milan. These +works of the composer's 'prentice hand met with the usual fate of the +production of the thousand and one musicians who pour forth operas in +unremitting flow for the Italian theatres; but they were excellent drill +for the future author of "Robert le Diable" and "Les Huguenots." On +returning to Germany Meyerbeer was very sarcastically criticised on the +one side as a fugitive from the ranks of German music, on the other as +an imitator of Rossini. + +Meyerbeer returned to Venice, and in 1824 brought out "Il Crociato +in Egitto" in that city, an opera which made the tour of Europe, and +established a reputation for the author as the coming rival of Rossini, +no one suspecting from what Meyerbeer had then accomplished that he +was about to strike boldly out in a new direction. "II Crociato" was +produced in Paris in 1825, and the same year in London. In the latter +city, Veluti, the last of the male sopranists, was one of the principal +singers in the opera; and it was said by some of the ill-natured critics +that curiosity to see and hear this singer of a peculiar kind, of whom +it was said, "Non vir sed Veluti," had as much to do with the success +of the opera as its merits. Lord Mount Edgcumbe, however, an excellent +critic, wrote of it "as quite of the new school, but not copied from +its founder, Rossini; original, odd, flighty, and it might be termed +fantastic, but at times beautiful. Here and there most delightful +melodies and harmonies occurred, but it was unequal, solos being as rare +as in all the modern operas." This was the last of Meyerbeer's operas +written in the Italian style. In 1827 the composer married, and for +several years lived a quiet, secluded life. The loss of his first two +children so saddened him as to concentrate his attention for a while +on church music. During this period he composed only a "Stabat," a +"Miserere," a "Te Deum," and eight of Klopstock's songs. But he was +preparing for that new departure on which his reputation as a great +composer now rests, and which called forth such bitter condemnation +on the one hand, such thunders of eulogy on the other. His old fellow +pupil, Weber, wrote of him in after-years: "He prostituted his profound, +admirable, and serious German talent for the applause of the crowd which +he ought to have despised." And Mendelssohn wrote to his father in words +of still more angry disgust: "When in 'Robert le Diable' nuns appear one +after the other and endeavor to seduce the hero, till at length the lady +abbess succeeds; when the hero, aided by a magic branch, gains access +to the sleeping apartment of his lady, and throws her down, forming +a tableau which is applauded here, and will perhaps be applauded in +Germany; and when, after that, she implores for mercy in an aria; when, +in another opera, a girl undresses herself, singing all the while that +she will be married to-morrow, it may be effective, but I find no +music in it. For it is vulgar, and if such is the taste of the day, and +therefore necessary, I prefer writing sacred music." + + +II. + +"Robert le Diable" was produced at the Académie Royale in 1831, and +inaugurated the brilliant reign of Dr. Véron as manager. The bold +innovations, the powerful situations, the daring methods of the +composer, astonished and delighted Paris, and the work was performed +more than a hundred consecutive times. The history of "Robert le Diable" +is in some respects curious. It was originally written for the Vontadour +Theatre, devoted to comic opera; but the company were found unable +to sing the difficult music. Meyerbeer was inspired by Weber's "Der +Freischtitz" to attempt a romantic, semi-fantastic legendary opera, and +trod very closely in the footsteps of his model. It was determined to so +alter the libretto and extend and elaborate the music as to fit it for +the stage of the Grand Opera. MM. Scribe and Delavigne, the librettists, +and Meyerbeer, devoted busy days and nights to hurrying on the work. The +whole opera was remodeled, recitative substituted for dialogue, and one +of the most important characters,--Rainibaud, cut out in the fourth and +fifth acts--a suppression which is claimed to have befogged a very clear +and intelligible plot. Highly suggestive in its present state of Weber's +opera, the opera of "Robert le Diable" is said to have been marvelously +similar to "Der Freischtitz" in the original form, though inferior in +dignity of motive. + +Paris was all agog with interest at the first production. The critics +had attended the rehearsals, and it was understood that the libretto, +the music, and the ballet were full of striking interest. Nourrit +played the part of _Robert_; Levasseur, _Bertram_; Mme. Cinti Damoreau, +_Isabelle_; and Mile. Dorus, _Alice_. The greatest dancers of the +age were in the ballet and the brilliant Taglioni led the band of +resuscitated nuns. Ilabeneck was conductor, and everything had been done +in the way of scenery and costumes. The success was a remarkable one, +and Meyerbeer's name became famous throughout Europe. + +Dr. Véron, in his "Mémoires d'un Bourgeois de Paris," describes a +thrilling yet ludicrous accident that occurred on the first night's +performance. After the admirable trio, which is the _d'enoûment_ of +the work, Levasseur, who personated Bertram, sprang through the trap +to rejoin the kingdom of the dead, whence he came so mysteriously. +_Robert_, on the other hand, had to remain on the earth, a converted +man, and destined to happiness in marriage with his princess, +_Isabelle_. Nourrit, the _Robert_ of the performance, misled by the +situation and the fervor of his own feelings, threw himself into the +trap, which was not properly set. Fortunately the mattresses beneath had +not all been removed, or the tenor would have been killed, a doom which +those on the stage who saw the accident expected. The audience supposed +it was part of the opera, and the people on the stage were full of +terror and lamentation, when Nourrit appeared to calm their fears. +Mile. Dorus burst into tears of joy, and the audience, recognizing the +situation, broke into shouts of applause. + +The opera was brought out in London the same year, with nearly the same +cast, but did not excite so much enthusiasm as in Paris. Lord Mount +Edgcumbe, who represented the connoisseurs of the old school, expressed +the then current opinion of London audiences: "Never did I see a more +disagreeable or disgusting performance. The sight of the resurrection +of a whole convent of nuns, who rise from their graves and begin dancing +like so many bacchantes, is revolting; and a sacred service in a church, +accompanied by an organ on the stage, not very decorous. Neither does +the music of Meyerbeer compensate for a fable which is a tissue of +nonsense and improbability."* + + * Yet Lord Mount Edgcumbe is inconsistent enough to be an + ardent admirer of Mozart's "Zauberflote." + +M. Véron was so delighted with the great success of "Robert" that he +made a contract with Meyerbeer for another grand opera, "Les Huguenots," +to be completed by a certain date. Meanwhile, the failing health of Mme. +Meyerbeer obliged the composer to go to Italy, and work on the opera was +deferred, thus causing him to lose thirty thousand francs as the penalty +of his broken contract. At length, after twenty-eight rehearsals, and +an expense of more than one hundred and sixty thousand francs in +preparation, "Les Huguenots" was given to the public, February 26, 1836. +Though this great work excited transports of enthusiasm in Paris, it was +interdicted in many of the cities of Southern Europe on account of the +subject being a disagreeable one to ardent and bigoted Catholics. In +London it has always been the most popular of Meyerbeer's three great +operas, owing perhaps partly to the singing of Mario and Grisi, and more +lately of Titiens and Giuglini. + +When Spontini resigned his place as chapel-master at the Court of +Berlin, in 1832, Meyerbeer succeeded him. He wrote much music of an +accidental character in his new position, but a slumber seems to have +fallen on his greater creative faculties. The German atmosphere was not +favorable to the fruitfulness of Meyerbeer's genius. He seems to have +needed the volatile and sparkling life of Paris to excite him into full +activity. Or perhaps he was not willing to produce one of his operas, +with their large dependence on élaborât e splendor of production, +away from the Paris Grand Opera. During Meyerbeer's stay in Berlin he +introduced Jenny Lind to the Berlin public, as he afterward did indeed +to Paris, her _début_ there being made in the opening performance of +"Das Feldlager in Schlesien," afterward remodeled into "L'Étoile du +Nord." + +Meyerbeer returned to Paris in 1849, to present the third of his great +operas, "Le Prophète." It was given with Roger, Viardot-Garcia, and +Castellan in the principal characters. Mme. Viardot-Garcia achieved one +of her greatest dramatic triumphs in the difficult part of _Fides_. +In London the opera also met with splendid success, having, as Chorley +tells us, a great advantage over the Paris presentation in "the +remarkable personal beauty of Signor Mario, whose appearance in his +coronation robes reminded one of some bishop-saint in a picture by Van +Eyck or Durer, and who could bring to bear a play of feature without +grimace into the scene of false fascination, entirely beyond the reach +of the clever French artist Roger, who originated the character." + +"L'Étoile du Nord" was given to the public February 16, 1854. Up to this +time the opera of "Robert" had been sung three hundred and thirty-three +times, "Les Huguenots" two hundred and twenty-two, and "Le Prophète" a +hundred and twelve. The "Pardon de Ploërmel," also known as "Dinorah," +was offered to the world of Paris April 4, 1859. Both these operas, +though beautiful, are inferior to his other works. + + +III. + +Meyerbeer, a man of handsome private fortune, like Mendelssohn, made +large sums by his operas, and was probably the wealthiest of the great +composers. He lived a life of luxurious ease, and yet labored with +intense zeal a certain number of hours each day. A friend one day begged +him to take more rest, and he answered smilingly, "If I should +leave work, I should rob myself of my greatest pleasure; for I am +so accustomed to work that it has become a necessity." Probably few +composers have been more splendidly rewarded by contemporary fame and +wealth, or been more idolized by their admirers. No less may it be said +that few have been the object of more severe criticism. His youth was +spent amid the severest classic influences of German music, and the +spirit of romanticism and nationality, which blossomed into such +beautiful and characteristic works as those composed by his friend +and fellow pupil Weber, also found in his heart an eloquent echo. But +Meyerbeer resolutely disenthralled himself from what he appeared to have +regarded as trammels, and followed out an ambition to be a cosmopolitan +composer. In pursuit of this purpose he divested himself of that fine +flavor of individuality and devotion to art for its own sake which marks +the highest labors of genius. He can not be exempted from the criticism +that he regarded success and the immediate plaudits of the public as +the only satisfactory rewards of his art. He had but little of the lofty +content which shines out through the vexed and clouded lives of +such souls as Beethoven and Gluck in music, of Bacon and Milton in +literature, who looked forward to immortality of fame as the best +vindication of their work. A marked characteristic of the man was +a secret dissatisfaction with all that he accomplished, making him +restless and unhappy, and extremely sensitive to criticism. With this +was united a tendency at times to oscillate to the other extreme of +vaingloriousness. An example of this was a reply to Rossini one night at +the opera when they were listening to "Robert le Diable." The "Swan +of Pesaro" was a warm admirer of Meyerbeer, though the latter was a +formidable rival, and his works had largely replaced those of the other +in popular repute. Sitting together in the same box, Rossini, in his +delight at one portion of the opera, cried out in his impulsive Italian +way, "If you can write anything to surpass this, I will undertake to +dance upon my head." "Well, then," said Meyerbeer, "you had better soon +commence practicing, for I have just commenced the fourth act of 'Les +Huguenots.'" Well might he make this boast, for into the fourth act of +his musical setting of the terrible St. Bartholomew tragedy he put the +finest inspirations of his life. + +Singular to say, though he himself represented the very opposite pole +of art spirit and method, Mozart was to him the greatest of his +predecessors. Perhaps it was this very fact, however, which was at the +root of his sentiment of admiration for the composer of "Don Giovanni" +and "Le Nozze di Figaro." A story is told to the effect that Meyerbeer +was once dining with some friends, when a discussion arose respecting +Mozart's position in the musical hierarchy. Suddenly one of the guests +suggested that "certain beauties of Mozart's music had become stale with +age. I defy you," he continued, "to listen to 'Don Giovanni' after the +fourth act of the 'Huguenots.'" "So much the worse, then, for the +fourth act of the 'Huguenots,'" said Meyerbeer, furious at the clumsy +compliment paid to his own work at the expense of his idol. + +Critics wedded to the strict German school of music never forgave +Meyerbeer for his dereliction from the spirit and influences of his +nation, and the prominence which he gave to melodramatic effects and +spectacular show in his operas. Not without some show of reason, they +cite this fact as proof of poverty of musical invention. Mendelssohn, +who was habitually generous in his judgment, wrote to the poet Immermann +from Paris of "Robert le Diable": "The subject is of the romantic order; +i.e., the devil appears in it (which suffices the Parisians for romance +and imagination). Nevertheless, it is very bad, and, were it not for +two brilliant seduction scenes, there would, not even be effect.... +The opera does not please me; it is devoid of sentiment and feeling.... +People admire the music, but where there is no warmth and truth, I can +not even form a standard of criticism." + +Schlüter, the historian of music, speaks even more bitterly of +Meyerbeer's irreverence and theatric sensationalism: "'Les Huguenots' +and the far weaker production 'Le Prophète' are, we think, all the more +reprehensible (nowadays especially, when too much stress is laid on +the subject of a work, and consequently on the libretto of an opera), +because the Jew has in these pieces ruthlessly dragged before the +footlights two of the darkest pictures in the annals of Catholicism, nor +has he scrupled to bring high mass and chorale on the boards." + +Wagner, the last of the great German composers, can not find words too +scathing and bitter to mark his condemnation of Meyerbeer. Perhaps his +extreme aversion finds its psychological reason in the circumstance that +his own early efforts were in the sphere of Meyerbeer and Halé-vy, and +from his present point of view he looks back with disgust on what he +regards as the sins of his youth. The fairest of the German estimates of +the composer, who not only cast aside the national spirit and methods, +but offended his countrymen by devoting himself to the French stage, is +that of Vischer, an eminent writer on aasthetics: "Notwithstanding +the composer's remarkable talent for musical drama, his operas +contain sometimes too much, sometimes too little--too much in the +subject-matter, external adornment, and effective 'situations'--too +little in the absence of poetry, ideality, and sentiment (which are +essential to a work of art), as well as in the unnatural and constrained +combinations of the plot." + +But despite the fact that Meyerbeer's operas contain such strange scenes +as phantom nuns dancing, girls bathing, sunrise, skating, gunpowder +explosions, a king playing the flute, and the prima donna leading a +goat, dramatic music owes to him new accents of genuine pathos and an +addition to its resources of rendering passionate emotions. Through +much that is merely showy and meretricious there come frequent bursts of +genuine musical power and energy, which give him a high and unmistakable +rank, though he has had less permanent influence in molding and +directing the development of musical art than any other composer who has +had so large a place in the annals of his time. + +The last twelve years of Meyerbeer's life were spent, with the exception +of brief residences in Germany and Italy, in Paris, the city of his +adoption, where all who were distinguished in art and letters paid their +court to him. When he was seized with his fatal illness he was hard at +work on "L'Africaine," for which Scribe had also furnished the libretto. +His heart was set on its completion, and his daily prayer was that his +life might be spared to finish it. But it was not to be. He died May 2, +1864. The same morning Rossini called to inquire after the health of the +sick man, equally his friend and rival. When he heard the sad news he +sank into a fit of profound despondency and grief, from which he did not +soon recover. All Paris mourned with him, and even Germany forgot its +critical dislike to join in regret at the loss of one who, with all his +defects, was so great an artist and so good a man. + +Meyerbeer seems to have been greatly afraid of being buried alive. In +his pocketbook after his death was found a paper giving directions that +small bells should be attached to his hands and feet, and that his body +should be carefully watched for four days, after which it should be sent +to Berlin to be interred by the side of his mother, to whom he had been +most tenderly attached. + +The composer was the intimate friend of most of the celebrities of his +time in art and literature. Victor Hugo, Lamartine, George Sand, Balzac, +Alfred de Musset, Delacroix, Jules Janin, and Théophile Gautier were his +familiar intimates; and the reunions between these and other gifted +men, who then made Paris so intellectually brilliant, are charmingly +described by Liszt and Moscheles. Meyerbeer's correspondence, which was +extensive, deserves publication, as it displays marked literary faculty, +and is full of bright sympathetic thought, vigorous criticism, and +playful fancy. The following letter to Jules Janin, written from Berlin +a few years before his death, gives some pleasant insight into his +character: + +Your last letter was addressed to me at Konigsberg; but I was in Berlin +working--working away like a young man, despite my seventy years, which +somehow certain people, with a peculiar generosity, try to put upon me. +As I am not at Konigsberg, where I am to arrange for the Court concert +for the eighteenth of this month, I have now leisure to answer +your letter, and will immediately confess to you how greatly I was +disappointed that you were so little interested in Rameau; and yet +Rameau was always the bright star of your French opera, as well as your +master in the music. He remained to you after Lulli, and it was he who +prepared the way for the Chevalier Gluck: therefore his family have a +right to expect assistance from the Parisians, who on several occasions +have cared for the descendants of Racine and the grandchildren of the +great Corneille. If I had been in Paris, I certainly would have given +two hundred francs for a seat; and I take this opportunity to beg you +to hand that sum to the poor family, who can not fail to be unhappy in +their disappointment. At the same time I send you a power of attorney +for M. Guyot, by which I renounce all claims to the parts of my +operas which may be represented at the benefit for the celebrated and +unfortunate Rameau family. Why will you not come to Konigsberg at the +festival? Why, in other words, are you not in Berlin? What splendid +music we have in preparation! As to myself, it is not only a source of +pleasure to me, but I feel it a duty, in the position I hold, to compose +a grand march, to be performed at Konigsberg while the royal procession +passes from the castle into the church, where the ceremony of crowning +is to take place. I will even compose a hymn, to be executed on the day +that our king and master returns to his good Berlin. Besides, I have +promised to write an overture for the great concert of the four nations, +which the directors of the London exhibition intend to give at the +opening of the same, next spring, in the Crystal Palace. All this keeps +me back: it has robbed me of my autumn, and will also take a good part +of next spring; but with the help of God, dear friend, I hope we shall +see each other again next year, free from all cares, in the charming +little town of Spa, listening to the babbling of its waters and the +rustling of its old gray oaks. Truly your friend, Meyerbeer. + + +IV. + +Meyerbeer's operas are so intricate in their elements, and travel so far +out of the beaten track of precedent and rule, that it is difficult to +clearly describe their characteristics in a few words. His original +flow of melody could not have been very rich, for none of his tunes have +become household words, and his excessive use of that element of opera +which has nothing to do with music, as in the case of Wagner, can have +but one explanation. It is in the treatment of the orchestra that he +has added most largely to the genuine treasures of music. His command of +color in tone-painting and power of dramatic suggestion have rarely been +equaled, and never surpassed. His genius for musical rhythm is the most +marked element in his power. This is specially noticeable in his dance +music, which is very bold, brilliant, and voluptuous. The vivacity +and grace of the ballets in his operas save more than one act which +otherwise would be insufferably heavy and tedious. It is not too much +to say that the most spontaneous side of his creative fancy is found in +these affluent, vigorous, and stirring measures. + +Meyerbeer appears always to have been uncertain of himself and his work. +There was little of that masterly prevision of effect in his mind which +is one of the attributes of the higher imagination. His operas, though +most elaborately constructed, were often entirely modified and changed +in rehearsal, and some of the finest scenes both in the dramatic and +musical sense were the outcome of some happy accidental suggestion at +the very last moment. "Robert," "Les Huguenots," "Le Prophète," in the +forms we have them, are quite different from those in which they +were first cast. These operas have therefore been called "the most +magnificent patchwork in the history of art," though this is a harsh +phrasing of the fact, which somewhat outrides justice. Certain it +is, however, that Meyerbeer was largely indebted to the chapter of +accidents. + +The testimony of Dr. Véron, who was manager of the Grand Opera during +the most of the composer's brilliant career, is of great interest, as +illustrating this trait of Meyerbeer's composition. He tells us in his +"Mémoires," before alluded to, that "Robert" was made and remade +before its final production. The ghastly but effective color of the +resuscitation scene in the graveyard of the ruined convent was a +change wrought by a stage manager, who was disgusted with the chorus of +simpering women in the original. This led Meyerbeer to compose the +weird ballet music which is such a characteristic feature of "Robert le +Diable." So, too, we are told on the same authority, the fourth act of +"Les Huguenots," which is the most powerful single act in Meyerbeer's +operas, owes its present shape to Nourrit, the most intellectual and +creative tenor singer of whom we have record. It was originally +designed that the St. Bartholomew massacre should be organized by _Queen +Marguerite_, but Nourrit pointed out that the interest centering in the +heroine, Valentine, as an involuntary and horrified witness, would be +impaired by the predominance of another female character. So the plot +was largely reconstructed, and fresh music written. Another still more +striking attraction was the addition of the great duet with which +the act now closes--a duet which critics have cited as an evidence +of unequaled power, coming as it does at the very heels of such an +astounding chorus as "The Blessing of the Swords." Nourrit felt that +the parting of the two lovers at such a time and place demanded such an +outburst and confession as would be wrung from them by the agony of +the situation. Meyerbeer acted on the suggestion with such felicity and +force as to make it the crowning beauty of the work. Similar changes +are understood to have been made in "Le Prophète" by advice of Nourrit, +whose poetical insight seems to have been unerring. It was left to +Duprez, Nourrit's successor, however, to be the first exponent of _John +of Leyden_. + +These instances suffice to show how uncertain and unequal was the grasp +of Meyerbeer's genius, and to explain in part why he was so prone to +gorgeous effects, aside from that tendency of the Israelitish nature +which delights in show and glitter. We see something in it akin to the +trick of the rhetorician, who seeks to hide poverty of thought under +glittering phrases. Yet Meyerbeer rose to occasions with a force that +was something gigantic. Once his work was clearly defined in a mind not +powerfully creative, he expressed it in music with such vigor, energy, +and warmth of color as can not be easily surpassed. With this composer +there was but little spontaneous flow of musical thought, clothing +itself in forms of unconscious and perfect beauty, as in the case of +Mozart, Beethoven, Cherubini, Rossini, and others who could be cited. +The constitution of his mind demanded some external power to bring forth +the gush of musical energy. + +The operas of Meyerbeer may be best described as highly artistic and +finished mosaic work, containing much that is precious with much that is +false. There are parts of all his operas which can not be surpassed +for beauty of music, dramatic energy, and fascination of effect. In +addition, the strength and richness of his orchestration, which contains +original strokes not found in other composers, give him a lasting claim +on the admiration of the lovers of music. No other composer has united +so many glaring defects with such splendid power; and were it not that +Meyerbeer strained his ingenuity to tax the resources of the singer +in every possible way, not even the mechanical difficulty of producing +these operas in a fashion commensurate with their plan would prevent +their taking a high place among popular operas. + + + + +GOUNOD AND THOMAS. + + +I. + +Moscheles, one of the severe classical pianists of the German school, +writes as follows in 1861 in a letter to a friend: "In Gounod I hail a +real composer. I have heard his 'Faust' both at Leipsic and Dresden, and +am charmed with that refined, piquant music. Critics may rave if they +like against the mutilation of Goethe's masterpiece; the opera is sure +to attract, for it is a fresh, interesting work, with a copious flow of +melody and lovely instrumentation." + +Henry Chorley in his "Thirty Years' Musical Recollections," writing of +the year 1851, says: "To a few hearers, since then grown into a European +public, neither the warmest welcome nor the most bleak indifference +could alter the conviction that among the composers who have appeared +during the last twenty-five years, M. Gounod was the most promising one, +as showing the greatest combination of sterling science, beauty of idea, +freshness of fancy, and individuality. Before a note of 'Sappho' was +written, certain sacred Roman Catholic compositions and some exquisite +settings of French verse had made it clear to some of the acutest judges +and profoundest musicians living, that in him at last something true and +new had come--may I not say, the most poetical of French musicians that +has till now written?" The same genial and acute critic, in further +discussing the envy, jealousy, and prejudice that Gounod awakened in +certain musical quarters, writes in still more decided strains: "The +fact has to be swallowed and digested that already the composer of +'Sappho,' the choruses to 'Ulysse,' 'Le Médecin malgré lui,' 'Faust,' +'Philemon et Baucis,' a superb Cecilian mass, two excellent symphonies, +and half a hundred songs and romances, which may be ranged not far from +Schubert's and above any others existing in France, is one of the very +few individuals left to whom musical Europe is now looking for its +pleasure." Surely it is enough praise for a great musician that, in the +domain of opera, church music, symphony, and song, he has risen above +all others of his time in one direction, and in all been surpassed by +none. + +It was not till "Faust" was produced that Gounod's genius evinced its +highest capacity. For nineteen years the exquisite melodies of this +great work have rung in the ears of civilization without losing one whit +of the power with which they first fascinated the lovers of music. The +verdict which the aged Moscheles passed in his Leipsic home--Moscheles, +the friend of Beethoven, Weber, Schumann, and Mendelssohn; which was +reechoed by the patriarchal Rossini, who came from his Passy retirement +to offer his congratulations; which Auber took up again, as with tears +of joy in his eyes he led Gounod, the ex-pupil of the Conservatory, +through the halls wherein had been laid the foundation of his musical +skill--that verdict has been affirmed over and over again by the world. +For in "Faust" we recognize not only some of the most noble music ever +written, but a highly dramatic expression of spiritual truth. It is +hardly a question that Gounod has succeeded in an unrivaled degree in +expressing the characters and symbolisms of _Mephistopheles, Faust, +and Gretchen_ in music not merely beautiful, but spiritual, humorous, +subtile, and voluptuous, accordingly as the varied meanings of Goethe's +masterpiece demand. + +Visitors at Paris, while the American civil war was at its height, might +frequently have observed at the beautiful Theatre Lyrique, afterward +burned by the Vandals of the Commune, a noticeable-looking man, of +blonde complexion and tawny beard, clear-cut features, and large, +bright, almost somber-looking eyes. As the opera of "Faust" progresses, +his features eloquently express his varying emotions, now of approval, +now of annoyance at different parts of the performance. M. Gounod is +criticising the interpretation of the great opera, which suddenly lifted +him into fame as perhaps the most imaginative and creative of late +composers. + +An aggressive disposition, an energy and faith that accepted no rebuffs, +and the power of "toiling terribly," had enabled Gounod to battle his +way into the front rank. Unlike Rossini and Auber, he disdained social +recreation, and was so rarely seen in the fashionable quarters of Paris +and London that only an occasional musical announcement kept him before +the eyes of the public. Gounod seems to have devoted himself to the +strict sphere of his art-life with an exclusive devotion quite foreign +to the general temperament of the musician, into which something +luxurious and pleasure-loving is so apt to enter. This composer, +standing in the very front rank of his fellows, has injected into the +veins of the French school to which he belongs a seriousness, depth, and +imaginative vigor, which prove to us how much he is indebted to German +inspiration and German models. + +Charles Gounod, born in Paris June 17, 1818, betrayed so much +passion for music during tender years, that his father gave him every +opportunity to gratify and improve this marked bias. He studied under +Reicha and Le Sueur, and finally under Halévy, completing under +the latter the preparation which fitted him for entrance into the +Conservatory. The talents he displayed there were such as to fix on +him the attention of his most distinguished masters. He carried off the +second prize at nineteen, and at twenty-one received the grand prize for +musical composition awarded by the French Institute. His first published +work was a mass performed at the Church of St. Eustache, which, while +not specially successful, was sufficiently encouraging to both the young +composer and his friends. + +Gounod now proceeded to Rome, where there seems to have been some +inclination on his part to study for holy orders. But music was not +destined to be cheated of so gifted a votary. In 1841 he wrote a second +mass, which was so well thought of in the papal capital as to gain for +the young composer the appointment of an honorary chapel-master for +life. This recognition of his genius settled his final conviction that +music was his true life-work, though the religious sentiment, or +rather a sympathy with mysticism, is strikingly apparent in all of his +compositions. The next goal in the composer's art pilgrimage was the +music-loving city of Vienna, the home of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and +Schubert, though its people waited till the last three great geniuses +were dead before it accorded them the loving homage which they have +since so freely rendered. The reception given by the capricious Viennese +to a requiem and a Lenten mass (for as yet Gounod only thought of sacred +music as his vocation) was not such as to encourage a residence. Paris, +the queen of the world, toward which every French exile ever looks with +longing eyes, seemed to beckon him back; so at the age of twenty-five +he turned his steps again to his beloved Lutetia. His education was +finished; he had completed his _Wanderjahre_; and he was eager to enter +on the serious work of life. + +He was appointed chapelmaster at the Church of Foreign Missions, in +which office he remained for six years, in the mean while marrying +a charming woman, the daughter of Herr Zimmermann, the celebrated +theologian and orator. In 1849 he composed his third mass, which made a +powerful impression on musicians and critics, though Gounod's ambition, +which seems to have been powerfully stimulated by his marriage, began +to realize that it was in the field of lyric drama only that his powers +would find their full development. He had been an ardent student in +literature and art as well as in music; his style had been formed on the +most noble and serious German models, and his tastes, awakened into full +activity, carried him with great zeal into the loftier field of operatic +composition. + +The dominating influence of Gluck, so potent in shaping the tastes and +methods of the more serious French composers, asserted itself from the +beginning in the work of Gounod, and no modern composer has been so +brilliant and effective a disciple in carrying out the formulas of +that great master. More free, flexible, and melodious than Spontini and +Halévy, measuring his work by a conception of art more lofty and ideal +than that of Meyerbeer, and in creative power and originality by far +their superior, Gounod's genius, as shown in the one opera of "Faust," +suffices to stamp his great mastership. + +But he had many years of struggle yet before this end was to be +achieved. His early lyric compositions fell dead. Score after score was +rejected by the managers. No one cared to hazard the risk of producing +an opera by this unknown composer. His first essay was a pastoral opera, +"Philemon and Baucis," and it did not escape from the manuscript for +many a long year, though it has in more recent times been received by +critical German audiences with great applause. A catalogue of Gounod's +failures would have no significance except as showing that his industry +and energy were not relaxed by public neglect. His first decided +encouragement came in 1851, when "Sappho" was produced at the French +Opera through the influence of Madame Pauline Viardot, the sister of +Malibran, who had a generous belief in the composer's future, and such +a position in the musical world of Paris as to make her requests almost +mandatory. This opera, based on the fine poem of Emile Augier, was well +received, and cheered Gounod's heart to make fresh efforts. In 1852 +he composed the choruses for Poussard's classical tragedy of "Ulysse," +performed at the Theatre Français. The growing recognition of the world +was evidenced in his appointment as director of the Normal Singing +School of Paris, the primary school of the Conservatory. In 1854 a +five-act opera, with a libretto from the legend of the "Bleeding Nun," +was completed and produced, and Gounod was further gratified to see that +musical authorities were willing to grant him a distinct place in the +ranks of art, though as yet not a very high one. + +For years Gounod's serious and elevated mind had been pondering on +Goethe's great poem as the subject of an opera, and there is reason to +conjecture that parts of it were composed and arranged, if not fully +elaborated, long prior to its final crystallization. But he was not yet +quite ready to enter seriously on the composition of the masterpiece. +He must still try his hand on lesser themes. Occasional pieces for the +orchestra or choruses strengthened his hold on these important elements +of lyric composition, and in 1858 he produce "Le Médecin malgré lui," +based on Molière's comedy, afterward performed as an English opera under +the title of "The Mock Doctor." Gounod's genius seems to have had no +affinity for the graceful and sparkling measures of comic music, and +his attempt to rival Rossini and Auber in the field where they were +preeminent was decidedly unsuccessful, though the opera contained much +fine music. + + +II. + +The year of his triumph had at last arrived. He had waited and toiled +for years over "Faust," and it was now ready to flash on the world with +an electric brightness that was to make his name instantly famous. +One day saw him an obscure, third-rate composer, the next one of the +brilliant names in art. "Faust," first performed March 19, 1859, fairly +took the world by storm. Gounod's warmest friends were amazed by +the beauty of the masterpiece, in which exquisite melody, great +orchestration, and a dramatic passion never surpassed in operatic art, +were combined with a scientific skill and precision which would vie +with that of the great masters of harmony. Carvalho, the manager of the +Theatre Lyrique, had predicted that the work would have a magnificent +reception by the art world, and lavished on it every stage resource. +Madame Miolan-Carvalho, his brilliant wife, one of the leading sopranos +of the day, sang the rôle of the heroine, though five years afterward +she was succeeded by Nilsson, who invested the part with a poetry and +tenderness which have never been quite equaled. + +"Faust" was received at Berlin, Vienna, Milan, St. Petersburg, and +London, with an enthusiasm not less than that which greeted its Parisian +début. The clamor of dispute between the different schools was for the +moment hushed in the delight with which the musical critics and public +of universal Europe listened to the magical measures of an opera which +to classical chasteness and severity of form and elevation of motive +united such dramatic passion, richness of melody, and warmth of +orchestral color. From that day to the present "Faust" has retained its +place as not only the greatest but the most popular of modern operas. +The proof of the composer's skill and sense of symmetry in the +composition of "Faust" is shown in the fact that each part is so nearly +necessary to the work, that but few "cuts" can be made in presentation +without essentially marring the beauty of the work; and it is therefore +given with close faithfulness to the author's score. + +After the immense success of "Faust," the doors of the Academy were +opened wide to Gounod. On February 28, 1862, the "Reine de Saba" was +produced, but was only a _succès d'estime_, the libretto by Gérard de +Nerval not being fitted for a lyric tragedy.* + + * It has been a matter of frequent comment by the ablest + musical critics that many noble operas, now never heard, + would have retained their place in the repertoires of modern + dramatic music, had it not been for the utter rubbish to + which the music has been set. + +Many numbers of this fine work, however, are still favorites on concert +programmes, and it has been given in English under the name of "Irene." +Gounod's love of romantic themes, and the interest in France which +Lamartine's glowing eulogies had excited about "Mireio," the beautiful +national poem of the Provençal, M. Frederic Mistral, led the former to +compose an opera on a libretto from this work, which was given at the +Théâtre Lyrique, March 19, 1864, under the name of "Mireille." The +music, however, was rather descriptive and lyric than dramatic, as +befitted this lovely ideal of early French provincial life; and in spite +of its containing some of the most captivating airs ever written, +and the fine interpretation of the heroine by Miolan-Carvalho, it was +accepted with reservations. It has since become more popular in +its three-act form to which it was abridged. It is a tribute to the +essential beauty of Gounod's music that, however unsuccessful as operas +certain of his works have been, they have all contributed charming +_morceaux_ for the enjoyment of concert audiences. Not only did the airs +of "Mireille" become public favorites, but its overture is frequently +given as a distinct orchestral work. + +The opera of "La Colombe," known in English as "The Pet Dove," followed +in 1866; and the next year was produced the five-act opera of "Roméo +et Juliette," of which the principal part was again taken by Madame +Miolan-Carvalho. The favorite pieces in this work, which is a highly +poetic rendering of Shakespeare's romantic tragedy, are the song of +_Queen Mab_, the garden duet, a short chorus in the second act, and +the duel scene in the third act. For some occult reason, "Roméo et +Juliette," though recognized as a work of exceptional beauty and merit, +and still occasionally performed, has no permanent hold on the operatic +public of to-day. + +The evils that fell on France from the German war and the horrors of the +Commune drove Gounod to reside in London, unlike Auber, who resolutely +refused to forsake the city of his love, in spite of the suffering and +privation which he foresaw, and which were the indirect cause of the +veteran composer's death. Gounod remained several years in England, and +lived a retired life, seemingly as if he shrank from public notice +and disdained public applause. His principal appearances were at the +Philharmonic, the Crystal Palace, and at Mrs. Weldon's concerts, where +he directed the performances of his own compositions. The circumstances +of his London residence seem to have cast a cloud over Gounod's life +and to have strangely unsettled his mind. Patriotic grief probably had +something to do with this at the outset. But even more than this as +a source of permanent irritation may be reckoned the spell cast over +Gounod's mind by a beautiful adventuress, who was ambitious to attain +social and musical recognition through the _éclat_ of the great +composer's friendship. Though newspaper report may be credited with +swelling and distorting the naked facts, enough appears to be known to +make it sure that the evil genius of Gounod's London life was a woman, +who traded recklessly with her own reputation and the French composer's +fame. + +However untoward the surroundings of Gounod, his genius did not lie +altogether dormant during this period of friction and fretfulness, +conditions so repressive to the best imaginative work. He composed +several masses and other church music; a "Stabat Mater" with orchestra; +the oratorio of "Tobie"; "Gallia," a lamentation for France; incidental +music for Legouvé's tragedy of "Les Deux Reines," and for Jules +Barbier's "Jeanne d'Arc"; a large number of songs and romances, both +sacred and secular, such as "Nazareth," and "There is a Green Hill"; +and orchestral works, a "Salterello in A," and the "Funeral March of a +Marionette." + +At last he broke loose from the bonds of Delilah, and, remembering that +he had been elected to fill the place of Clapisson in the Institute, +he returned to Paris in 1876 to resume the position which his genius +so richly deserved. On the 5th of March of the following year his +"Cinq-Mars" was brought out at the Theatre de l'Opéra Comique; but +it showed the traces of the haste and carelessness with which it was +written, and therefore commanded little more than a respectful hearing. +His last opera, "Polyeucte," produced at the Grand Opera, October 7, +1878, though credited with much beautiful music, and nobly orchestrated, +is not regarded by the French critics as likely to add anything to the +reputation of the composer of "Faust." Gounod, now at the age of sixty, +if we judge him by the prolonged fertility of so many of the great +composers, may be regarded as not having largely passed the prime of +his powers. The world still has a right to expect much from his genius. +Conceded even by his opponents to be a great musician and a thorough +master of the orchestra, more generous critics in the main agree to rank +Gounod as the most remarkable contemporary composer, with the possible +exception of Richard Wagner. The distinctive trait of his dramatic +conceptions seems to be an imagination hovering between sensuous images +and mystic dreams. Originally inspired by the severe Greek sculpture +of Gluck's music, he has applied that master's laws in the creation of +tone-pictures full of voluptuous color, but yet solemnized at times by +an exaltation which recalls the time when as a youth he thought of the +spiritual dignity of the priesthood. The use he makes of his religious +reminiscences is familiarly illustrated in "Faust." The contrast between +two opposing principles is marked in all of Gounod's dramatic works, and +in "Faust" this struggle of "a soul which invades mysticism and which +still seeks to express voluptuousness" not only colors the music with a +novel fascination, but amounts to an interesting psychological problem. + + +III. + +Gounod's genius fills too large a space in contemporary music to be +passed over without a brief special study. In pursuit of this no better +method suggests itself than an examination of the opera of "Faust," into +which the composer poured the finest inspirations of his life, even +as Goethe embodied the sum and flower of his long career, which had +garnered so many experiences, in his poetic masterpiece. + +The story of "Faust" has tempted many composers. Prince Radziwill tried +it, and then Spohr set a version of the theme at once coarse and cruel, +full of vulgar witchwork and love-making only fit for a chambermaid. +Since then Schumann, Liszt, Wagner, and Berlioz have treated the story +orchestrally with more or less success. Gounod's treatment of the poem +is by far the most intelligible, poetic, and dramatic ever attempted, +and there is no opera since the days of Gluck with so little weak music, +except Beethoven's "Fidelio." + +In the introduction the restless gloom of the old philospher and the +contrasted joys of youth engaged in rustic revelry outside are expressed +with graphic force; and the Kirmes music in the next act is so quaint +and original, as well as melodious, as to give the sense of delightful +comedy. When _Marguerite_ enters on the scene, we have a waltz and +chorus of such beauty and piquancy as would have done honor to Mozart. +Indeed, in the dramatic use of dance music Gounod hardly yields in +skill and originality to Meyerbeer himself, though the latter composer +specially distinguished himself in this direction. The third and fourth +acts develop all the tenderness and passion of _Marguerite's_ character, +all the tragedy of her doom. + +After _Faust's_ beautiful monologue in the garden come the song of the +"King of Thule" and _Marguerites_ delight at finding the jewels, which +conjoined express the artless vanity of the child in a manner alike full +of grace and pathos. The quartet that follows is one of great beauty, +the music of each character being thoroughly in keeping, while the +admirable science of the composer blends all into thorough artistic +unity. It is hardly too much to assert that the love scene which closes +this act has nothing to surpass it for fire, passion, and tenderness, +seizing the mind of the hearer with absorbing force by its suggestion +and imagery, while the almost cloying sweetness of the melody is such +as Rossini and Schubert only could equal. The full confession of the +enamored pair contained in the brief _adagio_ throbs with such rapture +as to find its most suggestive parallel in the ardent words commencing +"Gallop apace, ye fiery-looted steeds," placed by Shakespeare in the +mouth of the expectant _Juliet_. + +Beauties succeed each other in swift and picturesque succession, fitting +the dramatic order with a nicety which forces the highest praise of +the critic. The march and chorus marking the return of _Valentine's_ +regiment beat with a fire and enthusiasm to which the tramp of +victorious squadrons might well keep step. The wicked music of +_Mephistopheles_ in the sarcastic serenade, the powerful duel trio, and +_Valentine's_ curse are of the highest order of expression; while the +church scene, where the fiend whispers his taunts in the ear of the +disgraced _Marguerite_, as the gloomy musical hymn and peals of the +organ menace her with an irreversible doom, is a weird and thrilling +picture of despair, agony, and devilish exultation. + +Gounod has been blamed for violating the reverence due to sacred things, +employing portions of the church service in this scene, instead of +writing music for it. But this is the last resort of critical hostility, +seeking a peg on which to hang objection. Meyerbeer's splendid +introduction of Luther's great hymn, "Ein' feste Burg," in "Les +Huguenots," called forth a similar criticism from his German assailants. +Some of the most dramatic effects in music have been created by this +species of musical quotation, so rich in its appeal to memory and +association. Who that has once heard can forget the thrilling power of +"La Marseillaise" in Schumann's setting of Heinrich Heine's poem of "The +Two Grenadiers"? The two French soldiers, weary and broken-hearted after +the Russian campaign, approach the German frontier. The veterans are +moved to tears as they think of their humiliated Emperor. Up speaks one +suffering with a deadly hurt to the other: "Friend, when I am dead, +bury me in my native France, with my cross of honor on my breast, and +my musket in my hand, and lay my good sword by my side." Until this time +the melody has been a slow and dirge-like stave in the minor key. The +old soldier declares his belief that he will rise again from the clods +when he hears the victorious tramp of his Emperor's squadrons passing +over his grave, and the minor breaks into a weird setting of the +"Marseillaise" in the major key. Suddenly it closes with a few solemn +chords, and, instead of the smoke of battle and the march of the phantom +host, the imagination sees the lonely plain with its green mounds and +moldering crosses. + +Readers will pardon this digression illustrating an artistic law, of +which Gounod has made such effective use in the church scene of his +"Faust" in heightening its tragic solemnity. The wild goblin symphony +in the fifth act has added some new effects to the gamut of deviltry in +music, and shows that Weber in the "Wolf's Glen" and Meyerbeer in the +"Cloisters of St. Rosalie" did not exhaust the somewhat limited field. +The whole of this part of the act, sadly mutilated and abridged often +in representation, is singularly picturesque and striking as a musical +conception, and is a fitting companion to the tragic prison scene. +The despair of the poor crazed _Marguerite_; her delirious joy in +recognizing _Faust_; the temptation to fly; the final outburst of faith +and hope, as the sense of Divine pardon sinks into her soul--all these +are touched with the fire of genius, and the passion sweeps with an +unfaltering force to its climax. These references to the details of a +work so familiar as "Faust," conveying of course no fresh information to +the reader, have been made to illustrate the peculiarities of Gounod's +musical temperament, which sways in such fascinating contrast between +the voluptuous and the spiritual. But whether his accents belong to +the one or the other, they bespeak a mood flushed with earnestness and +fervor, and a mind which recoils from the frivolous, however graceful it +may be. + +In the Franco-German school, of which Gounod is so high an exponent, the +orchestra is busy throughout developing the history of the emotions, and +in "Faust" especially it is as busy a factor in expressing the passions +of the characters as the vocal parts. Not even in the "garden scene" +does the singing reduce the instruments to a secondary importance. The +difference between Gounod and Wagner, who professes to elaborate the +importance of the orchestra in dramatic music, is that the former has a +skill in writing for the voice which the other lacks. The one lifts the +voice by the orchestration, the other submerges it. Gounod's affluence +of lovely melody can only be compared with that of Mozart and Rossini, +and his skill and ingenuity in treating the orchestra have wrung +reluctant praise from his bitterest opponents. + +The special power which makes Gounod unique in his art, aside from those +elements before alluded to as derived from temperament, is his unerring +sense of dramatic fitness, which weds such highly suggestive music +to each varying phase of character and action. To this perhaps one +exception may be made. While he possesses a certain airy playfulness, +he fails in rich broad humor utterly, and situations of comedy are by no +means so well handled as the more serious scenes. + +A good illustration of this may be found in "Le Médecin malgré lui," +in the couplets given to the drunken _Sganarelle_. They are beautiful +music, but utterly unflavored with the _vis comica_. + +Had Gounod written only "Faust," it should stamp him as one of the +most highly gifted composers of his age. Noticeably in his other works, +preeminently in this, he has shown a melodic freshness and fertility, +a mastery of musical form, a power of orchestration, and a dramatic +energy, which are combined to the same degree in no one of his rivals. +Therefore it is just to place him in the first rank of contemporary +composers. + + +IV. + +Among contemporary French composers there is no name which suggests +itself in comparison with that of Gounod so worthily as that of Ambroise +Thomas, famous in every country where the opera is a favorite form of +public amusement, as the author of "Mignon" and "Hamlet." Lacking the +depth and passion of Gounod, he is distinguished by a peculiar sparkle, +grace, and Gallic lightness of touch; and if we do not find in him the +earnestness and spiritual significance of his rival's conceptions, +there is, on the other hand, in the works of Thomas, a glow of poetic +sentiment which invests them with a charming atmosphere, peculiarly +their own. Perhaps in his own country Thomas enjoys a repute still +higher than that of Gounod, for his genius is more peculiarly French, +while the composer of "Faust" shows the radical influence of the German +school, not only in the cast of his thoughts and temperament, but in his +technical musical methods. Still, as all artists are profoundly moved +by the tendencies of their age, it would not be difficult to find in the +later works of Thomas, on which his celebrity is based, some unconscious +modeling of form wrought by that musical school of which Richard Wagner +is the most advanced type. + +Ambroise Thomas was born at Metz, France, on August 5, 1811, and is +therefore by seven years the senior of Charles Gounod. His aptitudes for +music were so strong that he learned the notes as quickly as he acquired +the letters of the alphabet. At the age of four he was instructed in his +_solfeggi_ by his father, who was a professor of music, and three years +later he began to take lessons on the violin and piano. When he was +seventeen he was thoroughly proficient in all the preparatory studies +demanded for admission to the Paris Conservatoire, and he easily +obtained admission into that great institution. He first studied under +Zimmermann and Kalkbrenner, and afterward under Dourlen, Barbereau, Le +Sueur, and Reicha. For successive years he carried off first prizes: for +the piano in 1829; for harmony, in 1830; and in 1832 the highest honor +in composition was awarded him, the Prix de Rome, which allowed him to +go to Italy as a government stipendiary. + +Our young laureate passed three years in Italy, spending most of his +time at Rome and Naples. The special result of his Italian studies was +a requiem mass, which was performed with great approbation from its +musical judges at Paris and Rome. After traveling in Germany, Thomas +returned to Paris in 1836, thoroughly equipped for his career as +composer, for he had been an indefatigable student, and neglected no +opportunity of perfecting his knowledge. The first step in the brilliant +career of Thomas was the production of a comic opera in one act, "La +Double Échelle," produced in 1837. This met with a good reception, +and it was promptly followed by the production of several other light +scores, that further enhanced his reputation for talent. He was not +generally recognized by musicians as a man of marked promise till he +produced "Mina," a comic opera in three acts, which was represented in +1843. The beauty of the instrumentation and the melodious richness of +the work were unmistakable, and henceforth every production of the young +composer was watched with great interest. + +Ambroise Thomas could not be said to have reached a great popular +success until he produced "Le Caïd," a work of the _opéra-boitffe_ +type, which instantly became an immense public favorite. This was first +represented in 1849, and it has always held its place on the French +stage as one of the most delightful works of its class, in spite of +the competition of such later outgrowths of the opera-bouffe, school +as Offenbach, Lecocq, and others. The score of this work proved to be +immensely amusing and brightly melodious, and it was such a pecuniary +success that the more judicious friends of Thomas feared that he might +be seduced into cultivating a field far below the powers of his poetic +imagination and thorough musical science. Strong heads might easily be +turned by such lavish applause, and it would not have been wonderful had +Thomas, dazzled by the reception of "Le Caïd," remained for a long +time a wanderer from the path which lay open to his great talents. The +composer's ambition, however, proved to be too high to content itself +with ephemeral success, or cultivating the more frivolous forms of his +art, however profitable aid pleasant these might be. + +In 1850 Ambroise Thomas produced two operas: "Le Songe d'une Nuit +d'Été," resembling in style somewhat that masterpiece produced in +after-years, "Mignon," and a somber work based on the legend of "The Man +with the Iron Mask," "Le Secret de la Reine." The melodramatic character +of this latter work seems to have been imitated from the highly accented +and artificial style of Verdi, instead of possessing the bright and airy +charm natural to Thomas. The vacancy left by Spontini's death in the +French Institute was filled by the election of M. Thomas, who was deemed +most worthy, among all the musical names offered, of taking the place of +the author of "La Vestale." He justified the taste of his co-members by +his production in 1853 of the comic opera of "La Tonelli," a work +which, though not greatly successful with "hoi polloi," was an admirable +specimen of light and graceful opera at its best. The new academician +was recompensed for the public indifference by the cordial appreciation +which connoisseurs gave this tasteful and scientific production. +Another comic opera, "Psyche," which soon appeared, though full of witty +burlesque and humor in the libretto, and marked by delicious melody in +every part, failed to please, perhaps on account of the predominance +of feminine rôles, and the absence of a good tenor part. Still a third +comic opera, the "Carnaval de Venise" saw the light the same season, +which was written in large measure to show the marvelous flexibility of +Mme. Cabal's voice. Very few singers have been able to sing the rôle of +_Sylvia_, who warbles a violin concerto from beginning to end, under the +title of an "Ariette without Words." + +Ambroise Thomas remained silent now for half a dozen years, aside from +the composition of a few charming songs. It is natural to suppose that +he was brooding over the conception of his greatest work, which was next +to see the light of day, and add one more to the great operas of the +world. Such compositions are not hastily manufactured, but grow +for years out of the travail of heart and brain, deep thought, high +imaginings, passionate sensibilities, elaborately wrought by time and +patience, till at last they are crystallized into form. + +"Mignon," a comic opera in three acts, was first represented at the +Théâtre Lyrique, on November 17, 1866, before one of the most brilliant +and enthusiastic audiences ever gathered in Paris. Its success was +magnificent. This was seven years after Gounod had made such a great +stride among the composers of the age, by the production of "Faust"; +and it is within bounds to say that, since "Faust," no opera had been +produced in Paris so vital with the breath of genius and great purpose, +so full of sentiment and poetry, so symmetrical and balanced in its +differentiation of music measured by its dramatic value, so instantly +and splendidly recognized by the public, cultured and ignorant, gentle +and simple. + +Like "Faust," too, the opera of Thomas was based on a creation of +Goethe. Without the pathetic episode of "Mignon," the novel of "Wilhelm +Meister" would lose much of its dramatic strength and quality. Of +course, every libretto must part with some of the charm of the story +on which it is built; but in this instance the author succeeds in +preserving nearly all the intrinsic worth of the Mignon episode. The +music is admirably suited to a noble theme. There is hardly a weak +bar in it from beginning to end; and some of the work here done by the +composer will compare favorably with any operatic music ever hoard. In +this opera melodic phrase goes hand in hand with character and motive, +and _Mignon, Philina, Wilhelm Meister, and Lothario_, are distinguished +in the music with the finest dramatic discrimination. + +Among the operas of recent years, "Mignon" ranks among the first for +its taste, grace, and poetry. The first act is vigorous, bright, and +picturesque; the second, touched with the finest points of passion and +humor; the third is inspired with a pathos and poetic ardor which lift +the composer to do his most magnificent work. But to describe "Mignon" +to the public of today, which has heard it almost an innumerable number +of times, is, as much as in the case of Gounod's "Faust," "carrying +coals to Newcastle." + +In 1868 Thomas produced "Hamlet," and it was represented at the Grand +Opera, with Mile. Christine Nilsson in the rôle of _Ophelia_, the +same singer having, if we mistake not, created the rôle of _Mignon_. +"Hamlet," though a marked artistic success, has failed to make the +same popular impression as "Mignon," possibly because the theme is less +suited to operatic treatment; for the music _per se_ is of a fine type, +and full of the genuine accents of passion. + +In addition to the works named above, Ambroise Thomas has written "La +Gypsy," "Le Panier Fleuri," "Carline," "Le Roman d'Elvire," several +fine masses, many beautiful songs, a requiem, and miscellaneous +church-pieces. Thomas is famous in France for the generous encouragement +and help which he extends to all young musicians, assistance which his +position in the Paris Conservatoire helps to make most valuable. He +is now seventy-one years old, and, should he add nothing more to the +musical treasures of the present generation, much of what he has already +done will give him a permanent place in the temple of lyric music. + + + + +BERLIOZ. + + +I. + +In the long list of brilliant names which have illustrated the fine +arts, there is none attached to a personality more interesting and +impressive than that of Hector Berlioz. He stands solitary, a colossus +in music, with but few admirers and fewer followers. Original, puissant +in faculties, fiercely dogmatic and intolerant, bizarre, his influence +has impressed itself profoundly on the musical world both for good +and evil, but has failed to make disciples or to rear a school. +Notwithstanding the defects and extravagances of Berlioz, it is safe to +assert that no art or philosophy can boast of an example of more perfect +devotion to an ideal. The startling originality of Berlioz as a musician +rests on a mental and emotional organization different from and in some +respects superior to that of any other eminent master. He possessed an +ardent temperament; a gorgeous imagination, that knew no rest in its +working, and at times became heated to the verge of madness; a most +subtile sense of hearing; an intellect of the keenest analytic turn; a +most arrogant will, full of enterprise and daring, which clung to its +purpose with unrelenting tenacity; and passions of such heat and fervor +that they rarely failed when aroused to carry him beyond all bounds +of reason. His genius was unique, his character cast in the mold of a +Titan, his life a tragedy. Says Blaze de Bussy: "Art has its martyrs, +its forerunners crying in the wilderness, and feeding on roots. It has +also its spoiled children sated with bonbons and dainties." Berlioz +belongs to the former of these classes, and, if ever a prophet lifted up +his voice with a vehement and incessant outcry, it was he. + +Hector Berlioz was born on December 11, 1803, at Côte Saint André, +a small town between Grenoble and Lyons. His father was an excellent +physician of more than ordinary attainments, and he superintended his +son's studies with great zeal in the hope that the lad would also become +an ornament of the healing profession. But young Hector, though an +excellent scholar in other branches, developed a special aptitude +for music, and at twelve he could sing at sight, and play difficult +concertos on the flute. The elder regarded music only as a graceful +ornament to life, and in no wise encouraged his son in thinking of music +as a profession. So it was not long before Hector found his attention +directed to anatomy, physiology, osteology, etc. In his father's library +he had already read of Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, etc., and had found a +manuscript score of an opera which he had committed to memory. His +soul revolted more and more from the path cut out for him. "Become a +physician!" he cried, "study anatomy; dissect; take part in horrible +operations? No! no! That would be a total subversion of the natural +course of my life." + +But parental resolution carried the day, and, after he had finished the +preliminary course of study, he was ordered up to Paris to join the army +of medical students. So at the age of nineteen we find him lodged in +the Quartier Latin. His first introduction to medical studies had been +unfortunate. On entering a dissecting-room he had been so convulsed with +horror as to leap from the window, and rush to his lodgings in an agony +of dread and disgust, whence he did not emerge for twenty-four hours. +At last, however, by dint of habit he became somewhat used to the +disagreeable facts of his new life, and, to use his own words, "bade +fair to add one more to the army of bad physicians," when he went to +the opera one night and heard "Les Danaïdes," Salieri's opera, performed +with all the splendid completeness of the Académie Royale. This awakened +into fresh life an unquenchable thirst for music, and he neglected his +medical studies for the library of the Conservatoire, where he learned +by heart the scores of Gluck and Rameau. At last, on coming out one +night from a performance of "Iphigénie," he swore that henceforth music +should have her divine rights of him, in spite of all and everything. +Henceforth hospital, dissecting-room, and professor's lectures knew him +no more. + +But to get admission to the Conservatoire was now the problem; Berlioz +set to work on a cantata with orchestral accompaniments, and in the mean +time sent the most imploring letters home asking his father's sanction +for this change of life. The inexorable parent replied by cutting off +his son's allowance, saying that he would not help him to become one +of the miserable herd of unsuccessful musicians. The young enthusiast's +cantata gained him admission to the classes of Le Sueur and Reicha at +the Conservatoire, but alas! dire poverty stared him in the face. The +history of his shifts and privations for some months is a sad one. He +slept in an old, unfurnished garret, and shivered under insufficient +bedclothing, ate his bread and grapes on the Pont Neuf, and sometimes +debated whether a plunge into the Seine would not be the easiest way +out of it all. No mongrel cur in the capital but had a sweeter bone to +crunch than he. But the young fellow for all this stuck to his work with +dogged tenacity, managed to get a mass performed at St. Roch church, and +soon finished the score of an opera, "Les Francs Juges." Flesh and +blood would have given way at last under this hard diet, if he had +not obtained a position in the chorus of the Théâtre des Noveauteaus. +Berlioz gives an amusing account of his going to compete with the horde +of applicants--butchers, bakers, shop-apprentices, etc.--each one with +his roll of music under his arm. + +The manager scanned the raw-boned starveling with a look of wonder. +"Where's your music?" quoth the tyrant of a third-class theatre. "I +don't want any, I can sing anything you can give me at sight," was the +answer. "The devil!" rejoined the manager; "but we haven't any music +here." "Well, what do you want?" said Berlioz. "I sing every note of all +the operas of Gluck, Piccini, Salieri, Rameau, Spontini, Grétry, Mozart, +and Cimarosa, from memory." At hearing this amazing declaration, the +rest of the competitors slunk away abashed, and Berlioz, after singing +an aria from Spontini, was accorded the place, which guaranteed him +fifty francs per month--a pittance, indeed, and yet a substantial +addition to his resources. This pot-boiling connection of Berlioz was +never known to the public till after he became a distinguished man, +though he was accustomed to speak in vague terms of his early dramatic +career as if it were a matter of romantic importance. + +At last, however, he was relieved of the necessity of singing on the +stage to amuse the Paris _bourgeoisie_, and in a singular fashion. He +had been put to great straits to get his first work, which had won him +his way into the Conservatoire, performed. An application to the great +Chateaubriand, who was noted for benevolence, had failed, for the author +of "La Génie de Christianisme" was then almost as poor as Berlioz. At +last a young friend, De Pons, advanced him twelve hundred francs. Part +of this Berlioz had repaid, but the creditor, put to it for money, wrote +to Berlioz père, demanding a full settlement of the debt. The father was +thus brought again into communication with his son, whom he found nearly +sick unto death with a fever. His heart relented, and the old allowance +was resumed again, enabling the young musician to give his whole time to +his beloved art, instantly he convalesced from his illness. + +The eccentric ways and heretical notions of Berlioz made him no favorite +with the dons of the Conservatoire, and by the irritable and autocratic +Cherubini he was positively hated. The young man took no pains to +placate this resentment, but on the other hand elaborated methods of +making himself doubly offensive. His power of stinging repartee stood +him in good stead, and he never put a button on his foil. Had it been in +old Cherubini's power to expel this bold pupil from the Conservatoire, +no scruple would have held him back. But the genius and industry of +Berlioz were undeniable, and there was no excuse for such extreme +measures. Prejudiced as were his judges, he successively took several +important prizes. + + +II. + +Berlioz's happiest evenings were at the Grand Opéra, for which he +prepared himself by solemn meditation. At the head of a band of students +and amateurs, he took on himself the right of the most outspoken +criticism, and led the enthusiasm or the condemnation of the audience. +At this time Beethoven was barely tolerated in Paris, and the great +symphonist was ruthlessly clipped and shorn to suit the French taste, +which pronounced him "bizarre, incoherent, diffuse, bustling with +rough modulations and wild harmonies, destitute of melody, forced in +expression, noisy, and fearfully difficult," even as England at the same +time frowned down his immortal works as "obstreperous roarings of +modern frenzy." Berlioz's clear, stern voice would often be heard, +when liberties were taken with the score, loud above the din of the +instruments. "What wretch has dared to tamper with the great Beethoven?" +"Who has taken upon him to revise Gluck?" This self-appointed arbiter +became the dread of the operatic management, for, as a pupil of the +Conservatoire, he had some rights which could not be infringed. + +Berlioz composed some remarkable works while at the Conservatoire, +among which were the "Ouverture des Francs Juges," and the symphonie +"Fantastique," and in many ways indicated that the bent of his genius +had fully declared itself. His decided and indomitable nature disdained +to wear a mask, and he never sugar-coated his opinion, however +unpalatable to others. He was already in a state of fierce revolt +against the conventional forms of the music of his day, and no +trumpet-tones of protest were too loud for him. He had now begun to +write for the journals, though oftentimes his articles were refused on +account of their fierce assaults. "Your hands are too full of stones, +and there are too many glass windows about," was the excuse of one +editor, softening the return of a manuscript. But Berlioz did not fully +know himself or appreciate the tendencies fermenting within him until +in 1830 he became the victim of a grand Shakespearean passion. The great +English dramatist wrought most powerfully on Victor Hugo and Hector +Berlioz, and had much to do with their artistic development. Berlioz +gives a very interesting account of his Shakespearean enthusiasm, which +also involved one of the catastrophes of his own personal life. "An +English company gave some plays of Shakespeare, at that time wholly +unknown to the French public. I went to the first performance of +'Hamlet' at the Odéon. I saw, in the part of _Ophelia_, Harriet +Smithson, who became my wife five years afterward. The effect of her +prodigious talent, or rather of her dramatic genius, upon my heart and +imagination, is only comparable to the complete overturning which the +poet, whose worthy interpreter she was, caused in me. Shakespeare, thus +coming on me suddenly, struck me as with a thunderbolt. His lightning +opened the heaven of art to me with a sublime crash, and lighted up its +farthest depths. I recognized true dramatic grandeur, beauty, and truth. +I measured at the same time the boundless inanity of the notions of +Shakespeare in France, spread abroad by Voltaire, + + '... ce singe de génie, + Chez l'homme en mission par le diable envoyé--' + +(that ape of genius, an emissary from the devil to man),' and the +pitiful poverty of our old poetry of pedagogues and ragged-school +teachers. I saw, I understood, I felt that I was alive and must arise +and walk." Of the influence of "Romeo and Juliet" on him, he says: +"Exposing myself to the burning sun and balmy nights of Italy, seeing +this love as quick and sudden as thought, burning like lava, imperious, +irresistible, boundless, and pure and beautiful as the smile of angels, +those furious scenes of vengeance, those distracted embraces, those +struggles between love and death, was too much. After the melancholy, +the gnawing anguish, the tearful love, the cruel irony, the somber +meditations, the heart-rackings, the madness, tears, mourning, the +calamities and sharp cleverness of _Hamlet_; after the gray clouds and +icy winds of Denmark; after the third act, hardly breathing, in pain as +if a hand of iron were squeezing at my heart, I said to myself with the +fullest conviction: 'Ah! I am lost.' I must add that I did not at that +time know a word of English, that I only caught glimpses of Shakespeare +through the fog of Letourneur's translation, and that I consequently +could not perceive the poetic web that surrounds his marvelous creations +like a net of gold. I have the misfortune to be very nearly in the same +sad case to-day. It is much harder for a Frenchman to sound the +depths of Shakespeare than for an Englishman to feel the delicacy +and originality of La Fontaine or Molière. Our two poets are rich +continents; Shakespeare is a world. But the play of the actors, above +all of the actress, the succession of the scenes, the pantomime and the +accent of the voices, meant more to me, and filled me a thousand times +more with Shakespearean ideas and passion than the text of my colorless +and unfaithful translation. An English critic said last winter in the +'Illustrated London News,' that, after seeing Miss Smithson in _Juliet_, +I had cried out, 'I will marry that woman and write my grandest symphony +on this play.' I did both, but never said anything of the sort." + +The beautiful Miss Smithson became the rage, the inspiration of poets +and painters, the idol of the hour, at whose feet knelt all the _roués_ +and rich idlers of the town. Delacroix painted her as the _Ophelia_ +of his celebrated picture, and the English company made nearly as much +sensation in Paris as the Comédie Française recently aroused in London. +Berlioz's mind, perturbed and inflamed with the mighty images of +the Shakespearean world, swept with wide, powerful passion toward +Shakespeare's interpreter. He raged and stormed with his accustomed +vehemence, made no secret of his infatuation, and walked the streets at +night, calling aloud the name of the enchantress, and cooling his heated +brows with many a sigh. He, too, would prove that he was a great artist, +and his idol should know that she had no unworthy lover. He would give +a concert, and Miss Smithson should be present by hook or by crook. +He went to Cherubini and asked permission to use the great hall of the +Conservatoire, but was churlishly refused. Berlioz however, managed to +secure the concession over the head of Cherubini, and advertised his +concert. He went to large expense in copyists, orchestra, solo-singers, +and chorus, and, when the night came, was almost fevered with +expectation. But the concert was a failure, and the adored one was not +there; she had not even heard of it! The disappointment nearly laid +the young composer on a bed of sickness; but, if he oscillated between +deliriums of hope and despair, his powerful will was also full of +elasticity, and not for long did he even rave in the utter ebb of +disappointment. Throughout the whole of his life, Berlioz displayed this +swiftness of recoil; one moment crazed with grief and depression, +the next he would bend to his labor with a cool, steady fixedness of +purpose, which would sweep all interferences aside like cobwebs. But +still, night after night, he would haunt the Odéon, and drink in the +sights and sounds of the magic world of Shakespeare, getting fresh +inspiration nightly for his genius and love. If he paid dearly for this +rich intellectual acquaintance by his passion for La Belle Smithson, he +yet gained impulses and suggestions for his imagination, ravenous of new +impressions, which wrought deeply and permanently. Had Berlioz known the +outcome, he would not have bartered for immunity by losing the jewels +and ingots of the Shakespeare treasure-house. + +The year 1830 was for Berlioz one of alternate exaltation and misery; +of struggle, privation, disappointment; of all manner of torments +inseparable from such a volcanic temperament and restless brain. But he +had one consolation which gratified his vanity. He gained the Prix de +Rome by his cantata of "Sardanapalus." This honor had a practical value +also. It secured him an annuity of three thousand francs for a period of +five years, and two years' residence in Italy. Berlioz would never let +"well enough" alone, however. He insisted on adding an orchestral part +to the completed score, describing the grand conflagration of the palace +of Sardanapalus. When the work was produced, it was received with a +howl of sarcastic derision, owing to the latest whim of the composer. So +Berlioz started for Italy, smarting with rage and pain, as if the Furies +were lashing him with their scorpion whips. + + +III. + +The pensioners of the Conservatoire lived at Rome in the Villa Medici, +and the illustrious painter, Horace Vernet, was the director, though he +exercised but little supervision over the studies of the young men under +his nominal charge. Berlioz did very much as he pleased--studied little +or much as the whim seized him, visited the churches, studios, and +picture-galleries, and spent no little of his time by starlight and +sunlight roaming about the country adjacent to the Holy City in search +of adventures. He had soon come to the conclusion that he had not much +to learn of Italian music; that he could teach rather than be taught. He +speaks of Roman art with the bitterest scorn, and Wagner himself never +made a more savage indictment of Italian music than does Berlioz in his +"Mémoires." At the theatres he found the orchestra, dramatic unity, and +common-sense all sacrificed to mere vocal display. At St. Peter's and +the Sistine Chapel religious earnestness and dignity were frittered away +in pretty part-singing, in mere frivolity and meretricious show. The +word "symphony" was not known except to indicate an indescribable +noise before the rising of the curtain. Nobody had heard of Weber and +Beethoven, and Mozart, dead more than a score of years, was mentioned by +a well-known musical connoisseur as a young man of great promise! Such +surroundings as these were a species of purgatory to Berlioz, against +whose bounds he fretted and raged without intermission. The director's +receptions were signalized by the performance of insipid cavatinas, and +from these, as from his companions' revels in which he would sometimes +indulge with the maddest debauchery as if to kill his own thoughts, he +would escape to wander in the majestic ruins of the Coliseum and see the +magic Italian moonlight shimmer through its broken arches, or stroll on +the lonely Campagna till his clothes were drenched with dew. No fear of +the deadly Roman malaria could check his restless excursions, for, like +a fiery horse, he was irritated to madness by the inaction of his life. +To him the _dolce far niente_ was a meaningless phrase. His comrades +scoffed at him and called him "_Père la Joie_," in derision of the +fierce melancholy which despised them, their pursuits and pleasures. + +At the end of the year he was obliged to present, something before +the Institute as a mark of his musical advancement, and he sent on a +fragment of his "Mass" heard years before at St. Roch, in which the wise +judges professed to find the "evidences of material advancement, and the +total abandonment of his former reprehensible tendencies." One can +fancy the scornful laughter of Berlioz at hearing this verdict. But his +Italian life was not altogether purposeless. He revised his "Symphonie +Fantastique," and wrote its sequel, "Lelio," a lyrical monologue, in +which he aimed to express the memories of his passion for the beautiful +Miss Smithson. These two parts comprised what Berlioz named "An Episode +in the Life of an Artist." Our composer managed to get the last six +months of his Italian exile remitted, and his return to Paris was +hastened by one of those furious paroxysms of rage to which such +ill-regulated minds are subject. He had adored Miss Smithson as a +celestial divinity, a lovely ideal of art and beauty, but this had not +prevented him from basking in the rays of the earthly Venus. Before +leaving Paris he had had an intrigue with a certain Mile. M------, +a somewhat frivolous and unscrupulous beauty, who had bled his not +overfilled purse with the avidity of a leech. Berlioz heard just before +returning to Paris that the coquette was about to marry, a conclusion +one would fancy which would have rejoiced his mind. But, no! he was +worked to a dreadful rage by what he considered such perfidy! His one +thought was to avenge himself. He provided himself with three loaded +pistols--one for the faithless one, one for his rival, and one for +himself--and was so impatient to start that he could not wait for +passports. He attempted to cross the frontier in women's clothes, and +was arrested. A variety of _contretemps_ occurred before he got to +Paris, and by that time his rage had so cooled, his sense of the +absurdity of the whole thing grown so keen, that he was rather willing +to send Mile. M------his blessing than his curse. + +About the time of Berlioz's arrival, Miss Smithson also returned +to Paris after a long absence, with the intent of undertaking the +management of an English theatre. It was a necessity of our composer's +nature to be in love, and the flames of his ardor, fed with fresh fuel, +blazed up again from their old ashes. Berlioz gave a concert, in which +his "Episode in the Life of an Artist" was interpreted in connection +with the recitations of the text. The explanations of "Lelio" so +unmistakably pointed to the feeling of the composer for herself, that +Miss Smithson, who by chance was present, could not be deceived, though +she never yet had seen Berlioz. A few days afterward a benefit concert +was arranged, in which Miss Smithson's troupe was to take part, as well +as Berlioz, who was to direct a symphony of his own composition. At +the rehearsal, the looks of Berlioz followed Miss Smithson with such +an intent stare, that she said to some one, "Who is that man whose eyes +bode me no good?" This was the first occasion of their personal meeting, +and it may be fancied that Berlioz followed up the introduction with his +accustomed vehemence and pertinacity, though without immediate effect, +for Miss Smithson was more inclined to fear than to love him. + +The young directress soon found out that the rage for Shakespeare, which +had swept the public mind under the influence of the romanticism led by +Victor Hugo, Dumas, Théophile Gautier, Balzac, and others, was spurious. +The wave had been frothing but shallow, and it ebbed away, leaving the +English actress and her enterprise gasping for life. With no deeper +tap-root than the Gallic love of novelty and the infectious enthusiasm +of a few men of great genius, the Shakespearean mania had a short +life, and Frenchmen shrugged their shoulders over their own folly, in +temporarily preferring the English barbarian to Racine, Corneille, and +Molière. The letters of Berlioz, in which he scourges the fickleness +of his countrymen in returning again to their "false gods," are +masterpieces of pointed invective. + +Miss Smithson was speedily involved in great pecuniary difficulty, and, +to add to her misfortunes, she fell down stairs and broke her leg, +thus precluding her own appearance on the stage. Affairs were in this +desperate condition, when Berlioz came to the fore with a delicate and +manly chivalry worthy of the highest praise. He offered to pay Miss +Smithson's debts, though a poor man himself, and to marry her without +delay. The ceremony took place immediately, and thus commenced a +connection which hampered and retarded Berlioz's career, as well as +caused him no little personal unhappiness. He speedily discovered that +his wife was a woman of fretful, imperious temper, jealous of mere +shadows (though Berlioz was a man to give her substantial cause), and +totally lacking in sympathy writh his high-art ideals. + +When Mme. Berlioz recovered, it was to find herself unable longer to +act, as her leg was stiff and her movements unsuited to the exigencies +of the stage. Poor Berlioz was crushed by the weight of the obligations +he had assumed, and, as the years went on, the peevish plaints of an +invalid wife, who had lost her beauty and power of charming, withered +the affection which had once been so fervid and passionate. Berlioz +finally separated from his once beautiful and worshiped Harriet +Smithson, but to the very last supplied her wants as fully as he +could out of the meager earnings of his literary work and of musical +compositions, which the Paris public, for the most part, did not care to +listen to. For his son, Louis, the only offspring of this union, Berlioz +felt a devoted affection, and his loss at sea in after-years was a blow +that nearly broke his heart. + + +IV. + +Owing to the unrelenting hostility of Cherubini, Berlioz failed to +secure a professorship at the Conservatoire, a place to which he was +nobly entitled, and was fain to take up with the position of librarian +instead. The paltry wage he eked out by journalistic writing, for the +most part as musical critic of the "Journal des Débats," by occasional +concerts, revising proofs, in a word anything which a versatile and +desperate Bohemian could turn his hand to. In fact, for many years the +main subsistence of Berlioz was derived from feuilleton-writing and +the labors of a critic. His prose is so witty, brilliant, fresh, and +epigrammatic that he would have been known to posterity as a clever +_litterateur_, had he not preferred to remain merely a great musician. +Dramatic, picturesque, and subtile, with an admirable sense of art-form, +he could have become a powerful dramatist, perhaps a great novelist. But +his soul, all whose aspirations set toward one goal, revolted from the +labors of literature, still more from the daily grind of journalistic +drudgery. In that remarkable book, "Mémoires de Hector Berlioz," he +has made known his misery, and thus recounts one of his experiences: +"I stood at the window gazing into the gardens, at the heights of +Montmartre, at the setting sun; reverie bore me a thousand leagues from +my accursed comic opera. And when, on turning, my eyes fell upon the +accursed title at the head of the accursed sheet, blank still, and +obstinately awaiting my word, despair seized upon me. My guitar rested +against the table; with a kick I crushed its side. Two pistols on the +mantel stared at me with great round eyes. I regarded them for +some time, then beat my forehead with clinched hand. At last I wept +furiously, like a schoolboy unable to do his theme. The bitter tears +were a relief. I turned the pistols toward the wall; I pitied my +innocent guitar, and sought a few chords, which were given without +resentment. Just then my son of six years knocked at the door [the +little Louis whose death, years after, was the last bitter drop in the +composer's cup of life]; owing to my ill-humor, I had unjustly scolded +him that morning. 'Papa,' he cried, 'wilt thou be friends?' 'I _will_ be +friends; come on, my boy'; and I ran to open the door. I took him on +my knee, and, with his blonde head on my breast, we slept together.... +Fifteen years since then, and my torment still endures. Oh, to be always +there!--scores to write, orchestras to lead, rehearsals to direct. Let +me stand all day with _bâton_ in hand, training a chorus, singing their +parts myself, and beating the measure until I spit blood, and cramp +seizes my arm; let me carry desks, double basses, harps, remove +platforms, nail planks like a porter or a carpenter, and then spend the +night in rectifying the errors of engravers or copyists. I have done, +do, and will do it. That belongs to my musical life, and I bear it +without thinking of it, as the hunter bears the thousand fatigues of the +chase. But to scribble eternally for a livelihood--!" + +It may be fancied that such a man as Berlioz did not spare the lash, +once he griped the whip-handle, and, though no man was more generous +than he in recognizing and encouraging genuine merit, there was none +more relentless in scourging incompetency, pretentious commonplace, and +the blind conservatism which rests all its faith in what has been. +Our composer made more than one powerful enemy by this recklessness in +telling the truth, where a more politic man would have gained friends +strong to help in time of need. But Berlioz was too bitter and reckless, +as well as too proud, to debate consequences. + +In 1838 Berlioz completed his "Benvenuto Cellini," his only attempt at +opera since "Les Francs Juges," and, wonderful to say, managed to get it +done at the opera, though the director, Duponchel, laughed at him as a +lunatic, and the whole company already regarded the work as damned in +advance. The result was a most disastrous and _éclatant_ failure, and +it would have crushed any man whose moral backbone was not forged of +thrice-tempered steel. With all these back-sets Hector Berlioz was not +without encouragement. The brilliant Franz Liszt, one of the musical +idols of the age, had bowed before him and called him master, the great +musical protagonist. Spontini, one of the most successful composers of +the time, held him in affectionate admiration, and always bade him be +of good cheer. Paganini, the greatest of violinists, had hailed him as +equal to Beethoven. + +On the night of the failure of "Benvenuto Cellini," a strange-looking +man with disheveled black hair and eyes of piercing brilliancy had +forced his way around into the green-room, and, seeking out Berlioz, had +fallen on his knees before him and kissed his hand passionately. Then +he threw his arms around him and hailed the astonished composer as the +master-spirit of the age in terms of glowing eulogium. The next morning, +while Berlioz was in bed, there was a tap at the door, and Paganini's +son, Achille, entered with a note, saying his father was sick, or he +would have come to pay his respects in person. On opening the note +Berlioz found a most complimentary letter, and a more substantial +evidence of admiration, a check on Baron Rothschild for twenty thousand +francs! Paganini also gave Berlioz a commission to write a concerto for +his Stradivarius viola, which resulted in a grand symphony, "Harold +en Italie," founded on Byron's "Childe Harold," but still more an +inspiration of his own Italian adventures, which had had a strong flavor +of personal if they lacked artistic interest. + +The generous gift of Paganini raised Berlioz from the slough of +necessity so far that he could give his whole time to music. Instantly +he set about his "Romeo and Juliet" symphony, which will always remain +one of his masterpieces--a beautifully chiseled work, from the hands +of one inspired by gratitude, unfettered imagination, and the sense of +blessed repose. Our composer's first musical journey was an extensive +tour in Germany in 1841, of which he gives charming memorials in +his letters to Liszt, Heine, Ernst, and others. His reception was as +generous and sympathetic as it had been cold and scornful in France. +Everywhere he was honored and praised as one of the great men of the +age. Mendelssohn exchanged _bâtons_ with him at Leipsic, notwithstanding +the former only half understood this stalwart Berserker of music. Spohr +called him one of the greatest artists living, though his own direct +antithesis, and Schumann wrote glowingly in the "Neue Zeitschrift": "For +myself, Berlioz is as clear as the blue sky above. I really think there +is a new time in music coming." Berlioz wrote joyfully to Heine: "I came +to Germany as the men of ancient Greece went to the oracle at Delphi, +and the response has been in the highest degree encouraging." But his +Germanic laurels did him no good in France. The Parisians would have +none of him except as a writer of _feuilletons_, who pleased them by +the vigor with which he handled the knout, and tickled the levity of +the million, who laughed while they saw the half-dozen or more victims +flayed by merciless satire. Berlioz wept tears of blood because he had +to do such executioner's work, but did it none the less vigorously for +all that. + +The composer made another musical journey in Austria and Hungary in +1844-'45, where he was again received with the most enthusiastic praise +and pleasure. It was in Hungary, especially, that the warmth of his +audiences overran all bounds. One night, at Pesth, where he played the +"Rackoczy Indulé," an orchestral setting of the martial hymn of the +Magyar race, the people were worked into a positive frenzy, and they +would have flung themselves before him that he might walk over their +prostrate bodies. Vienna, Pesth, and Prague, led the way, and the other +cities followed in the wake of an enthusiasm which has been accorded +to not many artists. The French heard these stories with amazement, for +they could not understand how this musical demigod could be the same +as he who was little better than a witty buffoon. During this absence +Berlioz wrote the greater portion of his "Damnation de Faust," and, as +he had made some money, he obeyed the strong instinct which always ruled +him, the hope of winning the suffrages of his own countrymen. + +An eminent French critic claims that this great work, of which we shall +speak further on, contains that which Gounod's "Faust" lacks--insight +into the spiritual significance of Goethe's drama. Berlioz exhausted all +his resources in producing it at the Opéra Comique in 1846, but again +he was disappointed by its falling stillborn on the public interest. +Berlioz was utterly ruined, and he fled from France in the dead of +winter as from a pestilence. + +The genius of this great man was recognized in Holland, Russia, Austria, +and Germany, but among his own countrymen, for the most part, his name +was a laughing-stock and a by-word. He offended the pedants and the +formalists by his daring originality, he had secured the hate of rival +musicians by the vigor and keenness of his criticisms. Berlioz was in +the very heat of the artistic controversy between the classicists and +romanticists, and was associated with Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, +Delacroix, Liszt, Chopin, and others, in fighting that acrimonious +art-battle. While he did not stand formally with the ranks, he yet +secured a still more bitter portion of hostility from their powerful +opponents, for, to opposition in principle, Berlioz united a caustic +and vigorous mode of expression. His name was a target for the wits. "A +physician who plays on the guitar and fancies himself a composer," was +the scoff of malignant gossips. The journals poured on him a flood +of abuse without stint. French malignity is the most venomous and +unscrupulous in the world, and Berlioz was selected as a choice victim +for its most vigorous exercise, none the less willingly that he had +shown so much skill and zest in impaling the victims of his own artistic +and personal dislike. + + +V. + +To continue the record of Berlioz's life in consecutive narrative would +be without significance, for it contains but little for many years +except the same indomitable battle against circumstance and enmity, +never yielding an inch, and always keeping his eyes bent on his own +lofty ideal. In all of art history is there no more masterful heroic +struggle than Berlioz waged for thirty-five years, firm in his belief +that some time, if not during his own life, his principles would be +triumphant, and his name ranked among the immortals. But what of the +mean while? This problem Berlioz solved, in his later as in earlier +years, by doing the distasteful work of the literary scrub. But never +did he cease composing; though no one would then have his works, his +clear eye perceived the coming time when his genius would not be denied, +when an apotheosis should comfort his spirit wandering in Hades. + +Among Berlioz's later works was an opera of which he had composed both +words and music, consisting of two parts, "The Taking of Troy," and +"The Trojans at Carthage," the latter of which at last secured a few +representations at a minor theatre in 1863. The plan of this work +required that it should be carried out under the most perfect +conditions. "In order," says Berlioz, "to properly produce such a work +as 'Les Trojans,' I must be absolute master of the theatre, as of the +orchestra in directing a symphony. I must have the good-will of all, be +obeyed by all, from prima donna to scene-shifter. A lyrical theatre, as +I conceive it, is a great instrument of music, which, if I am to play, +must be placed unreservedly in my hands." Wagner found a King of Bavaria +to help him carry out a similar colossal scheme at Bayreuth, but ill +luck followed a man no less great through life. His grand "Trojans" +was mutilated, tinkered, patched, and belittled, to suit the Theatre +Lyrique. It was a butchery of the work, but still it yielded the +composer enough to justify his retirement from the "Journal des Débats," +after thirty years of slavery. + +Berlioz was now sixty years old, a lonely man, frail in body, embittered +in soul by the terrible sense of failure. His wife, with whom he had +lived on terms of alienation, was dead; his only son far away, cruising +on a man-of-war. His courage and ambition were gone. To one who remarked +that his music belonged to the future, he replied that he doubted if it +ever belonged to the past. His life seemed to have been a mistake, so +utterly had he failed to impress himself on the public. Yet there were +times when audiences felt themselves moved by the power of his music +out of the ruts of preconceived opinion into a prophecy of his coming +greatness. There is an interesting anecdote told by a French writer: + +"Some years ago M. Pasdeloup gave the _septuor_ from the 'Trojans' at +a benefit concert. The best places were occupied by the people of the +world, but the _elite intelligente_ were ranged upon the highest seats +of the Cirque. The programme was superb, and those who were there +neither for Fashion's nor Charity's sake, but for love of what was +best in art, were enthusiastic in view of all those masterpieces. The +worthless overture of the 'Prophète,' disfiguring this fine _ensemble_, +had been hissed by some students of the Conservatoire, and, accustomed +as I was to the blindness of the general public, knowing its implacable +prejudices, I trembled for the fate of the magnificent _septuor_ about +to follow. My fears were strangely ill-founded, no sooner had ceased +this hymn of infinite love and peace, than these same students, and the +whole assemblage with them, burst into such a tempest of applause as I +never heard before. Berlioz was hidden in the further ranks, and, the +instant he was discovered, the work was forgotten for the man; his +name flew from mouth to mouth, and four thousand people were standing +upright, with their arms stretched toward him. Chance had placed me near +him, and never shall I forget the scene. That name, apparently ignored +by the crowd, it had learned all at once, and was repeating as that of +one of its heroes. Overcome as by the strongest emotion of his life, +his head upon his breast, he listened to this tumultuous cry of 'Vive +Berlioz!' and when, on looking up, he saw all eyes upon him and all +arms extended toward him, he could not withstand the sight; he trembled, +tried to smile, and broke into sobbing." + +Berlioz's supremacy in the field of orchestral composition, his +knowledge of technique, his novel combination, his insight into the +resources of instruments, his skill in grouping, his rich sense of +color, are incontestably without a parallel, except by Beethoven and +Wagner. He describes his own method of study as follows: + +"I carried with me to the opera the score of whatever work was on +the bill, and read during the performance. In this way I began to +familiarize myself with orchestral methods, and to learn the voice and +quality of the various instruments, if not their range and mechanism. +By this attentive comparison of the effect with the means employed to +produce it, I found the hidden link uniting musical expression to the +special art of instrumentation. The study of Beethoven, Weber, +and Spontini, the impartial examination both of the _customs_ of +orchestration and of _unusual_ forms and combinations, the visits I +made to _virtuosi_, the trials I led them to make upon their respective +instruments, and a little instinct, did for me the rest." + +The principal symphonies of Berlioz are works of colossal character +and richness of treatment, some of them requiring several orchestras. +Contrasting with these are such marvels of delicacy as "Queen Mab," of +which it has been said that the "confessions of roses and the complaints +of violets were noisy in comparison." A man of magnificent genius and +knowledge, he was but little understood during his life, and it was +only when his uneasy spirit was at rest that the world recognized his +greatness. Paris, that stoned him when he was living, now listens to his +grand music with enthusiasm. Hector Berlioz to the last never lost +faith in himself, though this man of genius, in his much suffering from +depression and melancholy, gave good witness to the truth of Goethe's +lines: + + "Who never ate with tears his bread, + Nor, weeping through the night's long hours, + Lay restlessly tossing on his bed-- + He knows ye not, ye heavenly Powers!" + +A man utterly without reticence, who, Gallic fashion, would shout his +wrongs and sufferings to the uttermost ends of the earth, yet without +a smack of Gallic posing and affectation, Berlioz talks much about +himself, and dares to estimate himself boldly. There was no small +vanity about this colossal spirit. He speaks of himself with outspoken +frankness, as he would discuss another. We can not do better than to +quote one of these self-measurements: "My style is in general very +daring, but it has not the slightest tendency to destroy any of the +constructive elements of art. On the contrary, I seek to increase the +number of these elements. I have never dreamed, as has foolishly been +supposed in France, of writing music without melody. That school exists +to-day in Germany, and I have a horror of it. It is easy for any one to +convince himself that, without confining myself to taking a very short +melody for a theme, as the very greatest masters have, I have always +taken care to invest my compositions with a real wealth of melody. The +value of these melodies, their distinction, their novelty, and charm, +can be very well contested; it is not for me to appraise them. But to +deny their existence is either bad faith or stupidity; only as these +melodies are often of very large dimensions, infantile and short-sighted +minds do not clearly distinguish their form; or else they are wedded +to other secondary melodies which veil their outlines from those same +infantile minds; or, upon the whole, these melodies are so dissimilar +to the little waggeries that the musical _plebs_ call melodies that they +can not make up their minds to give the same name to both. The dominant +qualities of my music are passionate expression, internal fire, rhythmic +animation, and unexpected changes." + +Heinrich Heine, the German poet, who was Berlioz's friend, called him +a "colossal nightingale, a lark of eagle-size, such as they tell us +existed in the primeval world." The poet goes on to say: "Berlioz's +music, in general, has in it something primeval if not antediluvian to +my mind; it makes me think of gigantic species of extinct animals, of +fabulous empires full of fabulous sins, of heaped-up impossibilities; +his magical accents call to our minds Babylon, the hanging gardens the +wonders of Nineveh, the daring edifices of Mizraim, as we see them in +the pictures of the Englishman Martin." Shortly after the publication of +"Lutetia," in which this bold characterization was expressed, the first +performance of Berlioz's "Enfance du Christ" was given, and the poet, +who was on his sick-bed, wrote a penitential letter to his friend for +not having given him full justice. "I hear on all sides," he says, "that +you have just plucked a nosegay of the sweetest melodious flowers, and +that your oratorio is throughout a masterpiece of _naivete_. I shall +never forgive myself for having been so unjust to a friend." + +Berlioz died at the age of sixty-five. His funeral services were held +at the Church of the Trinity, a few days after those of Rossini. The +discourse at the grave was pronounced by Gounod, and many eloquent +things were said of him, among them a quotation of the epitaph of +Marshal Trivulce, "_Hic tandem quiescit qui nunquam quievit_" (Here is +he quiet, at last, who never was quiet before). Soon after his death +appeared his "Mémoires," and his bones had hardly got cold when the +performance of his music at the Conservatoire, the Cirque, and the +Chatelet began to be heard with the most hearty enthusiasm. + + +VI. + +Théophile Gautier says that no one will deny to Berlioz a great +character, though, the world being given to controversies, it may be +argued whether or not he was a great genius. The world of to-day has but +one opinion on both these questions. The force of Berlioz's character +was phenomenal. His vitality was so passionate and active that brain +and nerve quivered with it, and made him reach out toward experience at +every facet of his nature. Quietude was torture, rest a sin, for this +daring temperament. His eager and subtile intelligence pierced every +sham, and his imagination knew no bounds to its sweep, oftentimes even +disdaining the bounds of art in its audacity and impatience. This big, +virile nature, thwarted and embittered by opposition, became hardened +into violent self-assertion; this naturally resolute will settled back +into fierce obstinacy; this fine nature, sensitive and sincere, got torn +and ragged with passion under the stress of his unfortunate life. But, +at one breath of true sympathy how quickly the nobility of the man +asserted itself! All his cynicism and hatred melted away, and left only +sweetness, truth, and genial kindness. + +When Berlioz entered on his studies, he had reached an age at which +Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Rossini, and others, had already done +some of the best work of their lives. Yet it took only a few years to +achieve a development that produced such a great work as the "Symphonic +Fantastique," the prototype of modern programme music. + +From first to last it was the ambition of Berlioz to widen the domain +of his art. He strove to attain a more intimate connection between +instrumental music and poetry in the portrayal of intense passions, and +the suggestion of well-defined dramatic situations. In spite of the fact +that he frequently overshot his mark, it does not make his works one +whit less astonishing. An uncompromising champion of what has been +dubbed "programme" music, he thought it legitimate to force the +imagination of the hearer to dwell on exterior scenes during the +progress of the music, and to distress the mind in its attempt to find +an exact relation between the text and the music. The most perfect +specimens of the works of Berlioz, however, are those in which the music +speaks for itself, such as the "Scène aux Champs," and the "Marche au +Supplice," in the "Symphonie Fantastique," the "Marche des Pèlerins," in +"Harold"; the overtures to "King Lear," "Benvenuto Cellini," "Carnaval +Romain," "Le Corsaire," "Les Francs Juges," etc. + +As a master of the orchestra, no one has been the equal of Berlioz in +the whole history of music, not even Beethoven or Wagner. He treats the +orchestra with the absolute daring and mastery exercised by Paganini +over the violin, and by Liszt over the piano. No one has showed so deep +an insight into the individuality of each instrument, its resources, the +extent to which its capabilities could be carried. Between the phrase +and the instrument, or group of instruments, the equality is perfect; +and independent of this power, made up equally of instinct and +knowledge, this composer shows a sense of orchestral color in combining +single instruments so as to form groups, or in the combination of +several separate groups of instruments by which he has produced the most +novel and beautiful effects--effects not found in other composers. +The originality and variety of his rhythms, the perfection of his +instrumentation, have never been disputed even by his opponents. In many +of his works, especially those of a religious character, there is a +Cyclopean bigness of instrumental means used, entirely beyond parallel +in art. Like the Titans of old, he would scale the very heavens in +his daring. In one of his works he does not hesitate to use three +orchestras, three choruses (all of full dimensions), four organs, and +a triple quartet. The conceptions of Berlioz were so grandiose that he +sometimes disdained detail, and the result was that more than one of his +compositions have rugged grandeur at the expense of symmetry and balance +of form. + +Yet, when he chose, Berlioz could write the most exquisite and dainty +lyrics possible. What could be more exquisitely tender than many of +his songs and romances, and various of the airs and choral pieces +from "Beatrice et Benedict," from "Nuits d'Été," "Irlande," and from +"L'Enfance du Christ"? + +Berlioz in his entirety, as man and composer, was a most extraordinary +being, to whom the ordinary scale of measure can hardly be applied. +Though he founded no new school, he pushed to a fuller development the +possibilities to which Beethoven reached out in the Ninth Symphony. +He was the great _virtuoso_ on the orchestra, and on this Briarean +instrument he played with the most amazing skill. Others have surpassed +him in the richness of the musical substance out of which their +tone-pictures are woven, in symmetry of form, in finish of detail; but +no one has ever equaled him in that absolute mastery over instruments, +by which a hundred become as plastic and flexible as one, and are made +to embody every phase of the composer's thought with that warmth of +color and precision of form long believed to be necessarily confined to +the sister arts. + +THE END. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Great Italian and French Composers, by +George T. 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Ferris +</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {background:#faebd7; text-align:justify} + P { margin:10%; + text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + hr { width: 50%; } + hr.full { width: 100%; } + .foot { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 95%; } + img {border: 0;} + HR { width: 33%; text-align: center; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 10%; margin-left: 1%;} + .toc { margin-left: 15%; margin-bottom: 0em;} + CENTER { padding: 10px;} + PRE { font-size: 90%; margin-left: 20%;} + // --> +</style> + +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Great Italian and French Composers, by George T. Ferris + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Great Italian and French Composers + +Author: George T. Ferris + +Release Date: January 4, 2006 [EBook #17462] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<br /> +<br /> +<center> +<img alt="spines (110K)" src="images/spines.jpg" height="757" width="720" /> +</center> +<br /> +<br /> + + +<br /> +<br /> +<center> +<img alt="titlepage (30K)" src="images/titlepage.jpg" height="783" width="494" /> +</center> +<br /> +<br /> + + +<h1> + GREAT +</h1> +<center> +ITALIAN AND FRENCH +</center> +<center> +COMPOSERS +</center> +<center><b> +BY +</b></center> +<center><b> +GEORGE T. FERRIS +</b></center> +<center> +NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY +</center> +<center> +Copyright, 1878, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. +</center> + + + +<br /> +<br /> +<hr> +<br /> +<br /> + + +<a name="2H_4_0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + NOTE. +</h2> +<p> +The task of compressing into one small volume suitable sketches of the +more famous Italian and French composers has been, in view of the extent +of the field and the wealth of material, a somewhat embarrassing one, +especially as the purpose was to make the sketches of interest to +the general music-loving public, and not merely to the critic and +the scholar. The plan pursued has been to devote the bulk of space to +composers of the higher rank, and to pass over those less known with +such brief mention as sufficed to outline their lives and fix their +place in the history of music. In gathering the facts embodied in +these musical sketches, the author acknowledges his obligations to the +following works: Hullah's "History of Modern Music"; Fétis's "Biographie +Universelle des Musiciens"; Clementi's "Biographie des Musiciens"; +Hogarth's "History of the Opera"; Sutherland Edwards's "History of the +Opera"; Schlüter's "History of Music"; Chorley's "Thirty Years' Musical +Reminiscences"; Stendhalls "Vie de Rossini"; Bellasys's "Memorials of +Cherubini"; Grove's "Musical Dictionary"; Crowest's "Musical Anecdotes"; +and the various articles in the standard cyclopædias. +</p> +<p> +"The Great Italian and French Composers" is a companion work to "The +Great German Composers," which was published earlier in the series in +which the present volume appears. +</p> + + + + +<br /> +<br /> +<hr> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<center> +<table summary=""> +<tr><td> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0001"> +NOTE. +</a></p> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0002"> +THE GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0003"> +PALESTRINA. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0004"> +PICCINI, PAISIELLO, AND CIMAROSA +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0005"> +ROSSINI. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0006"> +VERDI. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0007"> +CHERUBINI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0008"> +MÉHUL, SPONTINI, AND HALÉVY. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0009"> +BOÏELDIEU AND AUBER. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0010"> +MEYERBEER. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0011"> +GOUNOD AND THOMAS. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0012"> +BERLIOZ. +</a></p> + + + +</td></tr> +</table> +</center> + + +<br /> +<br /> +<hr> +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="2H_4_0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h1> + THE GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. +</h1> +<a name="2H_4_0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + PALESTRINA. +</h2> +<center> +I. +</center> +<p> +The Netherlands share other glories than that of having nursed the most +indomitable spirit of liberty known to mediteval Europe. The fine +as well as the industrial arts found among this remarkable people, +distinguished by Erasmus as possessed of the <i>patientia laboris</i>, +an eager and passionate culture. The early contributions of the Low +Countries to the growth of the pictorial art are well known to all. But +to most it will be a revelation that the Belgian school of music was the +great fructifying influence of the fifteenth century, to which Italy and +Germany owe a debt not easily measured. The art of interweaving parts +and that science of sound known as counterpoint were placed by this +school of musical scholars and workers on a solid basis, which enabled +the great composers who came after them to build their beautiful tone +fabrics in forms of imperishable beauty and symmetry. For a long time +most of the great Italian churches had Belgian chapel-masters, and +the value of their example and teachings was vital in its relation to +Italian music. +</p> +<p> +The last great master among the Belgians, and, after Palestrina, +the greatest of the sixteenth century, was Orlando di Lasso, born in +Hainault, in the year 1520. His life of a little more than three score +years and ten was divided between Italy and Germany. He left the deep +imprint of his severe style, though but a young man, on his Italian +<i>confrères</i>, and the young Palestrina owed to him much of the largeness +and beauty of form through which he poured his genius in the creation of +such works as have given him so distinct a place in musical history. The +pope created Orlando di Lasso Knight of the Golden Spur, and sought to +keep him in Italy. Unconcerned as to fame, the gentle, peaceful musician +lived for his art alone, and the flattering expressions of the great +were not so much enjoyed as endured by him. A musical historian, +Heimsoeth, says of him: "He is the brilliant master of the North, +great and sublime in sacred composition, of inexhaustible invention, +displaying much breadth, variety, and depth in his treatment; he +delights in full and powerful harmonies, yet, after all—owing to an +existence passed in journeys, as well as service at court, and occupied +at the same time with both sacred and secular music—he came short of +that lofty, solemn tone which pervades the works of the great master of +the South, Palestrina, who with advancing years restricted himself more +and more to church music." Of the celebrated penitential psalms of Di +Lasso, it is said that Charles IX. of France ordered them to be written +"in order to obtain rest for his soul after the horrible massacre of St. +Bartholomew." Aside from his works, this musician has a claim on +fame through his lasting improvements in musical form and method. He +illuminated, and at the same time closed, the great epoch of Belgian +ascendancy, which had given three hundred musicians of great science +to the times in which they lived. So much has been said of Orlando di +Lasso, for he was the model and Mentor of the greatest of early church +composers, Palestrina. +</p> +<center> +II. +</center> +<p> +The melodious and fascinating style, soon to give birth to the +characteristic genius of the opera, was as yet unborn, though dormant. +In Rome, the chief seat of the Belgian art, the exclusive study of +technical skill had frozen music to a mere formula. The Gregorian +chant had become so overladen with mere embellishments as to make the +prescribed church-form difficult of recognition in its borrowed garb, +for it had become a mere jumble of sound. Musicians, indeed, carried +their profanation so far as to take secular melodies as the themes for +masses and motetts. These were often called by their profane titles. So +the name of a love-sonnet or a drinking-song would sometimes be attached +to a miserere. The council of Trent, in 1562, cut at these evils with +sweeping axe, and the solemn anathemas of the church fathers roused the +creative powei's of the subject of this sketch, who raised his art to +an independent national existence, and made it rank with sculpture and +painting, which had already reached their zenith in Leonardo Da Vinci, +Raphael, Correggio, Titian, and Michel Angelo. Henceforth Italian music +was to be a vigorous, fruitful stock. +</p> +<p> +Giovanni Perluigui Aloisio da Palestrina was born at Palestrina, the +ancient Præneste, in 1524.* +</p> +<pre> + * Our composer, as was common with artists and scholars in + those days, took the name of his natal town, and by this he + is known to fame. Old documents also give him the old Latin + name of the town with the personal ending. +</pre> +<p> +The memorials of his childhood are scanty. We know but little except +that his parents were poor peasants, and that he learned the rudiments +of literature and music as a choir-singer, a starting-point so common in +the lives of great composers. In 1540 he went to Rome and studied in +the school of Goudimel, a stern Huguenot Fleming, tolerated in the papal +capital on account of his superior science and method of teaching, and +afterward murdered at Lyons on the day of the Paris massacre. Palestrina +grasped the essential doctrines of the school without adopting its +mannerisms. At the age of thirty he published his first compositions, +and dedicated them to the reigning pontiff, Julius III. In the formation +of his style, which moved with such easy, original grace within the old +prescribed rules, he learned much from the personal influence and advice +of Orlando di Lasso, his warm friend and constant companion during these +earlier days. +</p> +<p> +Several of his compositions, written at this time, are still performed +in Rome on Good Friday, and Goethe and Mendelssohn have left their +eloquent tributes to the impression made on them by music alike simple +and sublime. The pope was highly pleased with Palestrina's noble music, +and appointed him one of the papal choristers, then regarded as a great +honor. But beyond Rome the new light of music was but little known. +The Council of Trent, in their first indignation at the abuse of church +music, had resolved to abolish everything but the simple Gregorian +chants, but the remonstrances of the Emperor Ferdinand and the Roman +cardinals stayed the austere fiat. The final decision was made to rest +on a new composition of Palestrina, who was permitted to demonstrate +that the higher forms of musical art were consistent with the +solemnities of church worship. +</p> +<p> +All eyes were directed to the young musician, for the very existence +of his art was at stake. The motto of his first mass, "Illumina oculos +meos," shows the pious enthusiasm with which he undertook his labors. +Instead of one, he composed three six-part masses. The third of these +excited such admiration that the pope exclaimed in raptures, "It is John +who gives us here in this earthly Jerusalem a foretaste of that new song +which the holy Apostle John realized in the heavenly Jerusalem in his +prophetic trance." This is now known as the "mass of Pope Marcel," in +honor of a former patron of Palestrina. +</p> +<p> +A new pope, Paul IV., on ascending the pontifical throne, carried his +desire of reforming abuses to fanaticism. He insisted on all the papal +choristers being clerical. Palestrina had married early in life a Roman +lady, of whom all we know is that her name was Lucretia. Four children +had blessed the union, and the composer's domestic happiness became a +bar to his temporal preferment. With two others he was dismissed from +the chapel because he was a layman, and a trifling pension allowed him. +Two months afterward, though, he was appointed chapel-master of St. +John Lateran. His works now succeeded each other rapidly, and different +collections of his masses were dedicated to the crowned heads of Europe. +In 1571 he was appointed chapel-master of the Vatican, and Pope Gregory +XIII. gave special charge of the reform of sacred music to Palestrina. +</p> +<p> +The death of the composer's wife, whom he idolized, in 1580, was a blow +from which he never recovered. In his latter days he was afflicted with +great poverty, for the positions he held were always more honorable than +lucrative. Mental depression and physical weakness burdened the last few +years of his pious and gentle life, and he died after a lingering and +severe illness. The register of the pontifical chapel contains this +entry: "February 2, 1594. This morning died the most excellent musician, +Signor Giovanni Palestrina, our dear companion and <i>maestro di capella</i> +of St. Peter's church, whither his funeral was attended not only by all +the musicians of Rome, but by an infinite concourse of people, when his +own 'Libera me, Domine' was sung by the whole college." +</p> +<p> +Such are the simple and meagre records of the life of the composer, who +carved and laid the foundation of the superstructure of Italian music; +who, viewed in connection with his times and their limitations, must be +regarded as one of the great creative minds in his art; who shares with +Sebastian Bach the glory of having built an imperishable base for the +labors of his successors. +</p> +<center> +III. +</center> +<p> +Palestrixa left a great mass of compositions, all glowing with the fire +of genius, only part of which have been published. His simple life was +devoted to musical labor, and passed without romance, diversion, or +excitement. His works are marked by utter absence of contrast and +color. Without dramatic movement, they are full of melody and majesty, a +majesty serene, unruffled by the slightest suggestion of human passion. +Voices are now and then used for individual expression, but either in +unison or harmony. As in all great church music, the chorus is the key +of the work. The general judgment of musicians agrees that repose and +enjoyment are more characteristic of this music than that of any +other master. The choir of the Sistine chapel, by the inheritance of +long-cherished tradition, is the most perfect exponent of the +Palestrina music. During the annual performance of the "Improperie" and +"Lamentations," the altar and walls are despoiled of their pictures and +ornaments, and everything is draped in black. The cardinals dressed in +serge, no incense, no candles: the whole scene is a striking picture of +trouble and desolation. The faithful come in two by two and bow before +the cross, while the sad music reverberates through the chapel arches. +This powerful appeal to the imagination, of course, lends greater power +to the musical effect. But all minds who have felt the lift and beauty +of these compositions have acknowledged how far they soar above words +and creeds, and the picturesque framework of a liturgy. +</p> +<p> +Mendelssohn, in a letter to Zelter on the Palestrina music as heard in +the Sistine chapel, says that nothing could exceed the effect of the +blending of the voices, the prolonged tones gradually merging from one +note and chord to another, softly swelling, decreasing, at last dying +out. "They understand," he writes, "how to bring out and place each +trait in the most delicate light, without giving it undue prominence; +one chord gently melts into another. The ceremony at the same time is +solemn and imposing; deep silence prevails in the chapel, only broken +by the reechoing Greek 'holy,' sung with unvarying sweetness and +expression." The composer Paër was so impressed with the wonderful +beauty of the music and the performance, that he exclaimed, "This is +indeed divine music, such as I have long sought for, and my imagination +was never able to realize, but which, I knew, must exist." +</p> +<p> +Palestrina's versatility and genius enabled him to lift ecclesiastical +music out of the rigidity and frivolity characterizing on either +hand the opposing ranks of those that preceded him, and to embody +the religious spirit in works of the highest art. He transposed the +ecclesiastical melody (<i>canto fermo</i>) from the tenor to the soprano +(thus rendering it more intelligible to the ear), and created that +glorious thing choir song, with its refined harmony, that noble music +of which his works are the models, and the papal chair the oracle. No +individual preeminence is ever allowed to disturb and weaken the ideal +atmosphere of the whole work. However Palestrina's successors have aimed +to imitate his effects, they have, with the exception of Cherubini, +failed for the most part; for every peculiar genus of art is the result +of innate genuine inspiration, and the spontaneous growth of the age +which produces it. As a parent of musical form he was the protagonist +of Italian music, both sacred and secular, and left an admirable model, +which even the new school of opera so soon to rise found it necessary to +follow in the construction of harmony. The splendid and often licentious +music of the theatre built its most worthy effects on the work of the +pious composer, who lived, labored, and died in an atmosphere of almost +anchorite sanctity. +</p> +<p> +The great disciples of his school, Nannini and Allegri, continued his +work, and the splendid "Miserere" of the latter was regarded as such +an inestimable treasure that no copy of it was allowed to go out of the +Sistine chapel, till the infant prodigy, Wolfgang Mozart, wrote it out +from the memory of a single hearing. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + PICCINI, PAISIELLO, AND CIMAROSA +</h2> +<center> +I. +</center> +<p> +Music, as speaking the language of feeling, emotion, and passion, found +its first full expansion in the operatic form. There had been attempts +to represent drama with chorus, founded on the ancient Greek drama, but +it was soon discovered that dialogue and monologue could not be embodied +in choral forms without involving an utter absurdity. The spirit of +the renaissance had freed poetry, statuary, and painting, from the +monopolizing elaims of the church. Music, which had become a well +equipped and developed science, could not long rest in a similar +servitude. Though it is not the aim of the author to discuss operatic +history, a brief survey of the progress of opera from its birth cannot +be omitted. +</p> +<p> +The oldest of the entertainments which ripened into Italian opera +belongs to the last years of the fifteenth century, and was the work +of the brilliant Politian, known as one of the revivalists of Greek +learning attached to the court of Cosmo de' Medici and his son Lorenzo. +This was the musical drama of "Orfeo." The story was written in Latin, +and sung in music principally choral, though a few solo phrases were +given to the principal characters. It was performed at Rome with great +magnificence, and Vasari tells us that Peruzzi, the decorator of the +papal theatre, painted such scenery for it that even the great Titian +was so struck with the <i>vraisemblance</i> of the work that he was not +satisfied until he had touched the canvas to be sure of its not being in +relief. We may fancy indeed that the scenery was one great attraction +of the representation. In spite of spasmodic encouragement by the more +liberally minded pontiffs, the general weight of church influence was +against the new musical tendency, and the most skilled composers were at +first afraid to devote their talents to further its growth. +</p> +<p> +What musicians did not dare undertake out of dread of the thunderbolts +of the church, a company of <i>literati</i> at Florence commenced in 1580. +The primary purpose was the revival of Greek art, including music. This +association, in conjunction with the Medicean Academy, laid down the +rule that distinct individuality of expression in music was to be sought +for. As results, quickly came musical drama with recitative (modern form +of the Greek chorus) and solo melody for characteristic parts of the +legend or story. Out of this beginning swiftly grew the opera. Composers +in the new form sprung up in various parts of Italy, though Naples, +Venice, and Florence continued to be its centres. +</p> +<p> +Between 1637 and 1700, there were performed three hundred operas at +Venice alone. An account of the performance of "Berenice," composed by +Domenico Freschi, at Padua, in 1680, dwarfs all our present ideas of +spectacular splendor. In this opera there were choruses of a hundred +virgins and a hundred soldiers; a hundred horsemen in steel armor; a +hundred performers on trumpets, cornets, sackbuts, drums, flutes, and +other instruments, on horseback and on foot; two lions led by two Turks, +and two elephants led by two Indians; Berenice's triumphal car drawn +by four horses, and six other cars with spoils and prisoners, drawn by +twelve horses. Among the scenes in the first act was a vast plain +with two triumphal arches; another with pavilions and tents; a square +prepared for the entrance of the triumphal procession, and a forest +for the chase. In the second act there were the royal apartments of +Berenice's temple of vengeance, a spacious court with view of the prison +and a covered way with long lines of chariots. In the third act there +were the royal dressing-room, the stables with a hundred live horses, +porticoes adorned with tapestry, and a great palace in the perspective. +In the course of the piece there were representations of the hunting of +the boar, the stag, and the lions. The whole concluded with a huge globe +descending from the skies, and dividing itself in lesser globes of fire +on which stood allegorical figures of fame, honor, nobility, virtue, and +glory. The theatriccal manager had princes and nobles for bankers and +assistants, and they lavished their treasures of art and money to +make such spectacles as the modern stagemen of London and Paris cannot +approach. +</p> +<p> +In Evelyn's diary there is an entry describing opera at Venice in 1645. +"This night, having with my lord Bruce taken our places before, we +went to the opera, where comedies and other plays are represented +in recitative musiq by the most excellent musicians, vocal and +instrumental, with variety of scenes painted and contrived with no +lesse art of perspective, and machines for flying in the aire, and other +wonderful motions; taken together it is one of the most magnificent and +expensive diversions the wit of man can invent. The history was Hercules +in Lydia. The sceanes changed thirteen times. The famous voices, Anna +Rencia, a Roman and reputed the best treble of women; but there was +a Eunuch who in my opinion surpassed her; also a Génoise that in my +judgment sung an incomparable base. They held us by the eyes and ears +till two o'clock i' the morning." Again he writes of the carnival +of 1640: "The comedians have liberty and the operas are open; witty +pasquils are thrown about, and the mountebanks have their stages at +every corner. The diversion which chiefly took me up was three noble +operas, where were most excellent voices and music, the most celebrated +of which was the famous and beautiful Anna Rencia, whom we invited to +a fish dinner after four daies in Lent, when they had given over at the +theatre." Old Evelyn then narrates how he and his noble friend took the +lovely diner out on a junketing, and got shot at with blunderbusses from +the gondola of an infuriated rival. +</p> +<p> +Opera progressed toward a fixed status with a swiftness hardly +paralleled in the history of any art. The soil was rich and fully +prepared for the growth, and the fecund root, once planted, shot into +a luxuriant beauty and symmetry, which nothing could check. The Church +wisely gave up its opposition, and henceforth there was nothing to +impede the progress of a product which spread and naturalized itself +in England, France, and Germany. The inventive genius of Monteverde, +Carissimi, Scarlatti (the friend and rival of Handel), Durante, and +Leonardo Leo, perfected the forms of the opera nearly as we have them +today. A line of brilliant composers in the school of Durante and Leo +brings us down through Pergolesi, Derni, Terradiglias, Jomelli, Traetta, +Ciccio di Majo, Galuppi, and Giuglielmi, to the most distinguished of +the early Italian composers, Nicolo Piccini, who, mostly forgotten +in his works, is principally known to modern fame as the rival of the +mighty Gluck in that art controversy which shook Paris into such bitter +factions. Yet, overshadowed as Piccini was in the greatness of his +rival, there can be no question of his desert as the most brilliant +ornament and exponent of the early operatic school. No greater honor +could have been paid to him than that he should have been chosen as +their champion by the <i>Italianissimi</i> of his day in the battle royal +with such a giant as Gluck, an honor richly deserved by a composer +distinguished by multiplicity and beauty of ideas, dramatic insight, and +ardent conviction. +</p> +<center> +II. +</center> +<p> +Niccolo Piccini, who was not less than fifty years of age when he left +Naples for the purpose of outrivaling Gluck, was born at Bari, in the +kingdom of Naples, in 1728. His father, also a musician, had destined +him for holy orders, but Nature made him an artist. His great delight +even as a little child was playing on the harpsichord, which he quickly +learned. One day the bishop of Bari heard him playing and was amazed +at the power of the little <i>virtuoso</i>. "By all means, send him to a +conservatory of music," he said to the elder Piccini. "If the vocation +of the priesthood brings trials and sacrifices, a musical career is +not less beset with obstacles. Music demands great perseverance and +incessant labor. It exposes one to many chagrins and toils." +</p> +<p> +By the advice of the shrewd prelate, the precocious boy was placed at +the school of St. Onofrio at the age of fourteen. At first confided to +the care of an inferior professor, he revolted from the arid teachings +of a mere human machine. Obeying the dictates of his daring fancy, +though hardly acquainted with the rudiments of composition, he +determined to compose a mass. The news got abroad that the little +Niccolo was working on a grand mass, and the great Leo, the chief of the +conservatory, sent for the trembling culprit. +</p> +<p> +"You have written a mass?" he commenced. +</p> +<p> +"Excuse me, sir, I could not help it," said the timid boy. +</p> +<p> +"Let me see it." +</p> +<p> +Niccolo brought him the score and all the orchestral parts, and Leo +immediately went to the concert-room, assembled the orchestra, and +gave them the parts. The boy was ordered to take his place in front and +conduct the performance, which he went through with great agitation. +</p> +<p> +"I pardon you this time," said the grave maestro, at the end; "but, if +you do such a thing again, I will punish you in such a manner that you +will remember it as long as you live. Instead of studying the +principles of your art, you give yourself up to all the wildness of your +imagination; and, when you have tutored your ill-regulated ideas into +something like shape, you produce what you call a mass, and no doubt +think you have produced a masterpiece." +</p> +<p> +When the boy burst into tears at this rebuke, Leo clasped him in his +arms, told him he had great talent, and after that took him under +his special instruction. Leo was succeeded by Durante, who also loved +Piccini, and looked forward to a future greatness for him. He was wont +to say the others were his pupils, but Piccini was his son. After +twelve years spent in the conservatory, Piccini commenced an opera. The +director of the principal Neapolitan theatre said to Prince Vintimille, +who introduced the young musician, that his work was sure to be a +failure. +</p> +<p> +"How much can you lose by his opera," the prince replied, "supposing it +be a perfect fiasco?" The manager named the sum. +</p> +<p> +"There is the money, then," replied Piccini's generous patron, handing +him a purse. "If the 'Dorme Despetose' (the name of the opera) should +fail, you may keep the money, but otherwise return it to me." +</p> +<p> +The friends of Lagroscino, the favorite composer of the day, were +enraged when they heard that the next new work was to be from an obscure +youth, and they determined to hiss the performance. So great, however, +was the delight of the public with the freshness and beauty of Piccini's +music, that even those who came to condemn remained to applaud. The +reputation of the composer went on increasing until he became the +foremost name of musical Italy, for his fertility of production was +remarkable; and he gave the theatres a brilliant succession of comic and +serious works. In 1758 he produced at Rome his "Alessandro nell' Indie," +whose success surpassed all that had preceded it, and two years later +a still finer masterpiece, "La Buona Figluola," written to a text +furnished by the poet Goldoni, and founded on the story of Richardson's +"Pamela." This opera was produced at every playhouse on the Italian +peninsula in the course of a few years. A pleasant <i>mot</i> by the Duke of +Brunswick is worth preserving in this connection. Piccini had married a +beautiful singer named Vicenza Sibilla, and his home was very happy. One +day the German prince visited Piccini, and found him rocking the cradle +of his youngest child, while the eldest was tugging at the paternal +coat-tails. The mother, being <i>en déshabille</i>, ran away at the sight +of a stranger. The duke excused himself for his want of ceremony, and +added, "I am delighted to see so great a man living in such simplicity, +and that the author of 'La Bonne Fille' is such a good father." +Piccini's placid and pleasant life was destined, however, to pass into +stormy waters. +</p> +<p> +His sway over the stage and the popular preference continued until +1773, when a clique of envious rivals at Rome brought about his first +disaster. The composer was greatly disheartened, and took to his bed, +for he was ill alike in mind and body. The turning-point in his career +had come, and he was to enter into an arena which taxed his powers in a +contest such as he had not yet dreamed of. His operas having been +heard and admired in France, their great reputation inspired the +royal favorite, Mme. du Barry, with the hope of finding a successful +competitor to the great German composer, patronized by Marie Antoinette. +Accordingly, Piccini was offered an indemnity of six thousand francs, +and a residence in the hotel of the Neapolitan ambassador. When the +Italian arrived in Paris, Gluck was in full sway, the idol of the court +and public, and about to produce his "Armide." +</p> +<p> +Piccini was immediately commissioned to write a new opera, and he +applied to the brilliant Marmontel for a libretto. The poet rearranged +one of Quinault's tragedies, "Roland," and Piccini undertook the +difficult task of composing music to words in a language as yet unknown +to him. Marcnontel was his unwearied tutor, and he writes in his +"Memoirs" of his pleasant yet arduous task: "Line by line, word by word, +I had everything to explain; and, when he had laid hold of the meaning +of a passage, I recited it to him, marking the accent, the prosody, +and the cadence of the verses. He listened eagerly, and I had the +satisfaction to know that what he heard was carefully noted. His +delicate ear seized so readily the accent of the language and the +measure of the poetry, that in his music he never mistook them. It was +an inexpressible pleasure to me to see him practice before my eyes an +art of which before I had no idea. His harmony was in his mind. He wrote +his airs with the utmost rapidity, and when he had traced its designs, +he filled up all the parts of the score, distributing the traits of +harmony and melody, just as a skillful painter would distribute on his +canvas the colors, lights, and shadows of his picture. When all this +was done, he opened his harpsichord, which he had been using as his +writing-table; and then I heard an air, a duet, a chorus, complete in +all its parts, with a truth of expression, an intelligence, a unity +of design, a magic in the harmony, which delighted both my ear and my +feelings." +</p> +<p> +Piccini's arrival in Paris had been kept a close secret while he was +working on the new opera, but Abbé du Rollet ferreted it out, and +acquainted Gluck, which piece of news the great German took with +philosophical disdain. Indeed, he attended the rehearsal of "Roland;" +and when his rival, in despair over his ignorance of French and the +stupidity of the orchestra, threw down the baton in despair, Gluck took +it up, and by his magnetic authority brought order out of chaos +and restored tranquillity, a help as much, probably, the fruit of +condescension and contempt as of generosity. +</p> +<p> +Still Gluck was not easy in mind over this intrigue of his enemies, and +wrote a bitter letter, which was made public, and aggravated the war +of public feeling. Epigrams and accusations flew back and forth like +hailstones.* +</p> +<pre> + * See article on Gluck in "Great German Composers." +</pre> +<p> +"Do you know that the Chevalier (Gluck's title) has an Armida and +Orlando in his portfolio?" said Abbé Arnaud to a Piccinist. +</p> +<p> +"But Piccini is also at work on an Orlando," was the retort. +</p> +<p> +"So much the better," returned the abbé, "for then we shall have an +Orlando and also an Orlandino," was the keen answer. +</p> +<p> +The public attention was stimulated by the war of pamphlets, lampoons, +and newspaper articles. Many of the great <i>literati</i> were Piccinists, +among them Marmontel, La Harpe, D'Alembert, etc. Suard du Rollet and +Jean Jacques Rousseau fought in the opposite ranks. Although the nation +was trembling on the verge of revolution, and the French had just lost +their hold on the East Indies; though Mirabeau was thundering in the +tribune, and Jacobin clubs were commencing their baleful work, soon to +drench Paris in blood, all factions and discords were forgotten. +The question was no longer, "Is he a Jansenist, a Molinist, an +Encyclopædist, a philosopher, a free-thinker?" One question only was +thought of: "Is he a Gluckist or Piccinist?" and on the answer often +depended the peace of families and the cement of long-established +friendships. +</p> +<p> +Piccini's opera was a brilliant success with the fickle Parisians, +though the Gluckists sneered at it as pretty concert music. The retort +was that Gluck had no gift of melody, though they admitted he had the +advantage over his rival of making more noise. The poor Italian was so +much distressed by the fierce contest that he and his family were in +despair on the night of the first representation. He could only say +to his weeping wife and son: "Come, my children, this is unreasonable. +Remember that we are not among savages; we are living with the politest +and kindest nation in Europe. If they do not like me as a musician, they +will at all events respect me as a man and a stranger." To do justico +to Piccini, a mild and timid man, he never took part in the controversy, +and always spoke of his opponent with profound respect and admiration. +</p> +<center> +III. +</center> +<p> +Marie Antoinette, whom Mme. du Barry and her clique looked on as +Piccini's enemy, astonished both cabals by appointing Piccini her +singing-master, an unprofitable honor, for he received no pay, and was +obliged to give costly copies of his compositions to the royal family. +He might have quoted from the Latin poet in regard to this favor from +Marie Antoinette, whose faction in music, among other names, was known +as the Greek party, "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes." * +</p> +<pre> + * I fear the Greeks, though offering gifts. +</pre> +<p> +Beaumarchais, the brilliant author of "Figaro," had found the same +inconvenience when acting as court teacher to the daughters of Louis XV. +The French kings were parsimonious except when lavishing money on their +vices. +</p> +<p> +The action of the dauphiness, however, paved the way for a +reconciliation between Piccini and Gluck. Berton, the manager of the +opera, gave a luxurious banquet, and the musicians, side by side, +pledged each other in libations of champagne. Gluck got confidential +in his cups. "These French," he said, "are good enough people, but they +make me laugh. They want us to write songs for them, and they can't +sing." In fact the quarrel was not between the musicians but their +adherents. In his own heart Piccini knew his inferiority to Gluck. +</p> +<p> +De Vismes, Berton's successor, proposed that both should write operas on +the same subject, "Iphigenia in Tauris," and gave him a libretto. "The +French public will have for the first time," he said, "the pleasure of +hearing two operas on the same theme, with the same incidents, the +same characters, but composed by two great masters of totally different +schools." +</p> +<p> +"But," objected the alarmed Italian, "if Gluck's opera is played first, +the public will be so delighted that they will not listen to mine." +</p> +<p> +"To avoid that catastrophe," said the director, "we will play yours +first." +</p> +<p> +"But Gluck will not permit it." +</p> +<p> +"I give you my word of honor," said De Vismes, "that your opera shall be +put in rehearsal and brought out as soon as it is finished." +</p> +<p> +Before Piccini had finished his opera, he heard that his rival was +back from Germany with his "Iphigenia" completed, and that it was in +rehearsal. The director excused himself on the plea of its being a royal +command. Gluck's work was his masterpiece, and produced an unparalleled +sensation among the Parisians. Even his enemies were silenced, and La +Harpe said it was the <i>chef d'oeuvre</i> of the world. Piccini's work, +when produced, was admired, but it stood no chance with the profound, +serious, and wonderfully dramatic composition of his rival. +</p> +<p> +On the night of the first performance Mile. Laguerre, to whom Piccini +had trusted the rôle of Iphigenia, could not stand straight from +intoxication. "This is not 'Iphigenia in Tauris,'" said the witty Sophie +Arnould, "but 'Iphigenia in champagne.'" She compensated afterward +though by singing the part with exquisite effect. +</p> +<p> +While the Gluck-Piccini battle was at its height, an amateur who was +disgusted with the contest returned to the country and sang the praises +of the birds and their gratuitous performances in the following epigram: +</p> +<pre> + "La n'est point d'art, d'ennui scientifique; + Piccini, Gluck, n'ont point noté les airs. + Nature seule en dicta la musique, + Et Marmontel n'en a pas fait les vers." +</pre> +<p> +The sentiment of this was probably applauded by the many who were +wearied of the bitter recriminations, which degraded the art which they +professed to serve. +</p> +<p> +During the period when Gluck and Piccini were composing for the French +opera, its affairs flourished liberally under the sway of De Vismes. +Gluck, Piccini, and Rameau wrote serious operas, while Piccini, +Sacchini, Anfossi, and Paisiello composed comic operas. The ballet +flourished with unsurpassed splendor, and on the whole it may be said +that never has the opera presented more magnificence at Paris than +during the time France was on the eve of the Reign of Terror. The +gay capital was thronged with great singers, the traditions of whose +artistic ability compare favorably with those of a more recent period. +</p> +<p> +The witty and beautiful Sophie Arnould, who had a train of princes at +her feet, was the principal exponent of Gluck's heroines, while Mile. +La-guerre was the mainstay of the Piccinists. The rival factions made +the names of these charming and capricious women their war-cries not +less than those of the composers. The public bowed and cringed before +these idols of the stage. Gaétan Vestris, the first of the family, known +as the "Dieu de la Danse," and who held that there were only three great +men in Europe, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Voltaire, and himself, +dared to dictate even to Gluck. "Write me the music of a chaconne, +Monsieur Gluek," said the god of dancing. +</p> +<p> +"A chaconne!" said the enraged composer. "Do you think the Greeks, whose +manners we are endeavoring to depict, knew what a chaconne was?" +</p> +<p> +"Did they not?" replied Vestris, astonished at this news, and in a tone +of compassion continued, "then they are much to be pitied." +</p> +<p> +Vestris did not obtain his ballet music from the obdurate German; but, +when Piccini's rival "Iphigènie en Tauride" was produced, such beautiful +dance measures were furnished by the Italian composer as gave Vestris +the opportunity for one of his greatest triumphs. +</p> +<center> +IV. +</center> +<p> +The contest between Gluck and Piccini, or rather the cabals who adopted +the two musicians as their figure-heads, was brought to an end by the +death of the former. An attempt was made to set up Sacchini in his +place, but it proved unavailing, as the new composer proved to be quite +as much a follower of the prevailing Italian method as of the new school +of Gluck. The French revolution swept away Piccini's property, and he +retired to Italy. Bad fortune pursued him, however. Queen Caroline of +Naples conceived a dislike to him and used her influence to injure his +career, out of a fit of wounded vanity. +</p> +<p> +"Do you not think I remember my sister, Marie Antoinette?" queried the +somewhat ill-favored queen. Piccini, embarrassed but truthful, replied: +"Your majesty, there maybe a family likeness, but no resemblance." A +fatality attended him even to Venice. In 1792 he was mobbed and his +house burned, because the populace regarded him as a republican, for +he had a French son-in-law. Some partial musical successes, however, +consoled him, though they flattered his <i>amour propre</i> more than they +benefited his purse. On his return to Naples he was subjected to a +species of imprisonment during four years, for royal displeasure in +those days did not confine itself merely to lack of court favor. Reduced +to great poverty, the composer who had been the favorite of the rich and +great for so many years knew often the actual pangs of hunger, and eked +out his subsistence by writing conventual psalms, as payment for the +broken food doled out by the monks. +</p> +<p> +At last he was released, and the tenor, David, sent him funds to pay his +journey to Paris. Napoleon, the first consul, received him cordially in +the Luxembourg palace. +</p> +<p> +"Sit down," said he to Piccini, who remained standing, "a man of your +greatness stands in no one's presence." His reception in Paris was, +in fact, an ovation. The manager of the opera gave him a pension of +twenty-four hundred francs, a government pension was also accorded, and +he was appointed sixth inspector at the Conservatory. But the benefits +of this pale gleam of wintry sunshine did not long remain. He died at +Passy in the year 1800, and was followed to the grave by a great throng +of those who loved his beautiful music and admired his gentle life. +</p> +<p> +In the present day Gluck appears to have vanquished Piccini, because +occasionally an opera of the former is performed, while Piccini's works +are only known to the musical antiquarian. But even the marble temples +of Gluck are moss-grown and neglected, and that great man is known to +the present day rather as one whose influence profoundly colored and +changed the philosophy of opera, than through any immediate acquaintance +with his productions. The connoisseurs of the eighteenth century found +Piccini's melodies charming, but the works that endure as masterpieces +are not those which contain the greatest number of beauties, but those +of which the form is the most perfect. Gluck had larger conceptions +and more powerful genius than his Italian rival, but the latter's +sweet spring of melody gave him the highest place which had so far been +attained in the Italian operatic school. +</p> +<p> +"Piccini," says M. Genguèné, his biographer, "was under the middle size, +but well made, with considerable dignity of carriage. His countenance +was very agreeable. His mind was acute, enlarged, and cultivated. Latin +and Italian literature was familiar to him when he went to France, and +afterward he became almost as well acquainted with French literature. He +spoke and wrote Italian with great purity, but among his countrymen +he preferred the Neapolitan dialect, which he considered the most +expressive, the most difficult and the most figurative of all languages. +He used it principally in narration, with a gayety, a truth, and a +pantomimic expression after the manner of his country, which delighted +all his friends, and made his stories intelligible even to those who +knew Italian but slightly." +</p> +<p> +As a musician Piccini was noticeable, according to the judgment of his +best critics, for the purity and simplicity of his style. He always +wished to preserve the supremacy of the voice, and, though he well knew +how to make his instrumentation rich and effective, he was a resolute +opponent to the florid and complex accompaniments which were coming into +vogue in his day. His recorded opinion on this subject may have some +interest for the musicians of the present day: "Were the employment +which Nature herself assigns to the instruments of an orchestra +preserved to them, a variety of effects and a series of infinitely +diversified pictures would be produced. But they are all thrown in at +once and used incessantly, and they thus overpower and indurate the +ear, without presenting any picture to the mind, to which the ear is +the passage. I should be glad to know how they will arouse it when it +is accustomed to this uproar, which will soon happen, and of what new +witchcraft they will avail themselves.... It is well known what occurs +to palates blunted by the use of spirituous liquors. In a few +months everything may be learned which is necessary to produce these +exaggerated effects, but it requires much time and study to be able to +excite genuine emotion." Piccini followed strictly the canons of the +Italian school; and, though far inferior in really great qualities to +his rival Gluck, his compositions had in them so much of fluent grace +and beauty as to place him at the head of his predecessors. Some curious +critics have indeed gone so far as to charge that many of the finest +arias of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini owe their paternity to this +composer, an indictment not uncommon in music, for most of the great +composers have rifled the sweets of their predecessors without scruple. +</p> +<center> +V. +</center> +<p> +Paisiello and Cimarosa, in their style and processes of work, seem to +have more nearly caught the mantle of Piccini than any others, though +they were contemporaries as well as successors. Giovanni Paisiello, +born in 1741, was educated, like many other great musicians, at the +conservatory of San Onofrio. During his early life he produced a great +number of pieces for the Italian theatres, and in 1776 accepted the +invitation of Catherine to became the court composer at St. Petersburgh, +where he remained nine years and produced several of his best operas, +chief among them, "Il Barbiere di Seviglia" (a different version of +Beaumarchais's celebrated comedy from that afterward used by Rossini). +</p> +<p> +The empress was devotedly attached to him and showed her esteem in many +signal ways. On one occasion, while Paisiello was accompanying her in +a song, she observed that he shuddered with the bitter cold. On this +Catherine took off her splendid ermine cloak, decorated with clasps of +brilliants, and threw it over her tutor's shoulders. In a quarrel which +Paisiello had with Marshal Beloseloky, the temporary favorite of the +Russian Messalina, her favor was shown in a still more striking way. The +marshal had given the musician a blow, on which Paisiello, a very large, +athletic man, drubbed the Russian general most unmercifully. The latter +demanded the immediate dismissal of the composer for having insulted a +dignitary of the empire. Catherine's reply was similar to the one made +by Francis the First of France in a parallel case about Leonardo da +Vinci: "I neither can nor will attend to your request;' you forgot your +dignity when you gave an unoffending man and a great artist a blow. Are +you surprised that he should have forgotten it too? As for rank, it is +in my power to make fifty marshals, but not one Paisiello." +</p> +<p> +Some years after his return to Italy, he was engaged by Napoleon as +chapel-master; for that despot ruled the art and literature of his times +as autocratically as their politics. Though Paisiello did not wish to +obey the mandate, to refuse was ruin. The French ruler had already +shown his favor by giving him the preference over Cherubim in several +important musical contests, for the latter had always displayed stern +independence of courtly favor. On Paisiello's arrival in Paris, several +lucrative appointments indicated the sincerity of Napoleon's intentions. +The composer did not hesitate to stand on his rights as a musician +on all occasions. When Napoleon complained of the inefficiency of the +chapel service, he said, courageously: "I can't blame people for doing +their duty carelessly, when they are not justly paid." The cunning +Italian knew how to flatter, though, when occasion served. He once +addressed his master as "Sire." +</p> +<p> +"'Sire,' what do you mean?" answered the first consul. "I am a general +and nothing more." +</p> +<p> +"Well, General," continued the composer, "I have come to place myself at +your majesty's orders." +</p> +<p> +"I must really beg you," rejoined Napoleon, "not to address me in this +manner." +</p> +<p> +"Forgive me, General," said Paisiello. "But I cannot give up the habit +I have contracted in addressing sovereigns, who, compared with you, are +but pigmies. However, I will not forget your commands, and, if I have +been unfortunate enough to offend, I must throw myself on your majesty's +indulgence." +</p> +<p> +Paisiello received ten thousand francs for the mass written for +Napoleon's coronation, and one thousand for all others. As he produced +masses with great rapidity, he could very well afford to neglect +operatic writing during this period. His masses were pasticcio work made +up of pieces selected from his operas and other compositions. This could +be easily done, for music is arbitrary in its associations. Love songs +of a passionate and sentimental cast were quickly made religious by +suitable words. Thus the same melody will depict equally well the rage +of a baffled conspirator, the jealousy of an injured husband, the grief +of lovers about to part, the despondency of a man bent on suicide, the +devotion of the nun, or the rapt adoration of worship. A different text +and a slight change in time effect the marvel, and hardly a composer +has disdained to borrow from one work to enrich another. His only opera +composed in Paris, "Proserpine," was not successful. +</p> +<p> +Failure of health obliged Paisiello to return to Naples, when he +again entered the service of the king. Attached to the fortunes of the +Bonaparte family, his prosperity fell with theirs. He had been crowned +with honors by all the musical societies of the world, but his pensions +and emoluments ceased with the fall of Joachim Murat from the Neapolitan +throne. He died June 5,1816, and the court, which neglected him living, +gave him a magnificent funeral. +</p> +<p> +"Paisiello," says the Chevalier Le Sueur, "was not only a great +musician, but possessed a large fund of general information. He was +well versed in the dead languages, acquainted with all branches of +literature, and on terms of friendship with the most distinguished +persons of the age. His mind was noble and above all mean passions; he +neither knew envy nor the feeling of rivalry.... He composed," says the +same writer, "seventy-eight operas, of which twenty-seven were serious, +and fifty-one comic, eight <i>intermezzi</i>, and an immense number of +cantatas, oratorios, masses, etc.; seven symphonies for King Joseph of +Spain, and many miscellaneous pieces for the court of Russia." +</p> +<p> +Paisiello's style, according to Fétis, was characterized by great +simplicity and apparent facility. His few and unadorned notes, full of +grace, were yet deep and varied in their expression. In his simplicity +was the proof of his abundance. It was not necessary for him to have +recourse to musical artifice and complication to conceal poverty of +invention. His accompaniments were similar in character, clear and +picturesque, without pretense of elaboration. The latter not only +relieved and sustained the voice, but were full of original effects, +novel to his time. He was the author, too, of important improvements in +instrumental composition. He introduced the viola, clarinet, and bassoon +into the orchestra of the Italian opera. Though, voluminous both in +serious and comic opera, it was in the latter that he won his chief +laurels. His "Pazza per Amore" was one of the great Pasta's favorites, +and Catalani added largely to her reputation in the part of <i>La +Frascatana</i>. Several of Paisiello's comic operas still keep a dramatic +place on the German stage, where excellence is not sacrificed to +novelty. +</p> +<center> +VI. +</center> +<p> +A still higher place must be assigned to another disciple and follower +of the school perfected by Piccini, Dominic Cimarosa, born in Naples +in 1754. His life down to his latter years was an uninterrupted flow of +prosperity. His mother, an humble washerwomen, could do little for her +fatherless child, but an observant priest saw the promise of the lad, +and taught him till he was old enough to enter the Conservatory of +St. Maria di Loretto. His early works showed brilliant invention and +imagination, and the young Cimarosa, before he left the Conservatory, +had made himself a good violinist and singer. He worked hard, during a +musical apprenticeship of many years, to lay a solid foundation for +the fame which his teachers prophesied for him from the onset. Like +Paisiello, he was for several years attached to the court of Catherine +II. of Russia. He had already produced a number of pleasing works, +both serious and comic, for the Italian theatres, and his faculty of +production was equaled by the richness and variety of his scores. +During a period of four years spent at the imperial court of the North, +Cimarosa produced nearly five hundred works, great and small, and +only left the service of his magnificent patroness, who was no less +passionately fond of art than she was great as a ruler and dissolute as +a woman, because the severe climate affected his health, for he was a +typical Italian in his temperament. +</p> +<p> +He was arrested in his southward journey by the urgent persuasions of +the Emperor Leopold, who made him chapel-master, with a salary of twelve +thousand florins. The taste for the Italian school was still paramount +at the musical capital of Austria. Though such composers as Haydn, +Salieri, and young Mozart, who had commenced to be welcomed as an +unexampled prodigy, were in Vienna, the court preferred the suave and +shallow beauties of Italian music to their own serious German school, +which was commencing to send down such deep roots into the popular +heart. +</p> +<p> +Cimarosa produced "Il Matrimonio Segreto" (The Secret Marriage), +his finest opera, for his new patron. The libretto was founded on a +forgotten French operetta, which again was adapted from Garrick and +Colman's "Clandestine Marriage." The emperor could not attend the first +representation, but a brilliant audience hailed it with delight. Leopold +made amends, though, on the second night, for he stood in his box, and +said, aloud: +</p> +<p> +"Bravo, Cimarosa, bravissimo! The whole opera is admirable, delightful, +enchanting! I did not applaud, that I might not lose a single note of +this masterpiece. You have heard it twice, and I must have the same +pleasure before I go to bed. Singers and musicians pass into the next +room. Cimarosa will come, too, and preside at the banquet prepared for +you. When you have had sufficient rest, we will begin again. I +encore the whole opera, and in the mean while let us applaud it as it +deserves." +</p> +<p> +The emperor gave the signal, and, midst a thunderstorm of plaudits, the +musicians passed into their midnight feast. There is no record of any +other such compliment, except that to the Latin dramatist, Plautus, +whose "Eunuchus" was performed twice on the same day. +</p> +<p> +Yet the same Viennese public, six years before, had actually hissed +Mozart's "Nozze di Figaro," which shares with Rossini's "Il Barbiere" +the greatest rank in comic opera, and has retained, to this day, its +perennial freshness and interest. Cimarosa himself did not share the +opinion of his admirers in respect to Mozart. A certain Viennese painter +attempted to flatter him, by decrying Mozart's music in comparison with +his own. The following retort shows the nobility of genius: "I, sir? +What would you call the man who would seek to assure you that you were +superior to Raphael?" Another acute rejoinder, on the respective merits +of Mozart and Cimarosa, was made by the French composer, Grétry, in +answer to a criticism by Napoleon, when first consul, that great man +affecting to be a <i>dilettante</i> in music: +</p> +<p> +"Sire, Cimarosa puts the statue on the theatre and the pedestal in the +orchestra, instead of which Mozart puts the statue in the orchestra and +the pedestal on the theatre." +</p> +<p> +The composer's hitherto brilliant career was doomed to a gloomy close. +On returning to Naples, at the Emperor Leopold's death, Cimarosa +produced several of his finest works, among which musical students place +first: "Il Matrimonio per Susurro," "La Penelope," "L'Olimpiade," "II +Sacrificio d'Abramo," "Gli Amanti Comici," and "Gli Orazi." These were +performed almost simultaneously in the theatres of Paris, Naples, and +Vienna. Cimarosa attached himself warmly to the French cause in Italy, +and when the Bourbons finally triumphed the musician suffered their +bitterest resentment. He narrowly escaped with his life, and languished +for a long time in a dungeon, so closely immured that it was for a long +time believed by his friends that his head had fallen on the block. +</p> +<p> +At length released, he quitted the Neapolitan territory, only to die at +Venice, in a few months, "in consequence," Stendhal says, in his "Life +of Rossini," "of the barbarous treatment he had met with in the prison +into which he had been thrown by Queen Caroline." He died January 11, +1801. +</p> +<p> +Cimarosa's genius embraced both the tragic and comic schools of +composition. He may be specially called a genuine master of musical +comedy. He was the finest example of the school perfected by Piccini, +and was indeed the link between the old Italian opera and the new +development of which Rossini is such a brilliant exponent. Schluter, in +his "History of Music," says of him: "Like Mozart, he excels in +those parts of an opera which decide its merits as a work of art, the +<i>ensembles</i> and <i>finale</i>. His admirable, and by no means antiquated +opera, 'Il Matrimonio Segreto' (the charming offspring of his 'secret +marriage' with the Mozart opera) is a model of exquisite and graceful +comedy. The overture bears a striking resemblance to that of 'Figaro,' +and the instrumentation of the whole opera is highly characteristic, +though not so prominent as in Mozart. Especially delightful are the +secret love-scenes, written evidently <i>con amore</i>, the composer having +practised them many a time in his youth." +</p> +<p> +This opera is still performed in many parts of Europe to delighted +audiences, and is ranked by competent critics as the third finest +comic opera extant, Mozart and Rossini only surpassing him in their +masterpieces. It was a great favorite with Lablache, and its magnificent +performance by Grisi, Mario, Tamburini, and the king of bassos, is a +gala reminiscence of English and French opera-goers. +</p> +<p> +We quote an opinion also from another able authority: "The drama of 'Gli +Orazi' is taken from Corneille's tragedy 'Les Horaces.' The music is +full of noble simplicity, beautiful melody, and strong expression. In +the airs dramatic truth is never sacrificed to vocal display, and the +concerted pieces are grand, broad, and effective. Taken as a whole, the +piece is free from antiquated and obsolete forms; and it wants nothing +but an orchestral score of greater fullness and variety to satisfy +the modern ear. It is still frequently performed in Germany, though +in France and England, and even in its native country, it seems to be +forgotten." +</p> +<p> +Cardinal Consalvi, Cimarosa's friend, caused splendid funeral honors to +be paid to him at Rome. Canova executed a marble bust of him, which was +placed in the gallery of the Capitol. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + ROSSINI. +</h2> +<center> +I. +</center> +<p> +The "Swan of Pesaro" is a name linked with some of the most charming +musical associations of this age. Though forty years silence made +fruitless what should have been the richest creative period of Rossini's +life, his great works, poured forth with such facility, and still +retaining their grasp in spite of all changes in public opinion, stamp +him as being the most gifted composer ever produced by a country so +fecund in musical geniuses. The old set forms of Italian opera had +already yielded in large degree to the energy and pomp of French +declamation, when Rossini poured into them afresh such exhilaration and +sparkle as again placed his country in the van of musical Europe. +With no pretension to the grand, majestic, and severe, his fresh and +delightful melodies, flowing without stint, excited alike the critical +and the unlearned into a species of artistic craze, a mania which has +not yet subsided. The stiff and stately Oublicheff confesses, with many +compunctions of conscience, that, when listening for the first time to +one of Rossini's operas, he forgot for the time being all that he had +ever known, admired, played, or sung, for he was musically drunk, as if +with champagne. Learned Germans might shake their heads and talk about +shallowness and contrapuntal rubbish, his <i>crescendo</i> and <i>stretto</i> +passages, his tameness and uniformity even in melody, his want of +artistic finish; but, as Richard Wagner, his direct antipodes, frankly +confesses in his "Oper und Drama," such objections were dispelled +by Rossini's opera-airs as if they were mere delusions of the fancy. +Essentially different from Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Haydn, or even +Weber, with whom he has some affinities, he stands a unique figure in +the history of art, an original both as man and musician. +</p> +<p> +Gioacchino Rossini was the son of a town-trumpeter and an operatic +singer of inferior rank, born in Pesaro, Romagna, February 29, 1792. The +child attended the itinerant couple in their visits to fairs and musical +gatherings, and was in danger, at the age of seven, of becoming +a thorough-paced little vagabond, when maternal alarm trusted his +education to the friendly hands of the music-master Prinetti. At this +tender age even he had been introduced to the world of art, for he sang +the part of a child at the Bologna opera. +</p> +<p> +"Nothing," said Mme. Georgi-Righetti, "could be imagined more tender, +more touching, than the voice and action of this remarkable child." +</p> +<p> +The young Rossini, after a year or two, came under the notice of the +celebrated teacher Tesei, of Bologna, who gave him lessons in pianoforte +playing and the voice, and obtained him a good place as boy-soprano +at one of the churches. He now attracted the attention of the Countess +Perticari, who admired his voice, and she sent him to the Lyceum to +learn fugue and counterpoint at the feet of a very strict Gamaliel, +Padre Mallei. The youth was no dull student, and, in spite of his +capricious indolence, which vexed the soul of his tutor, he made such +rapid progress that at the age of sixteen he was chosen to write the +cantata, annually awarded to the most promising student. Success greeted +the juvenile effort, and thus we see Rossini fairly launched as a +composer. Of the early operas which he poured out for five years it is +not needful to speak, except that one of them so pleased the austere +Marshal Massena that he exempted the composer from conscription. +The first opera which made Rossini's name famous through Europe was +"Tancredi," written for the Venetian public. To this opera belongs the +charming "Di tanti palpiti," written under the following circumstances: +Mme. Melanotte, the <i>prima donna</i>, took the whim during the final +rehearsal that she would not sing the opening air, but must have +another. Rossini went home in sore disgust, for the whole opera was +likely to be put off by this caprice. There were but two hours before +the performance, he sat waiting for his macaroni, when an exquisite air +came into his head, and it was written in five minutes. +</p> +<p> +After his great success he received offers from almost every town in +Italy, each clamoring to be served first. Every manager was required +to furnish his theatre with an opera from the pen of the new idol. For +these earlier essays he received a thousand francs each, and he wrote +five or six a year. Stendhall, Rossini's spirited biographer, gives +a picturesque account of life in the Italian theatres at this time, a +status which remains in some of its features to-day: +</p> +<p> +"The mechanism is as follows: The manager is frequently one of the most +wealthy and considerable persons of the little town he inhabits. He +forms a company consisting of <i>prima donna, tenoro, basso cantante, +basso buffo</i>, a second female singer, and a third <i>basso</i>. The +<i>libretto</i>, or poem, purchased for sixty or eighty francs from some +lucky son of the muses, who is generally a half-starved abbé, the +hanger-on of some rich family in the neighborhood. The character of the +parasite, so admirably painted by Terence, is still to be found in all +its glory in Lombardy, where the smallest town can boast of some five or +six families of some wealth. +</p> +<p> +"A <i>maestro</i>, or composer, is then engaged to write a new opera, and +he is obliged to adapt his own airs to the voices and capacity of the +company. The manager intrusts the care of the financial department to +a <i>registrario</i>, who is generally some pettifogging attorney, who holds +the position of his steward. The next thing that generally happens is +that the manager falls in love with the <i>prima donna</i>; and the progress +of this important amour gives ample employment to the curiosity of the +gossips. +</p> +<p> +"The company thus organized at length gives its first representation, +after a month of cabals and intrigues, which furnish conversation for +the town. This is an event in the simple annals of the town, of the +importance of which the residents of large places can form no idea. +During months together a population of eight or ten thousand people do +nothing but discuss the merit of the forthcoming music and singers +with the eager impetuosity which belongs to the Italian character and +climate. The first representation, if successful, is generally followed +by twenty or thirty more of the same piece, after which the company +breaks up.... From this little sketch of theatrical arrangements in +Italy some idea may be formed of the life which Rossini led from 1810 to +1816." Between these years he visited all the principal towns, remaining +three or four months at each, the idolized guest of the <i>dilettanti</i> +of the place. Rossini's idleness and love of good cheer always made +him procrastinate his labors till the last moment, and placed him in +dilemmas from which only his fluency of composition extricated him. His +biographer says: +</p> +<p> +"The day of performance is fast approaching, and yet he cannot resist +the pressing invitations of these friends to dine with them at the +tavern. This, of course, leads to a supper, the champagne circulates +freely, and the hour of morning steals on apace. At length a +compunctious visiting shoots across the mind of the truant composer. He +rises abruptly; his friends insist on seeing him home; and they parade +the silent streets bareheaded, shouting in chorus whatever comes +uppermost, perhaps a portion of a <i>miserere</i>, to the great scandal of +pious Catholics tucked snugly in their beds. At length he reaches +his lodging, and shutting himself up in his chamber is, at this, to +every-day mortals, most ungenial hour, visited by some of his most +brilliant inspirations. These he hastily scratches down on scraps +of paper, and next morning arranges them, or, in his own phrase, +instruments them, amid the renewed interruptions of his visitors. At +length the important night arrives. The <i>maestro</i> takes his place at +the pianoforte. The theatre is overflowing, people having flocked to the +town from ten leagues distance. Every inn is crowded, and those unable +to get other accommodations encamp around the theatre in their various +vehicles. All business is suspended, and, during the performances, the +town has the appearance of a desert. The passions, the anxieties, the +very life of a whole population are centered in the theatre." +</p> +<p> +Rossini would preside at the first three representations, and, after +receiving a grand civic banquet, set out for the next place, his +portmanteau fuller of music-paper than of other effects, and perhaps +a dozen sequins in his pocket. His love of jesting during these gay +Bohemian wanderings made him perpetrate innumerable practical jokes, +not sparing himself when he had no more available food for mirth. On one +occasion, in traveling from Ancona to Reggio, he passed himself off for +a musical professor, a mortal enemy of Rossini, and sang the words of +his own operas to the most execrable music, in a cracked voice, to show +his superiority to that donkey, Rossini. An unknown admirer of his was +in such a rage that he was on the point of chastising him for slandering +the great musician, about whom Italy raved. +</p> +<p> +Our composer's earlier style was quite simple and unadorned, a fact +difficult for the present generation, only acquainted with the florid +beauties of his later works, to appreciate. Rossini only followed +the traditions of Italian music in giving singers full opportunity to +embroider the naked score at their own pleasure. He was led to change +this practice by the following incident. The tenor-singer Velluti was +then the favorite of the Italian theatres, and indulged in the most +unwarrantable tricks with his composers. During the first performance +of "L'Aureliano," at Naples, the singer loaded the music with such +ornaments that Rossini could not recognize the offspring of his own +brains. A fierce quarrel ensued between the two, and the composer +determined thereafter to write music of such a character that the most +stupid singer could not suppose any adornment needed. From that time the +Rossini music was marked by its florid and brilliant embroidery. Of the +same Velluti, spoken of above, an incident is told, illustrating the +musical craze of the country and the period. A Milanese gentleman, +whose father was very ill, met his friend in the street—"Where are you +going?" "To the Scala to be sure." "How! your father lies at the point +of death." "Yes! yes! I know, but Velluti sings to-night." +</p> +<center> +II. +</center> +<p> +An important step in Rossini's early career was his connection with the +widely known impresario of the San Carlo, Naples, Barbaja. He was under +contract to produce two new operas annually, to rearrange all old +scores, and to conduct at all of the theatres ruled by this manager. He +was to receive two hundred ducats a month, and a share in the profits of +the bank of the San Carlo gambling-saloon. His first opera composed here +was "Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra," which was received with a +genuine Neapolitan <i>furore</i>. Rossini was feted and caressed by the +ardent <i>dilettanti</i> of this city to his heart's content, and was such an +idol of the "fickle fair" that his career on more than one occasion +narrowly escaped an untimely close, from the prejudice of jealous +spouses. The composer was very vain of his handsome person, and boasted +of his <i>escapades d'amour</i>. Many, too, will recall his <i>mot</i>, spoken to +a beauty standing between himself and the Duke of Wellington: "Madame, +how happy should you be to find yourself placed between the two greatest +men in Europe!" +</p> +<p> +One of Rossini's adventures at Naples has in it something of romance. He +was sitting in his chamber, humming one of his own operatic airs, when +the ugliest Mercury he had ever seen entered and gave him a note, then +instantly withdrew. This, of course, was a tender invitation, and an +assignation at a romantic spot in the suburb. On arriving Rossini +sang his <i>aria</i> for a signal, and from the gate of a charming park +surrounding a small villa appeared his beautiful and unknown inamorata. +On parting it was agreed that the same messenger should bring notice of +the second appointment. Rossini suspected that the lady, in disguise, +was her own envoy, and verified the guess by following the light-footed +page. He then discovered that she was the wife of a wealthy Sicilian, +widely noted for her beauty, and one of the reigning toasts. On renewing +his visit, he had barely arrived at the gate of the park, when a +carbine-bullet grazed his head, and two masked assailants sprang toward +him with drawn rapiers, a proceeding which left Rossini no option but to +take to his heels, as he was unarmed. +</p> +<p> +During the composer's residence at Naples he was made acquainted with +many of the most powerful princes and nobles of Europe, and his name +became a recognized factor in European music, though his works were +not widely known outside of his native land. His reputation for genius +spread by report, for all who came in contact with the brilliant, +handsome Rossini were charmed. That which placed his European fame on +a solid basis was the production of "Il Barbiere di Seviglia" at Rome +during the carnival season of 1816. +</p> +<p> +Years before Rossini had thought of setting the sparkling comedy of +Beaumarchais to music, and Sterbini, the author of the <i>libretto</i> used +by Paisiello, had proposed to rearrange the story. Rossini, indeed, had +been so complaisant as to write to the older composer for permission to +set fresh music to the comedy; a concession not needed, for the plays +of Metastasio had been used by different musicians without scruple. +Paisiello intrigued against the new opera, and organized a conspiracy to +kill it on the first night. Sterbini made the libretto totally different +from the other, and Rossini finished the music in thirteen days, during +which he never left the house. "Not even did I get shaved," he said to a +friend. "It seems strange that through the 'Barber' you should have gone +without shaving." "If I had shaved," Rossini explained, "I should have +gone out; and, if I had gone out, I should not have come back in time." +</p> +<p> +The first performance was a curious scene. The Argentina Theatre was +packed with friends and foes. One of the greatest of tenors, Garcia, the +father of Malibran and Pauline Viardot, sang Almaviva. Rossini had been +weak enough to allow Garcia to sing a Spanish melody for a serenade, for +the latter urged the necessity of vivid national and local color. The +tenor had forgotten to tune his guitar, and in the operation on the +stage a string broke. This gave the signal for a tumult of ironical +laughter and hisses. The same hostile atmosphere continued during the +evening. Even Madame Georgi-Righetti, a great favorite of the Romans, +was coldly received by the audience. In short, the opera seemed likely +to be damned. +</p> +<p> +When the singers went to condole with Rossini, they found him enjoying a +luxurious supper with the gusto of the <i>gourmet</i> that he was. Settled +in his knowledge that he had written a masterpiece, he could not be +disturbed by unjust clamor. The next night the fickle Romans made ample +amends, for the opera was concluded amid the warmest applause, even from +the friends of Paisiello. +</p> +<p> +Rossini's "Il Barbiere," within six months, was performed on nearly +every stage in Europe, and received universally with great admiration. +It was only in Paris, two years afterward, that there was some coldness +in its reception. Every one said that after Paisiello's music on the +same subject it was nothing, when it was suggested that Paisiello's +should be revived. So the St. Petersburg "Barbiere" of 1788 was +produced, and beside Rossini's it proved so dull, stupid, and antiquated +that the public instantly recognized the beauties of the work which they +had persuaded themselves to ignore. Yet for this work, which placed the +reputation of the young composer on a lofty pedestal, he received only +two thousand francs. +</p> +<p> +Our composer took his failures with great phlegm and good nature, based, +perhaps, on an invincible self-confidence. When his "Sigismonde" had +been hissed at Venice, he sent his mother a <i>fiasco</i> (bottle). In +the last instance he sent her, on the morning succeeding the first +performance, a letter with a picture of a <i>fiaschetto</i> (little bottle). +</p> +<center> +III. +</center> +<p> +The same year (1816) was produced at Naples the opera of "Otello," which +was an important point of departure in the reforms introduced by Rossini +on the Italian stage. Before speaking further of this composer's career, +it is necessary to admit that every valuable change furthered by him had +already been inaugurated by Mozart, a musical genius so great that he +seems to have included all that went before, all that succeeded him. It +was not merely that Rossini enriched the orchestration to such a degree, +but, revolting from the delay of the dramatic movement, caused by +the great number of arias written for each character, he gave large +prominence to the concerted pieces, and used them where monologue had +formerly been the rule. He developed the basso and baritone parts, +giving them marked importance in serious opera, and worked out the +choruses and finales with the most elaborate finish. +</p> +<p> +Lord Mount Edgcumbe, a celebrated connoisseur and admirer of the old +school, wrote of these innovations, ignoring the fact that Mozart had +given the weight of his great authority to them before the daring young +Italian composer: +</p> +<p> +"The construction of these newly-invented pieces is essentially +different from the old. The dialogue, which used to be carried on in +recitative, and which, in Metastasio's operas, is often so beautiful +and interesting, and now cut up (and rendered unintelligible if it +were worth listening to) into <i>pezzi concertati</i>, or long singing +conversations, which present a tedious succession of unconnected, +ever-changing motives, having nothing to do with each other; and if a +satisfactory air is for a moment introduced, which the ear would like +to dwell upon, to hear modulated, varied, and again returned to, it is +broken off, before it is well understood, by a sudden transition in an +entirely different melody, time, and key, and recurs no more, so that +no impression can be made, or recollection of it preserved. Single songs +are almost exploded.... Even the <i>prima donna</i>, who formerly would have +complained at having less than three or four airs allotted to her, is +now satisfied with having one single <i>cavatina</i> given to her during the +whole opera." +</p> +<p> +In "Otello," Rossini introduced his operatic changes to the Italian +public, and they were well received; yet great opposition was manifested +by those who clung to the time-honored canons. Sigismondi, of the Naples +Conservatory, was horror-stricken on first seeing the score of this +opera. The clarionets were too much for him, but on seeing third and +fourth horn-parts, he exclaimed: "What does the man want? The greatest +of our composers have always been contented with two. Shades of +Pergolesi, of Leo, of Jomelli! How they must shudder at the bare +thought! Four horns! Are we at a hunting-party? Four horns! Enough to +blow us to perdition!" Donizetti, who was Sigismondi's pupil, also tells +an amusing incident of his preceptor's disgust. He was turning over a +score of "Semiramide" in the library, when the <i>maestro</i> came in and +asked him what music it was. "Rossini's," was the answer. Sigismondi +glanced at the page and saw 1. 2. 3. trumpets, being the first, second, +and third trumpet parts. Aghast, he shouted, stuffing his fingers in +his ears, "One hundred and twenty-three trumpets! <i>Corpo di Cristo!</i> +the world's gone mad, and I shall go mad too!" And so he rushed from the +room, muttering to himself about the hundred and twenty-three trumpets. +</p> +<p> +The Italian public, in spite of such criticism, very soon accepted the +opera of "Otello" as the greatest serious opera ever written for their +stage. It owed much, however, to the singers who illustrated its rôles. +Mme. Colbran, afterward Rossini's wife, sang Desdemona, and Davide, +Otello. The latter was the predecessor of Rubini as the finest singer of +the Rossinian music. He had the prodigious compass of three octaves; +and M. Bertin, a French critic, says of this singer, so honorably linked +with the career of our composer: "He is full of warmth, <i>verve</i>, energy, +expression, and musical sentiment; alone he can fill up and give life to +a scene; it is impossible for another singer to carry away an audience +as he does, and, when he will only be simple, he is admirable. He is the +Rossini of song; he is the greatest singer I ever heard." Lord Byron, +in one of his letters to Moore, speaks of the first production at Milan, +and praises the music enthusiastically, while condemning the libretto as +a degradation of Shakespeare. +</p> +<p> +"La Cenerentola" and "La Gazza Ladra" were written in quick succession +for Naples and Milan. The former of these works, based on the old +Cinderella myth, was the last opera written by Rossini to illustrate the +beauties of the contralto voice, and Madame Georgi-Righetti, the early +friend and steadfast patroness of the musician during his early days of +struggle, made her last great appearance in it before retiring from the +stage. In this composition, Rossini, though one of the most affluent +and rapid of composers, displays that economy in art which sometimes +characterized him. He introduced in it many of the more beautiful airs +from his earlier and less successful works. He believed on principle +that it was folly to let a good piece of music be lost through being +married to a weak and faulty libretto. The brilliant opera of "La +Gazza Ladra," set to the story of a French melodrama, "La Pie Voleuse," +aggravated the quarrel between Paer, the director of the French opera, +and the gifted Italian. Paer had designed to have written the music +himself, but his librettist slyly turned over the poem to Rossini, who +produced one of his masterpieces in setting it. The audience at La Scala +received the work with the noisiest demonstrations, interrupting the +progress of the drama with constant cries of "<i>Bravo! Maestro!" "Viva +Rossini!"</i> The composer afterward said that acknowledging the calls of +the audience fatigued him much more than the direction of the opera. +When the same work was produced four years after in London, under Mr. +Ebers's management, an incident related by that <i>impresario</i> in his +"Seven Years of the King's Theatre" shows how eagerly it was received by +an English audience. +</p> +<p> +"When I entered the stage door, I met an intimate friend, with a long +face and uplifted eyes. 'Good God! Ebers, I pity you from my soul. This +ungrateful public,' he continued. 'The wretches! Why! my dear sir, they +have not left you a seat in your own house.' Relieved from the fears he +had created, I joined him in his laughter, and proceeded, assuring him +that I felt no ill toward the public for their conduct toward me." +</p> +<p> +Passing over "Armida," written for the opening of the new San Carlo +at Naples, "Adelaida di Borgogna," for the Roman Carnival of 1817, +and "Adina," for a Lisbon theatre, we come to a work which is one of +Rossini's most solid claims on musical immortality, "Mosé in Egitto," +first produced at the San Carlo, Naples, in 1818. In "Mosé," Rossini +carried out still further than ever his innovations, the two principal +rôles—<i>Mosé, and Faraoni</i>—being assigned to basses. On the first +representation, the crossing of the Red Sea moved the audience to +satirical laughter, which disconcerted the otherwise favorable reception +of the piece, and entirely spoiled the final effects. The manager was at +his Avit's end, till Tottola, the librettist, suggested a prayer for the +Israelites before and after the passage of the host through the cleft +waters. Rossini instantly seized the idea, and, springing from bed in +his night-shirt, wrote the music with almost inconceivable rapidity, +before his embarrassed visitors recovered from their surprise. The same +evening the magnificent <i>Dal tuo stellato soglio</i> ("To thee, Great +Lord") was performed with the opera. +</p> +<p> +Let Stendhall, Rossini's biographer, tell the rest of the story: "The +audience was delighted as usual with the first act, and all went well +till the third, when, the passage of the Red Sea being at hand, the +audience as usual prepared to be amused. The laughter was just beginning +in the pit, when it was observed that Moses was about to sing. He began +his solo, the first verse of a prayer, which all the people repeat in +chorus after Moses. Surprised at this novelty, the pit listened and +the laughter entirely ceased. The chorus, exceedingly fine, was in the +minor. Aaron continues, followed by the people. Finally, Eleia addresses +to Heaven the same supplication, and the people respond. Then all fall +on their knees and repeat the prayer with enthusiasm; the miracle is +performed, the sea is opened to leave a path for the people protected +by the Lord. This last part is in the major. It is impossible to imagine +the thunders of applause that resounded through the house: one would +have thought it was coming down. The spectators in the boxes, standing +up and leaning over, called out at the top of their voices, '<i>Bello, +bello! O che hello!</i>', I never saw so much enthusiasm nor such a +complete success, which was so much the greater, inasmuch as the people +were quite prepared to laugh.... I am almost in tears when I think of +this prayer. This state of things lasted a long time, and one of its +effects was to make for its composer the reputation of an assassin, +for Dr. Cottogna is said to have remarked: 'I can cite to you more than +forty attacks of nervous fever or violent convulsions on the part of +young women, fond to excess of music, which have no other origin than +the prayer of the Hebrews in the third act, with its superb change of +key.'" Thus by a stroke of genius, a scene which first impressed the +audience as a piece of theatrical burlesque, was raised to sublimity by +the solemn music written for it. +</p> +<p> +M. Bochsa some years afterward produced "Mosé" as an oratorio in London, +and it failed. A new libretto, however, "Pietro L'Eremito,"* again +transformed the music into an opera. +</p> +<pre> + * The same music was set to a poem founded on the first + crusade, all the most effective situations being + dramatically utilized for the Christian legend. +</pre> +<p> +Ebers tells us that Lord Sefton, a distinguished connoisseur, only +pronounced the general verdict in calling it the greatest of serious +operas, for it was received with the greatest favor. A gentleman of high +rank was not satisfied with assuring the manager that he had deserved +well of his country, but avowed his determination to propose him for +membership at the most exclusive of aristocratic clubs—White's. +</p> +<p> +"La Donna del Lago," Rossini's next great work, also first produced at +the San Carlo during the Carnival of 1820, though splendidly performed, +did not succeed well the first night. The composer left Naples the same +night for Milan, and coolly informed every one <i>en route</i> that the +opera was very successful, which proved to be true when he reached his +journey's end, for the Neapolitans on the second night reversed their +decision into an enthusiasm as marked as their coldness had been. +</p> +<p> +Shortly after this Rossini married his favorite <i>prima donna</i>, Madame +Colbran. He had just completed two of his now forgotten operas, "Bianca +e Faliero," and "Matilda di Shabran," but did not stay to watch their +public reception. He quietly took away the beautiful Colbran, and at +Bologne was married by the archbishop. Thence the freshly-wedded couple +visited Vienna, and Rossini there produced his "Zelmira," his wife +singing the principal part. One of the most striking of this composer's +works in invention and ingenious development of ideas, Carpani says +of it: "It contains enough to furnish not one but four operas. In this +work, Rossini, by the new riches which he draws from his prodigious +imagination, is no longer the author of 'Otello,' 'Tancredi,' 'Zoraide,' +and all his preceding works; he is another composer, new, agreeable, +and fertile, as much as at first, but with more command of himself, more +pure, more masterly, and, above all, more faithful to the interpretation +of the words. The forms of style employed in this opera according +to circumstances are so varied, that now we seem to hear Gluck, now +Traetta, now Sacchini, now Mozart, now Handel; for the gravity, the +learning, the naturalness, the suavity of their conceptions, live and +blossom again in 'Zelmira.' The transitions are learned, and inspired +more by considerations of poetry and sense than by caprice and a mania +for innovation. The vocal parts, always natural, never trivial, give +expression to the words without ceasing to be melodious. The great +point is to preserve both. The instrumentation of Rossini is really +incomparable by the vivacity and freedom of the manner, by the variety +and justness of the coloring." Yet it must be conceded that, while this +opera made a deep impression on musicians and critics, it did not please +the general public. It proved languid and heavy with those who could not +relish the science of the music and the skill of the combinations. Such +instances as this are the best answer to that school of critics, +who have never ceased clamoring that Rossini could write nothing but +beautiful tunes to tickle the vulgar and uneducated mind. +</p> +<p> +"Semiramide," first performed at the Fenice theatre in Venice on +February 3, 1823, was the last of Rossini's Italian operas, though it +had the advantage of careful rehearsals and a noble caste. It was not +well received at first, though the verdict of time places it high among +the musical masterpieces of the century. In it were combined all of +Rossini's, ideas of operatic reform, and the novelty of some of the +innovations probablv accounts for the inability of his earlier public to +appreciate its merits. Mme. Rossini made her last public appearance in +this great work. +</p> +<center> +IV. +</center> +<p> +Henceforward the career of the greatest of the Italian composers, the +genius who shares with Mozart the honor of having impressed himself more +than any other on the style and methods of his successors, was to +be associated with French music, though never departing from his +characteristic quality as an original and creative mind. He modified +French music, and left great disciples on whom his influence was +radical, though perhaps we may detect certain reflex influences in his +last and greatest opera, "William Tell." But of this more hereafter. +</p> +<p> +Before finally settling in the French capital, Rossini visited London, +where he was received with great honors. "When Rossini entered,"* says +a writer in a London paper of that date, "he was received with loud +plaudits, all the persons in the pit standing on the seats to get a +better view of him. +</p> +<pre> + * His first English appearance in public was at the King's + Theatre on the 24th of January, 1824, when he conducted his + own opera, "Zelmira." +</pre> +<p> +He continued for a minute or two to bow respectfully to the audience, +and then gave the signal for the overture to begin. He appeared stout +and somewhat below the middle height, with rather a heavy air, and a +countenance which, though intelligent, betrayed none of the vivacity +which distinguishes his music; and it was remarked that he had more of +the appearance of a sturdy, beef-eating Englishman, than a fiery and +sensitive native of the south." +</p> +<p> +The king, George IV., treated Rossini with peculiar consideration. On +more than one occasion he walked with him arm-in-arm through a crowded +concert-hall to the conductor's stand. Yet the composer, who seems +not to have admired his English Majesty, treated the monarch with much +independence, not to say brusqueness, on one occasion, as if to signify +his disdain of even royal patronage. At a grand concert at St. James's +Palace, the king said, at the close of the programme, "Now, Rossini, +we will have one piece more, and that shall be the <i>finale</i>." The other +replied, "I think, sir, we have had music enough for one night," and +made his bow. +</p> +<p> +He was an honored guest at the most fashionable houses, where his +talents as a singer and player were displayed with much effect in an +unconventional, social way. Auber, the French composer, was present on +one of these occasions, and indicates how great Rossini could have been +in executive music had he not been a king in the higher sphere. "I shall +never forget the effect," writes Auber, "produced by his lightning-like +execution. When he had finished I looked mechanically at the ivory +keys. I fancied I could see them smoking." Rossini was richer by seven +thousand pounds by this visit to the English metropolis. Though he had +been under engagement to produce a new opera as well as to conduct those +which had already made him famous, he failed to keep this part of his +contract. Passages in his letters at this time would seem to indicate +that Rossini was much piqued because the London public received his +wife, to whom he was devotedly attached, with coldness. Notwithstanding +the beauty of her face and figure, and the greatness of her style both +as actress and singer, she was pronounced <i>passée</i> alike in person +and voice, with a species of brutal frankness not uncommon in English +criticism. +</p> +<p> +When Rossini arrived in Paris he was almost immediately appointed +director of the Italian Opera by the Duc de Lauriston. With this and the +Académie he remained connected till the revolution of 1830. "Le Siège +de Corinthe," adapted from his old work, "Maometto II.," was the first +opera presented to the Parisian public, and, though admired, did not +become a favorite. The French <i>amour propre</i> was a little stung when it +was made known that Rossini had simply modified and reshaped one of his +early and immature productions as his first attempt at composition in +French opera. His other works for the French stage were "Il Viaggio a +Rheims," "Le Comte Ory," and "Guillaume Tell." +</p> +<p> +The last-named opera, which will ever be Rossini's crown of glory as a +composer, was written with his usual rapidity while visiting the château +of M. Aguado, a country-seat some distance from Paris. This work, one of +the half-dozen greatest ever written, was first produced at the Académie +Royale on August 3, 1829. In its early form of libretto it had a run of +fifty-six representations, and was then withdrawn from the stage; and +the work of remodeling from five to three acts, and other improvements +in the dramatic framework, was thoroughly carried out. In its new form +the opera blazed into an unprecedented popularity, for of the greatness +of the music there had never been but one judgment. Fétis, the eminent +critic, writing of it immediately on its production, said, "The work +displays a new man in an old one, and proves that it is in vain to +measure the action of genius," and follows with, "This production opens +a new career to Rossini," a prophecy unfortunately not to be realized, +for Rossini was soon to retire from the field in which he had made such +a remarkable career, while yet in the very prime of his powers. +</p> +<p> +"Guillaume Tell" is full of melody, alike in the solos and the massive +choral and ballet music. It runs in rich streams through every part of +the composition. The overture is better known to the general public +than the opera itself, and is one of the great works of musical art. +The opening andante in triple time for the five violoncelli and double +basses at once carries the hearer to the regions of the upper Alps, +where amid the eternal snows Nature sleeps in a peaceful dream. We +perceive the coming of the sunlight, and the hazy atmosphere clearing +away before the newborn day. In the next movement the solitude is +all dispelled. The raindrops fall thick and heavy, and a thunderstorm +bursts. But the fury is soon spent, and the clouds clear away. The +shepherds are astir, and from the mountain-sides come the peculiar +notes of the "Ranz des Vaches" from their pipes. Suddenly all is changed +again. +</p> +<p> +Trumpets call to arms, and with the mustering battalions the music +marks the quickstep, as the shepherd patriots march to meet the +Austrian chivalry. A brilliant use of the violins and reeds depicts +the exultation of the victors on their return, and closes one of the +grandest sound-paintings in music. +</p> +<p> +The original cast of "Guillaume Tell" included the great singers then +in Paris, and these were so delighted with the music, that the morning +after the first production they assembled on the terrace before his +house and performed selections from it in his honor. +</p> +<p> +With this last great effort Rossini, at the age of thirty-seven, may +be said to have retired from the field of music, though his life was +prolonged for forty years. True, he composed the "Stabat Mater" and the +"Messe Solennelle," but neither of these added to the reputation won +in his previous career. The "Stabat Mater," publicly performed for the +first time in 1842, has been recognized, it is true, as a masterpiece; +but its entire lack of devotional solemnity, its brilliant and showy +texture, preclude its giving Rossini any rank as a religious composer. +</p> +<p> +He spent the forty years of his retirement partly at Bologna, partly at +Passy, near Paris, the city of his adoption. His hospitality welcomed +the brilliant men from all parts of Europe who loved to visit him, and +his relations with other great musicians were of the most kindly and +cordial character. His sunny and genial nature never knew envy, and +he was quick to recognize the merits of schools opposed to his own. He +died, after intense suffering, on November 13, 1868. He had been some +time ill, and four of the greatest physicians in Europe were his almost +constant attendants. The funeral of "The Swan of Pesaro," as he was +called by his compatriots, was attended by an immense concourse, and his +remains rest in Père-Lachaise. +</p> +<center> +V. +</center> +<p> +Moscheles, the celebrated pianist, gives us some charming pictures of +Rossini in his home at Passy, in his diary of 1860. He writes: "Felix +[his son] had been made quite at home in the villa on former occasions. +To me the <i>parterre salon</i>, with its rich furniture, was quite new, and +before the <i>maestro</i> himself appeared we looked at his photograph in a +circular porcelain frame, on the sides of which were inscribed the names +of his works. The ceiling is covered with pictures illustrating scenes +out of Palestrina's and Mozart's lives; in the middle of the room stands +a Pleyel piano. When Rossini came in he gave me the orthodox Italian +kiss, and was effusive of expressions of delight at my reappearance, +and very complimentary on the subject of Felix. In the course of our +conversation he was full of hard-hitting truths on the present study and +method of vocalization. 'I don't want to hear anything more of it,' he +said; 'they scream. All I want is a resonant, full-toned voice, not +a screeching voice. I care not whether it be for speaking or singing, +everything ought to sound melodious.'" So, too, Rossini assured +Moscheles that he hated the new school of piano-players, saying the +piano was horribly maltreated, for the performers thumped the keys as +if they had some vengeance to wreak on them. When the great player +improvised for Rossini, the latter says: "It is music that flows from +the fountain-head. There is reservoir water and spring water. The former +only runs when you turn the cock, and is always redolent of the vase; +the latter always gushes forth fresh and limpid. Nowadays people +confound the simple and the trivial; a <i>motif</i> of Mozart they would call +trivial, if they dared." +</p> +<p> +On other occasions Moscheles plays to the <i>maestro</i>, who insists on +having discovered barriers in the "humoristic variations," so boldly do +they seem to raise the standard of musical revolution; his title of the +"Grand Valse" he finds too unassuming. "Surely a waltz with some angelic +creature must have inspired you, Moscheles, with this composition, and +<i>that</i> the title ought to express. Titles, in fact, should pique the +curiosity of the public." "A view uncongenial to me," adds Moscheles; +"however, I did not discuss it.... A dinner at Rossini's is calculated +for the enjoyment of a 'gourmet,' and he himself proved to be the one, +for he went through the very select <i>menu</i> as only a connoisseur would. +After dinner he looked through my album of musical autographs with the +greatest interest, and finally we became very merry, I producing my +musical jokes on the piano, and Felix and Clara figuring in the duet +which I had written for her voice and his imitation of the French +horn. Rossini cheered lustily, and so one joke followed another till we +received the parting kiss and 'good night.'... At my next visit, +Rossini showed me a charming 'Lied oline Worte,' which he composed only +yesterday; a graceful melody is embodied in the well-known technical +form. Alluding to a performance of 'Semiramide,' he said with a +malicious smile, 'I suppose you saw the beautiful decorations in it?' He +has not received the Sisters Marchisio for fear they should sing to +him, nor has he heard them in the theatre; he spoke warmly of Pasta, +Lablache, Rubini, and others, then he added that I ought not to look +with jealousy upon his budding talent as a pianoforte-player, but that, +on the contrary, I should help to establish his reputation as such in +Leipsic. He again questioned me with much interest about my intimacy +with Clementi, and, calling me that master's worthy successor, he said +he should like to visit me in Leipsic, if it were not for those dreadful +railways, which he would never travel by. All this in his bright and +lively way; but when we came to discuss Chevet, who wishes to supplant +musical notes by ciphers, he maintained in an earnest and dogmatic +tone that the system of notation, as it had developed itself since +Pope Gregory's time, was sufficient for all musical requirements. He +certainly could not withhold some appreciation for Chevet, but refused +to indorse the certificate granted by the Institute in his favor; the +system he thought impracticable. +</p> +<p> +"The never-failing stream of conversation flowed on until eleven +o'clock, when I was favored with the inevitable kiss, which on this +occasion was accompanied by special farewell blessings." +</p> +<p> +Shortly after Moscheles had left Paris, his son forwarded to him most +friendly messages from Rossini, and continues thus: "Rossini sends you +word that he is working hard at the piano, and, when you next come +to Paris, you shall find him in better practice.... The conversation +turning upon German music, I asked him 'which was his favorite among the +great masters?' Of Beethoven he said: 'I take him twice a week, Haydn +four times, and Mozart every day. You will tell me that Beethoven is a +Colossus who often gives you a dig in the ribs, while Mozart is always +adorable; it is that the latter had the chance of going very young to +Italy, at a time when they still sang well.' Of Weber he says, 'He has +talent enough, and to spare' (Il a du talent à revendre, celui-là). He +told me in reference to him, that, when the part of 'Tancred' was sung +at Berlin by a bass voice, Weber had written violent articles not only +against the management, but against the composer, so that, when Weber +came to Paris, he did not venture to call on Rossini, who, however, let +him know that he bore him no grudge for having made these attacks; on +receipt of that message Weber called and they became acquainted. +</p> +<p> +"I asked him if he had met Byron in Venice? 'Only in a restaurant,' was +the answer, 'where I was introduced to him; our acquaintance, therefore, +was very slight; it seems he has spoken of me, but I don't know what he +says.' I translated for him, in a somewhat milder form, Byron's words, +which happened to be fresh in my memory: 'They have been crucifying +Othello into an opera; the music good but lugubrious, but, as for the +words, all the real scenes with Iago cut out, and the greatest nonsense +instead, the handkerchief turned into a billet-doux, and the first +singer would not black his face—singing, dresses, and music very good.' +The <i>maestro</i> regretted his ignorance of the English language, and said, +'In my day I gave much time to the study of our Italian literature. +Dante is the man I owe most to; he taught me more music than all my +music-masters put together, and when I wrote my 'Otello,' I would +introduce those lines of Dante—you know the song of the gondolier. +My librettist would have it that gondoliers never sang Dante, and but +rarely Tasso, but I answered him, 'I know all about that better than +you, for I have lived in Venice and you haven't. Dante I must and will +have.'" +</p> +<center> +VI. +</center> +<p> +An ardent disciple of Wagner sums up his ideas of the mania for +the Rossini music, which possessed Europe for fifteen years, in the +following: "Rossini, the most gifted and spoiled of her sons [speaking +of Italy] sallied forth with an innumerable army of Bacchantic melodies +to conquer the world, the Messiah of joy, the breaker of thought and +sorrow. Europe, by this time, had tired of the empty pomp of French +declamation. It lent but too willing an ear to the new gospel, and +eagerly quaffed the intoxicating potion, which Rossini poured out in +inexhaustible streams." This very well expresses the delight of all the +countries of Europe in music which for a long time almost monopolized +the stage. +</p> +<p> +The charge of being a mere tune-spinner, the denial of invention, depth, +and character, have been common watchwords in the mouths of critics +wedded to other schools. But Rossini's place in music stands unshaken by +all assaults. The vivacity of his style, the freshness of his melodies, +the richness of his combinations, made all the Italian music that +preceded him pale and colorless. No other writer revels in such luxury +of beauty, and delights the ear with such a succession of delicious +surprises in melody. +</p> +<p> +Henry Chorley, in his "Thirty Years' Musical Recollections," rebukes the +bigotry which sees nothing good but in its own kind: "I have never been +able to understand why this [referring to the Rossinian richness of +melody] should be contemned as necessarily false and meretricious—why +the poet may not be allowed the benefit of his own period and time—why +a lover of architecture is to be compelled to swear by the <i>Dom</i> +at Bamberg, or by the Cathedral at Monreale—that he must abhor and +denounce Michel Angelo's church or the Baths of Diocletian at Rome—why +the person who enjoys 'Il Barbiere' is to be denounced as frivolously +faithless to Mozart's 'Figaro'—and as incapable of comprehending +'Fidelio,' because the last act of 'Otello' and the second of 'Guillaume +Tell' transport him into as great an enjoyment of its kind as do +the duet in the cemetery between 'Don Juan' and 'Leporello' and the +'Prisoners' Chorus.' How much good, genial pleasure has not the world +lost in music, owing to the pitting of styles one against the other! +Your true traveler will be all the more alive to the beauty of Nuremberg +because he has looked out over the 'Golden Shell' at Palermo; nor +delight in Rhine and Danube the less because he has seen the glow of a +southern sunset over the broken bridge at Avignon." +</p> +<p> +As grand and true as are many of the essential elements in the Wagner +school of musical composition, the bitterness and narrowness of spite +with which its upholders have pursued the memory of Rossini is equally +offensive and unwarrantable. Rossini, indeed, did not revolutionize +the forms of opera as transmitted to him by his predecessors, but he +reformed and perfected them in various notable ways. Both in comic +and serious opera, music owes much to Rossini. He substituted genuine +singing for the endless recitative of which the Italian opera before him +largely consisted; he brought the bass and baritone voices to the front, +banished the pianoforte from the orchestra, and laid down the principle +that the singer should deliver the notes written for him without +additions of his own. He gave the chorus a much more important part than +before, and elaborated the concerted music, especially in the <i>finales</i>, +to a degree of artistic beauty before unknown in the Italian opera. +Above all, he made the operatic orchestra what it is to-day. Every new +instrument that was invented Rossini found a place for in his brilliant +scores, and thereby incurred the warmest indignation of all writers +of the old school. Before him the orchestras had consisted largely of +strings, but Rossini added an equally imposing clement of the brasses +and reeds. True, Mozart had forestalled Rossini in many if not all these +innovations, a fact which the Italian cheerfully admitted; for, with +the simple frankness characteristic of the man, he always spoke of his +obligations to and his admiration of the great German. To an admirer who +was one day burning incense before him, Rossini said, in the spirit of +Cimarosa quoted elsewhere: "My 'Barber' is only a bright farce, but in +Mozart's 'Marriage of Figaro' you have the finest possible masterpiece +of musical comedy." +</p> +<p> +With all concessions made to Mozart as the founder of the forms of +modern opera, an equally high place must be given to Rossini for the +vigor and audacity with which he made these available, and impressed +them on all his contemporaries and successors. Though Rossini's +self-love was flattered by constant adulation, his expressions of +respect and admiration for such composers as Mozart, Gluck, Beethoven, +and Cherubini display what a catholic and generous nature he possessed. +The judgment of Ambros, a severe critic, whose bias was against Rossini, +shows what admiration was wrung from him by the last opera of the +composer: "Of all that particularly characterizes Rossini's early operas +nothing is discoverable in 'Tell;' there is none of his usual mannerism; +but, on the contrary, unusual richness of form and careful finish of +detail, combined with grandeur of outline. Meretricious embellishment, +shakes, runs, and cadences are carefully avoided in this work, which is +natural and characteristic throughout; even the melodies have not the +stamp and style of Rossini's earlier times, but only their graceful +charm and lively coloring." +</p> +<p> +Rossini must be allowed to be unequaled in genuine comic opera, and +to have attained a distinct greatness in serious opera, to be the most +comprehensive and at the same time the most national composer of Italy, +to be, in short, the Mozart of his country. After all has been admitted +and regretted—that he gave too little attention to musical science; +that he often neglected to infuse into his work the depth and passion of +which it was easily capable; that he placed too high a value on merely +brilliant effects <i>ad captandum vulgus</i>—there remains the fact that his +operas embody a mass of imperishable music, which will live with the +art itself. Musicians of every country now admit his wondrous grace, +his fertility and freshness of invention, his matchless treatment of the +voice, his effectiveness in arrangement of the orchestra. He can +never be made a model, for his genius had too much spontaneity and +individuality of color. But he impressed and modified music hardly less +than Gluck, whose tastes and methods were entirely antagonistic to his +own. That he should have retired from the exercise of his art while in +the full flower of his genius is a perplexing fact. No stranger story +is recorded in the annals of art with respect to a genius who filled +the world with his glory, and then chose to vanish, "not unseen." On +finishing his crowning stroke of genius and skill in "William Tell," he +might have said with Shakespeare's enchanter, Prospero: +</p> +<pre> + ".... But this magic I here abjure; and when I have required + Some heavenly music (which even now I do) + To work mine end upon their senses that + This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff— + Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, + And, deeper than did ever plummet sound, I'll drown my book." +</pre> +<p> +A bright English critic, whose style is as charming as his judgments are +good, says, in his study of the Donizetti music: "I find myself thinking +of his music as I do of Domenichino's pictures of 'St. Agnes' and the +'Rosario' in the Bologna gallery, of the 'Diana' in the Borghese Palace +at Rome, as pictures equable and skillful in the treatment of their +subjects, neither devoid of beauty of form nor of color, but which +make neither the pulse quiver nor the eye wet; and then such a sweeping +judgment is arrested by a work like the 'St. Jerome' in the Vatican, +from which a spirit comes forth so strong and so exalted, that the +beholder, however trained to examine, and compare, and collect, finds +himself raised above all recollections of manner by the sudden ascent +of talent into the higher world of genius. Essentially a second-rate +composer,* Donizetti struck out some first-rate things in a happy hour, +such as the last act of 'La Favorita.'" +</p> +<pre> + * Mr. Chorley probably means "second-rate" as compared with + the few very great names, which can be easily counted on the + fingers. +</pre> +<p> +Both Donizetti and Bellini, though far inferior to their master in +richness of resources, in creative faculty and instinct for what may +be called dramatic expression in pure musical form, were disciples of +Rossini in their ideas and methods of work. Milton sang of Shakespeare— +</p> +<pre> + "Sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, + "Warbles his native wood-notes wild!" +</pre> +<p> +In a similar spirit, many learned critics have written of Rossini, and +if it can be said of him in a musical sense that he had "little Latin +and less Greek," still more true is it of the two popular composers +whose works have filled so large a space in the opera-house of the last +thirty years, for their scores are singularly thin, measured by the +standard of advanced musical science. Specially may this be said of +Bellini, in many respects the greater of the two. There is scarcely +to be found in music a more signal example to show that a marked +individuality may rest on a narrow base. In justice to him, however, it +may be said that his early death prevented him from doing full justice +to his powers, for he had in him the material out of which the great +artist is made. Let us first sketch the career of Donizetti, the author +of sixty-four operas, besides a mass of other music, such as cantatas, +ariettas, duets, church music, etc., in the short space of twenty-six +years. +</p> +<p> +Gàetano Donizetti was born at Bergamo, September 25, 1798, his father +being a man of moderate fortune.* +</p> +<pre> + * Admirers of the author of "Don Pasquale" and "Lucia" may + be interested in knowing that Donizetti was of Scotch + descent. His grandfather was a native of Perthshire, named + Izett. The young Scot was beguiled by the fascinating tongue + of a recruiting-sergeant into his Britannic majesty's + service, and was taken prisoner by General La Hoche during + the latter's invasion of Ireland. Already tired of a + private's life, he accepted the situation, and was induced + to become the French general's private secretary. + Subsequently he drifted to Italy, and married an Italian + lady of some rank, denationalizing his own name into + Donizetti. The Scottish predilections of our composer show + themselves in the music of "Don Pasquale," noticeably in + "Com' e gentil;" and the score of "Lucia" is strongly + flavored by Scottish sympathy and minstrelsy. +</pre> +<p> +Receiving a good classical education, the young Gäetano had three +careers open before him: the bar, to which the will of his father +inclined; architecture, indicated by his talent for drawing; and music, +to which he was powerfully impelled by his own inclinations. His +father sent him, at the age of seventeen, to Bologna to benefit by the +instruction of Padre Mattel, who had also been Rossini's master. The +young man showed no disposition for the heights of musical science as +demanded by religious composition, and, much to his father's disgust, +avowed his determination to write dramatic music. Paternal anger, for +the elder Donizetti seems to have had a strain of Scotch obstinacy and +austerity, made the youth enlist as a soldier, thinking to find time for +musical work in the leisure of barrack-life. His first opera, "Enrico +di Borgogna," was so highly admired by the Venetian manager, to whom, it +was offered, that he induced friends of his to release young Donizetti +from his military servitude. He now pursued musical composition with a +facility and industry which astonished even the Italians, familiar with +feats of improvisation. In ten years twenty-eight operas were produced. +Such names as "Olivo e Pasquale," "La Convenienze Teatrali," "Il +Borgomaestro di Saardam," "Gianni di Calais," "L'Esule di Roma," "Il +Castello di Kenilworth," "Imelda di Lambertazzi," have no musical +significance, except as belonging to a catalogue of forgotten titles. +Donizetti was so poorly paid that need drove him to rapid composition, +which could not wait for the true afflatus. +</p> +<p> +It was not till 1831 that the evidence of a strong individuality was +given, for hitherto he had shown little more than a slavish imitation +of Rossini. "Anna Bolena" was produced at Milan and gained him great +credit, and even now, though it is rarely sung even in Italy, it is +much respected as a work of art as well as of promise. It was first +interpreted by Pasta and Rubini, and Lablache won his earliest London +triumph in it. "Marino Faliero" was composed for Paris in 1835, and +"L'Elisir d'Amore," one of the most graceful and pleasing of Donizetti's +works, for Milan in 1832. "Lucia di Lammermoor," based on Walter Scott's +novel, was given to the public in 1835, and has remained the most +popular of the composer's operas. <i>Edgardo</i> was written for the great +French tenor, Duprez, <i>Lucia</i> for Persiani. +</p> +<p> +Donizetti's kindness of heart was illustrated by the interesting +circumstances of his saving an obscure Neapolitan theatre from ruin. +Hearing that it was on the verge of suspension and the performers +in great distress, the composer sought them out and supplied their +immediate wants. The manager said a new work from the pen of Donizetti +would be his salvation. "You shall have one within a week," was the +answer. +</p> +<p> +Lacking a subject, he himself rearranged an old French vaudeville, and +within the week the libretto was written, the music composed, the parts +learned, the opera performed, and the theatre saved. There could be no +greater proof of his generosity of heart and his versatility of talent. +In these days of bitter quarreling over the rights of authors in their +works, it may be amusing to know that Victor Hugo contested the rights +of Italian librettists to borrow their plots from French plays. When +"Lucrezia Borgia," composed for Milan in 1834, was produced at Paris +in 1840, the French poet instituted a suit for an infringement of +copyright. He gained his action, and "Lucrezia Borgia" became "La +Rinegata," Pope Alexander the Sixth's Italians being metamorphosed into +Turks.* +</p> +<pre> + * Victor Hugo did the same thing with Verdi's "Ernani," and + other French authors followed with legal actions. The matter + was finally arranged on condition of an indemnity being paid + to the original French dramatists. The principle involved + had been established nearly two centuries before. In a + privilege granted to St. Amant in 1653 for the publication + of his "Moïse Sauvé," it was forbidden to extract from that + epic materials for a play or poem. The descendants of + Beaumarchais fought for the same concession, and not very + long ago it was decided that the translators and arrangers + of "Le Nozze di Figaro" for the Théâtre Lyrique must share + their receipts with the living representatives of the author + of "Le Mariage de Figaro." +</pre> +<p> +"Lucrezia Borgia," which, though based on one of the most dramatic of +stories and full of beautiful music, is not dramatically treated by the +composer, seems to mark the distance about half way between the styles +of Rossini and Verdi. In it there is but little recitative, and in the +treatment of the chorus we find the method which Verdi afterward came to +use exclusively. When Donizetti revisited Paris in 1840 he produced in +rapid succession "I Martiri," "La Fille du Regiment," and "La Favorita." +In the second of these works Jenny Lind, Sontag, and Alboni won bright +triumphs at a subsequent period. +</p> +<center> +II. +</center> +<p> +"La Favorita," the story of which was drawn from "L'Ange de Nigida," +and founded in the first instance on a French play, "Le Comte de +Commingues," was put on the stage at the Académie with a magnificent +cast and scenery, and achieved a success immediately great, for as +a dramatic opera it stands far in the van of all the composer's +productions. The whole of the grand fourth act, with the exception of +one cavatina, was composed in three hours. Donizetti had been dining at +the house of a friend, who was engaged in the evening to go to a ball. +On leaving the house, his host, with profuse apologies, begged +the composer to stay and finish his coffee, of which Donizetti was +inordinately fond. The latter sent out for music paper, and, finding +himself in the vein for composition, went on writing till the completion +of the work. He had just put the final stroke to the celebrated "<i>Viens +dans un autre patrie</i>" when his friend returned at one in the morning +to congratulate him on his excellent method of passing the time, and to +hear the music sung for the first time from Donizetti's own lips. +</p> +<p> +After visiting Rome, Milan, and Vienna, for which last city he wrote +"Linda di Chamouni," our composer returned to Paris, and in 1843 wrote +"Don Pasquale" for the Theatre Italien, and "Don Sebastian" for +the Académie. Its lugubrious drama was fatal to the latter, but the +brilliant gayety of "Don Pasquale," rendered specially delightful by +such a magnificent cast as Grisi, Mario, Tamburini, and Lablache, made +it one of the great art attractions of Paris, and a Fortunatus purse for +the manager. The music of this work perhaps is the best ever written by +Donizetti, though it lacks the freshness and sentiment of his "Elisir +d'Amore," which is steeped in rustic poetry and tenderness like a rose +wet with dew. The production of "Maria di Rohan" in Vienna the same +year, an opera with some powerful dramatic effects and bold music, gave +Ronconi the opportunity to prove himself not merely a fine buffo singer, +but a noble tragic actor. In this work Donizetti displays that rugged +earnestness and vigor so characteristic of Verdi; and, had his life been +greatly prolonged, we might have seen him ripen into a passion and power +at odds with the elegant frivolity which for the most part tainted +his musical quality. Donizetti's last opera, "Catarina Comaro" the +sixty-third one represented, was brought out at Naples in the year 1844 +without adding aught to his reputation. Of this composer's long list of +works only ten or eleven retain any hold on the stage, his best serious +operas being "La Favorita," "Linda," "Anna Bolena," "Lucrezia Borgia," +and "Lucia;" the finest comic works, "L'Elisir d'Amore," "La Fille du +Regiment," and "Don Pasquale." +</p> +<p> +In composing Donizetti never used the pianoforte, writing with great +rapidity and never making corrections. Yet curious to say, he could +not do anything without a small ivory scraper by his side, though never +using it. It was given him by his father when commencing his career, +with the injunction that, as he was determined to become a musician, he +should make up his mind to write as little rubbish as possible, advice +which Donizetti sometimes forgot. +</p> +<p> +The first signs of the malady, which was the cause of the composer's +death, had already shown themselves in 1845. Fits of hallucination and +all the symptoms of approaching derangement displayed themselves with +increasing intensity. An incessant worker, overseer of his operas on +twenty stages, he had to pay the tax by which his fame became his ruin. +It is reported that he anticipated the coming scourge, for during the +rehearsals of "Don Sebastian" he said, "I think I shall go mad yet." +Still he would not put the bridle on his restless activity. At last +paralysis seized him, and in January, 1846, he was placed under the +care of the celebrated Dr. Blanche at Ivry. In the hope that the mild +influence of his native air might heal his distempered brain, he was +sent to Bergamo, in 1848, but died in his brother's arms April 8th. +The inhabitants of the Peninsula were then at war with Austria, and +the bells that sounded the knell of Donizetti's departure mingled their +solemn peals with the roar of the cannon fired to celebrate the victory +of Goïto. +</p> +<p> +His faithful valet, Antoine, wrote to Adolphe Adam, describing his +obsequies: "More than four thousand persons," he relates, "were present +at the ceremony. The procession was composed of the numerous clergy of +Bergamo, the most illustrious members of the community and its environs, +and of the civic guard of the town and the suburbs. The discharge of +musketry, mingled with the light of three or four thousand torches, +presented a fine effect; the whole was enhanced by the presence of +three military bands and the most propitious weather it was possible to +behold. The young gentlemen of Bergamo insisted on bearing the remains +of their illustrious fellow-townsman, although the cemetery was a league +and a half from the town. The road was crowded its whole length by +people who came from the surrounding country to witness the procession; +and to give due praise to the inhabitants of Bergamo, never, hitherto, +had such great honors been bestowed upon any member of that city." +</p> +<center> +III. +</center> +<p> +The future author of "Norma" and "La Sonnambula," Bellini, took his +first lessons in music from his father, an organist at Catania.* +</p> +<pre> + * Bellini was born in 1802, nine years after his + contemporary and rival, Donizetti, and died in 1835, + thirteen years before. +</pre> +<p> +He was sent to the Naples Conservatory by the generosity of a noble +patron, and there was the fellow-pupil of Mercadante, a composer who +blazed into a temporary lustre which threatened to outshine his fellows, +but is now forgotten except by the antiquarian and the lover of church +music. Bellini's early works, for he composed three before he was +twenty, so pleased Barbaja, the manager of the San Carlo and La Scala, +that he intrusted the youth with the libretto of "Il Pirata," to be +composed for representation at Florence. The tenor part was written for +the great singer, Rubini, whose name has no peer among artists, since +male sopranos were abolished by the outraged moral sense of society. +Rubini retired to the country with Bellini, and studied, as they were +produced, the simple touching airs with which he so delighted the public +on the stage. +</p> +<p> +La Scala rang with plaudits when the opera was produced, and Bellini's +career was assured. "I Capuletti" was his next successful opera, +performed at Venice in 1829, but it never became popular out of Italy. +</p> +<p> +The significant period of Bellini's life was in the year 1831, which +produced "La Sonnambula," to be followed by "Norma" the next season. +Both these were written for and introduced before the Neapolitan public. +In these works he reached his highest development, and by them he is +best known to fame. The opera-story of "La Sonnambula," by Romani, +an accomplished writer and scholar, is one of the most artistic and +effective ever put into the hands of a composer. M. Scribe had already +used the plot both as the subject of a vaudeville and a chorégraphie +drama; but in Romani's hands it became a symmetrical story full of +poetry and beauty. The music of this opera, throbbing with pure melody +and simple emotion, as natural and fresh as a bed of wild flowers, went +to the heart of the universal public, learned and unlearned; and, in +spite of its scientific faults, it will never cease to delight future +generations, as long as hearts beat and eyes are moistened with human +tenderness and sympathy. And yet, of this work an English critic wrote, +on its first London presentation: +</p> +<p> +"Bellini has soared too high; there is nothing of grandeur, no touch of +true pathos in the common-place workings of his mind. He cannot reach +the <i>opera semiseria</i>; he should confine his powers to the musical +drama, the one-act <i>opera buffa</i>." But the history of art-criticism is +replete with such instances. +</p> +<p> +"Norma" was also a grand triumph for the young composer from the outset, +especially as the lofty character of the Druid priestess was sung by +that unapproachable lyric tragedienne, the Siddons of the opera, Madame +Pasta. Bellini is said to have had this queen of dramatic song in +his mind in writing the opera, and right nobly did she vindicate his +judgment, for no European audience afterward but was thrilled and +carried away by her masterpiece of acting and singing in this part. +</p> +<p> +Bellini himself considered "Norma" his <i>chef d'oeuvre</i>. A beautiful +Parisienne attempted to extract from his reluctant lips his preference +of his own works. The lady finally overcame his evasions by the query: +"But if you were out at sea, and should be shipwrecked—" "Ah!" he +cried, without allowing her to finish. "I would leave all the rest and +try to save 'Norma.'" +</p> +<p> +"I Puritani" was composed for and performed at Paris in 1834, by that +splendid quartette of artists, Grisi, Rubini, Tamburini, and Lablache. +Bellini compelled the singers to execute after <i>his</i> style. While Rubini +was rehearsing the tenor part, the composer cried out in rage: "You put +no life into your music. Show some feeling. Don't you know what love +is?" Then changing his tone: "Don't you know your voice is a goldmine +that has not been fully explored? You are an excellent artist, but that +is not sufficient. You must forget yourself and represent <i>Gualtiero</i>. +Let's try again." The tenor, stung by the admonition, then gave the part +magnificently. After the success of "I Puritani," the composer received +the Cross of the Legion of Honor, an honor then not often bestowed. +The "Puritani" season is still remembered, it is said, with peculiar +pleasure by the older connoisseurs of Paris and London, as the +enthusiasm awakened in musical circles has rarely been equaled. +</p> +<p> +Bellini had placed himself under contract to write two new works +immediately, one for Paris, the other for Naples, and retired to the +villa of a friend at Puteaux to insure the more complete seclusion. +Here, while pursuing his art with almost sleepless ardor, he was +attacked by his fatal malady, intestinal fever. +</p> +<p> +"From his youth up," says his biographer Mould, "Vincenzo's eagerness in +his art was such as to keep him at the piano night and day, till he was +obliged forcibly to leave it. The ruling passion accompanied him through +his short life, and by the assiduity with which he pursued it brought on +the dysentery which closed his brilliant career, peopling his last +hours with the figures of those to whom his works owed so much of their +success." +</p> +<p> +During the moments of delirium which preceded his death, he was +constantly speaking of Lablache, Tamburini, and Grisi; and one of his +last recognizable impressions was that he was present at a brilliant +representation of his last opera at the Salle Favart. His earthly career +closed September 23, 1835, at the age of thirty-one. +</p> +<p> +On the eve of his interment, the Théâtre Italien reopened with the +"Puritani." It was an occasion full of solemn gloom. Both the +musicians and audience broke from time to time into sobs. Tamburini, in +particular, was so oppressed by the death of his young friend that his +vocalization, generally so perfect, was often at fault, while the faces +of Grisi, Rubini, and Lablache too plainly showed their aching hearts. +</p> +<p> +Rossini, Cherubini, Paer, and Carafa had charge of the funeral, and M. +Habeneck, <i>chef d'orchestre</i> of the Académie Royale, of the music. The +next remarkable piece on the funeral programme was a <i>Lacrymosa</i> for +four voices without accompaniment, in which the text of the Latin +hymn was united to the beautiful tenor melody in the third act of +the "Puritani." This was executed by Rubini, Ivanoff, Tamburini, and +Lablache. The services were performed at the Church of the Invalides, +and the remains were interred in Père Lachaise. +</p> +<p> +Rossini had ever shown great love for Bellini, and Rosario Bellini, +the stricken father, wrote to him a touching letter, in which, after +speaking of his grief and despair, the old man said: +</p> +<p> +"You always encouraged the object of my eternal regret in his labors; +you took him under your protection, you neglected nothing that could +increase his glory and his welfare. After my son's death, what have +you not done to honor my son's name and render it dear to posterity? I +learned this from the newspapers; and I am penetrated with gratitude for +your excessive kindness as well as for that of a number of distinguished +artists, which also I shall never forget. Pray, sir, be my interpreter, +and tell these artists that the father and family of Bellini, as well as +of our compatriots of Catania, will cherish an imperishable recollection +of this generous conduct. I shall never cease to remember how much you +did for my son. I shall make known everywhere, in the midst of my tears, +what an affectionate heart belongs to the great Rossini, and how kind, +hospitable, and full of feeling are the artists of France." +</p> +<p> +Bellini was affable, sincere, honest, and affectionate. Nature gave him +a beautiful and ingenuous face, noble features, large, clear blue eyes, +and abundant light hair. His countenance instantly won on the regards +of all that met him. His disposition was melancholy; a secret depression +often crept over his most cheerful hours. We are told there was a +tender romance in his earlier life. The father of the lady he loved, +a Neapolitan judge, refused his suit on account of his inferior social +position. When Bellini became famous the judge wished to make amends, +but Bellini's pride interfered. Soon after the young lady, who loved him +unalterably, died, and it was said the composer never recovered from the +shock. +</p> +<center> +IV. +</center> +<p> +Donizetti and Bellini were peculiarly moulded by the great genius of +Rossini, but in their best works they show individuality, color, and +special creative activity. The former composer, one of the most affluent +in the annals of music, seemed to become more fresh in his fancies +with increased production. He is an example of how little the skill and +touch, belonging to unceasing work, should be despised in comparison +with what is called inspiration. Donizetti arrived at his freshest +creations at a time when there seemed but little left for him except the +trite and threadbare. There are no melodies so rich and well fancied as +those to be found in his later works; and in sense of dramatic form +and effective instrumentation (always a faulty point with Donizetti) he +displayed great progress at the last. It is, however, a noteworthy fact, +that the latest Italian composers have shown themselves quite weak +in composing expressly for the orchestra. No operatic overture since +"William Tell" has been produced by this school of music, worthy to be +rendered in a concert-room. +</p> +<p> +Donizetti lacked the dramatic instinct in conceiving his music. In +attempting it he became hollow and theatric; and beautiful as are the +melodies and concerted pieces in "Lucia," where the subject ought to +inspire a vivid dramatic nature with such telling effects, it is in the +latter sense one of the most disappointing of operas. +</p> +<p> +He redeemed himself for the nonce, however, in the fourth act of "La +Favorita," where there is enough musical and dramatic beauty to condone +the sins of the other three acts. The solemn and affecting church chant, +the passionate romance for the tenor, the great closing duet in which +the ecstasy of despair rises to that of exaltation, the resistless +sweep of the rhythm—all mark one of the most effective single acts ever +written. He showed himself here worthy of companionship with Rossini and +Meyerbeer. +</p> +<p> +In his comic operas, "L'Elisir d'Amore," "La Fille du Regiment," and +"Don Pasquale," there is a continual well-spring of sunny, bubbling +humor. They are slight, brilliant, and catching, everything that +pedantry condemns, and the popular taste delights in. Mendelssohn, the +last of the German classical composers, admired "L'Elisir" so much that +he said he would have liked to have written it himself. It may be said +that while Donizetti lacks grand conceptions, or even great heauties +for the most part, his operas contain so much that is agreeable, so many +excellent opportunities for vocal display, such harmony between sound +and situation, that he will probably retain a hold on the stage when +much greater composers are only known to the general public by name. +</p> +<p> +Bellini, with less fertility and grace, possessed far more +picturesqueness and intensity. His powers of imagination transcended his +command over the working tools of his art. Even more lacking in exact +and extended musical science than Donizetti, he could express what came +within his range with a simple vigor, grasp, and beauty, which make +him a truly dramatic composer. In addition to this, a matter which many +great composers ignore, Bellini had extraordinary skill in writing music +for the voice, not that which merely gave opportunity for executive +trickery and embellishment, but the genuine accents of passion, pathos, +and tenderness, in forms best adapted to be easily and effectively +delivered. +</p> +<p> +He had no flexibility, no command over mirthful inspiration, such as +we hear in Mozart, Rossini, or even Donizetti. But his monotone is in +sublile rapport with the graver aspects of nature and life. Chorley sums +up this characteristic of Bellini in the following words: +</p> +<p> +"In spite of the inexperience with which the instrumental score is +filled up, the opening scene of 'Norma' in the dim druidical wood +bears the true character of ancient sylvan antiquity. There is daybreak +again—a fresh tone of reveille—in the prelude to 'I Puritani.' If +Bellini's genius was not versatile in its means of expression, if it had +not gathered all the appliances by which science fertilizes Nature, it +beyond all doubt included appreciation of truth, no less than instinct +for beauty." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + VERDI. +</h2> +<center> +I. +</center> +<p> +In 1872 the Khédive of Egypt, an oriental ruler, whose love of western +art and civilization has since tangled him in economic meshes to escape +from which has cost him his independence, produced a new opera with +barbaric splendor of appointments, at Grand Cairo. The spacious theatre +blazed with fantastic dresses and showy uniforms, and the curtain rose +on a drama which gave a glimpse to the Arabs, Copts, and Francs present +of the life and religion, the loves and hates of ancient Pharaonic +times, set to music by the most celebrated of living Italian composers. +</p> +<p> +That an eastern prince should have commissioned Giuseppe Verdi to write +"Aida" for him, in his desire to emulate western sovereigns as a patron +of art, is an interesting fact, but not wonderful or significant. +</p> +<p> +The opera itself was freighted, however, with peculiar significance as +an artistic work, far surpassing that of the circumstances which gave it +origin, or which saw its first production in the mysterious land of the +Nile and Sphinx. +</p> +<p> +Originally a pupil, thoroughly imbued with the method and spirit of +Rossini, though never lacking in original quality, Verdi as a young man +shared the suffrages of admiring audiences with Donizetti and Bellini. +Even when he diverged widely from his parent stem and took rank as the +representative of the melodramatic school of music, he remained true to +the instincts of his Italian training. +</p> +<p> +The remarkable fact is that Verdi, at the age of fifty-eight, when it +might have been safely assumed that his theories and preferences were +finally crystallized, produced an opera in which he clasped hands with +the German enthusiast, who preached an art system radically opposed to +his own and lashed with scathing satire the whole musical cult of the +Italian race. +</p> +<p> +In "Aida" and the "Manzoni Mass," written in 1873, Verdi, the leader +among living Italian composers, practically conceded that, in the long, +bitterly fought battle between Teuton and Italian in music, the former +was the victor. In the opera we find a new departure, which, if not +embodying all the philosophy of the "new school," is stamped with its +salient traits, viz.: The subordination of all the individual effects +to the perfection and symmetry of the whole; a lavish demand on all the +sister arts to contribute their rich gifts to the heightening of the +illusion; a tendency to enrich the harmonic value in the choruses, the +concerted pieces, and the instrumentation, to the great sacrifice of the +solo pieces; the use of the heroic and mythical element as a theme. +</p> +<p> +Verdi, the subject of this interesting revolution, has filled a very +brilliant place in modern musical art, and his career has been in some +ways as picturesque as his music. +</p> +<p> +Verdi's parents were literally hewers of wood and drawers of water, +earning their bread, after the manner of Italian peasants, at a small +settlement called La Roncali, near Busseto, where the future composer +was born on October 9, 1814. +</p> +<p> +His earliest recollections were with the little village church, where +the little Giuseppe listened with delight to the church organ, for, as +with all great musicians, his fondness for music showed itself at a very +early age. The elder Verdi, though very poor, gratified the child's love +of music when he was about eight by buying a small spinet, and placing +him under the instruction of Provesi, a teacher in Busseto. The boy +entered on his studies with ardor, and made more rapid progress than the +slender facilities which were allowed him would ordinarily justify. +</p> +<p> +An event soon occurred which was destined to wield a lasting influence +on his destiny. He one day heard a skillful performance on a fine piano, +while passing by one of the better houses of Busseto. From that time +a constant fascination drew him to the house; for day after day he +lingered and seemed unwilling to go away lest he should perchance lose +some of the enchanting sounds which so enraptured him. The owner of +the premises was a rich merchant, one Antonio Barezzi, a cultivated +and high-minded man, and a passionate lover of music withal. 'Twas his +daughter whose playing gave the young Verdi such pleasure. +</p> +<p> +Signor Barezzi had often seen the lingering and absorbed lad, who +stood as if in a dream, oblivious to all that passed around him in the +practical work-a-day world. So one day he accosted him pleasantly and +inquired why he came so constantly and stayed so long doing nothing. +</p> +<p> +"I play the piano a little," said the boy, "and I like to come here and +listen to the fine playing in your house." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! if that is the case, come in with me that you may enjoy it more +at your ease, and hereafter you are welcome to do so whenever you feel +inclined." +</p> +<p> +It may be imagined the delighted boy did not refuse the kind invitation, +and the acquaintance soon ripened into intimacy, for the rich merchant +learned to regard the bright young musician with much affection, which +it is needless to say was warmly returned. Verdi was untiring in study +and spent the early years of his youth in humble quiet, in the midst of +those beauties of nature which have so powerful an influence in molding +great susceptibilities. At his seventeenth year he had acquired as much +musical knowledge as could be acquired at a place like Busseto, and he +became anxious to go to Milan to continue his studies. The poverty of +his family precluding any assistance from this quarter, he was obliged +to find help from an eleemosynary fund then existing in his native town. +This was an institution called the Monte di Pietà, which offered yearly +to four young men the sum of twenty-five <i>lire</i> a month each, in order +to help them to an education; and Verdi, making an application and +sustained by the influence of his friend the rich merchant, was one of +the four whose good fortune it was to be selected. +</p> +<p> +The allowance thus obtained with some assistance from Barezzi enabled +the ambitious young musician to go to Milan, carrying with him some +of his compositions. When he presented himself for examination at the +conservatory, he was made to play on the piano, and his compositions +examined. The result fell on his hopes like a thunder-bolt. The pedantic +and narrow-minded examiners not only scoffed at the state of his musical +knowledge, but told him he was incapable of becoming a musician. To +weaker souls this would have been a terrible discouragement, but to his +ardor and self-confidence it was only a challenge. Barezzi had equal +confidence in the abilities of his <i>protégé</i>, and warmly encouraged him +to work and hope. Verdi engaged an excellent private teacher and pursued +his studies with unflagging energy, denying himself all but the barest +necessities, and going sometimes without sufficient food. +</p> +<p> +A stroke of fortune now fell in his way; the place of organist fell +vacant at the Busseto church, and Verdi was appointed to fill it. He +returned home, and was soon afterward married to the daughter of the +benefactor to whom he owed so much. He continued to apply himself with +great diligence to the study of his art, and completed an opera early +in 1839. He succeeded in arranging for the production of this work, +"L'Oberto, Conte de San Bonifacio," at La Scala, Milan; but it excited +little comment and was soon forgotten, like the scores of other shallow +or immature compositions so prolifically produced in Italy. +</p> +<p> +The impresario, Merelli, believed in the young composer though, for +he thought he discovered signs of genius. So he gave him a contract to +write three operas, one of which was to be an <i>opera buffa</i>, and to be +ready in the following autumn. With hopeful spirits Verdi set to work +on the opera, but that year of 1840 was to be one of great trouble and +trial. Hardly had he set to work all afire with eagerness and hope, +when he was seized with severe illness. His recovery was followed by the +successive sickening of his two children, who died, a terrible blow to +the father's fond heart. Fate had the crowning stroke though still to +give, for the young mother, agonized by this loss, was seized with a +fatal inflammation of the brain. Thus within a brief period Verdi was +bereft of all the sweet consolations of home, and his life became a +burden to him. Under these conditions he was to write a comic opera, +full of sparkle, gayety, and humor. Can we wonder that his work was a +failure? The public came to be amused by bright, joyous music, for it +was nothing to them that the composer's heart was dead with grief at his +afflictions. The audience hissed "Un Giorno di Regno," for it proved +a funereal attempt at mirth. So Verdi sought to annul the contract. To +this the impresario replied: "So be it, if you wish; but, whenever you +want to write again on the same terms, you will find me ready." +</p> +<p> +To tell the truth, the composer was discouraged by his want of success, +and wholly broken down by his numerous trials. He now withdrew from all +society, and, having hired a small room in an out-of-the-way part of +Milan, passed most of his time in reading the worst books that could +be found, rarely going out, unless occasionally in the evening, never +giving his attention to study of any kind, and never touching the piano. +Such was his life from October, 1840, to January, 1841. One evening, +early in the new year, while out walking, he chanced to meet Merelli, +who took him by the arm; and, as they sauntered toward the theatre, the +impresario told him that he was in great trouble, Nicolai, who was to +write an opera for him, having refused to accept a <i>libretto</i> entitled +"Nabucco." +</p> +<p> +To this Verdi replied: +</p> +<p> +"I am glad to be able to relieve you of your difficulty. Don't you +remember the libretto of 'Il Proscritto,' which you procured for me, and +for which I have never composed the music? Give that to Nicolai in place +of 'Nabucco.'" +</p> +<p> +Merelli thanked him for his kind offer, and, as they reached the +theatre, asked him to go in, that they might ascertain whether the +manuscript of "Il Proscritto" was really there. It was at length found, +and Verdi was on the point of leaving, when Merelli slipped into his +pocket the book of "Nabucco," asking him to look it over. For want +of something to do, he took up the drama the next morning and read it +through, realizing how truly grand it was in conception. But, as a lover +forces himself to feign indifference to his coquettish <i>innamorata</i>, so +he, disregarding his inclinations, returned the manuscript to Merelli +that same day. +</p> +<p> +"Well?" said Merelli, inquiringly. +</p> +<p> +"Musicabilissimo!" he replied; "full of dramatic power and telling +situations!" +</p> +<p> +"Take it home with you, then, and write the music for it." +</p> +<p> +Verdi declared that he did not wish to compose, but the worthy +impresario forced the manuscript on him, and persisted that he should +undertake the work. The composer returned home with the libretto, but +threw it on one side without looking at it, and for the next five months +continued his reading of bad romances and yellow-covered novels. +</p> +<p> +The impulse of work soon came again, however. One beautiful June day the +manuscript met his eye, while looking listlessly over some old papers. +He read one scene and was struck by its beauty. The instinct of musical +creation rushed over him with irresistible force; he seated himself at +the piano, so long silent, and began composing the music. The ice was +broken. Verdi soon entered into the spirit of the work, and in three +months "Nabucco" was entirely completed. Merelli gladly accepted it, and +it was performed at La Scala in the spring of 1842. As a result Verdi +was besieged with petitions for new works from every impresario in +Italy. +</p> +<center> +II. +</center> +<p> +From 1812 to 1851 Verdi's busy imagination produced a series of operas, +which disputed the palm of popularity with the foremost composers of his +time. "I Lombardi," brought out at La Scala in 1843; "Ernani," at Venice +in 1844; "I Due Foscari," at Rome in 1844; "Giovanna D'Arco," at Milan, +and "Alzira," at Naples in 1845; "Attila," at Venice in 1846; and +"Macbetto," at Florence in 1847, were—all of them—successful works. +The last created such a genuine enthusiasm that he was crowned with a +golden aurel-wreath and escorted home from the theatre by an enormous +crowd. "I Masnadieri" was written for Jenny Lind, and performed first +in London in 1847 with that great singer, Gardoni, and Lablache, in the +cast. His next productions were "Il Corsaro," brought out at Trieste +in 1848; "La Battaglia di Legnano" at Rome in 1849; "Luisa Miller" at +Naples in the same year; and "Stiffelio" at Trieste in 1850. By this +series of works Verdi impressed himself powerfully on his age, but in +them he preserved faithfully the color and style of the school in which +he had been trained. But he had now arrived at the commencement of his +transition period. A distinguished French critic marks this change in +the following summary: "When Verdi began to write, the influences of +foreign literature and new theories on art had excited Italian +composers to seek a violent expression of the passions, and to leave +the interpretation of amiable and delicate sentiments for that of sombre +flights of the soul. A serious mind gifted with a rich imagination, +Verdi became the chief of the new school. His music became more intense +and dramatic; by vigor, energy, <i>verve</i>, a certain ruggedness and +sharpness, by powerful effects of sound, he conquered an immense +popularity in Italy, where success had hitherto been attained only by +the charm, suavity, and abundance of the melodies produced." +</p> +<p> +In "Rigoletto," produced in Venice in 1851, the full flowering of his +genius into the melodramatic style was signally shown. The opera story +adapted from Victor Hugo's "Le Roi s'amuse" is itself one of the most +dramatic of plots, and it seemed to have fired the composer into music +singularly vigorous, full of startling effects and novel treatment. Two +years afterward were brought out at Rome and Venice respectively two +operas, stamped with the same salient qualities, "Il Trovatore" and +"La Traviata," the last a lyric adaptation of Dumas <i>fils's</i> "Dame +aux Camélias." These three operas have generally been considered his +masterpieces, though it is more than possible that the riper judgment of +the future will not sustain this claim. Their popularity was such that +Verdi's time was absorbed for several years in their production at +various opera-houses, utterly precluding new compositions. Of his later +operas may be mentioned "Les Vêpres Siciliennes," produced in Paris in +1855; "Un Ballo in Maschera," performed at Rome in 1859; "La Forza del +Destino," written for St. Petersburg, where it was sung in 1863; "Don +Carlos," produced in London in 1867; and "Aida" in Grand Cairo in +1872. When the latter work was finished, Verdi had composed twenty-nine +operas, beside lesser works, and attained the age of fifty-seven. +</p> +<p> +Verdi's energies have not been confined to music. An ardent patriot, he +has displayed the deepest interest in the affairs of his country, and +taken an active part in its tangled politics. After the war of 1859 he +was chosen a member of the Assembly of Parma, and was one of the most +influential advocates for the annexation to Sardinia. Italian unity +found in him a passionate advocate, and, when the occasion came, his +artistic talent and earnestness proved that they might have made a +vigorous mark in political oratory as well as in music. +</p> +<p> +The cry of "Viva Verdi" often resounded through Sardinia and Italy, and +it was one of the war-slogans of the Italian war of liberation. This +enigma is explained in the fact that the five letters of his name are +the initials of those of Vittorio Emanuele Rè D'Italia. His private +resources were liberally poured forth to help the national cause, and in +1861 he was chosen a deputy in Parliament from Parma. Ten years later he +was appointed by the Minister of Public Instruction to superintend the +reorganization of the National Musical Institute. +</p> +<p> +The many decorations and titular distinctions lavished on him show the +high esteem in which he is held. He is a member of the Legion of Honor, +corresponding member of the French Academy of Fine Arts, grand cross +of the Prussian order of St. Stanislaus, of the order of the Crown of +Italy, and of the Egyptian order of Osmanli. He divides his life between +a beautiful residence at Genoa, where he overlooks the waters of the +sparkling Mediterranean, and a country villa near his native Busseto, +a house of quaint artistic architecture, approached by a venerable, +moss-grown stone bridge, at the foot of which are a large park and +artificial lake. When he takes his evening walks, the peasantry, who are +devotedly attached to him, unite in singing choruses from his operas. +</p> +<p> +In Verdi's bedroom, where alone he composes, is a fine piano—of which +instrument, as well as of the violin, he is a master—a modest library, +and an oddly-shaped writing-desk. Pictures and statuettes, of which he +is very fond, are thickly strewn about the whole house. Verdi is a +man of vigor' ous and active habits, taking an ardent interest in +agriculture. But the larger part of his time is taken up in composing, +writing letters, and reading works on philosophy, politics, and history. +His personal appearance is very distinguished. A tall figure with sturdy +limbs and square shoulders, surmounted by a finely-shaped head; abundant +hair, beard, and mustache, whose black is sprinkled with gray; dark-gray +eyes, regular features, and an earnest, sometimes intense, expression +make him a noticeable-looking man. Much sought after in the brilliant +society of Florence, Rome, and Paris, our composer spends most of his +time in the elegant seclusion of home. +</p> +<center> +III. +</center> +<p> +Verdi is the most nervous, theatric, sensuous composer of the present +century. Measured by the highest standard, his style must be criticised +as often spasmodic, tawdry, and meretricious. He instinctively adopts +a bold and eccentric treatment of musical themes; and, though there are +always to be found stirring movements in his scores as well as in his +opera stories, he constantly offends refined taste by sensation and +violence. +</p> +<p> +With a redundancy of melody, too often of the cheap and shallow kind, he +rarely fails to please the masses of opera-goers, for his works enjoy +a popularity not shared at present by any other composer. In Verdi a +sudden blaze of song, brief spirited airs, duets, trios, etc., take +the place of the elaborate and beautiful music, chiseled into order and +symmetry, which characterizes most of the great composers of the past. +Energy of immediate impression is thus gained at the expense of that +deep, lingering power, full of the subtile side-lights and shadows of +suggestion, which is the crowning benison of great music. He stuns the +ear and captivates the senses, but does not subdue the soul. +</p> +<p> +Yet, despite the grievous faults of these operas, they blaze with gems, +and we catch here and there true swallow-flights of genius, that the +noblest would not disown. With all his puerilities there is a mixture +of grandeur. There are passages in "Ernani," "Rigoletto," "Traviata," +"Trovatore," and "Aida," so strong and dignified, that it provokes a +wonder that one with such capacity for greatness should often descend +into such bathos. +</p> +<p> +To better illustrate the false art which mars so much of Verdi's +dramatic method, a comparison between his "Rigoletto," so often claimed +as his best work, and Rossini's "Otello" will be opportune. The air sung +by <i>Gilda</i> in the "Rigoletto," when she retires to sleep on the eve of +the outrage, is an empty, sentimental yawn; and in the quartet of +the last act, a noble dramatic opportunity, she ejects a chain of +disconnected, unmusical sobs, as offensive as <i>Violetta's</i> consumptive +cough. <i>Desdemona's</i> agitated air, on the other hand, under Rossini's +treatment, though broken short in the vocal phrase, is magnificently +sustained by the orchestra, and a genuine passion is made consistently +musical; and then the wonderful burst of bravura, where despair and +resolution run riot without violating the bounds of strict beauty in +music—these are master-strokes of genius restrained by art. +</p> +<p> +In Verdi, passion too often misses intensity and becomes hysterical. +He lacks the elements of tenderness and humor, but is frequently +picturesque and charming by his warmth and boldness of color. His +attempts to express the gay and mirthful, as for instance in the +masquerade music of "Traviata" and the dance music of "Rigoletto," are +dreary, ghastly, and saddening; while his ideas of tenderness are apt +to take the form of mere sentimentality. Yet generalities fail in +describing him, for occasionally he attains effects strong in their +pathos, and artistically admirable; as, for example, the slow air for +the heroine, and the dreamy song for the gypsy mother in the last act +of "Trovatore." An artist who thus contradicts himself is a perplexing +problem, but we must judge him by the habitual, not the occasional. +</p> +<p> +Verdi is always thoroughly in earnest, never frivolous. He walks on +stilts indeed, instead of treading the ground or cleaving the air, +but is never timid or tame in aim or execution. If he cannot stir the +emotions of the soul he subdues and absorbs the attention against +even the dictates of the better taste; while genuiue beauties gleaming +through picturesque rubbish often repay the true musician for what he +has undergone. +</p> +<p> +So far this composer has been essentially representative of melodramatic +music, with all the faults and virtues of such a style. In "Aida," +his last work, the world remarked a striking change. The noble +orchestration, the power and beauty of the choruses, the sustained +dignity of treatment, the seriousness and pathos of the whole work, +reveal how deeply new purposes and methods have been fermenting in the +composer's development. Yet in the very prime of his powers, though +no longer young, his next work ought to settle the value of the hopes +raised by the last. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHERUBINI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. +</h2> +<h3> + I. +</h3> +<p> +In France, as in Italy, the regular musical drama was preceded by +mysteries, masks, and religious plays, which introduced short musical +parts, as also action, mechanical effects, and dancing. The ballet, +however, where dancing was the prominent feature, remained for a long +time the favorite amusement of the French court until the advent of Jean +Baptiste Lulli. The young Florentine, after having served in the king's +band, was promoted to be its chief, and the composer of the music of +the court ballets. Lulli, born in 1633, was bought of his parents +by Chevalier de Guise, and sent to Paris as a present to Mlle, de +Montpensier, the king's niece. His capricious mistress, after a year +or two, deposed the boy of fifteen from the position of page to that of +scullion; but Count Nogent, accidentally hearing him sing and struck by +his musical talent, influenced the princess to place him under the care +of good masters. Lulli made such rapid progress that he soon commenced +to compose music of a style superior to that before current in +divertissements of the French court. +</p> +<p> +The name of Philippe Quinault is closely associated with the musical +career of Lulli; for to the poet the musician was indebted for his best +librettos. Born at Paris in 1636, Quinault's genius for poetry displayed +itself at an early age. Before he was twenty he had written several +successful comedies. Though he produced many plays, both tragedies and +comedies, well known to readers of French poetry, his operatic poems are +those which have rendered his memory illustrious. He died on November +29,1688. It is said that during his last illness he was extremely +penitent on account of the voluptuous tendency of his works. All his +lyrical dramas are full of beauty, but "Atys," "Phaeton," "Isis," and +"Armide" have been ranked the highest. "Armide" was the last of the +poet's efforts, and Lulli was so much in love with the opera, when +completed, that he had it performed over and over again for his own +pleasure without any other auditor. When "Atys" was performed first in +1676, the eager throng began to pour in the theatre at ten o'clock in +the morning, and by noon the building was filled. The King and the Count +were charmed with the work in spite of the bitter dislike of Boileau, +the Aristarchus of his age. "Put me in a place where I shall not be able +to hear the words," said the latter to the box-keeper; "I like Lulli's +music very much, but have a sovereign contempt for Quinault's words." +Lulli obliged the poet to write "Armide" five times over, and the +felicity of his treatment is proved by the fact that Gluck afterward set +the same poem to the music which is still occasionally sung in Germany. +</p> +<p> +Lulli in the course of his musical career became so great a favorite +with the King that the originally obscure kitchen-boy was ennobled. He +was made one of the King's secretaries in spite of the loud murmurs of +this pampered fraternity against receiving into their body a player +and a buffoon. The musician's wit and affability, however, finally +dissipated these prejudices, especially as he was wealthy and of +irreproachable character. +</p> +<p> +The King having had a severe illness in 1686, Lulli composed a "Te Deum" +in honor of his recovery. When this was given, the musician, in beating +time with great ardor, struck his toe with his baton. This brought on a +mortification, and there was great grief when it was announced that he +could not recover. The Princes de Vendôme lodged four thousand pistoles +in the hands of a banker, to be paid to any physician who would cure +him. Shortly before his death his confessor severely reproached him for +the licentiousness of his operas, and refused to give him absolution +unless he consented to burn the score of "Achille et Polyxène," which +was ready for the stage. The manuscript was put into the flames, and +the priest made the musician's peace with God. One of the young princes +visited him a few days after, when he seemed a little better. +</p> +<p> +"What, Baptiste," the former said, "have you burned your opera? You were +a fool for giving such credit to a gloomy confessor and burning good +music." +</p> +<p> +"Hush, hush!" whispered Lulli with a satirical smile on his lip. "I +cheated the good father. I only burned a copy." +</p> +<p> +He died singing the words, "Il faut mourir, pécheur, il faut mourir" to +one of his own opera airs. +</p> +<p> +Lulli was not only a composer, but created his own orchestra, trained +his artists in acting and singing, and was machinist as well as +ballet-master and music-director. He was intimate with Corneille, +Molière, La Fontaine, and Boileau; and these great men were proud to +contribute the texts to which he set his music. He introduced female +dancers into the ballet, disguised men having hitherto served in this +capacity, and in many essential ways was the father of early French +opera, though its foundation had been laid by Cardinal Mazarin. He +had to fight against opposition and cabals, but his energy, tact, and +persistence made him the victor, and won the friendship of the leading +men of his time. Such of his music as still exists is of a pleasing and +melodious character, full of vivacity and lire, and at times indicates +a more deep and serious power than that of merely creating catching +and tuneful airs. He was the inventor of the operatic overture, and +introduced several new instruments into the orchestra. Apart from his +splendid administrative faculty, he is entitled to rank as an original +and gifted, if not a great, composer. +</p> +<p> +A lively sketch of the French opera of this period is given by Addison +in No. 29 of the "Spectator." "The music of the French," he says, "is +indeed very properly adapted to their pronunciation and accent, as their +whole opera wonderfully favors the genius of such a gay, airy people. +The chorus in which that opera abounds gives the parterre frequent +opportunities of joining in concert with the stage. This inclination of +the audience to sing along with the actors so prevails with them that +I have sometimes known the performer on the stage to do no more in a +celebrated song than the clerk of a parish church, who serves only +to raise the psalm, and is afterward drowned in the music of the +congregation. Every actor that comes on the stage is a beau. The queens +and heroines are so painted that they appear as ruddy and cherry-cheeked +as milkmaids. The shepherds are all embroidered, and acquit themselves +in a ball better than our English dancing-masters. I have seen a couple +of rivers appear in red stockings; and Alpheus, instead of having +his head covered with sedge and bulrushes, making love in a fair, +full-bottomed periwig, and a plume of feathers; but with a voice so +full of shakes and quavers, that I should have thought the murmur of a +country brook the much more agreeable music. I remember the last opera +I saw in that merry nation was the 'Rape of Proserpine,' where Pluto, +to make the more tempting figure, puts himself in a French equipage, and +brings Ascalaphus along with him as his <i>valet de chambre</i>. This is what +we call folly and impertinence, but what the French look upon as gay and +polite." +</p> +<center> +II. +</center> +<p> +The French musical drama continued without much chance in the hands of +the Lulli school (for the musician had several skillful imitators and +successors) till the appearance of Jean Philippe Rameau, who inaugurated +a new era. This celebrated man was born in Auvergne in 1683, and was +during his earlier life the organist of the Clermont cathedral church. +Here he pursued the scientific researches in music which entitled him +in the eyes of his admirers to be called the Newton of his art. He had +reached the age of fifty without recognition as a dramatic composer, +when the production of "Hippolyte et Aricie" excited a violent feud +by creating a strong current of opposition to the music of Lulli. He +produced works in rapid succession, and finally overcame all obstacles, +and won for himself the name of being the greatest lyric composer which +France up to that time had produced. His last opera, "Les Paladins," was +given in 1760, the composer being then seventy-seven. +</p> +<p> +The bitterness of the art-feuds of that day, afterward shown in the +Gluck-Piccini contest, was foreshadowed in that waged by Rameau against +Lulli, and finally against the Italian newcomers, who sought to take +possession of the French stage. The matter became a natioual quarrel, +and it was considered an insult to France to prefer the music of an +Italian to that of a Frenchman—an insult which was often settled by the +rapier point, when tongue and pen had failed as arbitrators. The subject +was keenly debated by journalists and pamphleteers, and the press +groaned with essays to prove that Rameau was the first musician in +Europe, though his works were utterly unknown outside of France. Perhaps +no more valuable testimony to the character of these operas can be +adduced than that of Baron Grimm: +</p> +<p> +"In his operas Rameau has overpowered all his predecessors by dint of +harmony and quantity of notes. Some of his choruses are very fine. +Lulli could only sustain his vocal psalmody by a simple bass; Rameau +accompanied almost all his recitatives with the orchestra. These +accompaniments are generally in bad taste; they drown the voice rather +than support it, and force the singers to scream and howl in a manner +which no ear of any delicacy can tolerate. We come away from an opera +of Rameau's intoxicated with harmony and stupefied with the noise of +voice and instruments. His taste is always Gothic, and, whether his +subject is light or forcible, his style is equally heavy. He was not +destitute of ideas, but did not know what use to make of them. In his +recitatives the sound is continually in opposition to the sense, though +they occasionally contain happy declamatory passages.... If he had +formed himself in some of the schools of Italy, and thus acquired a +notion of musical style and hahits of musical thought, he never would +have said (as he did) that all poems were alike to him, and that he +could set the 'Gazette de France' to music." +</p> +<p> +From this it may be gathered that Rameau, though a scientific and +learned musician, lacked imagination, good taste, and dramatic +insight—qualities which in the modern lyric school of France have been +so preeminent. It may be admitted, however, that he inspired a taste for +sound musical science, and thus prepared the way for the great Gluck, +who to all and more of Rameau's musical knowledge united the grand +genius which makes him one of the giants of his art. +</p> +<p> +Though Rameau enjoyed supremacy over the serious opera, a great +excitement was created in Paris by the arrival of an Italian company, +who in 1752 obtained permission to perform Italian burlettas and +intermezzi at the opera-house. The partisans of the French school took +alarm, and the admirers of Lulli and Rameau forgot their bickerings to +join forces against the foreign intruders. The battle-field was strewed +with floods of ink, and the literati pelted each other with ferocious +lampoons. +</p> +<p> +Among the literature of this controversy, one pamphlet has an +imperishable place, Rousseau's famous "Lettre sur la Musique Française," +in which the great sentimentalist espoused the cause of Italian music +with an eloquence and acrimony rarely surpassed. The inconsistency of +the author was as marked in this as in his private life. Not only did he +at a later period become a great advocate of Gluck against Piocini, +but, in spite of his argument that it was impossible to compose music to +French words, that the language was quite unfit for it, that the French +never had music and never would, he himself had composed a good deal +of music to French words and produced a French opera, "Le Devin du +Village." Diderot was also a warm partisan of the Italians. Pergolesi's +beautiful music having been murdered by the French orchestra players at +the Grand Opera-House, Diderot proposed for it the following witty and +laconic inscription: "Hic Marsyas Apollinem."* +</p> +<pre> + * Here Marsyas flayed Apollo. +</pre> +<p> +Rousseau's opera, "Le Devin du Village," was performed with considerable +success, in spite of the repugnance of the orchestral performers, +of whom Rousseau always spoke in terms of unmeasured contempt, to do +justice to the music. They burned Rousseau in effigy for his scoffs. +"Well," said the author of the "Confessions," "I don't wonder that they +should hang me now, after having so long put me to the torture." +</p> +<p> +The eloquence and abuse of the wits, however, did not long impair the +supremacy of Rameau; for the Italian company returned to their own +land, disheartened by their reception in the French capital. Though this +composer commenced so late in life, he left thirty-six dramatic works. +His greatest work was "Castor et Pollux." Thirty years later Grimm +recognized its merits by admitting, in spite of the great faults of the +composer, "It is the pivot on which the glory of French music turns." +When Louis XIV. offered Rameau a title, he answered, touching his breast +and forehead, "My nobility is here and here." This composer marked a +step forward in French music, for he gave it more boldness and freedom, +and was the first really scientific and well-equipped exponent of +a national school. His choruses were full of energy and fire, his +orchestral effects rich and massive. He died in 1764, and the mortuary +music, composed by himself, was performed by a double orchestra and +chorus from the Grand Opera. +</p> +<center> +III. +</center> +<p> +A distinguished place in the records of French music must be assigned to +André Ernest Grétry, born at Liege in 1741. His career covered the +most important changes in the art as colored and influenced by national +tastes, and he is justly regarded as the father of comic opera in his +adopted country. His childish life was one of much severe discipline and +tribulation, for he was dedicated to music by his father, who was first +violinist in the college of St. Denis when he was only six years old. He +afterward wrote of this time in his "Essais sur la Musique": "The hour +for the lesson afforded the teacher an opportunity to exercise his +cruelty. He made us sing each in turn, and woe to him who made the least +mistake; he was beaten unmercifully, the youngest as well as the oldest. +He seemed to take pleasure in inventing torture. At times he would place +us on a short round stick, from which we fell head over heels if we made +the least movement. But that which made us tremble with fear was to +see him knock down a pupil and beat him; for then we were sure he would +treat some others in the same manner, one victim being insufficient to +gratify his ferocity. To maltreat his pupils was a sort of mania with +him; and he seemed to feel that his duty was performed in proportion to +the cries and sobs which he drew forth." +</p> +<p> +In 1759 Grétry went to Rome, where he studied counterpoint for five +years. Some of his works were received favorably by the Roman public, +and he was made a member of the Philharmonic Society of Bologna. Pressed +by pecuniary necessity, Grétry determined to go to Paris; but he stopped +at Geneva on the route to earn money by singing-lessons. Here he met +Voltaire at Ferney. "You are a musician and have genius," said the great +man; "it is a very rare thing, and I take much interest in you." In +spite of this, however, Voltaire would not write him the text for an +opera. The philosopher of Ferney feared to trust his reputation with an +unknown musician. When Grétry arrived in Paris he still found the same +difficulty, as no distinguished poet was disposed to give him a libretto +till he had made his powers recognized. After two years of starving and +waiting, Marmontel gave him the text of "The Huron," which was brought +out in 1769 and well received. Other successful works followed in rapid +succession. +</p> +<p> +At this time Parisian frivolity thought it good taste to admire the +rustic and naive. The idyls of Gessner and the pastorals of Florian +were the favorite reading, and Watteau the popular painter. Gentlefolks, +steeped in artifice, vice, and intrigue, masked their empty lives under +the as sumption of Arcadian simplicity, and minced and ambled in the +costumes of shepherds and shepherdesses. Marie Antoinette transformed +her chalet of Petit Trianon into a farm, where she and her courtiers +played at pastoral life—the farce preceding the tragedy of the +Revolution. It was the effort of dazed society seeking change. Grétry +followed the fashionable bent by composing pastoral comedies, and +mounted on the wave of success. +</p> +<p> +In 1774 "Fausse Magie" was produced with the greatest applause. Rousseau +was present, and the composer waited on him in his box, meeting a most +cordial reception. On their way home after the opera, Grétry offered +his new friend his arm to help him over an obstruction. Rousseau with +a burst of rage said, "Let me make use of my own powers," and +thenceforward the sentimental misanthrope refused to recognize the +composer. About this time Grétry met the English humorist Hales, who +afterward furnished him with many of his comic texts. The two combined +to produce the "Jugement de Midas," a satire on the old style of music, +which met with remarkable popular favor, though it was not so well +received by the court. +</p> +<p> +The crowning work of this composer's life was given to the world in +1785. This was "Richard Coeur de Lion," and it proved one of the great +musical events of the period. Paris was in ecstasies, and the judgment +of succeeding generations has confirmed the contemporary verdict, as +it is still a favorite opera in France and Germany. The works afterward +composed by Grétry showed decadence in power. Singularly rich in fresh +and sprightly ideas, he lacked depth and grandeur, and failed to suit +the deeper and sounder taste which Cherubini and Méhul, great followers +in the footsteps of Gluck, gratified by a series of noble masterpieces. +Grétry's services to his art, however, by his production of comic +operas full of lyric vivacity and sparkle, have never been forgotten nor +underrated. His bust was placed in the opera-house during his lifetime, +and he was made a member of the French Academy of Fine Arts and +Inspector of the Conservatory. Grétry possessed qualities of heart which +endeared him to all, and his death in 1813 was the occasion of a +general outburst of lamentation. Deputations from the theatres and +the Conservatory accompanied his remains to the cemetery, where Méhul +pronounced an eloquent eulogium. In 1828 a nephew of Grétry caused the +heart of him who was one of the glorious sons of Liege to be returned to +his native city. +</p> +<p> +Grétry founded a school of musical composition in France which has since +been cultivated with signal success, that of lyric comedy. The efforts +of Lulli and Rameau had been turned in another direction. The former had +done little more than set courtly pageants to music, though he had +done this with great skill and tact, enriching them with a variety +of concerted and orchestral pieces, and showing much fertility in the +invention alike of pathetic and lively melodies. Rameau followed in the +footsteps of Lulli, but expanded and crystallized his ideas into a more +scientific form. He had indeed carried his love of form to a radical +extreme. Jean Jacques Rousseau, who extended his taste for nature and +simplicity to music, blamed him severely as one who neglected genuine +natural tune for far-fetched harmonies, on the ground that "music is a +child of nature, and has a language of its own for expressing emotional +transports, which can not be learned from thorough bass rules." Again +Rousseau, in his forcible tract on French music, says of Rameau, from +whose school Grétry's music was such a significant departure: +</p> +<p> +"One must confess that M. Rameau possesses very great talent, much fire +and euphony, and a considerable knowledge of harmonious combinations and +effects; one must also grant him the art of appropriating the ideas of +others by changing their character, adorning and developing them, and +turning them around in all manner of ways, On the other hand, he shows +less facility in inventing new ones. Altogether he has more skill than +fertility, more knowledge than genius, or rather genius smothered +by knowledge, but always force, grace, and very often a beautiful +<i>cantileana</i>. His recitative is not as natural but much more varied than +that of Lulli; admirable in a few scenes, but bad as a rule." Rousseau +continues to reproach Rameau with a too powerful instrumentation, +compared with Italian simplicity, and sums up that nobody knew better +than Rameau how to conceive the spirit of single passages and to produce +artistic contrasts, but that he entirely failed to give his operas +"a happy and much-to-be-desired unity." In another part of the quoted +passage Rousseau says that Rameau stands far beneath Lulli in <i>esprit</i> +and artistic tact, but that he is often superior to him in dramatic +expression. +</p> +<p> +A clear understanding of the musical position of Rameau is necessary to +fully appreciate the place of Grétry, his antithesis as a composer. +For a short time the popularity of Rameau had been shaken by an Italian +opera company, called by the French <i>Les Bouffons</i>, who had created a +genuine sensation by their performance of airy and sparkling operettas, +entirely removed in spirit from the ponderous productions of the +prevailing school. Though the Italian comedians did not meet with +permanent success, the suave charm of their music left behind it +memories which became fruitful.* +</p> +<pre> + * In its infancy Italian comic opera formed the <i>intermezzo</i> + between the acts of a serious opera, and—similar to the + Greek sylvan drama which followed the tragic trilogy—was + frequently a parody on the piece which preceded it; though + more frequently still (as in Pergolcsi's "Serra Padrona") it + was not a satire on any particular subject, but designed to + heighten the ideal artistic effect of the serious opera by + broad comedy. Having acquired a complete form on the boards + of the small theatres, it was transferred to the larger + stage. Though it lacked the external splendor and consummate + vocalization of the elder sister, its simpler forms endowed + it with a more characteristic rendering of actual life. +</pre> +<p> +It furnished the point of departure for the lively and facile genius +of Grétry, who laid the foundation stones of that lyric comedywhich has +flourished in France with so much luxuriance. From the outset merriment +and humor were by no means the sole object of the French comic opera, +as in the case of its Italian sister. Grétry did not neglect to turn the +nobler emotions to account, and by a judicious admixture of sentiment +he gave an ideal coloring to his works, which made them singularly +fascinating and original. Around Grétry flourished several disciples and +imitators, and for twenty years this charming hybrid between opera and +vaudeville engrossed French musical talent, to the exclusion of other +forms of composition. It was only when Gluck * appeared on the scene, +and by his commanding genius restored serious opera to its supremacy, +that Grotry's repute was overshadowed. From this decline in public +favor he never fully recovered, for the master left behind him gifted +disciples, who embodied his traditions, and were inspired by his lofty +aims—preeminently so in the case of Cherubini, perhaps the greatest +name in French music. While French comic opera, since the days of +Grétry, has become modified in some of its forms, it preserves the +spirit and coloring which he so happily imparted to it, and looks back +to him as its founder and lawgiver. +</p> +<pre> + *See article on "Gluck," in "The Great German Composers" + (a companion volume to this), in which his connection with + French music is discussed. +</pre> +<center> +IV. +</center> +<p> +One of the most accomplished of historians and critics, Oulibischeff, +sums up the place of Cherubini in musical art in these words: "If on the +one hand Gluck's calm and plastic grandeur, and on the other the tender +and voluptuous charm of the melodies of Piccini and Zacchini, had suited +the circumstances of a state of society sunk in luxury and nourished +with classical exhibitions, this could not satisfy a society shaken to +the very foundations of its faith and organization. The whole of the +dramatic music of the eighteenth century must naturally have appeared +cold and languid to men whose minds were profoundly moved with troubles +and wars; and even at the present day the word languor best expresses +that which no longer touches us in the operas of the last century, +without even excepting those of Mozart himself. What we require for the +pictures of dramatic music is larger frames, including more figures, +more passionate and moving song, more sharply marked rhythms, greater +fullness in the vocal masses, and more sonorous brilliancy in the +instrumentation. All these qualities are to be found in 'Lodoi'ska' +and 'Les Deux Journées'; and Cherubini may not only be regarded as the +founder of the modern French opera, but also as that musician who, after +Mozart, has exerted the greatest general influence on the tendency of +the art. An Italian by birth and the excellence of his education, which +was conducted by Sarti, the great teacher of composition; a German by +his musical sympathies as well as by the variety and profundity of his +knowledge; and a Frenchman by the school and principles to which we +owe his finest dramatic works, Cherubini strikes me as being the most +accomplished musician, if not the greatest genius, of the nineteenth +century." +</p> +<p> +Again the English composer Macfarren observes: "Cherubini's position +is unique in the history of his art; actively before the world as +a composer for threescore years and ten, his career spans over more +vicissitudes in the progress of music than that of any other man. +Beginning to write in the same year with Cimarosa, and even earlier than +Mozart, and being the contemporary of Verdi and Wagner, he witnessed +almost the origin of the two modern classical schools of France and +Germany, their rise to perfection, and, if not their decline, the +arrival of a time when criticism would usurp the place of creation, and +when to propound new rules for art claims higher consideration than +to act according to its ever unalterable principles. His artistic life +indeed was a rainbow based on the two extremes of modern music which +shed light and glory on the great art-cycle over which it arched.... +His excellence consists in his unswerving earnestness of purpose, in +the individuality of his manner, in the vigor of his ideas, and in the +purity of his harmony." +</p> +<p> +"Such," says M. Miel, "was Cherubim; a colossal and incommensurable +genius, an existence full of days, of masterpieces, and of glory. +Among his rivals he found his most sincere appreciators. The Chevalier +Seyfried has recorded, in a notice on Beethoven, that that grand +musician regarded Cherubini as the first of his contemporary composers. +We will add nothing to this praise: the judgment of such a rival is, for +Cherubini, the voice itself of posterity." +</p> +<p> +Luigi Carlo Zanobe Salvadore Maria Cherubini was born at Florence on +September 14, 1700, the son of a harpsichord accompanyist at the Pergola +Theatre. Like so many other great composers, young Cherubini displayed +signs of a fertile and powerful genius at an early age, mastering the +difficulties of music as if by instinct. At the age of nine he was +placed under the charge of Felici, one of the best Tuscan professors of +the day; and four years afterward he composed his first work, a mass. +His creative instinct, thus awakened, remained active, and he produced +a series of compositions which awakened no little admiration, so that he +was pointed at in the streets of Florence as the young prodigy. When he +was about sixteen the attention of the Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany was +directed to him, and through that prince's liberality he was enabled +to become a pupil of the most celebrated Italian master of the age, +Giuseppe Sarti, of whom he soon became the favorite pupil. Under the +direction of Sarti, the young composer produced a series of operas, +sonatas, and masses, and wrote much of the music which appeared under +the maestro's own name—a practice then common in the music and painting +schools of Italy. At the age of nineteen Cherubini was recognized as +one of the most learned and accomplished musicians of the age, and his +services were in active demand at the Italian theatres. In four years +he produced thirteen operas, the names and character of which it is not +necessary now to mention, as they are unknown except to the antiquary +whose zeal prompts him to defy the dust of the Italian theatrical +libraries. Halévy, whose admiration of his master led him to study these +early compositions, speaks of them as full of striking beauties, and, +though crude in many particulars, distinguished by those virile and +daring conceptions which from the outset stamped the originality of the +man. +</p> +<p> +Cherubini passed through Paris in 1784, while the Gluck-Piccini +excitement was yet warm, and visited London as composer for the Royal +Italian Opera. Here he became a constant visitor in courtly circles, and +the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Queensbury, and other noble amateurs, +conceived the warmest admiration for his character and abilities. For +some reason, however, his operas written for England failed, and +he quitted England in 1786, intending to return to Italy. But the +fascinations of Paris held him, as they have done so many others, +noticeably so among the great musicians; and what was designed as a +flying visit became a life-long residence, with the exception of brief +interruptions in Germany and Italy, whither he went to fill professional +engagements. +</p> +<p> +Cherubini took up his residence with his friend Viotti, who introduced +him to the Queen, Marie Antoinette, and the highest society of the +capital, then as now the art-center of the world. He became an intimate +of the brilliant salons of Mme. de Polignac, Mme. d'Etiolés, Mme. de +Richelieu, and of the various bright assemblies where the wit, rank, and +beauty of Paris gathered in the days just prior to the Revolution. The +poet Marmontel became his intimate friend, and gave him the opera story +of "Demophon" to set to music. It was at this period that Cherubini +became acquainted with the works of Haydn, and learned from him how to +unite depth with lightness, grace with power, jest with earnestness, and +toying with dignity. +</p> +<p> +A short visit to Italy for the carnival of 1788 resulted in the +production of the opera of "Ifigenia in Aulide" at La Scala, Milan. +The success was great, and this work, the last written for his native +country, was given also at Florence and Parma with no less delight and +approbation on the part of the public. Had Cherubini died at this time, +he would have left nothing but an obscure name for Fétis's immense +dictionary. Unlike Mozart and Schubert, who at the same age had reached +their highest development, this robust and massive genius ripened +slowly. With him as with Gluck, with whom he had so many affinities, +a short life would have been fatal to renown. His last opera showed a +turning point in his development. Halévy, his great disciple, speaks of +this period as follows: "He is already more nervous; there peeps out +I know not exactly how much of force and virility of which the Italian +musicians of his day did not know or did not seek the secret. It is the +dawn of a new day. Cherubini was preparing himself for the combat. Gluck +had accustomed France to the sublime energy of his masterpieces. Mozart +had just written 'Le Nozze di Figaro' and 'Don Giovanni.' He must not +lag behind. He must not be conquered. In that career which he was about +to dare to enter, he met two giants. Like the athlete who descends into +the arena, he anointed his limbs and girded his loins for the fight." +</p> +<center> +V. +</center> +<p> +Marmontel had furnished the libretto of an opera to Cherubini, and the +composer shortly after his return from Turin to Paris had it produced at +the Royal Academy of Music. Vogel's opera on the same text, "Demophon," +was also brought out, but neither one met with great success. +Cherubini's work, though full of vigor and force, wanted color and +dramatic point. He was disgusted with his failure, and resolved +to eschew dramatic music; so for the nonce he devoted himself to +instrumental music and cantata. Two works of the latter class, "Amphion" +and "Circe," composed at this time, were of such excellence as to retain +a permanent hold on the French stage. Cherubini, too, became director of +the Italian opera troupe, "Les Bouffons," organized under the patronage +of Léonard, the Queen's performer, and exercised his taste for +composition by interpolating airs of his own into the works of the +Italian composers, which were then interesting the French public as +against the operas of Rameau. +</p> +<p> +"At this time," we are told by Laf age, "Cherubini had two distinct +styles, one of which was allied to Paisiello and Cimarosa by the grace, +elegance, and purity of the melodic forms; the other, which attached +itself to the school of Gluck and Mozart, more harmonic than melodious, +rich in instrumental details." This manner was the then unappreciated +type of a new school destined to change the forms of musical art. +</p> +<p> +In 1790 the Revolution broke out and rent the established order +of things into fragments. For a time all the interests of art were +swallowed up in the frightful turmoil which made Paris the center of +attention for astonished and alarmed Europe. Cherubini's connection had +been with the aristocracy, and now they were fleeing in a mad panic or +mounting the scaffold. His livelihood became precarious, and he suffered +severely during the first five years of anarchy. His seclusion was +passed in studying music, the physical sciences, drawing, and botany; +and his acquaintance was wisely confined to a few musicians like +himself. Once, indeed, his having learned the violin as a child was the +means of saving his life. Independently venturing out at night, he was +arrested by a roving band of drunken <i>Sansculottes</i>, who were seeking +musicians to conduct their street chants. Somebody recognized Cherubini +as a favorite of court circles, and, when he refused to lead their +obscene music, the fatal cry, "The Royalist, the Royalist!" buzzed +through the crowd. At this critical moment another kidnapped player +thrust a violin in Cherubini's hands and persuaded him to yield. So +the two musicians marched all day amid the hoarse yells of the drunken +revolutionists. He was also enrolled in the National Guard, and obliged +to accompany daily the march of the unfortunate throngs who shed their +blood under the axe of the guillotine. Cherubini would have fled from +these horrible surroundings, but it was difficult to evade the vigilance +of the French officials; he had no money; and he would not leave the +beautiful Cécile Tourette, to whom he was affianced. +</p> +<p> +One of the theatres opened during the revolutionary epoch was the +Théâtre Feydeau. The second opera performed was Cherubini's "Lodoïska" +(1791), at which he had been laboring for a long time, and which was +received throughout Europe with the greatest enthusiasm and delight, not +less in Germany than in France and Italy. The stirring times aroused a +new taste in music, as well as in politics and literature. The dramas of +Racine and the operas of Lulli were akin. No less did the stormy +genius of Schiller find its counterpart in Beethoven and Cherubini. The +production of "Lodoïska" was the point of departure from which the great +French school of serious opera, which has given us "Robert le Diable," +"Les Huguenots," and "Faust," got its primal value and significance. Two +men of genius, Gluck and Grétry, had formed the taste of the public in +being faithful to the accents of nature. The idea of reconciling this +taste, founded on strict truth, with the seductive charm of the Italian +forms, to which the French were beginning to be sensible, suggested to +Cherubini a system of lyric drama capable of satisfying both. Wagner +himself even says, in his "Tendencies and Theories," speaking of +Cherubini and his great co-laborers Méhul and Spontini: "It would be +difficult to answer them, if they now perchance came among us and asked +in what respect we had improved on their mode of musical procedure." +</p> +<p> +"Lodoïska," which cast the old Italian operas into permanent oblivion, +and laid the foundation of the modern French dramatic school in music, +has a libretto similar to that of "Fidelio" and Grétry's "Coeur de Lion" +combined, and was taken from a romance of Faiblas by Fillette Loraux. +The critics found only one objection: the music was all so beautiful +that no breathing time was granted the listener. In one year the opera +was performed two hundred times, and at short intervals two hundred more +representations took place. +</p> +<p> +The Revolution culminated in the crisis of 1793, which sent the King to +the scaffold. Cherubini found a retreat at La Chartreuse, near Rouen, +the country seat of his friend, the architect Louis. Here he lived in +tranquillity, and composed several minor pieces and a three-act opera, +never produced, but afterward worked over into "Ali Baba" and "Faniska." +In his Norman retreat Cherubini heard of the death of his father, and +while suffering under this infliction, just before his return to Paris +in 1794, he composed the opera of "Elisa." This work wras received +with much favor at the Feydeau theatre, though it did not arouse the +admiration called out by "Lodoïska." +</p> +<p> +In 1795 the Paris Conservatory was founded, and Cherubini appointed +one of the five inspectors, as well as professor of counterpoint, his +associates being Lesueur, Grétry, Gossec, and Méhul. The same year +also saw him united to Cécile Tourette, to whom he had been so long and +devotedly attached. Absorbed in his duties at the Conservatory he +did not come before the public again till 1797, when the great tragic +masterpiece of "Médée" was produced at the Feydeau theatre. "Lodoïska" +had been somewhat gay; "Elisa," a work of graver import, followed; +but in "Médée" was attained the profound tragic power of Gluck and +Beethoven. Hoffman's libretto was indeed unworthy of the great music, +but this has not prevented its recognition by musicians as one of the +noblest operas ever written. It has probably been one of the causes, +however, why it is so rarely represented at the present time, its +overture alone being well known to modern musical audiences. This opera +has been compared by critics to Shakespeare's "King Lear," as being a +great expression of anguish and despair in their more stormy phases. +Chorley tells us that, when he first saw it, he was irresistibly +reminded of the lines in Barry Cornwall's poem to Pasta: +</p> +<pre> + "Now thou art like some winged thing that cries + Above some city, flaming fast to death." +</pre> +<p> +The poem which Chorley quotes from was inspired by the performance of +the great Pasta in Simone Mayer's weak musical setting of the fable of +the Colchian sorceress, which crowded the opera-houses of Europe. The +life of the French classical tragedy, too, was powerfully assisted by +Rachel. Though the poem on which Cherubini worked was unworthy of his +genius, it could not be from this or from lack of interest in the theme +alone that this great work is so rarely performed; it is because there +have been not more than three or four actresses in the last hundred +years combining the great tragic and vocal requirements exacted by the +part. If the tragic genius of Pasta conld have been united with the +voice of a Catalani, made as it were of adamant and gold, Cherubini's +sublime musical creation would have found an adequate interpreter. +Mdlle. Tietjens, indeed, has been the only late dramatic singer who +dared essay so difficult a task. Musical students rank the instrumental +parts of this opera with the organ music of Bach, the choral fugues +of Handel, and the symphonies of Beethoven, for beauty of form and +originality of ideas. +</p> +<p> +On its first representation, on the 13th of March, 1797, one of the +journals, after praising its beauty, professed to discover imitations +of Méhul's manner in it. The latter composer, in an indignant rejoinder, +proclaimed himself and all others as overshadowed by Cherubini's genius: +a singular example of artistic humility and justice. Three years after +its performance in Paris, it was given at Berlin and Vienna, and stamped +by the Germans as one of the world's great musical masterpieces. This +work was a favorite one with Schubert, Beethoven, and Weber, and +there have been few great composers who have not put on record their +admiration of it. +</p> +<p> +As great, however, as "Médée" is ranked, "Les Deux Journées,"* produced +in 1800, is the opera on which Cherubim's fame as a dramatic composer +chiefly rests. +</p> +<pre> + * In German known as "Die Wassertràger," in English "The + Water-Carriers." +</pre> +<p> +Three hundred consecutive performances did not satisfy Paris; and +at Berlin and Frankfort, as well as in Italy, it was hailed with +acclamation. Bouilly was the author of the opera-story, suggested by the +generous action of a water-carrier toward a magistrate who was related +to the author. The story is so interesting, so admirably written, that +Goethe and Mendelssohn considered it the true model for a comic opera. +The musical composition, too, is nearly faultless in form and replete +with beauties. In this opera Cherubini anticipated the reforms of +Wagner, for he dispensed with the old system which made the drama a web +of beautiful melodies, and established his musical effects for the most +part by the vigor and charm of the choruses and concerted pieces. It +has been accepted as a model work by composers, and Beethoven was in the +habit of keeping it by him on his writing-table for constant study and +reference. +</p> +<p> +Spohr in his autobiography says: "I recollect, when the 'Deux Journées' +was performed for the first time, how, intoxicated with delight and +the powerful impression the work had made on me, I asked on that very +evening to have the score given me, and sat over it the whole night; +and that it was that opera chiefly that gave me my first impulse to +composition." Weber, in a letter from Munich written in 1812, says: +"Fancy my delight when I beheld lying upon the table of the hotel the +play-bill with the magic name <i>Armand</i>. I was the first person in the +theatre, and planted myself in the middle of the pit, where I waited +most anxiously for the tones which I knew beforehand would elevate and +inspire me. I think I may assert boldly that 'Les Deux Journées' is a +really great dramatic and classical work. Everything is calculated so +as to produce the greatest effect; all the various pieces are so much in +their proper place that you can neither omit one nor make any addition +to them. The opera displays a pleasing richness of melody, vigorous +declamation, and all-striking truth in the treatment of situations, ever +new, ever heard and retained with pleasure." Mendelssohn, too, writing +to his father of a performance of this opera, speaks of the enthusiasm +of the audience as extreme, as well as of his own pleasure as surpassing +anything he had ever experienced in a theatre. Mendelssohn, who never +completed an opera, because he did not find until shortly before +his death a theme which properly inspired him to dramatic creation, +corresponded with Planché, with the hope of getting from the latter a +libretto which should unite the excellences of "Fidelio" with those of +"Les Deux Journées." He found, at last, a libretto, which, if it did not +wholly satisfy him, at least overcame some of his prejudices, in a story +based on the Rhine myth of Lorelei. A fragment of it only was finished, +and the finale of the first act is occasionally performed in England. +</p> +<center> +VI. +</center> +<p> +Before Napoleon became First Consul, he had been on familiar terms with +Cherubini. The soldier and the composer were seated in the same box +listening to an opera by the latter. Napoleon, whose tastes for music +were for the suave and sensuous Italian style, turned to him and said: +"My dear Cherubini, you are certainly an excellent musician; but really +your music is so noisy and complicated that I can make nothing of it;" +to which Cherubini replied: "My dear general, you are certainly an +excellent soldier; but in regard to music you must excuse me if I +don't think it necessary to adapt my music to your comprehension." This +haughty reply was the beginning of an estrangement. Another illustration +of Cherubini's sturdy pride and dignity was his rejoinder to Napoleon, +when the latter was praising the works of the Italian composers, and +covertly sneering at his own. "Citizen General," he replied, "occupy +yourself with battles and victories, and allow me to treat according to +my talent an art of which you are grossly ignorant." Even when Napoleon +became Emperor, the proud composer never learned "to crook the pregnant +hinges of his knee" to the man before whom Europe trembled. +</p> +<p> +On the 12th of December, 1800, a grand performance of "The Creation" +took place at Paris. Napoleon on his way to it narrowly escaped being +killed by an infernal machine. Cherubini was one of the deputation, +representing the various corporations and societies of Paris, who waited +on the First Consul to congratulate him upon his escape. Cherubini kept +in the background, when the sarcasm, "I do not see Monsieur Cherubini," +pronounced in the French way, as if to indicate that Cherubini was not +worthy of being ranked with the Italian composers, brought him promptly +forward. "Well," said Napoleon, "the French are in Italy." "Where would +they not go," answered Cherubini, "led by such a hero as you?" This +pleased the First Consul, who, however, soon got to the old musical +quarrel. "I tell you I like Paisiello's music immensely; it is soft and +tranquil. You have much talent, but there is too much accompaniment." +Said Cherubini, "Citizen Consul, I conform myself to French taste." +</p> +<p> +"Your music," continued the other, "makes too much noise. Speak to me +in that of Paisiello; that is what lulls me gently." "I understand," +replied the composer; "you like music which doesn't stop you from +thinking of state affairs." This witty rejoinder made the arrogant +soldier frown, and the talk suddenly ceased. +</p> +<p> +As a result of this alienation Cherubini found himself persistently +ignored and ill-treated by the First Consul. In spite of his having +produced such great masterpieces, his income was very small, apart from +his pay as Inspector of the Conservatory. The ill will of the ruler of +France was a steady check to his preferment. When Napoleon established +his consular chapel in 1802, he invited Paisiello from Naples to become +director at a salary of 12,000 francs a year. It gave great umbrage to +the Conservatory that its famous teachers should have been slighted for +an Italian foreigner, and musical circles in Paris were shaken by petty +contentions. Paisiello, however, found the public indifferent to his +works, and soon wearied of a place where the admiration to which he had +been accustomed no longer flattered his complacency. He resigned, and +his position was offered to Méhul, who is said to have declined it +because he regarded Cherubini as far more worthy of it, and to have +accepted it only on condition that his friend could share the duties and +emoluments with him. Cherubini, fretted and irritated by his condition, +retired for a time from the pursuit of his art, and devoted himself to +flowers. The opera of "Anacreon," a powerful but unequal work, which +reflected the disturbance and agitation of his mind, was the sole fruit +of his musical efforts for about four years. +</p> +<p> +While Cherubini was in the deepest depression—for he had a large +family depending on him and small means with which to support them—a +ray of sunshine came in 1805 in the shape of an invitation to compose +for the managers of the opera at Vienna. His advent at the Austrian +capital produced a profound sensation, and he received a right royal +welcome from the great musicians of Germany. The aged Haydn, Hummel, +and Beethoven became his warm friends with the generous freemasonry of +genius, for his rank as a musician was recognized throughout Europe. +</p> +<p> +The war which broke out after our musician's departure from Paris +between France and Austria ended shortly in the capitulation of Ulm, +and the French Emperor took up his residence at Schônbrunn. Napoleon +received Cherubini kindly when he came in answer to his summons, and +it was arranged that a series of twelve concerts should be given +alternately at Schonbrunn and Vienna. The pettiness which entered into +the French Emperor's nature in spite of his greatness continued to be +shown in his ebullitions of wrath because Cherubini persisted in holding +his own musical views against the imperial opinion. Napoleon, however, +on the eve of his return to France, urged him to accompany him, offering +the long-coveted position of musical director; but Cherubini was under +contract to remain a certain length of time at Vienna, and he would not +break his pledge. +</p> +<p> +The winter of 1805 witnessed two remarkable musical events at the +Austrian capital, the production of Beethoven's "Fidelio" and the last +great opera written by Cherubini, "Faniska." Haydn and Beethoven were +both present at the latter performance. The former embraced Cherubini +and said to him, "You are my son, worthy of my love." Beethoven +cordially hailed him as "the first dramatic composer of the age." It is +an interesting fact that two such important dramatic compositions should +have been written at the same time, independently of each other; that +both works should have been in advance of their age; that they should +have displayed a striking similarity of style; and that both should +have suffered from the reproach of the music being too learned for the +public. The opera of "Faniska" is based on a Polish legend of great +dramatic beauty, which, however, was not very artistically treated +by the librettist. Mendelssohn in after years noted the striking +resemblance between Beethoven and our composer in the conception +and method of dramatic composition. In one of his letters to Edouard +Devrient he says, speaking of "Fidelio": "On looking into the score, +as well as on listening to the performance, I everywhere perceive +Cherubim's dramatic style of composition. It is true that Beethoven did +not ape that style, but it was before his mind as his most cherished +pattern." The unity of idea and musical color between "Faniska" and +"Fidelio" seems to have been noted by many critics both of contemporary +and succeeding times. +</p> +<p> +Cherubini would gladly have written more for the Viennese, by whom +he had been so cordially treated; but the unsettled times and his +homesickness for Paris conspired to take him back to the city of his +adoption. He exhausted many efforts to find Mozart's tomb in Vienna, and +desired to place a monument over his neglected remains, but failed to +locate the resting-place of one he loved so much. Haydn, Beethoven, +Hummel, Salieri, and the other leading composers reluctantly parted +with him, and on April 1, 1806, his return to Paris was celebrated by +a brilliant fête improvised for him at the Conservatory. Fate, however, +had not done with her persecutions, for fate in France took the shape of +Napoleon, whose hostility, easily aroused, was implacable; who aspired +to rule the arts and letters as he did armies and state policy; who +spared neither Cherubini nor Madame de Staël. Cherubini was neglected +and insulted by authority, while honors were showered on Méhul, Grétry, +Spontini, and Lesueur. He sank into a state of profound depression, and +it was even reported in Vienna that he was dead. He forsook music and +devoted himself to drawing and botany. Had he not been a great musician, +it is probable he would have excelled in pictorial art. One day the +great painter David entered the room where he was working in crayon on a +landscape of the Salvator Rosa style. So pleased was the painter that he +cried, "Truly admirable! Courage!" In 1808 Cherubini found complete +rest in a visit to the country-seat of the Prince de Chimay in Belgium, +whither he was accompanied by his friend and pupil Auber. +</p> +<center> +VII. +</center> +<p> +With this period Cherubini closed his career practically as an operatic +composer, though several dramatic works were produced subsequently, and +entered on his no less great sphere of ecclesiastical composition. +At Chimay for a while no one dared to mention music in his presence. +Drawing and painting flowers seemed to be his sole pleasure. At last the +president of the little music society at Chimay ventured to ask him to +write a mass for St. Cecilia's feast day. He curtly refused, but +his hostess noticed that he was agitated by the incident,'as if his +slumbering instincts had started again into life. One day the Princess +placed music paper on his table, and Cherubini on returning from his +walk instantly began to compose, as if he had never ceased it. It is +recorded that he traced out in full score the "Kyrie" of his great +mass in F during the intermission of a single game of billiards. Only +a portion of the mass was completed in time for the festival, but, +on Cherubini's return to Paris in 1809, it was publicly given by an +admirable orchestra, and hailed with a great enthusiasm, that soon +swept through Europe. It was perceived that Cherubini had struck out +for himself a new path in church music. Fétis, the musical historian, +records its reception as follows: "All expressed an unreserved +admiration for this composition of a new order, whereby Cherubini +has placed himself above all musicians who have as yet written in +the concerted style of church music. Superior to the masses of Haydn, +Mozart, and Beethoven, and the masters of the Neapolitan school, that of +Cherubini is as remarkable for originality of idea as for perfection in +art." Picchiante, a distinguished critic, sums up the impressions made +by this great work in the following eloquent and vigorous passage: "All +the musical science of the good age of religious music, the sixteenth +century of the Christian era, was summed up in Palestrina, who +flourished at that time, and by its aid he put into form noble and +sublime conceptions. With the grave Gregorian melody, learnedly +elaborated in vigorous counterpoint and reduced to greater clearness and +elegance without instrumental aid, Palestrina knew how to awaken among +his hearers mysterious, grand, deep, vague sensations, that seemed +caused by the objects of an unknown world, or by superior powers in +the human imagination. With the same profound thoughtfulness of the old +Catholic music, enriched by the perfection which art has attained in two +centuries, and with all the means which a composer nowadays can make +use of, Cherubini perfected another conception, and this consisted in +utilizing the style adapted to dramatic composition when narrating the +church text, by which means he was able to succeed in depicting man in +his various vicissitudes, now rising to the praises of Divinity, now +gazing on the Supreme Power, now suppliant and prostrate. So that, while +Palestrina's music places God before man, that of Cherubini places man +before God." Adolphe Adam puts the comparison more epigrammatically in +saying: "If Palestrina had lived in our own times, he would have been +Cherubini." The masters of the old Roman school of church music had +received it as an emanation of pure sentiment, with no tinge of human +warmth and color. Cherubini, on the contrary, aimed to make his music +express the dramatic passion of the words, and in the realization of +this he brought to bear all the resources of a musical science unequaled +except perhaps by Beethoven. The noble masses in F and D were also +written in 1809 and stamped themselves on public judgment as no less +powerful works of genius and knowledge. +</p> +<p> +Some of Cherubini's friends in 1809 tried to reconcile the composer +with the Emperor, and in furtherance of this an opera was written +anonymously, "Pimmalione." Napoleon was delighted, and even affected to +tears. Instantly, however, that Cherubini's name was uttered, he became +dumb and cold. Nevertheless, as if ashamed of his injustice, he sent +Cherubini a large sum of money, and a commission to write the music for +his marriage ode. Several fine works followed in the next two years, +among them the Mass in D, regarded by some of his admirers as his +ecclesiastical masterpiece. Miel claims that in largeness of design and +complication of detail, sublimity of conception and dramatic intensity, +two works only of its class approach it, Beethoven's Mass in D and +Niedermeyer's Mass in D minor. +</p> +<p> +In 1811 Halévy, the future author of "La Juive," became Cherubini's +pupil, and a devoted friendship ever continued between the two. The +opera of "Les Abencérages" was also produced, and it was pronounced +nowise inferior to "Médée" and "Les Deux Journées." Mendelssohn many +years afterward, writing to Moscheles in Paris, asked: "Has Onslow +written anything new? And old Cherubini? There's a matchless fellow! +I have got his 'Abencérages,' and can not sufficiently admire the +sparkling fire, the clear original phrasing, the extraordinary delicacy +and refinement with which it is written, or feel grateful enough to the +grand old man for it. Besides, it is all so free and bold and spirited." +The work would have had a greater immediate success, had not Paris been +in profound gloom from the disastrous results of the Moscow campaign and +the horrors of the French retreat, where famine and disease finished the +work of bayonet and cannon-ball. +</p> +<p> +The unsettled and disheartening times disturbed all the relations of +artists. There is but little record of Cherubini for several years. A +significant passage in a letter written in 1814, speaking of several +military marches written for a Prussian band, indicates the occupation +of Paris by the allies and Napoleon's banishment in Elba. The period of +"The Hundred Days" was spent by Cherubini in England; and the world's +wonder, the battle of Waterloo, was fought, and the Bourbons were +permanently restored, before he again set foot in Paris. The restored +dynasty delighted to honor the man whom Napoleon had slighted, and gifts +were showered on him alike by the Court and by the leading academies of +Europe. The walls of his studio were covered with medals and diplomas; +and his appointment as director of the King's chapel (which, however, he +refused unless shared with Lesueur, the old incumbent) placed him above +the daily demands of want. So, at the age of fifty-five, this great +composer for the first time ceased to be anxious on the score of his +livelihood. Thenceforward the life of Cherubini was destined to flow +with a placid current, its chief incidents being the great works in +church music, which he poured forth year after year, to the admiration +and delight of the artistic world. These remarkable masses, by their +dramatic power, greatness of design, and wealth of instrumentation, +excited as much discussion and interest throughout Europe as the operas +of other composers. That written in 1816, the C minor requiem mass, is +pronounced by Berlioz to be the greatest work of this description ever +composed. +</p> +<p> +We get some pleasant glimpses of Cherubini as a man during this serene +autumn of his life. Spohr tells us how cordially Cherubini, +generally regarded as an austere and irritable man, received him. +The world-renowned master, accustomed to handle instruments in great +orchestral masses, was not familiar with the smaller compositions known +as chamber music, in which the Germans so excelled. He was greatly +delighted when the youthful Spohr turned his attention to this form of +music, and he insisted on the latter directing little concerts over and +over again at his house. +</p> +<p> +In 1821 Moscheles writes in his diary, apropos of Cherubini and his +artistic surroundings: "I spent the evening at Ciceri's, son in-law of +Isabey, the famous painter, where I was introduced to one of the most +interesting circles of artists. In the first room were assembled the +most famous painters, engaged in drawing several things for their own +amusement. In the midst of these was Cherubim, also drawing. I had the +honor, like every one newly introduced, of having my portrait taken in +caricature. Bégasse took me in hand and succeeded well. In an adjoining +room were musicians and actors, among them Ponchard, Levasseur, Dugazon, +Panseron, Mlle, de Munck, and Mme. Livère, of the Theatre Français. The +most interesting of their performances, which I attended merely as +a listener, was a vocal quartet by Cherubini, performed under his +direction. Later in the evening, the whole party armed itself with +larger or smaller 'mirlitons' (reed-pipe whistles), and on these small +monotonous instruments, sometimes made of sugar, they played, after +the fashion of Russian horn music, the overture to 'Demophon,' +two frying-pans representing the drums." On the 27th of March this +"mirliton" concert was repeated at Ciceri's, and on this occasion +Cherubini took an active part. Moscheles relates of that evening: +"Horace Vernet entertained us with his ventriloquizing powers, M. Salmon +with his imitation of a horn, and Dugazon actually with a mirliton solo. +Lafont and I represented the classical music, which, after all, held its +own." +</p> +<p> +The distinguished pianist, in further pleasant gossip about Cherubini, +tells us of hearing the first performance of a pasticcio opera, composed +by Cherubini, Paër, Berton, Boïeldieu, and Kreutzer, in honor of the +christening of the Duke of Bordeaux. Of the part written by Cherubini he +speaks in the warmest praise, and says quizzically of the composer: +"His squeaky sharp little voice was sometimes heard in the midst of his +conducting, and interrupted my state of ecstasy caused by his presence +and composition." +</p> +<p> +In 1822 Cherubini became Director of the reestablished Conservatory, +that institution having fallen into some decay, and displayed great +administrative power and grasp of detail in bringing order out of chaos. +His vigilance and experience, seconded by an able staff of professors, +including the foremost musical names of France, soon made the +Conservatory what it has since re? mained, the greatest musical college +of the world. He was incessant in the performance of his duties, and +spared neither himself nor his staff of professors to build up the +institution. His spirit communicated itself both to masters and pupils. +Ten o'clock every morning saw him at his office, and interviews even +with the great were timed watch in hand. This law of order even prompted +him to rebuke the Minister of Fine Arts severely when one day that +functionary met an appointment tardily. Fétis tells us: "To his new +functions he brought the most scrupulous exactitude of duty, that spirit +of order which he possessed during the whole of his life, and an entire +devotion to the prosperity of the establishment. Severe and exacting +toward the professors and servants as he was with himself, he brought +with him little love in his connections with the artists placed under +his authority." His official duties finished, this incessant worker +occupied his time with original composition, or copying out the scores +of other composers from memory. +</p> +<p> +Though habitually cold and severe in his manner during these latter +years, there was a spring of playful tenderness beneath. One day a child +of great talent was brought by his father, a poor man, to see Cherubini. +The latter's first exclamation was: "This is not a nursing hospital for +infants." Relenting somewhat, he questioned the boy, and soon discovered +his remarkable talents. The same old man was charmed and caressed the +youngster, saying, "Bravo, my little friend! But why are you here, and +what can I do for you?" "A thing that is very easy, and which would make +me very happy," was the reply; "put me into the Conservatory." "It's a +thing done," said Cherubini; "you are one of us." He afterward said to +his friends playfully: "I had to be careful about pushing the questions +too far, for the baby was beginning to prove that he knew more about +music than I did myself." +</p> +<p> +His merciless criticism of his pupils did not surpass his own modesty +and diffidence. One day, when a symphony of Beethoven was about to be +played at a concert, just prior to one of his own works, he said, "Now I +am going to appear as a very small boy indeed." The mutual affection of +Cherubini and Beethoven remained unabated through life, as is shown by +the touching letter written by the latter just before his death, but +which Cherubini did not receive till after that event. The letter was as +follows: +</p> +<p> +Vienna, March 15,1823. +</p> +<p> +Highly esteemed Sir: I joyfully take advantage of this opportunity to +address you. +</p> +<p> +I have done so often in spirit, as I prize your theatrical works beyond +others. The artistic world has only to lament that in Germany, at least, +no new dramatic work of yours has appeared. Highly as all your works +are valued by true connoisseurs, still it is a great loss to art not to +possess any fresh production of your great genius for the theatre. +</p> +<p> +True art is imperishable, and the true artist feels heartfelt pleasure +in grand works of genius, and that id what enchants me when I hear a new +composition of yours; in fact, I take greater interest in it than in my +own; in short, I love and honor you. Were it not that my continued bad +health stops my coming to see you in Paris, with what exceeding delight +would I discuss questions of art with you! Do not think that this is +meant merely to serve as an introduction to the favor I am about to ask +of you. I hope and feel sure that you do not for a moment suspect me of +such base sentiments. I recently completed a grand solemn Mass, and have +resolved to offer it to the various European courts, as it is not my +intention to publish it at present. I have therefore asked the King of +France, through the French embassy here, to subscribe to this work, and +I feel certain that his Majesty would at your recommendation agree to do +so. +</p> +<p> +My critical situation demands that I should not solely fix my eyes upon +heaven, as is my wont; on the contrary, it would have me fix them also +upon earth, here below, for the necessities of life. +</p> +<p> +Whatever may be the fate of my request to you, I shall for ever continue +to love and esteem you; and you for ever remain of all my contemporaries +that one whom I esteem the most. +</p> +<p> +If you should wish to do me a very great favor, you would effect this by +writing to me a few lines, which would solace me much. Art unites all; +how much more, then, true artists! and perhaps you may deem me worthy of +being included in that number. +</p> +<p> +With the highest esteem, your friend and servant, +</p> +<center> +LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN. +</center> +<center> +LUDWIG CHERUBINI. +</center> +<p> +Cherubini's admiration of the great German is indicated in an anecdote +told by Professor Ella. The master rebuked a pupil who, in referring +to a performance of a Beethoven symphony, dwelt mostly on the executive +excellence: "Young man, let your sympathies be first wedded to the +creation, and be you less fastidious of the execution; accept the +interpretation, and think more of the creation of these musical works +which are written for all time and all nations, models for imitation and +above all criticism." +</p> +<center> +VIII. +</center> +<p> +As a man Cherubini presented himself in many different aspects. +Extremely nervous, <i>brusque</i>, irritable, and absolutely independent, he +was apt to offend and repel. But under his stern reserve of character +there beat a warm heart and generous sympathies. This is shown by the +fact that, in spite of the unevenness of his temper, he was almost +worshiped by those around him. Auber, Halévy, Berton, Boïeldieu, Méhul, +Spontini, and Adam, who were so intimately associated with him, speak of +him with words of the warmest affection. Halévy, indeed, rarely alluded +to him without tears rushing to his eyes; and the slightest term of +disrespect excited his warmest indignation. It is recorded that, after +rebuking a pupil with sarcastic severity, his fine face would relax with +a smile so affectionate and genial that his whilom victim could feel +nothing but enthusiastic respect. Without one taint of envy in his +nature, conscious of his own extraordinary powers, he was quick to +recognize genius in others; and his hearty praise of the powers of +his rivals shows how sound and generous the heart was under his +irritability. His proneness to satire and power of epigram made him +enemies, but even these yielded to the suavity and fascination which +alternated with his bitter moods. His sympathies were peculiarly open +for young musicians. Mendelssohn and Liszt were stimulated by his warm +and encouraging praise when they first visited Paris; and even Berlioz, +whose turbulent conduct in the Conservatory had so embittered him at +various times, was heartily applauded when his first great mass was +produced. Arnold gives us the following pleasant picture of Cherubini: +</p> +<p> +"Cherubini in society was outwardly silent, modest, unassuming, +pleasing, obliging, and possessed of the finest manners. At the same +time, he who did not know that he was with Cherubini would think +him stern and reserved, so well did the composer know how to conceal +everything, if only to avoid ostentation. He truly shunned brag or +speaking of himself. Cherubini's voice was feeble, probably from +narrow-chestedness, and somewhat hoarse, but was otherwise soft and +agreeable. His French was Italianized.... His head was bent forward, +his nose was large and aquiline; his eyebrows were thick, black, +and somewhat bushy, overshadowing his eyes. His eyes were dark, and +glittered with an extraordinary brilliancy that animated in a wonderful +way the whole face. A thin lock of hair came over the center of his +forehead, and somehow gave to his countenance a peculiar softness." +</p> +<p> +The picture painted by Ingres, the great artist, now in the Luxembourg +gallery, represents the composer with Polyhymnia in the background +stretching out her hand over him. His face, framed in waving silvery +hair, is full of majesty and brightness, and the eye of piercing luster. +Cherubini was so gratified by this effort of the painter that he sent +him a beautiful canon set to wrords of his own. Thus his latter years +were spent in the society of the great artists and wits of Paris, +revered by all, and recognized, after Beethoven's death, as the musical +giant of Europe. Rossini, Meyerbeer, Weber, Schumann—in a word, the +representatives of the most diverse schools of composition—bowed +equally before this great name. Rossini, who was his antipodes in genius +and method, felt his loss bitterly, and after his death sent Cherubini's +portrait to his widow with these touching words: "Here, my dear madam, +is the portrait of a great man, who is as young in your heart as he is +in my mind." +</p> +<p> +Actively engaged as Director of the Conservatory, which he governed with +consummate ability, his old age was further employed in producing that +series of great masses which rank with the symphonies of Beethoven. His +creative instinct and the fire of his imagination remained unimpaired +to the time of his death. Mendelssohn in a letter to Moscheles speaks +of him as "that truly wonderful old man, whose genius seems bathed +in immortal youth." His opera of "Ali Baba," composed at seventy-six, +though inferior to his other dramatic works, is full of beautiful and +original music, and was immediately produced in several of the principal +capitals of Europe; and the second Requiem mass, written in his +eightieth year, is one of his masterpieces. +</p> +<p> +On the 12th of March, 1842, the old composer died, surrounded by his +affectionate family and friends. His fatal illness had been brought on +in part by grief for the death of his son-in-law, M. Tureas, to whom he +was most tenderly attached. His funeral was one of great military and +civic magnificence, and royalty itself could not have been honored +with more splendid obsequies. The congregation of men great in arms +and state, in music, painting, and literature, who did honor to the +occasion, has rarely been equaled. His own noble Requiem mass, composed +the year before his death, was given at the funeral services in the +church of St. Roch by the finest orchestra and voices in Europe. Similar +services were held throughout Europe, and everywhere the opera-houses +were draped in black. Perhaps the death of no musician ever called forth +such universal exhibitions of sorrow and reverence. +</p> +<p> +Cherubini's life extended from the early part of the reign of Louis XVI. +to that of Louis Philippe, and was contemporaneous with many of the +most remarkable events in modern history. The energy and passion which +convulsed society during his youth and early manhood undoubtedly had +much to do in stimulating that robust and virile quality in his mind +which gave such character to his compositions. The fecundity of his +intellect is shown in the fact that he produced four hundred and thirty +works, out of which only eighty have been published. In this catalogue +there are twenty-five operas and eleven masses. +</p> +<p> +As an operatic composer he laid the foundation of the modern French +school. Uniting the melody of the Italian with the science of the +German, his conceptions had a dramatic fire and passion which were, +however, free from anything appertaining to the sensational and +meretricious. His forms were indeed classically severe, and his style is +defined by Adolphe Adam as the resurrection of the old Italian school, +enriched by the discoveries of modern harmony. Though he was the creator +of French opera as we know it now, he was free from its vagaries +and extravagances. He set its model in the dramatic vigor and +picturesqueness, the clean-cut forms, and the noble instrumentation +which mark such masterpieces as "Faniska," "Alédée," "Les Deux +Journées," and "Lodoïska." The purity, classicism, and wealth of ideas +in these works have always caused them to be cited as standards of ideal +excellence. The reforms in opera of which Gluck was the protagonist, and +Wagner the extreme modern exponent, characterize the dramatic works +of Cherubini, though he keeps them within that artistic limit which a +proper regard for melodic beauty prescribes. In the power and propriety +of musical declamation his operas are conceded to be without a +superior. His overtures hold their place in classical music as ranking +with the best ever written, and show a richness of resource and +knowledge of form in treating the orchestra which his his contemporaries +admitted were only equaled by Beethoven. +</p> +<p> +Cherubini's place in ecclesiastical music is that by which he is best +known to the musical public of to-day; for his operas, owing to the +immense demands they make on the dramatic and vocal resources of the +artist, are but rarely presented in France, Germany, and England, and +never in America. They are only given where music is loved on account +of its noble traditions, and not for the mere sake of idle and luxurious +amusement. As a composer of masses, however, Cherubini's genius is +familiar to all who frequent the services of the Roman Church. His +relation to the music of Catholicism accords with that of Sebastian Bach +to the music of Protestantism. Haydn, Mozart, and even Beethoven, +are held by the best critics to be his inferiors in this form of +composition. His richness of melody, sense of dramatic color, and +great command of orchestral effects, gave him commanding power in the +interpretation of religious sentiments; while an ardent faith inspired +with passion, sweetness, and devotion what Place styles his "sublime +visions." Miel, one of his most competent critics, writes of him in this +eloquent strain: "If he represents the passion and death of Christ, the +heart feels itself wounded with the most sublime emotion; and when +he recounts the 'Last Judgment' the blood freezes with dread at the +redoubled and menacing calls of the exterminating angel. All those +admirable pictures that the Raphaels and Michael Angelos have painted +with colors and the brush, Cherubini brings forth with the voice and +orchestra." In brief, if Cherubini is the founder of a later school +of opera, and the model which his successors have always honored and +studied if they have not always followed, no less is he the chief of +a later, and by common consent the greatest, school of modern church +music. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + MÉHUL, SPONTINI, AND HALÉVY. +</h2> +<h3> + I. +</h3> +<p> +The influence of Gluck was not confined to Cherubini, but was hardly +less manifest in molding the style and conceptions of Méhul and +Spontini,* who held prominent places in the history of the French opera. +</p> +<pre> + * It is a little singular that some of the most + distinguished names in the annals of French music were + foreigners. Thus Gluck was a German, as also was Meyerbeer, + while Cherubini and Spontini were Italians. +</pre> +<p> +Henri Etienne Méhul was the son of a French soldier stationed at the +Givet barracks, where he was born June 24, 1763. His early love of music +secured for him instructions from the blind organist of the Franciscan +church at that garrison town, under whom he made astonishing progress. +He soon found he had outstripped the attainments of his teacher, and +contrived to place himself under the tuition of the celebrated Wilhelm +Hemser, who was organist at a neighboring monastery. Here Méhul spent a +number of happy and useful years, studying composition with Hemser and +literature with the kind monks, who hoped to persuade their young charge +to devote himself to ecclesiastical life. +</p> +<p> +Méhul's advent in Paris, whither he went at the age of sixteen, soon +opened his eyes to his true vocation, that of a dramatic composer. The +excitement over the contest between Gluck and Piccini was then at its +height, and the youthful musician was not long in espousing the side of +Gluck with enthusiasm. He made the acquaintance of Gluck accidentally, +the great ehevalier interposing one night to prevent his being ejected +from the theatre, into one of whose boxes Méhul had slipped without +buying a ticket. Thence forward the youth had free access to the opera, +and the friendship and tuition of one of the master minds of the age. +</p> +<p> +An opera, "Cora et Alonzo," had been composed at the age of twenty and +accepted at the opera; but it was not till 1790 that he got a hearing in +the comic opera of "Euphrasque et Coradin," composed under the direction +of Gluck. This work was brilliantly successful, and "Stratonice," which +anpeared two years afterward, established his reputation. The French +critics describe both these early works as being equally admirable in +melody, orchestral accompaniment, and dramatic effect. The stormiest +year of the revolution was not favorable to operatic composition, and +Méhul wrote but little music except pieces for republican festivities, +much to his own disgust, for he was by no means a warm friend of the +republic. +</p> +<p> +In 1797 he produced his "Le Jeune Henri," which nearly caused a riot in +the theatre. The story displeased the republican audience, who hissed +and hooted till the turmoil compelled the fall of the curtain. They +insisted, however, on the overture, which is one of great beauty, +being performed over and over again, a compliment which has rarely been +accorded to any composer. Méhul's appointment as inspector and professor +in the newly organized Conservatory, at the same time with Cherubini, +left him but little leisure for musical composition; but he found time +to write the spectacular opera "Adrian," which was fiercely condemned by +a republican audience, not as a musical failure, but because their alert +and suspicious tempers suspected in it covert allusions to the dead +monarchy. Even David, the painter, said he would set the torch to the +opera-house rather than witness the triumph of a king. In 1806 Méhul +produced the opera "Uthal," a work of striking vigor founded on an +Ossianic theme, in which he made the innovation of banishing the violins +from the orchestra, substituting therefor the violas. +</p> +<p> +It was in "Joseph," however, composed in 1807, that this composer +vindicated his right to be called a musician of great genius, and +entered fully into a species of composition befitting his grand style. +Most of his contemporaries were incapable of appreciating the greatness +of the work, though his gifted rival Cherubini gave it the warmest +praise. In Germany it met with instant and extended success, and it is +one of the few French operas of the old school which still continue to +be given on the German stage. In England it is now frequently sung as an +oratorio. It is on this remarkable work that Méhul's lasting reputation +as a composer rests outside of his own nation. The construction of +the opera of "Joseph" is characterized by admirable symmetry of form, +dramatic power, and majesty of the choral and concerted passages, +while the sustained beauty of the orchestration is such as to challenge +comparison with the greatest works of his contemporaries. Such at +least is the verdict of Fétis, who was by no means inclined to be +over-indulgent in criticising Méhul. The fault in this opera, as in all +of Méhul's works, appears to have been a lack of bright and graceful +melody, though in the modern tendencies of music this defect is rapidly +being elevated into a virtue. +</p> +<p> +The last eight years of Méhul's life were depressed by melancholy and +suffering, proceeding from pulmonary disease. He resigned his place in +the Conservatory, and retired to a pleasant little estate near Paris, +where he devoted himself to raising flowers, and found some solace in +the society of his musical friends and former pupils, who were assiduous +in their attentions. Finally becoming dangerously ill, he went to the +island of Hyères to find a more genial climate. But here he pined for +Paris and the old companionships, and suffered more perhaps by fretting +for the intellectual cheer of his old life than he gained by balmy air +and sunshine. He writes to one of his friends after a short stay at +Hyères: "I have broken up all my habits; I am deprived of all my old +friends; I am alone at the end of the world, surrounded by people whose +language I scarcely understand; and all this sacrifice to obtain a +little more sun. The air which best agrees with me is that which I +breathe among you." He returned to Paris for a few weeks only, to +breathe his last on October 18, 1817, aged fifty-four. +</p> +<p> +Méhul was a high-minded and benevolent man, wrapped up in his art, +and singularly childlike in the practical affairs of life. Abhorring +intrigue, he was above all petty jealousies, and even sacrificed the +situation of chapel-master under Napoleon, because he believed it should +have been given to the greatest of his rivals, Cherubini. When he +died Paris recognized his goodness as a man as well as greatness as a +musician by a touching and spontaneous expression of grief, and funeral +honors were given him throughout Europe. In 1822 his statue was crowned +on the stage of the Grand Opera, at a performance of his "Valentine de +Rohan." Notwithstanding his early death, he composed forty-two operas, +and modern musicians and critics give him a notable place among those +who were prominent in building up a national stage. A pupil and disciple +of Gluck, a cordial co-worker with Cherubini, he contributed largely to +the glory of French music, not only by his genius as a composer, but +by his important labors in the reorganization of the Conservatory, +that nursery which has fed so much of the highest musical talent of the +world. +</p> +<center> +II. +</center> +<p> +Luigi Gaspardo Pacifico Spontini, born of peasant parents at Majolati, +Italy, November 14, 1774, displayed his musical passion at an early age. +Designed for holy orders from childhood, his priestly tutors could not +make him study; but he delighted in the service of the church, with its +or^an and choir effects, for here his true vocation asserted itself. He +was wont, too, to hide in the belfry, and revel in the roaring orchestra +of metal, when the chimes were rung. On one occasion a stroke of +lightning precipitated him from his dangerous perch to the floor below, +and the history of music nearly lost one of its great lights. The bias +of his nature was intractable, and he was at last permitted to study +music, at first under the charge of his uncle Joseph, the cure of Jesi, +and finally at the Naples Conservatory, where he was entered at the age +of sixteen. +</p> +<p> +His first opera, "I Puntigli delle Donne," was composed at the age of +twenty-one, and performed at Rome, where it was kindly received. The +French invasion unsettled the affairs of Italy, and Spontini wandered +somewhat aimlessly, unable to exercise his talents to advantage till he +went to Paris in 1803, where he found a large number of brother Italian +musicians, and a cordial reception, though himself an obscure and +untried youth. He produced several minor works on the French stage, +noticeably among them the one-act opera of "Milton," in which he stepped +boldly out of his Italian mannerism, and entered on that path afterward +pursued with such brilliancy and boldness. Yet, though his talents began +to be recognized, life was a trying struggle, and it is doubtful if he +could have overcome the difficulties in his way when he was ready to +produce "La Vestale," had he not enlisted the sympathies of the +Empress Josephine, who loved music, and played the part of patroness as +gracefully as she did all others. +</p> +<p> +By Napoleon's order "La Vestale" was rehearsed against the wish of the +manager and critics of the Academy of Music, and produced December 15, +1807. Previous to this some parts of it had been performed privately +at the Tuileries, and the Emperor had said: "M. Spontini, your opera +abounds in fine airs and effective duets. The march to the place of +execution is admirable. You will certainly have the great success you +so well deserve." The imperial prediction was justified by consecutive +performances of one hundred nights. His next work, "Fernand Cortez," +sustained the impression of genius earned for him by its predecessor. +The scene of the revolt is pronounced by competent critics to be one of +the finest dramatic conceptions in operatic music. +</p> +<p> +In 1809 Spontini married the niece of Erard, the great pianoforte-maker, +and was called to the direction of the Italian opera; but he retained +this position only two years, from the disagreeable conditions he had to +contend with, and the cabals that were formed against him. The year 1814 +witnessed the production of "Pelage," and two years later "Les Dieux +Rivaux" was composed, in conjunction with Persuis, Berton, and Kreutzer; +but neither work attracted much attention. The opera of "Olympic," +worked out on the plan of "La Vestale" and "Cortez," was produced in +1819. Spontini was embittered by its poor success, for he had built many +hopes on it, and wrought long and patiently. That he was not in his best +vein, and like many other men of genius was not always able to estimate +justly his own work, is undeniable; for Spontini, contrary to the +opinion of his contemporaries and of posterity, regarded this as his +best opera. His acceptance of the Prussian King's offer to become +musical director at Berlin was the result of his chagrin. Here he +remained for twenty years. "Olympic" succeeded better at Berlin, though +the boisterousness of the music seems to have called out some sharp +strictures even among the Berlinese, whose penchant for noisy operatic +effects was then as now a butt for the satire of the musical wits. +Apropos of the long run of "Olympic" at Berlin, an amusing anecdote +is told on the authority of Castel-Blaze. A wealthy amateur had become +deaf, and suffered much from his deprivation of the enjoyment of his +favorite art. After trying many physicians, he was treated in a novel +fashion by his latest doctor. "Come with me to the opera this evening," +wrote down the doctor. "What's the use? I can't hear a note," was the +impatient rejoinder. "Never mind," said the other; "come, and you will +see something at all events." So the twain repaired to the theatre to +hear Spontini's "Olympie." All went well till one of the overwhelming +finales, which happened to be played that evening more <i>fortissimo</i> +than usual. The patient turned around beaming with delight, exclaiming, +"Doctor, I can hear." As there was no reply, the happy patient again +said, "Doctor, I tell you, you have cured me." A blank stare alone met +him, and he found that the doctor was as deaf as a post, having fallen +a victim to his own prescription. The German wits had a similar joke +afterward at Halévy's expense. The "Punch" of Vienna said that Halévy +made the brass play so loudly that the French horn was actually blown +quite straight. +</p> +<p> +Among the works produced at Berlin were "Nurmahal," in 1825; "Alcidor," +the same year; and in 1829, "Agnes von Hohenstaufen." Various other new +works were given from time to time, but none achieved more than a brief +hearing. Spontini's stiff-necked and arrogant will kept him in continual +trouble, and the Berlin press aimed its arrows at him with incessant +virulence: a war which the composer fed by his bitter and witty +rejoinders, for he was an adept in the art of invective. Had he not been +singularly adroit, he would have been obliged to leave his post. But +he gloried in the disturbance he created, and was proof against the +assaults of his numerous enemies, made so largely by his having come +of the French school, then as now an all-sufficient cause of Teutonic +dislike. Spontini's unbending intolerance, however, at last undermined +his musical supremacy, so long held good with an iron hand; and an +intrigue headed by Count Brühl, intendant of the Royal Theatre, at last +obliged him to resign after a rule of a score of years. His influence on +the lyric theatre of Berlin, however, had been valuable, and he had the +glory of forming singers among the Prussians, who until his time had +thought more of cornet-playing than of beautiful and true vocalization. +The Prussian King allowed him on his departure a pension of 16,000 +francs. +</p> +<p> +When Spontini returned to Paris, though he was appointed member of the +Academy of Fine Arts, he was received with some coldness by the musical +world. He had no little difficulty in getting a production of his +operas; only the Conservatory remained faithful to him, and in their +hall large audiences gathered to hear compositions to which the +opera-house denied its stage. New idols attracted the public, and +Spontini, though burdened with all the orders of Europe, was obliged to +rest in the traditions of his earlier career. A passionate desire to see +his native land before death made him leave Paris in 1850, and he went +to Majolati, the town of his birth, where he died after a residence of a +few months. His cradle was his tomb. +</p> +<center> +III. +</center> +<p> +A well-known musical critic sums up his judgment of Halévy in these +words: "If in France a contemporary of Louis XIV., an admirer of Racine, +could return to us, and, full of the remembrance of his earthly career +under that renowned monarch, he should wish to find the nobly pathetic, +the elevated inspiration, the majestic arrangements of the olden times +upon a modern stage, we would not take him to the Theatre Français, but +to the Opera on the day in which one of Halévy's works was given." +</p> +<p> +Unlike Méhul and Spontini, with whom in point of style and method Halévy +must be associated, he was not in any direct sense a disciple of Gluck, +but inherited the influence of the latter through his great successor +Cherubini, of whom Halévy was the favorite pupil and the intimate +friend. Fromental Halévy, a scion of the Hebrew race, which has +furnished so many geniuses to the art world, left a deep impress on +his times, not simply by his genius and musical knowledge, which was +profound, varied, and accurate, but by the elevation and nobility which +lifted his mark up to a higher level than that which we accord to +mere musical gifts, be they ever so rich and fertile. The motive that +inspired his life is suggested in his devout saying that music is an +art that God has given us, in which the voices of all nations may unite +their prayers in one harmonious rhythm. +</p> +<p> +Halévy was a native of Paris, born May 27, 1799. He entered the +Conservatory at the age of eleven years, where he soon attracted the +particular attention of Cherubini. When he was twenty the Institute +awarded him the grand prize for the composition of a cantata; and he +also received a government pension which enabled him to dwell at Rome +for two years, assiduously cultivating his talents in composition. +Halévy returned to Paris, but it was not till 1827 that he succeeded +in having an opera produced. This portion of his life was full of +disappointment and chilled ambitions; for, in spite of the warm +friendship of Cherubini, who did everything to advance his interests, he +seemed to make but slow progress in popular estimation, though a number +of operas were produced. +</p> +<p> +Halévy's full recognition, however, was found in the great work of "La +Juive," produced February 23, 1835, with lavish magnificence. It is said +that the managers of the Opera expended 150,000 francs in putting it +on the stage. This opera, which surpasses all his others in passion, +strength, and dignity of treatment, was interpreted by the greatest +singers in Europe, and the public reception at once assured the composer +that his place in music was fixed. Many envious critics, however, +declaimed against him, asserting that success was not the legitimate +desert of the opera, but of its magnificent presentation. Halévy +answered his detractors by giving the world a delightful comic opera, +"L'Éclair," which at once testified to the genuineness of his musical +inspiration and the versatility of his powers, and was received by the +public with even more pleasure than "La Juive." +</p> +<p> +Halévy's next brilliant stroke (three unsuccessful works in the mean +while having been written) was "La Reine de Chypre," produced in 1841. +A somewhat singular fact occurred during the performance of this opera. +One of the singers, every time he came to the passage, +</p> +<pre> + Ce mortel qu'on remarque + Tient-il Plus que nous de la Parque + Le fil? +</pre> +<p> +was in the habit of fixing his eyes on a certain proscenium box wherein +were wont to sit certain notabilities in politics and finance. As +several of these died during the first run of the work, superstitious +people thought the box was bewitched, and no one cared to occupy it. Two +fine works, "Charles VI." and "Le Val d'Andorre," succeeded at intervals +of a few years; and in 1849 the noble music to Æschylus's "Prometheus +Bound" was written with an idea of reproducing the supposed effects of +the enharmonic style of the Greeks. +</p> +<p> +Halévy's opera of "The Tempest," written for London, and produced in +1850, rivaled the success of "La Juive." Balfe led the orchestra, and +its popularity caused the basso Lablache to write the following epigram: +</p> +<pre> + The "Tempest" of Halévy + Differs from other tempests. + These rain hail, + That rains gold. +</pre> +<p> +The Academy of Fine Arts elected the composer secretary in 1854, and +in the exercise of his duties, which involved considerable literary +composition, Halévy showed the same elegance of style and good taste +which marked his musical writings. He did not, however, neglect his own +proper work, and a succession of operas, which were cordially received, +proved how unimpaired and vigorous his intellectual faculties remained. +</p> +<p> +The composer's death occurred at Nice, whither he had gone on account of +failing strength, March 17, 1862. His last moments were cheered by +the attentions of his family and the consolations of philosophy and +literature, which he dearly loved to discuss with his friends. His +ruling passion displayed itself shortly before his end in characteristic +fashion. Trying in vain to reach a book on the table, he said: "Can I do +nothing now in time?" On the morning of his death, wishing to be turned +on his bed, he said to his daughter, "Lay me down like a gamut," at +each movement repeating with a soft smile, "Do, re, mi," etc., until the +change was made. These were his last words. +</p> +<p> +The celebrated French critic Sainte-Beuve pays a charming tribute to +Halévy, whom he knew and loved well: +</p> +<p> +"Halévy had a natural talent for writing, which he cultivated and +perfected by study, by a taste for reading which he always +gratified in the intervals of labor, in his study, in public +conveyances—everywhere, in fine, when he had a minute to spare. He +could isolate himself completely in the midst of the various noises of +his family, or the conversation of the drawing-room if he had no part in +it. He wrote music, poetry, and prose, and he read with imperturbable +attention while people around him talked. +</p> +<p> +"He possessed the instinct of languages, was familiar with German, +Italian, English, and Latin, knew something of Hebrew and Greek. He was +conversant with etymology, and had a perfect passion for dictionaries. +It was often difficult for him to find a word; for on opening the +dictionary somewhere near the word for which he was looking, if his eye +chanced to fall on some other, no matter what, he stopped to read that, +then another and another, until he sometimes forgot the word he sought. +It is singular that this estimable man, so fully occupied, should at +times have nourished some secret sadness. Whatever the hidden wound +might be, none, not even his most intimate friends, knew what it was. +He never made any complaint. Halévy's nature was rich, open and +communicative. He was well organized, accessible to the sweets of +sociability and family joys. In fine, he had, as one may say, too many +strings to his bow to be very unhappy for any length of time. To define +him practically, I would say he was a bee that had not lodged himself +completely in his hive, but was seeking to make honey elsewhere too." +</p> +<center> +IV. +</center> +<p> +MÉHUL labored successfully in adapting the noble and severe style of +Gluck to the changing requirements of the French stage. The turmoil and +passions of the revolution had stirred men's souls to the very roots, +and this influence was perpetuated and crystallized in the new forms +given to French thought by Napoleon's wonderful career. Méhul's +musical conceptions, which culminated in the opera of "Joseph," were +characterized by a stir, a vigor, and largeness of dramatic movement, +which came close to the familiar life of that remarkable period. His +great rival Cherubini, on the other hand, though no less truly dramatic +in fitting musical expression to thought and passion, was so austere +and rigid in his ideals, so dominated by musical form and an accurate +science which would concede nothing to popular prejudice and ignorance, +that he won his laurels, not by force of the natural flow of popular +sympathy, but by the sheer might of his genius. Cherubini's severe works +made them models and foundation stones for his successors in French +music; but Méhul familiarized his audiences with strains dignified yet +popular, full of massive effects and brilliant combinations. The people +felt the tramp of the Napoleonic armies in the vigor and movement of his +measures. +</p> +<p> +Spontini embodied the same influences and characteristics in still +larger degree, for his musical genius was organized on a more massive +plan. Deficient in pure graceful melody alike with Méhul, he delighted +in great masses of tone and vivid orchestral coloring. His music was +full of the military fire of his age, and dealt for the most part with +the peculiar tastes and passions engendered by a condition of chronic +warfare. Therefore dramatic movement in his operas was always of the +heroic order, and never touched the more subtile and complex elements +of life. Spontini added to the majestic repose and ideality of the Gluck +music-drama (to use a name now naturalized in art by Wagner) the keenest +dramatic vigor. Though he had a strong command of effects by his power +of delineation and delicacy of detail, his prevalent tastes led him to +encumber his music too often with overpowering military effects, alike +tonal and scenic. Riehl, a great German critic, says: "He is more +successful in the delineation of masses and groups than in the portrayal +of emotional scenes; his rendering of the national struggle between the +Spaniards and Mexicans in 'Cortez' is, for example, admirable. He +is likewise most successful in the management of large masses in +the instrumentation. In this respect he was, like Napoleon, a great +tactician." In "La Vestale" Spontini attained his <i>chef-d'oeuvre</i>. +Schülter in his "History of Music" gives it the following encomium: "His +portrayal of character and truthful delineation of passionate emotion +in this opera are masterly indeed. The subject of 'La Vestale' (which +resembles that of 'Norma,' but how differently treated!) is tragic and +sublime as well as intensely emotional. Julia, the heroine, a prey to +guilty passion; the severe but kindly high priestess; Licinius, the +adventurous lover, and his faithful friend Cinna; pious vestals, +cruel priests, bold warriors, and haughty Romans, are represented with +statuesque relief and finish. Both these works, 'La Vestale' (1802) +and 'Cortez' (1809), ire among the finest that have been written for the +stage; they are remarkable for naturalness and sublimeness, qualities +lost sight of in the noisy instrumentation of his later works." +</p> +<p> +Halévy, trained under the influences of Cherubini, was largely inspired +by that great master's musical purism and reverence for the higher laws +of his art. Halévy's powerful sense of the dramatic always influenced +his methods and sympathies. Not being a composer of creative +imagination, however, the melodramatic element is more prominent than +the purely tragic or comic. His music shows remarkable resources in the +production of brilliant and captivating though always tasteful effects, +which rather please the senses and the fancy than stir the heart and +imagination. Here and there scattered through his works, notably so +in "La Juive," are touches of emotion and grandeur; but Halévy must +be characterized as a composer who is rather distinguished for the +brilliancy, vigor, and completeness of his art than for the higher +creative power, which belongs in such preeminent degree to men like +Rossini and Weber, or even to Auber, Meyerbeer, and Gounod. It is +nevertheless true that Halévy composed works which will retain a high +rank in French art. "La Juive," "Guido," "La Reine de Chypre," and +"Charles VI." are noble lyric dramas, full of beauties, though it is +said they can never be seen to the best advantage off the French stage. +Halévy's genius and taste in music bear much the same relation to the +French stage as do those of Verdi to the Italian stage; though the +former composer is conceded by critics to be a greater purist in musical +form, if he rarely equals the Italian composer in the splendid bursts +of musical passion with which the latter redeems so much that is +meretricious and false, and the charming melody which Verdi shares with +his countrymen. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + BOÏELDIEU AND AUBER. +</h2> +<center> +I. +</center> +<p> +The French school of light opera, founded by Givtry, reached its +greatest perfection in the authors of "La Dame Blanche" and "Fra +Diavolo," though to the former of these composers must be accorded the +peculiar distinction of having given the most perfect example of this +style of composition. François Adrien Boïeldieu, the scion of a Norman +family, was born at Rouen, December 16, 1775. He received his early +musical training at the hands of Broche, a great musician and the +cathedral organist, but a drunkard and brutal taskmaster. At the age of +sixteen he had become a good pianist and knew something of composition. +At all events his passionate love of the theatre prompted him to try his +hand at an opera, which was actually performed at Rouen. The revolution +which made such havoc with the clergy and their dependents ruined +the Boïeldieu family (the elder Boïeldieu had been secretary of the +archiépiscopal diocese), and young François, at the age of nineteen, was +set adrift on the world, his heart full of hope and his ambition bent +on Paris, whither he set his feet. Paris, however, proved a stern +stepmother at the outset, as she always has been to the struggling and +unsuccessful. He was obliged to tune pianos for his living, and was glad +to sell his brilliant <i>chansons</i>, which afterward made a fortune for his +publisher, for a few francs apiece. +</p> +<p> +Several years of hard work and bitter privation finally culminated in +the acceptance of an opera, "La Famille Suisse," at the Théâtre Faydeau +in 1796, where it was given on alternate nights with Cherubini's +"Médée." Other operas followed in rapid succession, among which may be +mentioned "La Dot de Suzette" (1798) and "Le Calife de Bagdad" (1800). +The latter of these was remarkably popular, and drew from the severe +Cherubim the following rebuke: "Malheureux! Are you not ashamed of such +undeserved triumph?" Boïeldieu took the brusque criticism meekly and +preferred a request for further instruction from Cherubini—a proof +of modesty and good sense quite remarkable in one who had attained +recognition as a favorite with the musical public. Boïeldieu's three +years' studies under the great Italian master were of much service, for +his next work, "Ma Tante Aurore," produced in 1803, showed noticeable +artistic progress. +</p> +<p> +It was during this year that Boïeldieu, goaded by domestic misery +(for he had married the danseuse Clotilde Mafleuray, whose notorious +infidelity made his name a byword), exiled himself to Russia, even then +looked on as an El Dorado for the musician, where he spent eight years +as conductor and composer of the Imperial Opera. This was all but a +total eclipse in his art-life, for he did little of note during the +period of his St. Petersburg career. +</p> +<p> +He returned to Paris in 1811, where he found great changes. Méhul and +Cherubini, disgusted with the public, kept an obstinate silence; and +Nicolo was not a dangerous rival. He set to work with fresh zeal, and +one of his most charming works, "Jean de Paris," produced in 1812, was +received with a storm of delight. This and "La Dame Blanche" are the two +masterpieces of the composer in refined humor, masterly delineation, +and sustained power both of melody and construction. The fourteen years +which elapsed before Boïeldieu's genius took a still higher flight +were occupied in writing works of little value except as names in a +catalogue. The long-expected opera "La Dame Blanche" saw the light in +1825, and it is to-day a stock opera in Europe, one Parisian theatre +alone having given it nearly 2,000 times. Boïeldieu's latter years were +uneventful and unfruitful. He died in 1834 of pulmonary disease, the +germs of which were planted by St. Petersburg winters. "Jean de Paris" +and "La Dame Blanche" are the two works, out of nearly thirty operas, +which the world cherishes as masterpieces. +</p> +<center> +II. +</center> +<p> +Daniel François Esprit Auber was born at Caen, Normandy, January 29, +1784. He was destined by his parents for a mercantile career, and was +articled to a French firm in London to perfect himself in commercial +training. As a child he showed his passion and genius for music, a fact +so noticeable in the lives of most of the great musicians. He composed +ballads and romances at the age of eleven, and during his London life +was much sought after as a musical prodigy alike in composition and +execution. In consequence of the breach of the treaty of Amiens in +1804, he was obliged to return to Paris, and we hear no more of the +counting-room as a part of his life. His resetting of an old libretto +in 1811 attracted the attention of Cherubini, who impressed himself +so powerfully on French music and musicians, and the master offered to +superintend his further studies, a chance eagerly seized by Auber. To +the instruction of Cherubini Auber owed his mastery over the technical +difficulties of his art. Among the pieces written at this time was +a mass for the Prince of Chimay, of which the prayer was afterward +transferred to "Masaniello." The comic opera "Le Séjour Militaire," +produced in 1813, when Auber was thirty, was really his début as a +composer. It was coldly received, and it was not till the loss of +private fortune set a sharp spur to his creative activity that he set +himself to serious work. "La Bergère Châtelaine," produced in 1820, +was his first genuine success, and equal fortune attended "Emma" in the +following season. +</p> +<p> +The duration and climax of Auber's musical career were founded on his +friendship and, artistic alliance with Scribe, one of the most fertile +librettists and playwrights of modern times. To this union, which lasted +till Scribe's death, a great number of operas, comic and serious, owe +their existence: not all of equal value, but all evincing the apparently +inexhaustible productive genius of the joint authors. The works on which +Auber's claims to musical greatness rest are as follows: "Leicester," +1822; "Le Maçon," 1825, the composer's <i>chef-d'ouvre</i> in comic opera; "La +Muette de Portici," otherwise "Masaniello," 1828; "Fra Piavolo," 1830; +"Lestocq," 1835; "Le Cheval do Ihonze," 1835; "L'Ambassadrice," 1836; +"Le Domino Noir," 1837; "Les Diamants de la Couronne," 1841; "Carlo +Braschi," 1842; "Haydée," 1847; "L'Enfant Prodigue," 1850; "Zerline," +1851, written for Madame Alboni; "Manon Lescaut," 1856; "La Fiancée du +Roi de Garbe," 1867; "Le Premier Jour de Bonheur," 1868; and "Le Rêve +d'Amour," 1869. The last two works were composed after Auber had passed +his eightieth year. +</p> +<p> +The indifference of this Anacreon of music to renown is worthy of +remark. He never attended the performance of his own pieces, and +disdained applause. The highest and most valued distinctions were +showered on him; orders, jeweled swords, diamond snuffboxes, were poured +in from all the courts of Europe. Innumerable invitations urged him to +visit other capitals, and receive honor from imperial hands. But Auber +was a true Parisian, and could not be induced to leave his beloved city. +He was a Member of the Institute, Commander of the Legion of Honor, +and Cherubini's successor as Director of the Conservatory. He enjoyed +perfect health up to the day of his death in 1871. Assiduous in his +duties at the Conservatory, and active in his social relations, which +took him into the most brilliant circles of an extended period, covering +the reigns of Napoleon I., Charles X., Louis Philippe, and Napoleon +III., he yet always found time to devote several hours a day to +composition. Auber was a small, delicate man, yet distinguished in +appearance, and noted for wit. His <i>bons mots</i> were celebrated. While +directing a musical <i>soirée</i> when over eighty, a gentleman having taken +a white hair from his shoulder, he said laughingly, "This hair must +belong to some old fellow who passed near me." +</p> +<p> +A good anecdote is told <i>à propos</i> of an interview of Auber with Charles +X. in 1830. "Masaniello," a bold and revolutionary work, had just been +produced, and stirred up a powerful popular ferment. "Ah, M. Auber," +said the King, "you have no idea of the good your work has done me." +"How, sire?" "All revolutions resemble each other. To sing one is +to provoke one. What can I do to please you?" "Ah, sire! I am not +ambitious." "I am disposed to name you director of the court concerts. +Be sure that I shall remember you. But," added he, taking the artist's +arm with a cordial and confidential air, "from this day forth you +understand me well, M. Auber, I expect you to bring out the 'Muette' but +<i>very seldom</i>." It is well known that the Brussels riots of 1830, which +resulted in driving the Dutch out of the country, occurred immediately +after a performance of this opera, which thus acted the part of +"Lillibulero" in English political annals. It is a striking coincidence +that the death of the author of this revolutionary inspiration, May 13, +1871, was partly caused by the terrors of the Paris Commune. +</p> +<center> +III. +</center> +<p> +Boïeldieu and Auber are by far the most brilliant representatives of the +French school of Opéra Comique. The work of the former which shows his +genius at its best is "La Dame Blanche." It possesses in a remarkable +degree dramatic <i>verve</i>, piquancy of rhythm, and beauty of structure. +Mr. Franz Hueffer speaks of this opera as follows: +</p> +<p> +"Peculiar to Boïeldieu is a certain homely sweetness of melody which +proves its kinship to that source of all truly national music, the +popular song. The 'Dame Blanche' might be considered as the artistic +continuation of the <i>chanson</i>, in the same sense as Weber's 'Der +Freischtitz' has been called a dramatized <i>Volkslied</i>. With regard +to Boïeldieu's work, this remark indicates at the same time a strong +development of what has been described as the 'amalgamating force of +French art and culture'; for it must be borne in mind that the subject +treated is Scotch. The plot is a compound of two of Scott's novels: the +'Monastery' and 'Guy Mannering.' Julian, <i>alias</i> George Brown, comes +to his paternal castle unknown to himself. He hears the songs of his +childhood, which awaken old memories in him; but he seems doomed to +misery and disappointment, for on the day of his return his hall and +his broad acres are to become the property of a villain, the unfaithful +steward of his own family. Here is a situation full of gloom and sad +foreboding. But Scribe and Boïeldieu knew better. Their hero is a +dashing cavalry officer, who makes love to every pretty woman he comes +across, the 'White Lady of Avenel' among the number. Yet no one who has +witnessed the impersonation of George Brown by the great Roger can +have failed to be impressed with the grace and noble gallantry of the +character." +</p> +<p> +The tune of "Robin Adair," introduced by Boïeldieu and described as "le +chant ordinaire de la tribu d'Avenel," would hardly be recognized by a +genuine Scotchman; but what it loses in homely vigor it has gained in +sweetness. The musician's taste is always gratified in Boïeldieu's two +great comic operas by the grace and finish of the instrumentation, and +the carefully composed <i>ensembles</i>, while the public is delighted with +the charming ballads and songs. The airs of "La Dame Blanche" are more +popular in classic Germany than those of any other opera. Boïeldieu may +then be characterized as the composer who carried the French operetta +to its highest development, and endowed it in the fullest sense with all +the grace, sparkle, dramatic symmetry, and gamesome touch so essentially +the heritage of the nation. +</p> +<p> +Auber's position in art may be defined as that of the last great +representative of French comic opera, the legitimate successor of +Boïeldieu, whom he surpasses in refinement and brilliancy of individual +effects, while he is inferior in simplicity, breadth, and that firm +grasp of details which enables the composer to blend all the parts into +a perfect whole. In spite of the fact that "La Muette," Auber's greatest +opera, is a romantic and serious work, full of bold strokes of +genius that astonish no less than they please, he must be held to be +essentially a master in the field of operatic comedy. In the great opera +to which allusion has been made the passions of excited public feeling +have their fullest sway, and heroic sentiments of love and devotion are +expressed in a manner alike grand and original. The traditional forms +of the opera are made to expand with the force of the feeling bursting +through them. But this was the sole flight of Auber into the higher +regions of his art, the offspring of the thoroughly revolutionized +feeling of the time (1828), which within two years shook Europe with +such force. Aside from this outcome of his Berserker mood, Auber is +a charming exponent of the grace, brightness, and piquancy of French +society and civilization. If rarely deep, he is never dull, and no +composer has given the world more elegant and graceful melodies of +the kind which charm the drawing-room and furnish a good excuse for +young-lady pianism. +</p> +<p> +The following sprightly and judicious estimate of Auber by one of the +ablest of modern critics, Henry Chorley, in the main lixes him in his +right place: +</p> +<p> +"He falls short of his mark in situations of profound pathos (save +perhaps in the sleep-song of 'Masaniello'). He is greatly behind his +Italian brethren in those mad scenes which they so largely affect. He is +always light and piquant for voices, delicious in his treatment of the +orchestra, and at this moment of writing—though I believe the patriarch +of opera-writers (born, it is said, in 1784), having begun to compose +at an age when other men have died exhausted by precocious labor—is +perhaps the lightest-hearted, lightest-handed man still pouring out +fragments of pearl and spangles of pure gold on the stage.... With all +this it is remarkable as it is unfair, that among musicians—when +talk is going around, and this person praises that portentous piece +of counterpoint, and the other analyzes some new chord the uoliness of +which has led to its being neglected by former composers—the name of +this brilliant man is hardly if ever heard at all. His is the next name +among the composers belonging to the last thirty years which should be +heard after that of Rossini, the number and extent of the works produced +by him taken into account, and with these the beauties which they +contain." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + MEYERBEER. +</h2> +<center> +I. +</center> +<p> +Few great names in art have been the occasion of such diversity of +judgment as Giacomo Meyerbeer, whose works fill so large a place in +French music. By one school of critics he is lauded beyond all measure +as one whose scientific skill and gorgeous orchestration are only +equaled by his richness of melody and genius for dramatic and scenic +effects; "by far the greatest composer of recent years;" by another +class we hear him stigmatized as "the very caricature of the universal +Mozart... the Cosmopolitan Jew, who hawks his wares among all nations +indifferently, and does his best to please customers of every kind." The +truth lies between the two, as is wont to be the case in such extremes +of opinion. Meyerbeer's remarkable talent so nearly approaches genius +as to make the distinction a difficult one. He can not be numbered among +those great creative artists who by force of individuality have molded +musical epochs and left an undying imprint on their own and succeeding +ages. On the other hand, his remarkable power of combining the resources +of the lyric stage in a grand mosaic of all that can charm the eye and +car, of wedding rich and gorgeous music with splendid spectacle, gives +him a unique place in music; for, unlike Wagner, whose ideas of stage +necessities are no less exacting, Meyerbeer aims at no reforms in lyric +music, but only to develop the old forms to their highest degree of +effect, under conditions that shall gratify the general artistic sense. +To accomplish this, he spares no means either in or out of music. Though +a German, there is but little of the Teutonic <i>genre</i> in the music of +Weber's fellow pupil. When at the outset he wrote for Italy, he showed +but little of that easy Assomption of the genius of Italian art which +many other foreign composers have attained. It was not till he formed +his celebrated art partnership with Scribe, the greatest of librettists, +and succeeded in opening the gates of the Grand Opera of Paris with all +its resources, more vast than exist anywhere else, that Meyerbeer found +his true vocation, the production of elaborate dramas in music of the +eclectic school. He inaugurated no clearly defined tendencies in his +art; he distinctively belongs to no national school of music; but his +long and important connection with the French lyric stage classifies him +unmistakably with the composers of this nation. +</p> +<p> +The subject of this sketch belonged to a family of marked ability. Jacob +Beer was a rich Jewish banker of Berlin, highly honored for his robust +intellect and scholarly culture as well as his wealth. William, one of +the sons, became a distinguished astronomer; another, Michael, achieved +distinction as a dramatic poet; while the eldest, Jacob, was the +composer, who gained his renown under the Italianized name of Giacomo +Meyerbeer, a part of the surname having been adopted from that of the +rich banker Meyer, who left the musician a great fortune. +</p> +<p> +Meyerbeer was born at Berlin, September 5, 1794, and was a musical +prodigy from his earliest years. When only four years old he would +repeat on the piano the airs he heard from the hand-organs, composing +his own accompaniment. At five he took lessons of Lanska, a pupil of +Clementi, and at six he made his appearance at a concert. Three years +afterward the critics spoke of him as one of the best pianists in +Berlin. He studied successively under the greatest masters of the time, +Clemcnti, Bernhard Anselm Weber, and Abbé Vogler. While in the latter's +school at Darmstadt, he had for fellow pupils Carl von Weber, Winter, +and Gansbachcr. Every morning the abbé called together his pupils after +mass, gave them some theoretical instruction, then assigned each one a +theme for composition. There was great emulation and friendship between +Meyerbeer and Weber, which afterward cooled, however, owing to Weber's +disgust at Meyerbeer's lavish catering to an extravagant taste. Weber's +severe and bitter criticisms were not forgiven by the Franco-German +composer. +</p> +<p> +Meyerbeer's first work was the oratorio "Gott und die Natur," which was +performed before the Grand Duke with such success as to gain for him +the appointment of court composer. Meyerbeer's concerts at Darmstadt +and Berlin were brilliant exhibitions; and Moscheles, no mean judge, has +told us that if Meyerbeer had devoted himself to the piano, no performer +in Europe could have surpassed him. By advice of Salieri, whom Meyerbeer +met in Vienna, he proceeded to Italy to study the cultivation of +the voice; for he seems in early life to have clearly recognized how +necessary it is for the operatic composer to understand this, though, +in after-years, he treated the voice as ruthlessly in many of his most +important arias and scenas as he would a brass instrument. He arrived in +Vienna just as the Rossini madness was at its height, and his own blood +was fired to compose operas <i>à la Rossini</i> for the Italian theatres. +So he proceeded with prodigious industry to turn out operas. In 1818 he +wrote "Romilda e Costanza" for Padua; in 1819, "Semiramide" for Turin; +in 1820, "Emma di Resburgo" for Venice; in 1822, "Margherita d'Anjou" +for Milan; and in 1823, "L'Esule di Granata," also for Milan. These +works of the composer's 'prentice hand met with the usual fate of the +production of the thousand and one musicians who pour forth operas in +unremitting flow for the Italian theatres; but they were excellent drill +for the future author of "Robert le Diable" and "Les Huguenots." On +returning to Germany Meyerbeer was very sarcastically criticised on the +one side as a fugitive from the ranks of German music, on the other as +an imitator of Rossini. +</p> +<p> +Meyerbeer returned to Venice, and in 1824 brought out "Il Crociato +in Egitto" in that city, an opera which made the tour of Europe, and +established a reputation for the author as the coming rival of Rossini, +no one suspecting from what Meyerbeer had then accomplished that he +was about to strike boldly out in a new direction. "II Crociato" was +produced in Paris in 1825, and the same year in London. In the latter +city, Veluti, the last of the male sopranists, was one of the principal +singers in the opera; and it was said by some of the ill-natured critics +that curiosity to see and hear this singer of a peculiar kind, of whom +it was said, "Non vir sed Veluti," had as much to do with the success +of the opera as its merits. Lord Mount Edgcumbe, however, an excellent +critic, wrote of it "as quite of the new school, but not copied from +its founder, Rossini; original, odd, flighty, and it might be termed +fantastic, but at times beautiful. Here and there most delightful +melodies and harmonies occurred, but it was unequal, solos being as rare +as in all the modern operas." This was the last of Meyerbeer's operas +written in the Italian style. In 1827 the composer married, and for +several years lived a quiet, secluded life. The loss of his first two +children so saddened him as to concentrate his attention for a while +on church music. During this period he composed only a "Stabat," a +"Miserere," a "Te Deum," and eight of Klopstock's songs. But he was +preparing for that new departure on which his reputation as a great +composer now rests, and which called forth such bitter condemnation +on the one hand, such thunders of eulogy on the other. His old fellow +pupil, Weber, wrote of him in after-years: "He prostituted his profound, +admirable, and serious German talent for the applause of the crowd which +he ought to have despised." And Mendelssohn wrote to his father in words +of still more angry disgust: "When in 'Robert le Diable' nuns appear one +after the other and endeavor to seduce the hero, till at length the lady +abbess succeeds; when the hero, aided by a magic branch, gains access +to the sleeping apartment of his lady, and throws her down, forming +a tableau which is applauded here, and will perhaps be applauded in +Germany; and when, after that, she implores for mercy in an aria; when, +in another opera, a girl undresses herself, singing all the while that +she will be married to-morrow, it may be effective, but I find no +music in it. For it is vulgar, and if such is the taste of the day, and +therefore necessary, I prefer writing sacred music." +</p> +<center> +II. +</center> +<p> +"Robert le Diable" was produced at the Académie Royale in 1831, and +inaugurated the brilliant reign of Dr. Véron as manager. The bold +innovations, the powerful situations, the daring methods of the +composer, astonished and delighted Paris, and the work was performed +more than a hundred consecutive times. The history of "Robert le Diable" +is in some respects curious. It was originally written for the Vontadour +Theatre, devoted to comic opera; but the company were found unable +to sing the difficult music. Meyerbeer was inspired by Weber's "Der +Freischtitz" to attempt a romantic, semi-fantastic legendary opera, and +trod very closely in the footsteps of his model. It was determined to so +alter the libretto and extend and elaborate the music as to fit it for +the stage of the Grand Opera. MM. Scribe and Delavigne, the librettists, +and Meyerbeer, devoted busy days and nights to hurrying on the work. The +whole opera was remodeled, recitative substituted for dialogue, and one +of the most important characters,—Rainibaud, cut out in the fourth and +fifth acts—a suppression which is claimed to have befogged a very clear +and intelligible plot. Highly suggestive in its present state of Weber's +opera, the opera of "Robert le Diable" is said to have been marvelously +similar to "Der Freischtitz" in the original form, though inferior in +dignity of motive. +</p> +<p> +Paris was all agog with interest at the first production. The critics +had attended the rehearsals, and it was understood that the libretto, +the music, and the ballet were full of striking interest. Nourrit +played the part of <i>Robert</i>; Levasseur, <i>Bertram</i>; Mme. Cinti Damoreau, +<i>Isabelle</i>; and Mile. Dorus, <i>Alice</i>. The greatest dancers of the +age were in the ballet and the brilliant Taglioni led the band of +resuscitated nuns. Ilabeneck was conductor, and everything had been done +in the way of scenery and costumes. The success was a remarkable one, +and Meyerbeer's name became famous throughout Europe. +</p> +<p> +Dr. Véron, in his "Mémoires d'un Bourgeois de Paris," describes a +thrilling yet ludicrous accident that occurred on the first night's +performance. After the admirable trio, which is the <i>d'enoûment</i> of +the work, Levasseur, who personated Bertram, sprang through the trap +to rejoin the kingdom of the dead, whence he came so mysteriously. +<i>Robert</i>, on the other hand, had to remain on the earth, a converted +man, and destined to happiness in marriage with his princess, +<i>Isabelle</i>. Nourrit, the <i>Robert</i> of the performance, misled by the +situation and the fervor of his own feelings, threw himself into the +trap, which was not properly set. Fortunately the mattresses beneath had +not all been removed, or the tenor would have been killed, a doom which +those on the stage who saw the accident expected. The audience supposed +it was part of the opera, and the people on the stage were full of +terror and lamentation, when Nourrit appeared to calm their fears. +Mile. Dorus burst into tears of joy, and the audience, recognizing the +situation, broke into shouts of applause. +</p> +<p> +The opera was brought out in London the same year, with nearly the same +cast, but did not excite so much enthusiasm as in Paris. Lord Mount +Edgcumbe, who represented the connoisseurs of the old school, expressed +the then current opinion of London audiences: "Never did I see a more +disagreeable or disgusting performance. The sight of the resurrection +of a whole convent of nuns, who rise from their graves and begin dancing +like so many bacchantes, is revolting; and a sacred service in a church, +accompanied by an organ on the stage, not very decorous. Neither does +the music of Meyerbeer compensate for a fable which is a tissue of +nonsense and improbability."* +</p> +<pre> + * Yet Lord Mount Edgcumbe is inconsistent enough to be an + ardent admirer of Mozart's "Zauberflote." +</pre> +<p> +M. Véron was so delighted with the great success of "Robert" that he +made a contract with Meyerbeer for another grand opera, "Les Huguenots," +to be completed by a certain date. Meanwhile, the failing health of Mme. +Meyerbeer obliged the composer to go to Italy, and work on the opera was +deferred, thus causing him to lose thirty thousand francs as the penalty +of his broken contract. At length, after twenty-eight rehearsals, and +an expense of more than one hundred and sixty thousand francs in +preparation, "Les Huguenots" was given to the public, February 26, 1836. +Though this great work excited transports of enthusiasm in Paris, it was +interdicted in many of the cities of Southern Europe on account of the +subject being a disagreeable one to ardent and bigoted Catholics. In +London it has always been the most popular of Meyerbeer's three great +operas, owing perhaps partly to the singing of Mario and Grisi, and more +lately of Titiens and Giuglini. +</p> +<p> +When Spontini resigned his place as chapel-master at the Court of +Berlin, in 1832, Meyerbeer succeeded him. He wrote much music of an +accidental character in his new position, but a slumber seems to have +fallen on his greater creative faculties. The German atmosphere was not +favorable to the fruitfulness of Meyerbeer's genius. He seems to have +needed the volatile and sparkling life of Paris to excite him into full +activity. Or perhaps he was not willing to produce one of his operas, +with their large dependence on élaborât e splendor of production, +away from the Paris Grand Opera. During Meyerbeer's stay in Berlin he +introduced Jenny Lind to the Berlin public, as he afterward did indeed +to Paris, her <i>début</i> there being made in the opening performance of +"Das Feldlager in Schlesien," afterward remodeled into "L'Étoile du +Nord." +</p> +<p> +Meyerbeer returned to Paris in 1849, to present the third of his great +operas, "Le Prophète." It was given with Roger, Viardot-Garcia, and +Castellan in the principal characters. Mme. Viardot-Garcia achieved one +of her greatest dramatic triumphs in the difficult part of <i>Fides</i>. +In London the opera also met with splendid success, having, as Chorley +tells us, a great advantage over the Paris presentation in "the +remarkable personal beauty of Signor Mario, whose appearance in his +coronation robes reminded one of some bishop-saint in a picture by Van +Eyck or Durer, and who could bring to bear a play of feature without +grimace into the scene of false fascination, entirely beyond the reach +of the clever French artist Roger, who originated the character." +</p> +<p> +"L'Étoile du Nord" was given to the public February 16, 1854. Up to this +time the opera of "Robert" had been sung three hundred and thirty-three +times, "Les Huguenots" two hundred and twenty-two, and "Le Prophète" a +hundred and twelve. The "Pardon de Ploërmel," also known as "Dinorah," +was offered to the world of Paris April 4, 1859. Both these operas, +though beautiful, are inferior to his other works. +</p> +<center> +III. +</center> +<p> +Meyerbeer, a man of handsome private fortune, like Mendelssohn, made +large sums by his operas, and was probably the wealthiest of the great +composers. He lived a life of luxurious ease, and yet labored with +intense zeal a certain number of hours each day. A friend one day begged +him to take more rest, and he answered smilingly, "If I should +leave work, I should rob myself of my greatest pleasure; for I am +so accustomed to work that it has become a necessity." Probably few +composers have been more splendidly rewarded by contemporary fame and +wealth, or been more idolized by their admirers. No less may it be said +that few have been the object of more severe criticism. His youth was +spent amid the severest classic influences of German music, and the +spirit of romanticism and nationality, which blossomed into such +beautiful and characteristic works as those composed by his friend +and fellow pupil Weber, also found in his heart an eloquent echo. But +Meyerbeer resolutely disenthralled himself from what he appeared to have +regarded as trammels, and followed out an ambition to be a cosmopolitan +composer. In pursuit of this purpose he divested himself of that fine +flavor of individuality and devotion to art for its own sake which marks +the highest labors of genius. He can not be exempted from the criticism +that he regarded success and the immediate plaudits of the public as +the only satisfactory rewards of his art. He had but little of the lofty +content which shines out through the vexed and clouded lives of +such souls as Beethoven and Gluck in music, of Bacon and Milton in +literature, who looked forward to immortality of fame as the best +vindication of their work. A marked characteristic of the man was +a secret dissatisfaction with all that he accomplished, making him +restless and unhappy, and extremely sensitive to criticism. With this +was united a tendency at times to oscillate to the other extreme of +vaingloriousness. An example of this was a reply to Rossini one night at +the opera when they were listening to "Robert le Diable." The "Swan +of Pesaro" was a warm admirer of Meyerbeer, though the latter was a +formidable rival, and his works had largely replaced those of the other +in popular repute. Sitting together in the same box, Rossini, in his +delight at one portion of the opera, cried out in his impulsive Italian +way, "If you can write anything to surpass this, I will undertake to +dance upon my head." "Well, then," said Meyerbeer, "you had better soon +commence practicing, for I have just commenced the fourth act of 'Les +Huguenots.'" Well might he make this boast, for into the fourth act of +his musical setting of the terrible St. Bartholomew tragedy he put the +finest inspirations of his life. +</p> +<p> +Singular to say, though he himself represented the very opposite pole +of art spirit and method, Mozart was to him the greatest of his +predecessors. Perhaps it was this very fact, however, which was at the +root of his sentiment of admiration for the composer of "Don Giovanni" +and "Le Nozze di Figaro." A story is told to the effect that Meyerbeer +was once dining with some friends, when a discussion arose respecting +Mozart's position in the musical hierarchy. Suddenly one of the guests +suggested that "certain beauties of Mozart's music had become stale with +age. I defy you," he continued, "to listen to 'Don Giovanni' after the +fourth act of the 'Huguenots.'" "So much the worse, then, for the +fourth act of the 'Huguenots,'" said Meyerbeer, furious at the clumsy +compliment paid to his own work at the expense of his idol. +</p> +<p> +Critics wedded to the strict German school of music never forgave +Meyerbeer for his dereliction from the spirit and influences of his +nation, and the prominence which he gave to melodramatic effects and +spectacular show in his operas. Not without some show of reason, they +cite this fact as proof of poverty of musical invention. Mendelssohn, +who was habitually generous in his judgment, wrote to the poet Immermann +from Paris of "Robert le Diable": "The subject is of the romantic order; +i.e., the devil appears in it (which suffices the Parisians for romance +and imagination). Nevertheless, it is very bad, and, were it not for +two brilliant seduction scenes, there would, not even be effect.... +The opera does not please me; it is devoid of sentiment and feeling.... +People admire the music, but where there is no warmth and truth, I can +not even form a standard of criticism." +</p> +<p> +Schlüter, the historian of music, speaks even more bitterly of +Meyerbeer's irreverence and theatric sensationalism: "'Les Huguenots' +and the far weaker production 'Le Prophète' are, we think, all the more +reprehensible (nowadays especially, when too much stress is laid on +the subject of a work, and consequently on the libretto of an opera), +because the Jew has in these pieces ruthlessly dragged before the +footlights two of the darkest pictures in the annals of Catholicism, nor +has he scrupled to bring high mass and chorale on the boards." +</p> +<p> +Wagner, the last of the great German composers, can not find words too +scathing and bitter to mark his condemnation of Meyerbeer. Perhaps his +extreme aversion finds its psychological reason in the circumstance that +his own early efforts were in the sphere of Meyerbeer and Halé-vy, and +from his present point of view he looks back with disgust on what he +regards as the sins of his youth. The fairest of the German estimates of +the composer, who not only cast aside the national spirit and methods, +but offended his countrymen by devoting himself to the French stage, is +that of Vischer, an eminent writer on aasthetics: "Notwithstanding +the composer's remarkable talent for musical drama, his operas +contain sometimes too much, sometimes too little—too much in the +subject-matter, external adornment, and effective 'situations'—too +little in the absence of poetry, ideality, and sentiment (which are +essential to a work of art), as well as in the unnatural and constrained +combinations of the plot." +</p> +<p> +But despite the fact that Meyerbeer's operas contain such strange scenes +as phantom nuns dancing, girls bathing, sunrise, skating, gunpowder +explosions, a king playing the flute, and the prima donna leading a +goat, dramatic music owes to him new accents of genuine pathos and an +addition to its resources of rendering passionate emotions. Through +much that is merely showy and meretricious there come frequent bursts of +genuine musical power and energy, which give him a high and unmistakable +rank, though he has had less permanent influence in molding and +directing the development of musical art than any other composer who has +had so large a place in the annals of his time. +</p> +<p> +The last twelve years of Meyerbeer's life were spent, with the exception +of brief residences in Germany and Italy, in Paris, the city of his +adoption, where all who were distinguished in art and letters paid their +court to him. When he was seized with his fatal illness he was hard at +work on "L'Africaine," for which Scribe had also furnished the libretto. +His heart was set on its completion, and his daily prayer was that his +life might be spared to finish it. But it was not to be. He died May 2, +1864. The same morning Rossini called to inquire after the health of the +sick man, equally his friend and rival. When he heard the sad news he +sank into a fit of profound despondency and grief, from which he did not +soon recover. All Paris mourned with him, and even Germany forgot its +critical dislike to join in regret at the loss of one who, with all his +defects, was so great an artist and so good a man. +</p> +<p> +Meyerbeer seems to have been greatly afraid of being buried alive. In +his pocketbook after his death was found a paper giving directions that +small bells should be attached to his hands and feet, and that his body +should be carefully watched for four days, after which it should be sent +to Berlin to be interred by the side of his mother, to whom he had been +most tenderly attached. +</p> +<p> +The composer was the intimate friend of most of the celebrities of his +time in art and literature. Victor Hugo, Lamartine, George Sand, Balzac, +Alfred de Musset, Delacroix, Jules Janin, and Théophile Gautier were his +familiar intimates; and the reunions between these and other gifted +men, who then made Paris so intellectually brilliant, are charmingly +described by Liszt and Moscheles. Meyerbeer's correspondence, which was +extensive, deserves publication, as it displays marked literary faculty, +and is full of bright sympathetic thought, vigorous criticism, and +playful fancy. The following letter to Jules Janin, written from Berlin +a few years before his death, gives some pleasant insight into his +character: +</p> +<p> +Your last letter was addressed to me at Konigsberg; but I was in Berlin +working—working away like a young man, despite my seventy years, which +somehow certain people, with a peculiar generosity, try to put upon me. +As I am not at Konigsberg, where I am to arrange for the Court concert +for the eighteenth of this month, I have now leisure to answer +your letter, and will immediately confess to you how greatly I was +disappointed that you were so little interested in Rameau; and yet +Rameau was always the bright star of your French opera, as well as your +master in the music. He remained to you after Lulli, and it was he who +prepared the way for the Chevalier Gluck: therefore his family have a +right to expect assistance from the Parisians, who on several occasions +have cared for the descendants of Racine and the grandchildren of the +great Corneille. If I had been in Paris, I certainly would have given +two hundred francs for a seat; and I take this opportunity to beg you +to hand that sum to the poor family, who can not fail to be unhappy in +their disappointment. At the same time I send you a power of attorney +for M. Guyot, by which I renounce all claims to the parts of my +operas which may be represented at the benefit for the celebrated and +unfortunate Rameau family. Why will you not come to Konigsberg at the +festival? Why, in other words, are you not in Berlin? What splendid +music we have in preparation! As to myself, it is not only a source of +pleasure to me, but I feel it a duty, in the position I hold, to compose +a grand march, to be performed at Konigsberg while the royal procession +passes from the castle into the church, where the ceremony of crowning +is to take place. I will even compose a hymn, to be executed on the day +that our king and master returns to his good Berlin. Besides, I have +promised to write an overture for the great concert of the four nations, +which the directors of the London exhibition intend to give at the +opening of the same, next spring, in the Crystal Palace. All this keeps +me back: it has robbed me of my autumn, and will also take a good part +of next spring; but with the help of God, dear friend, I hope we shall +see each other again next year, free from all cares, in the charming +little town of Spa, listening to the babbling of its waters and the +rustling of its old gray oaks. Truly your friend, Meyerbeer. +</p> +<center> +IV. +</center> +<p> +Meyerbeer's operas are so intricate in their elements, and travel so far +out of the beaten track of precedent and rule, that it is difficult to +clearly describe their characteristics in a few words. His original +flow of melody could not have been very rich, for none of his tunes have +become household words, and his excessive use of that element of opera +which has nothing to do with music, as in the case of Wagner, can have +but one explanation. It is in the treatment of the orchestra that he +has added most largely to the genuine treasures of music. His command of +color in tone-painting and power of dramatic suggestion have rarely been +equaled, and never surpassed. His genius for musical rhythm is the most +marked element in his power. This is specially noticeable in his dance +music, which is very bold, brilliant, and voluptuous. The vivacity +and grace of the ballets in his operas save more than one act which +otherwise would be insufferably heavy and tedious. It is not too much +to say that the most spontaneous side of his creative fancy is found in +these affluent, vigorous, and stirring measures. +</p> +<p> +Meyerbeer appears always to have been uncertain of himself and his work. +There was little of that masterly prevision of effect in his mind which +is one of the attributes of the higher imagination. His operas, though +most elaborately constructed, were often entirely modified and changed +in rehearsal, and some of the finest scenes both in the dramatic and +musical sense were the outcome of some happy accidental suggestion at +the very last moment. "Robert," "Les Huguenots," "Le Prophète," in the +forms we have them, are quite different from those in which they +were first cast. These operas have therefore been called "the most +magnificent patchwork in the history of art," though this is a harsh +phrasing of the fact, which somewhat outrides justice. Certain it +is, however, that Meyerbeer was largely indebted to the chapter of +accidents. +</p> +<p> +The testimony of Dr. Véron, who was manager of the Grand Opera during +the most of the composer's brilliant career, is of great interest, as +illustrating this trait of Meyerbeer's composition. He tells us in his +"Mémoires," before alluded to, that "Robert" was made and remade +before its final production. The ghastly but effective color of the +resuscitation scene in the graveyard of the ruined convent was a +change wrought by a stage manager, who was disgusted with the chorus of +simpering women in the original. This led Meyerbeer to compose the +weird ballet music which is such a characteristic feature of "Robert le +Diable." So, too, we are told on the same authority, the fourth act of +"Les Huguenots," which is the most powerful single act in Meyerbeer's +operas, owes its present shape to Nourrit, the most intellectual and +creative tenor singer of whom we have record. It was originally +designed that the St. Bartholomew massacre should be organized by <i>Queen +Marguerite</i>, but Nourrit pointed out that the interest centering in the +heroine, Valentine, as an involuntary and horrified witness, would be +impaired by the predominance of another female character. So the plot +was largely reconstructed, and fresh music written. Another still more +striking attraction was the addition of the great duet with which +the act now closes—a duet which critics have cited as an evidence +of unequaled power, coming as it does at the very heels of such an +astounding chorus as "The Blessing of the Swords." Nourrit felt that +the parting of the two lovers at such a time and place demanded such an +outburst and confession as would be wrung from them by the agony of +the situation. Meyerbeer acted on the suggestion with such felicity and +force as to make it the crowning beauty of the work. Similar changes +are understood to have been made in "Le Prophète" by advice of Nourrit, +whose poetical insight seems to have been unerring. It was left to +Duprez, Nourrit's successor, however, to be the first exponent of <i>John +of Leyden</i>. +</p> +<p> +These instances suffice to show how uncertain and unequal was the grasp +of Meyerbeer's genius, and to explain in part why he was so prone to +gorgeous effects, aside from that tendency of the Israelitish nature +which delights in show and glitter. We see something in it akin to the +trick of the rhetorician, who seeks to hide poverty of thought under +glittering phrases. Yet Meyerbeer rose to occasions with a force that +was something gigantic. Once his work was clearly defined in a mind not +powerfully creative, he expressed it in music with such vigor, energy, +and warmth of color as can not be easily surpassed. With this composer +there was but little spontaneous flow of musical thought, clothing +itself in forms of unconscious and perfect beauty, as in the case of +Mozart, Beethoven, Cherubini, Rossini, and others who could be cited. +The constitution of his mind demanded some external power to bring forth +the gush of musical energy. +</p> +<p> +The operas of Meyerbeer may be best described as highly artistic and +finished mosaic work, containing much that is precious with much that is +false. There are parts of all his operas which can not be surpassed +for beauty of music, dramatic energy, and fascination of effect. In +addition, the strength and richness of his orchestration, which contains +original strokes not found in other composers, give him a lasting claim +on the admiration of the lovers of music. No other composer has united +so many glaring defects with such splendid power; and were it not that +Meyerbeer strained his ingenuity to tax the resources of the singer +in every possible way, not even the mechanical difficulty of producing +these operas in a fashion commensurate with their plan would prevent +their taking a high place among popular operas. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + GOUNOD AND THOMAS. +</h2> +<center> +I. +</center> +<p> +Moscheles, one of the severe classical pianists of the German school, +writes as follows in 1861 in a letter to a friend: "In Gounod I hail a +real composer. I have heard his 'Faust' both at Leipsic and Dresden, and +am charmed with that refined, piquant music. Critics may rave if they +like against the mutilation of Goethe's masterpiece; the opera is sure +to attract, for it is a fresh, interesting work, with a copious flow of +melody and lovely instrumentation." +</p> +<p> +Henry Chorley in his "Thirty Years' Musical Recollections," writing of +the year 1851, says: "To a few hearers, since then grown into a European +public, neither the warmest welcome nor the most bleak indifference +could alter the conviction that among the composers who have appeared +during the last twenty-five years, M. Gounod was the most promising one, +as showing the greatest combination of sterling science, beauty of idea, +freshness of fancy, and individuality. Before a note of 'Sappho' was +written, certain sacred Roman Catholic compositions and some exquisite +settings of French verse had made it clear to some of the acutest judges +and profoundest musicians living, that in him at last something true and +new had come—may I not say, the most poetical of French musicians that +has till now written?" The same genial and acute critic, in further +discussing the envy, jealousy, and prejudice that Gounod awakened in +certain musical quarters, writes in still more decided strains: "The +fact has to be swallowed and digested that already the composer of +'Sappho,' the choruses to 'Ulysse,' 'Le Médecin malgré lui,' 'Faust,' +'Philemon et Baucis,' a superb Cecilian mass, two excellent symphonies, +and half a hundred songs and romances, which may be ranged not far from +Schubert's and above any others existing in France, is one of the very +few individuals left to whom musical Europe is now looking for its +pleasure." Surely it is enough praise for a great musician that, in the +domain of opera, church music, symphony, and song, he has risen above +all others of his time in one direction, and in all been surpassed by +none. +</p> +<p> +It was not till "Faust" was produced that Gounod's genius evinced its +highest capacity. For nineteen years the exquisite melodies of this +great work have rung in the ears of civilization without losing one whit +of the power with which they first fascinated the lovers of music. The +verdict which the aged Moscheles passed in his Leipsic home—Moscheles, +the friend of Beethoven, Weber, Schumann, and Mendelssohn; which was +reechoed by the patriarchal Rossini, who came from his Passy retirement +to offer his congratulations; which Auber took up again, as with tears +of joy in his eyes he led Gounod, the ex-pupil of the Conservatory, +through the halls wherein had been laid the foundation of his musical +skill—that verdict has been affirmed over and over again by the world. +For in "Faust" we recognize not only some of the most noble music ever +written, but a highly dramatic expression of spiritual truth. It is +hardly a question that Gounod has succeeded in an unrivaled degree in +expressing the characters and symbolisms of <i>Mephistopheles, Faust, +and Gretchen</i> in music not merely beautiful, but spiritual, humorous, +subtile, and voluptuous, accordingly as the varied meanings of Goethe's +masterpiece demand. +</p> +<p> +Visitors at Paris, while the American civil war was at its height, might +frequently have observed at the beautiful Theatre Lyrique, afterward +burned by the Vandals of the Commune, a noticeable-looking man, of +blonde complexion and tawny beard, clear-cut features, and large, +bright, almost somber-looking eyes. As the opera of "Faust" progresses, +his features eloquently express his varying emotions, now of approval, +now of annoyance at different parts of the performance. M. Gounod is +criticising the interpretation of the great opera, which suddenly lifted +him into fame as perhaps the most imaginative and creative of late +composers. +</p> +<p> +An aggressive disposition, an energy and faith that accepted no rebuffs, +and the power of "toiling terribly," had enabled Gounod to battle his +way into the front rank. Unlike Rossini and Auber, he disdained social +recreation, and was so rarely seen in the fashionable quarters of Paris +and London that only an occasional musical announcement kept him before +the eyes of the public. Gounod seems to have devoted himself to the +strict sphere of his art-life with an exclusive devotion quite foreign +to the general temperament of the musician, into which something +luxurious and pleasure-loving is so apt to enter. This composer, +standing in the very front rank of his fellows, has injected into the +veins of the French school to which he belongs a seriousness, depth, and +imaginative vigor, which prove to us how much he is indebted to German +inspiration and German models. +</p> +<p> +Charles Gounod, born in Paris June 17, 1818, betrayed so much +passion for music during tender years, that his father gave him every +opportunity to gratify and improve this marked bias. He studied under +Reicha and Le Sueur, and finally under Halévy, completing under +the latter the preparation which fitted him for entrance into the +Conservatory. The talents he displayed there were such as to fix on +him the attention of his most distinguished masters. He carried off the +second prize at nineteen, and at twenty-one received the grand prize for +musical composition awarded by the French Institute. His first published +work was a mass performed at the Church of St. Eustache, which, while +not specially successful, was sufficiently encouraging to both the young +composer and his friends. +</p> +<p> +Gounod now proceeded to Rome, where there seems to have been some +inclination on his part to study for holy orders. But music was not +destined to be cheated of so gifted a votary. In 1841 he wrote a second +mass, which was so well thought of in the papal capital as to gain for +the young composer the appointment of an honorary chapel-master for +life. This recognition of his genius settled his final conviction that +music was his true life-work, though the religious sentiment, or +rather a sympathy with mysticism, is strikingly apparent in all of his +compositions. The next goal in the composer's art pilgrimage was the +music-loving city of Vienna, the home of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and +Schubert, though its people waited till the last three great geniuses +were dead before it accorded them the loving homage which they have +since so freely rendered. The reception given by the capricious Viennese +to a requiem and a Lenten mass (for as yet Gounod only thought of sacred +music as his vocation) was not such as to encourage a residence. Paris, +the queen of the world, toward which every French exile ever looks with +longing eyes, seemed to beckon him back; so at the age of twenty-five +he turned his steps again to his beloved Lutetia. His education was +finished; he had completed his <i>Wanderjahre</i>; and he was eager to enter +on the serious work of life. +</p> +<p> +He was appointed chapelmaster at the Church of Foreign Missions, in +which office he remained for six years, in the mean while marrying +a charming woman, the daughter of Herr Zimmermann, the celebrated +theologian and orator. In 1849 he composed his third mass, which made a +powerful impression on musicians and critics, though Gounod's ambition, +which seems to have been powerfully stimulated by his marriage, began +to realize that it was in the field of lyric drama only that his powers +would find their full development. He had been an ardent student in +literature and art as well as in music; his style had been formed on the +most noble and serious German models, and his tastes, awakened into full +activity, carried him with great zeal into the loftier field of operatic +composition. +</p> +<p> +The dominating influence of Gluck, so potent in shaping the tastes and +methods of the more serious French composers, asserted itself from the +beginning in the work of Gounod, and no modern composer has been so +brilliant and effective a disciple in carrying out the formulas of +that great master. More free, flexible, and melodious than Spontini and +Halévy, measuring his work by a conception of art more lofty and ideal +than that of Meyerbeer, and in creative power and originality by far +their superior, Gounod's genius, as shown in the one opera of "Faust," +suffices to stamp his great mastership. +</p> +<p> +But he had many years of struggle yet before this end was to be +achieved. His early lyric compositions fell dead. Score after score was +rejected by the managers. No one cared to hazard the risk of producing +an opera by this unknown composer. His first essay was a pastoral opera, +"Philemon and Baucis," and it did not escape from the manuscript for +many a long year, though it has in more recent times been received by +critical German audiences with great applause. A catalogue of Gounod's +failures would have no significance except as showing that his industry +and energy were not relaxed by public neglect. His first decided +encouragement came in 1851, when "Sappho" was produced at the French +Opera through the influence of Madame Pauline Viardot, the sister of +Malibran, who had a generous belief in the composer's future, and such +a position in the musical world of Paris as to make her requests almost +mandatory. This opera, based on the fine poem of Emile Augier, was well +received, and cheered Gounod's heart to make fresh efforts. In 1852 +he composed the choruses for Poussard's classical tragedy of "Ulysse," +performed at the Theatre Français. The growing recognition of the world +was evidenced in his appointment as director of the Normal Singing +School of Paris, the primary school of the Conservatory. In 1854 a +five-act opera, with a libretto from the legend of the "Bleeding Nun," +was completed and produced, and Gounod was further gratified to see that +musical authorities were willing to grant him a distinct place in the +ranks of art, though as yet not a very high one. +</p> +<p> +For years Gounod's serious and elevated mind had been pondering on +Goethe's great poem as the subject of an opera, and there is reason to +conjecture that parts of it were composed and arranged, if not fully +elaborated, long prior to its final crystallization. But he was not yet +quite ready to enter seriously on the composition of the masterpiece. +He must still try his hand on lesser themes. Occasional pieces for the +orchestra or choruses strengthened his hold on these important elements +of lyric composition, and in 1858 he produce "Le Médecin malgré lui," +based on Molière's comedy, afterward performed as an English opera under +the title of "The Mock Doctor." Gounod's genius seems to have had no +affinity for the graceful and sparkling measures of comic music, and +his attempt to rival Rossini and Auber in the field where they were +preeminent was decidedly unsuccessful, though the opera contained much +fine music. +</p> +<center> +II. +</center> +<p> +The year of his triumph had at last arrived. He had waited and toiled +for years over "Faust," and it was now ready to flash on the world with +an electric brightness that was to make his name instantly famous. +One day saw him an obscure, third-rate composer, the next one of the +brilliant names in art. "Faust," first performed March 19, 1859, fairly +took the world by storm. Gounod's warmest friends were amazed by +the beauty of the masterpiece, in which exquisite melody, great +orchestration, and a dramatic passion never surpassed in operatic art, +were combined with a scientific skill and precision which would vie +with that of the great masters of harmony. Carvalho, the manager of the +Theatre Lyrique, had predicted that the work would have a magnificent +reception by the art world, and lavished on it every stage resource. +Madame Miolan-Carvalho, his brilliant wife, one of the leading sopranos +of the day, sang the rôle of the heroine, though five years afterward +she was succeeded by Nilsson, who invested the part with a poetry and +tenderness which have never been quite equaled. +</p> +<p> +"Faust" was received at Berlin, Vienna, Milan, St. Petersburg, and +London, with an enthusiasm not less than that which greeted its Parisian +début. The clamor of dispute between the different schools was for the +moment hushed in the delight with which the musical critics and public +of universal Europe listened to the magical measures of an opera which +to classical chasteness and severity of form and elevation of motive +united such dramatic passion, richness of melody, and warmth of +orchestral color. From that day to the present "Faust" has retained its +place as not only the greatest but the most popular of modern operas. +The proof of the composer's skill and sense of symmetry in the +composition of "Faust" is shown in the fact that each part is so nearly +necessary to the work, that but few "cuts" can be made in presentation +without essentially marring the beauty of the work; and it is therefore +given with close faithfulness to the author's score. +</p> +<p> +After the immense success of "Faust," the doors of the Academy were +opened wide to Gounod. On February 28, 1862, the "Reine de Saba" was +produced, but was only a <i>succès d'estime</i>, the libretto by Gérard de +Nerval not being fitted for a lyric tragedy.* +</p> +<pre> + * It has been a matter of frequent comment by the ablest + musical critics that many noble operas, now never heard, + would have retained their place in the repertoires of modern + dramatic music, had it not been for the utter rubbish to + which the music has been set. +</pre> +<p> +Many numbers of this fine work, however, are still favorites on concert +programmes, and it has been given in English under the name of "Irene." +Gounod's love of romantic themes, and the interest in France which +Lamartine's glowing eulogies had excited about "Mireio," the beautiful +national poem of the Provençal, M. Frederic Mistral, led the former to +compose an opera on a libretto from this work, which was given at the +Théâtre Lyrique, March 19, 1864, under the name of "Mireille." The +music, however, was rather descriptive and lyric than dramatic, as +befitted this lovely ideal of early French provincial life; and in spite +of its containing some of the most captivating airs ever written, +and the fine interpretation of the heroine by Miolan-Carvalho, it was +accepted with reservations. It has since become more popular in +its three-act form to which it was abridged. It is a tribute to the +essential beauty of Gounod's music that, however unsuccessful as operas +certain of his works have been, they have all contributed charming +<i>morceaux</i> for the enjoyment of concert audiences. Not only did the airs +of "Mireille" become public favorites, but its overture is frequently +given as a distinct orchestral work. +</p> +<p> +The opera of "La Colombe," known in English as "The Pet Dove," followed +in 1866; and the next year was produced the five-act opera of "Roméo +et Juliette," of which the principal part was again taken by Madame +Miolan-Carvalho. The favorite pieces in this work, which is a highly +poetic rendering of Shakespeare's romantic tragedy, are the song of +<i>Queen Mab</i>, the garden duet, a short chorus in the second act, and +the duel scene in the third act. For some occult reason, "Roméo et +Juliette," though recognized as a work of exceptional beauty and merit, +and still occasionally performed, has no permanent hold on the operatic +public of to-day. +</p> +<p> +The evils that fell on France from the German war and the horrors of the +Commune drove Gounod to reside in London, unlike Auber, who resolutely +refused to forsake the city of his love, in spite of the suffering and +privation which he foresaw, and which were the indirect cause of the +veteran composer's death. Gounod remained several years in England, and +lived a retired life, seemingly as if he shrank from public notice +and disdained public applause. His principal appearances were at the +Philharmonic, the Crystal Palace, and at Mrs. Weldon's concerts, where +he directed the performances of his own compositions. The circumstances +of his London residence seem to have cast a cloud over Gounod's life +and to have strangely unsettled his mind. Patriotic grief probably had +something to do with this at the outset. But even more than this as +a source of permanent irritation may be reckoned the spell cast over +Gounod's mind by a beautiful adventuress, who was ambitious to attain +social and musical recognition through the <i>éclat</i> of the great +composer's friendship. Though newspaper report may be credited with +swelling and distorting the naked facts, enough appears to be known to +make it sure that the evil genius of Gounod's London life was a woman, +who traded recklessly with her own reputation and the French composer's +fame. +</p> +<p> +However untoward the surroundings of Gounod, his genius did not lie +altogether dormant during this period of friction and fretfulness, +conditions so repressive to the best imaginative work. He composed +several masses and other church music; a "Stabat Mater" with orchestra; +the oratorio of "Tobie"; "Gallia," a lamentation for France; incidental +music for Legouvé's tragedy of "Les Deux Reines," and for Jules +Barbier's "Jeanne d'Arc"; a large number of songs and romances, both +sacred and secular, such as "Nazareth," and "There is a Green Hill"; +and orchestral works, a "Salterello in A," and the "Funeral March of a +Marionette." +</p> +<p> +At last he broke loose from the bonds of Delilah, and, remembering that +he had been elected to fill the place of Clapisson in the Institute, +he returned to Paris in 1876 to resume the position which his genius +so richly deserved. On the 5th of March of the following year his +"Cinq-Mars" was brought out at the Theatre de l'Opéra Comique; but +it showed the traces of the haste and carelessness with which it was +written, and therefore commanded little more than a respectful hearing. +His last opera, "Polyeucte," produced at the Grand Opera, October 7, +1878, though credited with much beautiful music, and nobly orchestrated, +is not regarded by the French critics as likely to add anything to the +reputation of the composer of "Faust." Gounod, now at the age of sixty, +if we judge him by the prolonged fertility of so many of the great +composers, may be regarded as not having largely passed the prime of +his powers. The world still has a right to expect much from his genius. +Conceded even by his opponents to be a great musician and a thorough +master of the orchestra, more generous critics in the main agree to rank +Gounod as the most remarkable contemporary composer, with the possible +exception of Richard Wagner. The distinctive trait of his dramatic +conceptions seems to be an imagination hovering between sensuous images +and mystic dreams. Originally inspired by the severe Greek sculpture +of Gluck's music, he has applied that master's laws in the creation of +tone-pictures full of voluptuous color, but yet solemnized at times by +an exaltation which recalls the time when as a youth he thought of the +spiritual dignity of the priesthood. The use he makes of his religious +reminiscences is familiarly illustrated in "Faust." The contrast between +two opposing principles is marked in all of Gounod's dramatic works, and +in "Faust" this struggle of "a soul which invades mysticism and which +still seeks to express voluptuousness" not only colors the music with a +novel fascination, but amounts to an interesting psychological problem. +</p> +<center> +III. +</center> +<p> +Gounod's genius fills too large a space in contemporary music to be +passed over without a brief special study. In pursuit of this no better +method suggests itself than an examination of the opera of "Faust," into +which the composer poured the finest inspirations of his life, even +as Goethe embodied the sum and flower of his long career, which had +garnered so many experiences, in his poetic masterpiece. +</p> +<p> +The story of "Faust" has tempted many composers. Prince Radziwill tried +it, and then Spohr set a version of the theme at once coarse and cruel, +full of vulgar witchwork and love-making only fit for a chambermaid. +Since then Schumann, Liszt, Wagner, and Berlioz have treated the story +orchestrally with more or less success. Gounod's treatment of the poem +is by far the most intelligible, poetic, and dramatic ever attempted, +and there is no opera since the days of Gluck with so little weak music, +except Beethoven's "Fidelio." +</p> +<p> +In the introduction the restless gloom of the old philospher and the +contrasted joys of youth engaged in rustic revelry outside are expressed +with graphic force; and the Kirmes music in the next act is so quaint +and original, as well as melodious, as to give the sense of delightful +comedy. When <i>Marguerite</i> enters on the scene, we have a waltz and +chorus of such beauty and piquancy as would have done honor to Mozart. +Indeed, in the dramatic use of dance music Gounod hardly yields in +skill and originality to Meyerbeer himself, though the latter composer +specially distinguished himself in this direction. The third and fourth +acts develop all the tenderness and passion of <i>Marguerite's</i> character, +all the tragedy of her doom. +</p> +<p> +After <i>Faust's</i> beautiful monologue in the garden come the song of the +"King of Thule" and <i>Marguerites</i> delight at finding the jewels, which +conjoined express the artless vanity of the child in a manner alike full +of grace and pathos. The quartet that follows is one of great beauty, +the music of each character being thoroughly in keeping, while the +admirable science of the composer blends all into thorough artistic +unity. It is hardly too much to assert that the love scene which closes +this act has nothing to surpass it for fire, passion, and tenderness, +seizing the mind of the hearer with absorbing force by its suggestion +and imagery, while the almost cloying sweetness of the melody is such +as Rossini and Schubert only could equal. The full confession of the +enamored pair contained in the brief <i>adagio</i> throbs with such rapture +as to find its most suggestive parallel in the ardent words commencing +"Gallop apace, ye fiery-looted steeds," placed by Shakespeare in the +mouth of the expectant <i>Juliet</i>. +</p> +<p> +Beauties succeed each other in swift and picturesque succession, fitting +the dramatic order with a nicety which forces the highest praise of +the critic. The march and chorus marking the return of <i>Valentine's</i> +regiment beat with a fire and enthusiasm to which the tramp of +victorious squadrons might well keep step. The wicked music of +<i>Mephistopheles</i> in the sarcastic serenade, the powerful duel trio, and +<i>Valentine's</i> curse are of the highest order of expression; while the +church scene, where the fiend whispers his taunts in the ear of the +disgraced <i>Marguerite</i>, as the gloomy musical hymn and peals of the +organ menace her with an irreversible doom, is a weird and thrilling +picture of despair, agony, and devilish exultation. +</p> +<p> +Gounod has been blamed for violating the reverence due to sacred things, +employing portions of the church service in this scene, instead of +writing music for it. But this is the last resort of critical hostility, +seeking a peg on which to hang objection. Meyerbeer's splendid +introduction of Luther's great hymn, "Ein' feste Burg," in "Les +Huguenots," called forth a similar criticism from his German assailants. +Some of the most dramatic effects in music have been created by this +species of musical quotation, so rich in its appeal to memory and +association. Who that has once heard can forget the thrilling power of +"La Marseillaise" in Schumann's setting of Heinrich Heine's poem of "The +Two Grenadiers"? The two French soldiers, weary and broken-hearted after +the Russian campaign, approach the German frontier. The veterans are +moved to tears as they think of their humiliated Emperor. Up speaks one +suffering with a deadly hurt to the other: "Friend, when I am dead, +bury me in my native France, with my cross of honor on my breast, and +my musket in my hand, and lay my good sword by my side." Until this time +the melody has been a slow and dirge-like stave in the minor key. The +old soldier declares his belief that he will rise again from the clods +when he hears the victorious tramp of his Emperor's squadrons passing +over his grave, and the minor breaks into a weird setting of the +"Marseillaise" in the major key. Suddenly it closes with a few solemn +chords, and, instead of the smoke of battle and the march of the phantom +host, the imagination sees the lonely plain with its green mounds and +moldering crosses. +</p> +<p> +Readers will pardon this digression illustrating an artistic law, of +which Gounod has made such effective use in the church scene of his +"Faust" in heightening its tragic solemnity. The wild goblin symphony +in the fifth act has added some new effects to the gamut of deviltry in +music, and shows that Weber in the "Wolf's Glen" and Meyerbeer in the +"Cloisters of St. Rosalie" did not exhaust the somewhat limited field. +The whole of this part of the act, sadly mutilated and abridged often +in representation, is singularly picturesque and striking as a musical +conception, and is a fitting companion to the tragic prison scene. +The despair of the poor crazed <i>Marguerite</i>; her delirious joy in +recognizing <i>Faust</i>; the temptation to fly; the final outburst of faith +and hope, as the sense of Divine pardon sinks into her soul—all these +are touched with the fire of genius, and the passion sweeps with an +unfaltering force to its climax. These references to the details of a +work so familiar as "Faust," conveying of course no fresh information to +the reader, have been made to illustrate the peculiarities of Gounod's +musical temperament, which sways in such fascinating contrast between +the voluptuous and the spiritual. But whether his accents belong to +the one or the other, they bespeak a mood flushed with earnestness and +fervor, and a mind which recoils from the frivolous, however graceful it +may be. +</p> +<p> +In the Franco-German school, of which Gounod is so high an exponent, the +orchestra is busy throughout developing the history of the emotions, and +in "Faust" especially it is as busy a factor in expressing the passions +of the characters as the vocal parts. Not even in the "garden scene" +does the singing reduce the instruments to a secondary importance. The +difference between Gounod and Wagner, who professes to elaborate the +importance of the orchestra in dramatic music, is that the former has a +skill in writing for the voice which the other lacks. The one lifts the +voice by the orchestration, the other submerges it. Gounod's affluence +of lovely melody can only be compared with that of Mozart and Rossini, +and his skill and ingenuity in treating the orchestra have wrung +reluctant praise from his bitterest opponents. +</p> +<p> +The special power which makes Gounod unique in his art, aside from those +elements before alluded to as derived from temperament, is his unerring +sense of dramatic fitness, which weds such highly suggestive music +to each varying phase of character and action. To this perhaps one +exception may be made. While he possesses a certain airy playfulness, +he fails in rich broad humor utterly, and situations of comedy are by no +means so well handled as the more serious scenes. +</p> +<p> +A good illustration of this may be found in "Le Médecin malgré lui," +in the couplets given to the drunken <i>Sganarelle</i>. They are beautiful +music, but utterly unflavored with the <i>vis comica</i>. +</p> +<p> +Had Gounod written only "Faust," it should stamp him as one of the +most highly gifted composers of his age. Noticeably in his other works, +preeminently in this, he has shown a melodic freshness and fertility, +a mastery of musical form, a power of orchestration, and a dramatic +energy, which are combined to the same degree in no one of his rivals. +Therefore it is just to place him in the first rank of contemporary +composers. +</p> +<center> +IV. +</center> +<p> +Among contemporary French composers there is no name which suggests +itself in comparison with that of Gounod so worthily as that of Ambroise +Thomas, famous in every country where the opera is a favorite form of +public amusement, as the author of "Mignon" and "Hamlet." Lacking the +depth and passion of Gounod, he is distinguished by a peculiar sparkle, +grace, and Gallic lightness of touch; and if we do not find in him the +earnestness and spiritual significance of his rival's conceptions, +there is, on the other hand, in the works of Thomas, a glow of poetic +sentiment which invests them with a charming atmosphere, peculiarly +their own. Perhaps in his own country Thomas enjoys a repute still +higher than that of Gounod, for his genius is more peculiarly French, +while the composer of "Faust" shows the radical influence of the German +school, not only in the cast of his thoughts and temperament, but in his +technical musical methods. Still, as all artists are profoundly moved +by the tendencies of their age, it would not be difficult to find in the +later works of Thomas, on which his celebrity is based, some unconscious +modeling of form wrought by that musical school of which Richard Wagner +is the most advanced type. +</p> +<p> +Ambroise Thomas was born at Metz, France, on August 5, 1811, and is +therefore by seven years the senior of Charles Gounod. His aptitudes for +music were so strong that he learned the notes as quickly as he acquired +the letters of the alphabet. At the age of four he was instructed in his +<i>solfeggi</i> by his father, who was a professor of music, and three years +later he began to take lessons on the violin and piano. When he was +seventeen he was thoroughly proficient in all the preparatory studies +demanded for admission to the Paris Conservatoire, and he easily +obtained admission into that great institution. He first studied under +Zimmermann and Kalkbrenner, and afterward under Dourlen, Barbereau, Le +Sueur, and Reicha. For successive years he carried off first prizes: for +the piano in 1829; for harmony, in 1830; and in 1832 the highest honor +in composition was awarded him, the Prix de Rome, which allowed him to +go to Italy as a government stipendiary. +</p> +<p> +Our young laureate passed three years in Italy, spending most of his +time at Rome and Naples. The special result of his Italian studies was +a requiem mass, which was performed with great approbation from its +musical judges at Paris and Rome. After traveling in Germany, Thomas +returned to Paris in 1836, thoroughly equipped for his career as +composer, for he had been an indefatigable student, and neglected no +opportunity of perfecting his knowledge. The first step in the brilliant +career of Thomas was the production of a comic opera in one act, "La +Double Échelle," produced in 1837. This met with a good reception, +and it was promptly followed by the production of several other light +scores, that further enhanced his reputation for talent. He was not +generally recognized by musicians as a man of marked promise till he +produced "Mina," a comic opera in three acts, which was represented in +1843. The beauty of the instrumentation and the melodious richness of +the work were unmistakable, and henceforth every production of the young +composer was watched with great interest. +</p> +<p> +Ambroise Thomas could not be said to have reached a great popular +success until he produced "Le Caïd," a work of the <i>opéra-boitffe</i> +type, which instantly became an immense public favorite. This was first +represented in 1849, and it has always held its place on the French +stage as one of the most delightful works of its class, in spite of +the competition of such later outgrowths of the opera-bouffe, school +as Offenbach, Lecocq, and others. The score of this work proved to be +immensely amusing and brightly melodious, and it was such a pecuniary +success that the more judicious friends of Thomas feared that he might +be seduced into cultivating a field far below the powers of his poetic +imagination and thorough musical science. Strong heads might easily be +turned by such lavish applause, and it would not have been wonderful had +Thomas, dazzled by the reception of "Le Caïd," remained for a long +time a wanderer from the path which lay open to his great talents. The +composer's ambition, however, proved to be too high to content itself +with ephemeral success, or cultivating the more frivolous forms of his +art, however profitable aid pleasant these might be. +</p> +<p> +In 1850 Ambroise Thomas produced two operas: "Le Songe d'une Nuit +d'Été," resembling in style somewhat that masterpiece produced in +after-years, "Mignon," and a somber work based on the legend of "The Man +with the Iron Mask," "Le Secret de la Reine." The melodramatic character +of this latter work seems to have been imitated from the highly accented +and artificial style of Verdi, instead of possessing the bright and airy +charm natural to Thomas. The vacancy left by Spontini's death in the +French Institute was filled by the election of M. Thomas, who was deemed +most worthy, among all the musical names offered, of taking the place of +the author of "La Vestale." He justified the taste of his co-members by +his production in 1853 of the comic opera of "La Tonelli," a work +which, though not greatly successful with "hoi polloi," was an admirable +specimen of light and graceful opera at its best. The new academician +was recompensed for the public indifference by the cordial appreciation +which connoisseurs gave this tasteful and scientific production. +Another comic opera, "Psyche," which soon appeared, though full of witty +burlesque and humor in the libretto, and marked by delicious melody in +every part, failed to please, perhaps on account of the predominance +of feminine rôles, and the absence of a good tenor part. Still a third +comic opera, the "Carnaval de Venise" saw the light the same season, +which was written in large measure to show the marvelous flexibility of +Mme. Cabal's voice. Very few singers have been able to sing the rôle of +<i>Sylvia</i>, who warbles a violin concerto from beginning to end, under the +title of an "Ariette without Words." +</p> +<p> +Ambroise Thomas remained silent now for half a dozen years, aside from +the composition of a few charming songs. It is natural to suppose that +he was brooding over the conception of his greatest work, which was next +to see the light of day, and add one more to the great operas of the +world. Such compositions are not hastily manufactured, but grow +for years out of the travail of heart and brain, deep thought, high +imaginings, passionate sensibilities, elaborately wrought by time and +patience, till at last they are crystallized into form. +</p> +<p> +"Mignon," a comic opera in three acts, was first represented at the +Théâtre Lyrique, on November 17, 1866, before one of the most brilliant +and enthusiastic audiences ever gathered in Paris. Its success was +magnificent. This was seven years after Gounod had made such a great +stride among the composers of the age, by the production of "Faust"; +and it is within bounds to say that, since "Faust," no opera had been +produced in Paris so vital with the breath of genius and great purpose, +so full of sentiment and poetry, so symmetrical and balanced in its +differentiation of music measured by its dramatic value, so instantly +and splendidly recognized by the public, cultured and ignorant, gentle +and simple. +</p> +<p> +Like "Faust," too, the opera of Thomas was based on a creation of +Goethe. Without the pathetic episode of "Mignon," the novel of "Wilhelm +Meister" would lose much of its dramatic strength and quality. Of +course, every libretto must part with some of the charm of the story +on which it is built; but in this instance the author succeeds in +preserving nearly all the intrinsic worth of the Mignon episode. The +music is admirably suited to a noble theme. There is hardly a weak +bar in it from beginning to end; and some of the work here done by the +composer will compare favorably with any operatic music ever hoard. In +this opera melodic phrase goes hand in hand with character and motive, +and <i>Mignon, Philina, Wilhelm Meister, and Lothario</i>, are distinguished +in the music with the finest dramatic discrimination. +</p> +<p> +Among the operas of recent years, "Mignon" ranks among the first for +its taste, grace, and poetry. The first act is vigorous, bright, and +picturesque; the second, touched with the finest points of passion and +humor; the third is inspired with a pathos and poetic ardor which lift +the composer to do his most magnificent work. But to describe "Mignon" +to the public of today, which has heard it almost an innumerable number +of times, is, as much as in the case of Gounod's "Faust," "carrying +coals to Newcastle." +</p> +<p> +In 1868 Thomas produced "Hamlet," and it was represented at the Grand +Opera, with Mile. Christine Nilsson in the rôle of <i>Ophelia</i>, the +same singer having, if we mistake not, created the rôle of <i>Mignon</i>. +"Hamlet," though a marked artistic success, has failed to make the +same popular impression as "Mignon," possibly because the theme is less +suited to operatic treatment; for the music <i>per se</i> is of a fine type, +and full of the genuine accents of passion. +</p> +<p> +In addition to the works named above, Ambroise Thomas has written "La +Gypsy," "Le Panier Fleuri," "Carline," "Le Roman d'Elvire," several +fine masses, many beautiful songs, a requiem, and miscellaneous +church-pieces. Thomas is famous in France for the generous encouragement +and help which he extends to all young musicians, assistance which his +position in the Paris Conservatoire helps to make most valuable. He +is now seventy-one years old, and, should he add nothing more to the +musical treasures of the present generation, much of what he has already +done will give him a permanent place in the temple of lyric music. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + BERLIOZ. +</h2> +<center> +I. +</center> +<p> +In the long list of brilliant names which have illustrated the fine +arts, there is none attached to a personality more interesting and +impressive than that of Hector Berlioz. He stands solitary, a colossus +in music, with but few admirers and fewer followers. Original, puissant +in faculties, fiercely dogmatic and intolerant, bizarre, his influence +has impressed itself profoundly on the musical world both for good +and evil, but has failed to make disciples or to rear a school. +Notwithstanding the defects and extravagances of Berlioz, it is safe to +assert that no art or philosophy can boast of an example of more perfect +devotion to an ideal. The startling originality of Berlioz as a musician +rests on a mental and emotional organization different from and in some +respects superior to that of any other eminent master. He possessed an +ardent temperament; a gorgeous imagination, that knew no rest in its +working, and at times became heated to the verge of madness; a most +subtile sense of hearing; an intellect of the keenest analytic turn; a +most arrogant will, full of enterprise and daring, which clung to its +purpose with unrelenting tenacity; and passions of such heat and fervor +that they rarely failed when aroused to carry him beyond all bounds +of reason. His genius was unique, his character cast in the mold of a +Titan, his life a tragedy. Says Blaze de Bussy: "Art has its martyrs, +its forerunners crying in the wilderness, and feeding on roots. It has +also its spoiled children sated with bonbons and dainties." Berlioz +belongs to the former of these classes, and, if ever a prophet lifted up +his voice with a vehement and incessant outcry, it was he. +</p> +<p> +Hector Berlioz was born on December 11, 1803, at Côte Saint André, +a small town between Grenoble and Lyons. His father was an excellent +physician of more than ordinary attainments, and he superintended his +son's studies with great zeal in the hope that the lad would also become +an ornament of the healing profession. But young Hector, though an +excellent scholar in other branches, developed a special aptitude +for music, and at twelve he could sing at sight, and play difficult +concertos on the flute. The elder regarded music only as a graceful +ornament to life, and in no wise encouraged his son in thinking of music +as a profession. So it was not long before Hector found his attention +directed to anatomy, physiology, osteology, etc. In his father's library +he had already read of Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, etc., and had found a +manuscript score of an opera which he had committed to memory. His +soul revolted more and more from the path cut out for him. "Become a +physician!" he cried, "study anatomy; dissect; take part in horrible +operations? No! no! That would be a total subversion of the natural +course of my life." +</p> +<p> +But parental resolution carried the day, and, after he had finished the +preliminary course of study, he was ordered up to Paris to join the army +of medical students. So at the age of nineteen we find him lodged in +the Quartier Latin. His first introduction to medical studies had been +unfortunate. On entering a dissecting-room he had been so convulsed with +horror as to leap from the window, and rush to his lodgings in an agony +of dread and disgust, whence he did not emerge for twenty-four hours. +At last, however, by dint of habit he became somewhat used to the +disagreeable facts of his new life, and, to use his own words, "bade +fair to add one more to the army of bad physicians," when he went to +the opera one night and heard "Les Danaïdes," Salieri's opera, performed +with all the splendid completeness of the Académie Royale. This awakened +into fresh life an unquenchable thirst for music, and he neglected his +medical studies for the library of the Conservatoire, where he learned +by heart the scores of Gluck and Rameau. At last, on coming out one +night from a performance of "Iphigénie," he swore that henceforth music +should have her divine rights of him, in spite of all and everything. +Henceforth hospital, dissecting-room, and professor's lectures knew him +no more. +</p> +<p> +But to get admission to the Conservatoire was now the problem; Berlioz +set to work on a cantata with orchestral accompaniments, and in the mean +time sent the most imploring letters home asking his father's sanction +for this change of life. The inexorable parent replied by cutting off +his son's allowance, saying that he would not help him to become one +of the miserable herd of unsuccessful musicians. The young enthusiast's +cantata gained him admission to the classes of Le Sueur and Reicha at +the Conservatoire, but alas! dire poverty stared him in the face. The +history of his shifts and privations for some months is a sad one. He +slept in an old, unfurnished garret, and shivered under insufficient +bedclothing, ate his bread and grapes on the Pont Neuf, and sometimes +debated whether a plunge into the Seine would not be the easiest way +out of it all. No mongrel cur in the capital but had a sweeter bone to +crunch than he. But the young fellow for all this stuck to his work with +dogged tenacity, managed to get a mass performed at St. Roch church, and +soon finished the score of an opera, "Les Francs Juges." Flesh and +blood would have given way at last under this hard diet, if he had +not obtained a position in the chorus of the Théâtre des Noveauteaus. +Berlioz gives an amusing account of his going to compete with the horde +of applicants—butchers, bakers, shop-apprentices, etc.—each one with +his roll of music under his arm. +</p> +<p> +The manager scanned the raw-boned starveling with a look of wonder. +"Where's your music?" quoth the tyrant of a third-class theatre. "I +don't want any, I can sing anything you can give me at sight," was the +answer. "The devil!" rejoined the manager; "but we haven't any music +here." "Well, what do you want?" said Berlioz. "I sing every note of all +the operas of Gluck, Piccini, Salieri, Rameau, Spontini, Grétry, Mozart, +and Cimarosa, from memory." At hearing this amazing declaration, the +rest of the competitors slunk away abashed, and Berlioz, after singing +an aria from Spontini, was accorded the place, which guaranteed him +fifty francs per month—a pittance, indeed, and yet a substantial +addition to his resources. This pot-boiling connection of Berlioz was +never known to the public till after he became a distinguished man, +though he was accustomed to speak in vague terms of his early dramatic +career as if it were a matter of romantic importance. +</p> +<p> +At last, however, he was relieved of the necessity of singing on the +stage to amuse the Paris <i>bourgeoisie</i>, and in a singular fashion. He +had been put to great straits to get his first work, which had won him +his way into the Conservatoire, performed. An application to the great +Chateaubriand, who was noted for benevolence, had failed, for the author +of "La Génie de Christianisme" was then almost as poor as Berlioz. At +last a young friend, De Pons, advanced him twelve hundred francs. Part +of this Berlioz had repaid, but the creditor, put to it for money, wrote +to Berlioz père, demanding a full settlement of the debt. The father was +thus brought again into communication with his son, whom he found nearly +sick unto death with a fever. His heart relented, and the old allowance +was resumed again, enabling the young musician to give his whole time to +his beloved art, instantly he convalesced from his illness. +</p> +<p> +The eccentric ways and heretical notions of Berlioz made him no favorite +with the dons of the Conservatoire, and by the irritable and autocratic +Cherubini he was positively hated. The young man took no pains to +placate this resentment, but on the other hand elaborated methods of +making himself doubly offensive. His power of stinging repartee stood +him in good stead, and he never put a button on his foil. Had it been in +old Cherubini's power to expel this bold pupil from the Conservatoire, +no scruple would have held him back. But the genius and industry of +Berlioz were undeniable, and there was no excuse for such extreme +measures. Prejudiced as were his judges, he successively took several +important prizes. +</p> +<center> +II. +</center> +<p> +Berlioz's happiest evenings were at the Grand Opéra, for which he +prepared himself by solemn meditation. At the head of a band of students +and amateurs, he took on himself the right of the most outspoken +criticism, and led the enthusiasm or the condemnation of the audience. +At this time Beethoven was barely tolerated in Paris, and the great +symphonist was ruthlessly clipped and shorn to suit the French taste, +which pronounced him "bizarre, incoherent, diffuse, bustling with +rough modulations and wild harmonies, destitute of melody, forced in +expression, noisy, and fearfully difficult," even as England at the same +time frowned down his immortal works as "obstreperous roarings of +modern frenzy." Berlioz's clear, stern voice would often be heard, +when liberties were taken with the score, loud above the din of the +instruments. "What wretch has dared to tamper with the great Beethoven?" +"Who has taken upon him to revise Gluck?" This self-appointed arbiter +became the dread of the operatic management, for, as a pupil of the +Conservatoire, he had some rights which could not be infringed. +</p> +<p> +Berlioz composed some remarkable works while at the Conservatoire, +among which were the "Ouverture des Francs Juges," and the symphonie +"Fantastique," and in many ways indicated that the bent of his genius +had fully declared itself. His decided and indomitable nature disdained +to wear a mask, and he never sugar-coated his opinion, however +unpalatable to others. He was already in a state of fierce revolt +against the conventional forms of the music of his day, and no +trumpet-tones of protest were too loud for him. He had now begun to +write for the journals, though oftentimes his articles were refused on +account of their fierce assaults. "Your hands are too full of stones, +and there are too many glass windows about," was the excuse of one +editor, softening the return of a manuscript. But Berlioz did not fully +know himself or appreciate the tendencies fermenting within him until +in 1830 he became the victim of a grand Shakespearean passion. The great +English dramatist wrought most powerfully on Victor Hugo and Hector +Berlioz, and had much to do with their artistic development. Berlioz +gives a very interesting account of his Shakespearean enthusiasm, which +also involved one of the catastrophes of his own personal life. "An +English company gave some plays of Shakespeare, at that time wholly +unknown to the French public. I went to the first performance of +'Hamlet' at the Odéon. I saw, in the part of <i>Ophelia</i>, Harriet +Smithson, who became my wife five years afterward. The effect of her +prodigious talent, or rather of her dramatic genius, upon my heart and +imagination, is only comparable to the complete overturning which the +poet, whose worthy interpreter she was, caused in me. Shakespeare, thus +coming on me suddenly, struck me as with a thunderbolt. His lightning +opened the heaven of art to me with a sublime crash, and lighted up its +farthest depths. I recognized true dramatic grandeur, beauty, and truth. +I measured at the same time the boundless inanity of the notions of +Shakespeare in France, spread abroad by Voltaire, +</p> +<pre> + '... ce singe de génie, + Chez l'homme en mission par le diable envoyé—' +</pre> +<p> +(that ape of genius, an emissary from the devil to man),' and the +pitiful poverty of our old poetry of pedagogues and ragged-school +teachers. I saw, I understood, I felt that I was alive and must arise +and walk." Of the influence of "Romeo and Juliet" on him, he says: +"Exposing myself to the burning sun and balmy nights of Italy, seeing +this love as quick and sudden as thought, burning like lava, imperious, +irresistible, boundless, and pure and beautiful as the smile of angels, +those furious scenes of vengeance, those distracted embraces, those +struggles between love and death, was too much. After the melancholy, +the gnawing anguish, the tearful love, the cruel irony, the somber +meditations, the heart-rackings, the madness, tears, mourning, the +calamities and sharp cleverness of <i>Hamlet</i>; after the gray clouds and +icy winds of Denmark; after the third act, hardly breathing, in pain as +if a hand of iron were squeezing at my heart, I said to myself with the +fullest conviction: 'Ah! I am lost.' I must add that I did not at that +time know a word of English, that I only caught glimpses of Shakespeare +through the fog of Letourneur's translation, and that I consequently +could not perceive the poetic web that surrounds his marvelous creations +like a net of gold. I have the misfortune to be very nearly in the same +sad case to-day. It is much harder for a Frenchman to sound the +depths of Shakespeare than for an Englishman to feel the delicacy +and originality of La Fontaine or Molière. Our two poets are rich +continents; Shakespeare is a world. But the play of the actors, above +all of the actress, the succession of the scenes, the pantomime and the +accent of the voices, meant more to me, and filled me a thousand times +more with Shakespearean ideas and passion than the text of my colorless +and unfaithful translation. An English critic said last winter in the +'Illustrated London News,' that, after seeing Miss Smithson in <i>Juliet</i>, +I had cried out, 'I will marry that woman and write my grandest symphony +on this play.' I did both, but never said anything of the sort." +</p> +<p> +The beautiful Miss Smithson became the rage, the inspiration of poets +and painters, the idol of the hour, at whose feet knelt all the <i>roués</i> +and rich idlers of the town. Delacroix painted her as the <i>Ophelia</i> +of his celebrated picture, and the English company made nearly as much +sensation in Paris as the Comédie Française recently aroused in London. +Berlioz's mind, perturbed and inflamed with the mighty images of +the Shakespearean world, swept with wide, powerful passion toward +Shakespeare's interpreter. He raged and stormed with his accustomed +vehemence, made no secret of his infatuation, and walked the streets at +night, calling aloud the name of the enchantress, and cooling his heated +brows with many a sigh. He, too, would prove that he was a great artist, +and his idol should know that she had no unworthy lover. He would give +a concert, and Miss Smithson should be present by hook or by crook. +He went to Cherubini and asked permission to use the great hall of the +Conservatoire, but was churlishly refused. Berlioz however, managed to +secure the concession over the head of Cherubini, and advertised his +concert. He went to large expense in copyists, orchestra, solo-singers, +and chorus, and, when the night came, was almost fevered with +expectation. But the concert was a failure, and the adored one was not +there; she had not even heard of it! The disappointment nearly laid +the young composer on a bed of sickness; but, if he oscillated between +deliriums of hope and despair, his powerful will was also full of +elasticity, and not for long did he even rave in the utter ebb of +disappointment. Throughout the whole of his life, Berlioz displayed this +swiftness of recoil; one moment crazed with grief and depression, +the next he would bend to his labor with a cool, steady fixedness of +purpose, which would sweep all interferences aside like cobwebs. But +still, night after night, he would haunt the Odéon, and drink in the +sights and sounds of the magic world of Shakespeare, getting fresh +inspiration nightly for his genius and love. If he paid dearly for this +rich intellectual acquaintance by his passion for La Belle Smithson, he +yet gained impulses and suggestions for his imagination, ravenous of new +impressions, which wrought deeply and permanently. Had Berlioz known the +outcome, he would not have bartered for immunity by losing the jewels +and ingots of the Shakespeare treasure-house. +</p> +<p> +The year 1830 was for Berlioz one of alternate exaltation and misery; +of struggle, privation, disappointment; of all manner of torments +inseparable from such a volcanic temperament and restless brain. But he +had one consolation which gratified his vanity. He gained the Prix de +Rome by his cantata of "Sardanapalus." This honor had a practical value +also. It secured him an annuity of three thousand francs for a period of +five years, and two years' residence in Italy. Berlioz would never let +"well enough" alone, however. He insisted on adding an orchestral part +to the completed score, describing the grand conflagration of the palace +of Sardanapalus. When the work was produced, it was received with a +howl of sarcastic derision, owing to the latest whim of the composer. So +Berlioz started for Italy, smarting with rage and pain, as if the Furies +were lashing him with their scorpion whips. +</p> +<center> +III. +</center> +<p> +The pensioners of the Conservatoire lived at Rome in the Villa Medici, +and the illustrious painter, Horace Vernet, was the director, though he +exercised but little supervision over the studies of the young men under +his nominal charge. Berlioz did very much as he pleased—studied little +or much as the whim seized him, visited the churches, studios, and +picture-galleries, and spent no little of his time by starlight and +sunlight roaming about the country adjacent to the Holy City in search +of adventures. He had soon come to the conclusion that he had not much +to learn of Italian music; that he could teach rather than be taught. He +speaks of Roman art with the bitterest scorn, and Wagner himself never +made a more savage indictment of Italian music than does Berlioz in his +"Mémoires." At the theatres he found the orchestra, dramatic unity, and +common-sense all sacrificed to mere vocal display. At St. Peter's and +the Sistine Chapel religious earnestness and dignity were frittered away +in pretty part-singing, in mere frivolity and meretricious show. The +word "symphony" was not known except to indicate an indescribable +noise before the rising of the curtain. Nobody had heard of Weber and +Beethoven, and Mozart, dead more than a score of years, was mentioned by +a well-known musical connoisseur as a young man of great promise! Such +surroundings as these were a species of purgatory to Berlioz, against +whose bounds he fretted and raged without intermission. The director's +receptions were signalized by the performance of insipid cavatinas, and +from these, as from his companions' revels in which he would sometimes +indulge with the maddest debauchery as if to kill his own thoughts, he +would escape to wander in the majestic ruins of the Coliseum and see the +magic Italian moonlight shimmer through its broken arches, or stroll on +the lonely Campagna till his clothes were drenched with dew. No fear of +the deadly Roman malaria could check his restless excursions, for, like +a fiery horse, he was irritated to madness by the inaction of his life. +To him the <i>dolce far niente</i> was a meaningless phrase. His comrades +scoffed at him and called him "<i>Père la Joie</i>," in derision of the +fierce melancholy which despised them, their pursuits and pleasures. +</p> +<p> +At the end of the year he was obliged to present, something before +the Institute as a mark of his musical advancement, and he sent on a +fragment of his "Mass" heard years before at St. Roch, in which the wise +judges professed to find the "evidences of material advancement, and the +total abandonment of his former reprehensible tendencies." One can +fancy the scornful laughter of Berlioz at hearing this verdict. But his +Italian life was not altogether purposeless. He revised his "Symphonie +Fantastique," and wrote its sequel, "Lelio," a lyrical monologue, in +which he aimed to express the memories of his passion for the beautiful +Miss Smithson. These two parts comprised what Berlioz named "An Episode +in the Life of an Artist." Our composer managed to get the last six +months of his Italian exile remitted, and his return to Paris was +hastened by one of those furious paroxysms of rage to which such +ill-regulated minds are subject. He had adored Miss Smithson as a +celestial divinity, a lovely ideal of art and beauty, but this had not +prevented him from basking in the rays of the earthly Venus. Before +leaving Paris he had had an intrigue with a certain Mile. M———, +a somewhat frivolous and unscrupulous beauty, who had bled his not +overfilled purse with the avidity of a leech. Berlioz heard just before +returning to Paris that the coquette was about to marry, a conclusion +one would fancy which would have rejoiced his mind. But, no! he was +worked to a dreadful rage by what he considered such perfidy! His one +thought was to avenge himself. He provided himself with three loaded +pistols—one for the faithless one, one for his rival, and one for +himself—and was so impatient to start that he could not wait for +passports. He attempted to cross the frontier in women's clothes, and +was arrested. A variety of <i>contretemps</i> occurred before he got to +Paris, and by that time his rage had so cooled, his sense of the +absurdity of the whole thing grown so keen, that he was rather willing +to send Mile. M———his blessing than his curse. +</p> +<p> +About the time of Berlioz's arrival, Miss Smithson also returned +to Paris after a long absence, with the intent of undertaking the +management of an English theatre. It was a necessity of our composer's +nature to be in love, and the flames of his ardor, fed with fresh fuel, +blazed up again from their old ashes. Berlioz gave a concert, in which +his "Episode in the Life of an Artist" was interpreted in connection +with the recitations of the text. The explanations of "Lelio" so +unmistakably pointed to the feeling of the composer for herself, that +Miss Smithson, who by chance was present, could not be deceived, though +she never yet had seen Berlioz. A few days afterward a benefit concert +was arranged, in which Miss Smithson's troupe was to take part, as well +as Berlioz, who was to direct a symphony of his own composition. At +the rehearsal, the looks of Berlioz followed Miss Smithson with such +an intent stare, that she said to some one, "Who is that man whose eyes +bode me no good?" This was the first occasion of their personal meeting, +and it may be fancied that Berlioz followed up the introduction with his +accustomed vehemence and pertinacity, though without immediate effect, +for Miss Smithson was more inclined to fear than to love him. +</p> +<p> +The young directress soon found out that the rage for Shakespeare, which +had swept the public mind under the influence of the romanticism led by +Victor Hugo, Dumas, Théophile Gautier, Balzac, and others, was spurious. +The wave had been frothing but shallow, and it ebbed away, leaving the +English actress and her enterprise gasping for life. With no deeper +tap-root than the Gallic love of novelty and the infectious enthusiasm +of a few men of great genius, the Shakespearean mania had a short +life, and Frenchmen shrugged their shoulders over their own folly, in +temporarily preferring the English barbarian to Racine, Corneille, and +Molière. The letters of Berlioz, in which he scourges the fickleness +of his countrymen in returning again to their "false gods," are +masterpieces of pointed invective. +</p> +<p> +Miss Smithson was speedily involved in great pecuniary difficulty, and, +to add to her misfortunes, she fell down stairs and broke her leg, +thus precluding her own appearance on the stage. Affairs were in this +desperate condition, when Berlioz came to the fore with a delicate and +manly chivalry worthy of the highest praise. He offered to pay Miss +Smithson's debts, though a poor man himself, and to marry her without +delay. The ceremony took place immediately, and thus commenced a +connection which hampered and retarded Berlioz's career, as well as +caused him no little personal unhappiness. He speedily discovered that +his wife was a woman of fretful, imperious temper, jealous of mere +shadows (though Berlioz was a man to give her substantial cause), and +totally lacking in sympathy writh his high-art ideals. +</p> +<p> +When Mme. Berlioz recovered, it was to find herself unable longer to +act, as her leg was stiff and her movements unsuited to the exigencies +of the stage. Poor Berlioz was crushed by the weight of the obligations +he had assumed, and, as the years went on, the peevish plaints of an +invalid wife, who had lost her beauty and power of charming, withered +the affection which had once been so fervid and passionate. Berlioz +finally separated from his once beautiful and worshiped Harriet +Smithson, but to the very last supplied her wants as fully as he +could out of the meager earnings of his literary work and of musical +compositions, which the Paris public, for the most part, did not care to +listen to. For his son, Louis, the only offspring of this union, Berlioz +felt a devoted affection, and his loss at sea in after-years was a blow +that nearly broke his heart. +</p> +<center> +IV. +</center> +<p> +Owing to the unrelenting hostility of Cherubini, Berlioz failed to +secure a professorship at the Conservatoire, a place to which he was +nobly entitled, and was fain to take up with the position of librarian +instead. The paltry wage he eked out by journalistic writing, for the +most part as musical critic of the "Journal des Débats," by occasional +concerts, revising proofs, in a word anything which a versatile and +desperate Bohemian could turn his hand to. In fact, for many years the +main subsistence of Berlioz was derived from feuilleton-writing and +the labors of a critic. His prose is so witty, brilliant, fresh, and +epigrammatic that he would have been known to posterity as a clever +<i>litterateur</i>, had he not preferred to remain merely a great musician. +Dramatic, picturesque, and subtile, with an admirable sense of art-form, +he could have become a powerful dramatist, perhaps a great novelist. But +his soul, all whose aspirations set toward one goal, revolted from the +labors of literature, still more from the daily grind of journalistic +drudgery. In that remarkable book, "Mémoires de Hector Berlioz," he +has made known his misery, and thus recounts one of his experiences: +"I stood at the window gazing into the gardens, at the heights of +Montmartre, at the setting sun; reverie bore me a thousand leagues from +my accursed comic opera. And when, on turning, my eyes fell upon the +accursed title at the head of the accursed sheet, blank still, and +obstinately awaiting my word, despair seized upon me. My guitar rested +against the table; with a kick I crushed its side. Two pistols on the +mantel stared at me with great round eyes. I regarded them for +some time, then beat my forehead with clinched hand. At last I wept +furiously, like a schoolboy unable to do his theme. The bitter tears +were a relief. I turned the pistols toward the wall; I pitied my +innocent guitar, and sought a few chords, which were given without +resentment. Just then my son of six years knocked at the door [the +little Louis whose death, years after, was the last bitter drop in the +composer's cup of life]; owing to my ill-humor, I had unjustly scolded +him that morning. 'Papa,' he cried, 'wilt thou be friends?' 'I <i>will</i> be +friends; come on, my boy'; and I ran to open the door. I took him on +my knee, and, with his blonde head on my breast, we slept together.... +Fifteen years since then, and my torment still endures. Oh, to be always +there!—scores to write, orchestras to lead, rehearsals to direct. Let +me stand all day with <i>bâton</i> in hand, training a chorus, singing their +parts myself, and beating the measure until I spit blood, and cramp +seizes my arm; let me carry desks, double basses, harps, remove +platforms, nail planks like a porter or a carpenter, and then spend the +night in rectifying the errors of engravers or copyists. I have done, +do, and will do it. That belongs to my musical life, and I bear it +without thinking of it, as the hunter bears the thousand fatigues of the +chase. But to scribble eternally for a livelihood—!" +</p> +<p> +It may be fancied that such a man as Berlioz did not spare the lash, +once he griped the whip-handle, and, though no man was more generous +than he in recognizing and encouraging genuine merit, there was none +more relentless in scourging incompetency, pretentious commonplace, and +the blind conservatism which rests all its faith in what has been. +Our composer made more than one powerful enemy by this recklessness in +telling the truth, where a more politic man would have gained friends +strong to help in time of need. But Berlioz was too bitter and reckless, +as well as too proud, to debate consequences. +</p> +<p> +In 1838 Berlioz completed his "Benvenuto Cellini," his only attempt at +opera since "Les Francs Juges," and, wonderful to say, managed to get it +done at the opera, though the director, Duponchel, laughed at him as a +lunatic, and the whole company already regarded the work as damned in +advance. The result was a most disastrous and <i>éclatant</i> failure, and +it would have crushed any man whose moral backbone was not forged of +thrice-tempered steel. With all these back-sets Hector Berlioz was not +without encouragement. The brilliant Franz Liszt, one of the musical +idols of the age, had bowed before him and called him master, the great +musical protagonist. Spontini, one of the most successful composers of +the time, held him in affectionate admiration, and always bade him be +of good cheer. Paganini, the greatest of violinists, had hailed him as +equal to Beethoven. +</p> +<p> +On the night of the failure of "Benvenuto Cellini," a strange-looking +man with disheveled black hair and eyes of piercing brilliancy had +forced his way around into the green-room, and, seeking out Berlioz, had +fallen on his knees before him and kissed his hand passionately. Then +he threw his arms around him and hailed the astonished composer as the +master-spirit of the age in terms of glowing eulogium. The next morning, +while Berlioz was in bed, there was a tap at the door, and Paganini's +son, Achille, entered with a note, saying his father was sick, or he +would have come to pay his respects in person. On opening the note +Berlioz found a most complimentary letter, and a more substantial +evidence of admiration, a check on Baron Rothschild for twenty thousand +francs! Paganini also gave Berlioz a commission to write a concerto for +his Stradivarius viola, which resulted in a grand symphony, "Harold +en Italie," founded on Byron's "Childe Harold," but still more an +inspiration of his own Italian adventures, which had had a strong flavor +of personal if they lacked artistic interest. +</p> +<p> +The generous gift of Paganini raised Berlioz from the slough of +necessity so far that he could give his whole time to music. Instantly +he set about his "Romeo and Juliet" symphony, which will always remain +one of his masterpieces—a beautifully chiseled work, from the hands +of one inspired by gratitude, unfettered imagination, and the sense of +blessed repose. Our composer's first musical journey was an extensive +tour in Germany in 1841, of which he gives charming memorials in +his letters to Liszt, Heine, Ernst, and others. His reception was as +generous and sympathetic as it had been cold and scornful in France. +Everywhere he was honored and praised as one of the great men of the +age. Mendelssohn exchanged <i>bâtons</i> with him at Leipsic, notwithstanding +the former only half understood this stalwart Berserker of music. Spohr +called him one of the greatest artists living, though his own direct +antithesis, and Schumann wrote glowingly in the "Neue Zeitschrift": "For +myself, Berlioz is as clear as the blue sky above. I really think there +is a new time in music coming." Berlioz wrote joyfully to Heine: "I came +to Germany as the men of ancient Greece went to the oracle at Delphi, +and the response has been in the highest degree encouraging." But his +Germanic laurels did him no good in France. The Parisians would have +none of him except as a writer of <i>feuilletons</i>, who pleased them by +the vigor with which he handled the knout, and tickled the levity of +the million, who laughed while they saw the half-dozen or more victims +flayed by merciless satire. Berlioz wept tears of blood because he had +to do such executioner's work, but did it none the less vigorously for +all that. +</p> +<p> +The composer made another musical journey in Austria and Hungary in +1844-'45, where he was again received with the most enthusiastic praise +and pleasure. It was in Hungary, especially, that the warmth of his +audiences overran all bounds. One night, at Pesth, where he played the +"Rackoczy Indulé," an orchestral setting of the martial hymn of the +Magyar race, the people were worked into a positive frenzy, and they +would have flung themselves before him that he might walk over their +prostrate bodies. Vienna, Pesth, and Prague, led the way, and the other +cities followed in the wake of an enthusiasm which has been accorded +to not many artists. The French heard these stories with amazement, for +they could not understand how this musical demigod could be the same +as he who was little better than a witty buffoon. During this absence +Berlioz wrote the greater portion of his "Damnation de Faust," and, as +he had made some money, he obeyed the strong instinct which always ruled +him, the hope of winning the suffrages of his own countrymen. +</p> +<p> +An eminent French critic claims that this great work, of which we shall +speak further on, contains that which Gounod's "Faust" lacks—insight +into the spiritual significance of Goethe's drama. Berlioz exhausted all +his resources in producing it at the Opéra Comique in 1846, but again +he was disappointed by its falling stillborn on the public interest. +Berlioz was utterly ruined, and he fled from France in the dead of +winter as from a pestilence. +</p> +<p> +The genius of this great man was recognized in Holland, Russia, Austria, +and Germany, but among his own countrymen, for the most part, his name +was a laughing-stock and a by-word. He offended the pedants and the +formalists by his daring originality, he had secured the hate of rival +musicians by the vigor and keenness of his criticisms. Berlioz was in +the very heat of the artistic controversy between the classicists and +romanticists, and was associated with Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, +Delacroix, Liszt, Chopin, and others, in fighting that acrimonious +art-battle. While he did not stand formally with the ranks, he yet +secured a still more bitter portion of hostility from their powerful +opponents, for, to opposition in principle, Berlioz united a caustic +and vigorous mode of expression. His name was a target for the wits. "A +physician who plays on the guitar and fancies himself a composer," was +the scoff of malignant gossips. The journals poured on him a flood +of abuse without stint. French malignity is the most venomous and +unscrupulous in the world, and Berlioz was selected as a choice victim +for its most vigorous exercise, none the less willingly that he had +shown so much skill and zest in impaling the victims of his own artistic +and personal dislike. +</p> +<center> +V. +</center> +<p> +To continue the record of Berlioz's life in consecutive narrative would +be without significance, for it contains but little for many years +except the same indomitable battle against circumstance and enmity, +never yielding an inch, and always keeping his eyes bent on his own +lofty ideal. In all of art history is there no more masterful heroic +struggle than Berlioz waged for thirty-five years, firm in his belief +that some time, if not during his own life, his principles would be +triumphant, and his name ranked among the immortals. But what of the +mean while? This problem Berlioz solved, in his later as in earlier +years, by doing the distasteful work of the literary scrub. But never +did he cease composing; though no one would then have his works, his +clear eye perceived the coming time when his genius would not be denied, +when an apotheosis should comfort his spirit wandering in Hades. +</p> +<p> +Among Berlioz's later works was an opera of which he had composed both +words and music, consisting of two parts, "The Taking of Troy," and +"The Trojans at Carthage," the latter of which at last secured a few +representations at a minor theatre in 1863. The plan of this work +required that it should be carried out under the most perfect +conditions. "In order," says Berlioz, "to properly produce such a work +as 'Les Trojans,' I must be absolute master of the theatre, as of the +orchestra in directing a symphony. I must have the good-will of all, be +obeyed by all, from prima donna to scene-shifter. A lyrical theatre, as +I conceive it, is a great instrument of music, which, if I am to play, +must be placed unreservedly in my hands." Wagner found a King of Bavaria +to help him carry out a similar colossal scheme at Bayreuth, but ill +luck followed a man no less great through life. His grand "Trojans" +was mutilated, tinkered, patched, and belittled, to suit the Theatre +Lyrique. It was a butchery of the work, but still it yielded the +composer enough to justify his retirement from the "Journal des Débats," +after thirty years of slavery. +</p> +<p> +Berlioz was now sixty years old, a lonely man, frail in body, embittered +in soul by the terrible sense of failure. His wife, with whom he had +lived on terms of alienation, was dead; his only son far away, cruising +on a man-of-war. His courage and ambition were gone. To one who remarked +that his music belonged to the future, he replied that he doubted if it +ever belonged to the past. His life seemed to have been a mistake, so +utterly had he failed to impress himself on the public. Yet there were +times when audiences felt themselves moved by the power of his music +out of the ruts of preconceived opinion into a prophecy of his coming +greatness. There is an interesting anecdote told by a French writer: +</p> +<p> +"Some years ago M. Pasdeloup gave the <i>septuor</i> from the 'Trojans' at +a benefit concert. The best places were occupied by the people of the +world, but the <i>elite intelligente</i> were ranged upon the highest seats +of the Cirque. The programme was superb, and those who were there +neither for Fashion's nor Charity's sake, but for love of what was +best in art, were enthusiastic in view of all those masterpieces. The +worthless overture of the 'Prophète,' disfiguring this fine <i>ensemble</i>, +had been hissed by some students of the Conservatoire, and, accustomed +as I was to the blindness of the general public, knowing its implacable +prejudices, I trembled for the fate of the magnificent <i>septuor</i> about +to follow. My fears were strangely ill-founded, no sooner had ceased +this hymn of infinite love and peace, than these same students, and the +whole assemblage with them, burst into such a tempest of applause as I +never heard before. Berlioz was hidden in the further ranks, and, the +instant he was discovered, the work was forgotten for the man; his +name flew from mouth to mouth, and four thousand people were standing +upright, with their arms stretched toward him. Chance had placed me near +him, and never shall I forget the scene. That name, apparently ignored +by the crowd, it had learned all at once, and was repeating as that of +one of its heroes. Overcome as by the strongest emotion of his life, +his head upon his breast, he listened to this tumultuous cry of 'Vive +Berlioz!' and when, on looking up, he saw all eyes upon him and all +arms extended toward him, he could not withstand the sight; he trembled, +tried to smile, and broke into sobbing." +</p> +<p> +Berlioz's supremacy in the field of orchestral composition, his +knowledge of technique, his novel combination, his insight into the +resources of instruments, his skill in grouping, his rich sense of +color, are incontestably without a parallel, except by Beethoven and +Wagner. He describes his own method of study as follows: +</p> +<p> +"I carried with me to the opera the score of whatever work was on +the bill, and read during the performance. In this way I began to +familiarize myself with orchestral methods, and to learn the voice and +quality of the various instruments, if not their range and mechanism. +By this attentive comparison of the effect with the means employed to +produce it, I found the hidden link uniting musical expression to the +special art of instrumentation. The study of Beethoven, Weber, +and Spontini, the impartial examination both of the <i>customs</i> of +orchestration and of <i>unusual</i> forms and combinations, the visits I +made to <i>virtuosi</i>, the trials I led them to make upon their respective +instruments, and a little instinct, did for me the rest." +</p> +<p> +The principal symphonies of Berlioz are works of colossal character +and richness of treatment, some of them requiring several orchestras. +Contrasting with these are such marvels of delicacy as "Queen Mab," of +which it has been said that the "confessions of roses and the complaints +of violets were noisy in comparison." A man of magnificent genius and +knowledge, he was but little understood during his life, and it was +only when his uneasy spirit was at rest that the world recognized his +greatness. Paris, that stoned him when he was living, now listens to his +grand music with enthusiasm. Hector Berlioz to the last never lost +faith in himself, though this man of genius, in his much suffering from +depression and melancholy, gave good witness to the truth of Goethe's +lines: +</p> +<pre> + "Who never ate with tears his bread, + Nor, weeping through the night's long hours, + Lay restlessly tossing on his bed— + He knows ye not, ye heavenly Powers!" +</pre> +<p> +A man utterly without reticence, who, Gallic fashion, would shout his +wrongs and sufferings to the uttermost ends of the earth, yet without +a smack of Gallic posing and affectation, Berlioz talks much about +himself, and dares to estimate himself boldly. There was no small +vanity about this colossal spirit. He speaks of himself with outspoken +frankness, as he would discuss another. We can not do better than to +quote one of these self-measurements: "My style is in general very +daring, but it has not the slightest tendency to destroy any of the +constructive elements of art. On the contrary, I seek to increase the +number of these elements. I have never dreamed, as has foolishly been +supposed in France, of writing music without melody. That school exists +to-day in Germany, and I have a horror of it. It is easy for any one to +convince himself that, without confining myself to taking a very short +melody for a theme, as the very greatest masters have, I have always +taken care to invest my compositions with a real wealth of melody. The +value of these melodies, their distinction, their novelty, and charm, +can be very well contested; it is not for me to appraise them. But to +deny their existence is either bad faith or stupidity; only as these +melodies are often of very large dimensions, infantile and short-sighted +minds do not clearly distinguish their form; or else they are wedded +to other secondary melodies which veil their outlines from those same +infantile minds; or, upon the whole, these melodies are so dissimilar +to the little waggeries that the musical <i>plebs</i> call melodies that they +can not make up their minds to give the same name to both. The dominant +qualities of my music are passionate expression, internal fire, rhythmic +animation, and unexpected changes." +</p> +<p> +Heinrich Heine, the German poet, who was Berlioz's friend, called him +a "colossal nightingale, a lark of eagle-size, such as they tell us +existed in the primeval world." The poet goes on to say: "Berlioz's +music, in general, has in it something primeval if not antediluvian to +my mind; it makes me think of gigantic species of extinct animals, of +fabulous empires full of fabulous sins, of heaped-up impossibilities; +his magical accents call to our minds Babylon, the hanging gardens the +wonders of Nineveh, the daring edifices of Mizraim, as we see them in +the pictures of the Englishman Martin." Shortly after the publication of +"Lutetia," in which this bold characterization was expressed, the first +performance of Berlioz's "Enfance du Christ" was given, and the poet, +who was on his sick-bed, wrote a penitential letter to his friend for +not having given him full justice. "I hear on all sides," he says, "that +you have just plucked a nosegay of the sweetest melodious flowers, and +that your oratorio is throughout a masterpiece of <i>naivete</i>. I shall +never forgive myself for having been so unjust to a friend." +</p> +<p> +Berlioz died at the age of sixty-five. His funeral services were held +at the Church of the Trinity, a few days after those of Rossini. The +discourse at the grave was pronounced by Gounod, and many eloquent +things were said of him, among them a quotation of the epitaph of +Marshal Trivulce, "<i>Hic tandem quiescit qui nunquam quievit</i>" (Here is +he quiet, at last, who never was quiet before). Soon after his death +appeared his "Mémoires," and his bones had hardly got cold when the +performance of his music at the Conservatoire, the Cirque, and the +Chatelet began to be heard with the most hearty enthusiasm. +</p> +<center> +VI. +</center> +<p> +Théophile Gautier says that no one will deny to Berlioz a great +character, though, the world being given to controversies, it may be +argued whether or not he was a great genius. The world of to-day has but +one opinion on both these questions. The force of Berlioz's character +was phenomenal. His vitality was so passionate and active that brain +and nerve quivered with it, and made him reach out toward experience at +every facet of his nature. Quietude was torture, rest a sin, for this +daring temperament. His eager and subtile intelligence pierced every +sham, and his imagination knew no bounds to its sweep, oftentimes even +disdaining the bounds of art in its audacity and impatience. This big, +virile nature, thwarted and embittered by opposition, became hardened +into violent self-assertion; this naturally resolute will settled back +into fierce obstinacy; this fine nature, sensitive and sincere, got torn +and ragged with passion under the stress of his unfortunate life. But, +at one breath of true sympathy how quickly the nobility of the man +asserted itself! All his cynicism and hatred melted away, and left only +sweetness, truth, and genial kindness. +</p> +<p> +When Berlioz entered on his studies, he had reached an age at which +Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Rossini, and others, had already done +some of the best work of their lives. Yet it took only a few years to +achieve a development that produced such a great work as the "Symphonic +Fantastique," the prototype of modern programme music. +</p> +<p> +From first to last it was the ambition of Berlioz to widen the domain +of his art. He strove to attain a more intimate connection between +instrumental music and poetry in the portrayal of intense passions, and +the suggestion of well-defined dramatic situations. In spite of the fact +that he frequently overshot his mark, it does not make his works one +whit less astonishing. An uncompromising champion of what has been +dubbed "programme" music, he thought it legitimate to force the +imagination of the hearer to dwell on exterior scenes during the +progress of the music, and to distress the mind in its attempt to find +an exact relation between the text and the music. The most perfect +specimens of the works of Berlioz, however, are those in which the music +speaks for itself, such as the "Scène aux Champs," and the "Marche au +Supplice," in the "Symphonie Fantastique," the "Marche des Pèlerins," in +"Harold"; the overtures to "King Lear," "Benvenuto Cellini," "Carnaval +Romain," "Le Corsaire," "Les Francs Juges," etc. +</p> +<p> +As a master of the orchestra, no one has been the equal of Berlioz in +the whole history of music, not even Beethoven or Wagner. He treats the +orchestra with the absolute daring and mastery exercised by Paganini +over the violin, and by Liszt over the piano. No one has showed so deep +an insight into the individuality of each instrument, its resources, the +extent to which its capabilities could be carried. Between the phrase +and the instrument, or group of instruments, the equality is perfect; +and independent of this power, made up equally of instinct and +knowledge, this composer shows a sense of orchestral color in combining +single instruments so as to form groups, or in the combination of +several separate groups of instruments by which he has produced the most +novel and beautiful effects—effects not found in other composers. +The originality and variety of his rhythms, the perfection of his +instrumentation, have never been disputed even by his opponents. In many +of his works, especially those of a religious character, there is a +Cyclopean bigness of instrumental means used, entirely beyond parallel +in art. Like the Titans of old, he would scale the very heavens in +his daring. In one of his works he does not hesitate to use three +orchestras, three choruses (all of full dimensions), four organs, and +a triple quartet. The conceptions of Berlioz were so grandiose that he +sometimes disdained detail, and the result was that more than one of his +compositions have rugged grandeur at the expense of symmetry and balance +of form. +</p> +<p> +Yet, when he chose, Berlioz could write the most exquisite and dainty +lyrics possible. What could be more exquisitely tender than many of +his songs and romances, and various of the airs and choral pieces +from "Beatrice et Benedict," from "Nuits d'Été," "Irlande," and from +"L'Enfance du Christ"? +</p> +<p> +Berlioz in his entirety, as man and composer, was a most extraordinary +being, to whom the ordinary scale of measure can hardly be applied. +Though he founded no new school, he pushed to a fuller development the +possibilities to which Beethoven reached out in the Ninth Symphony. +He was the great <i>virtuoso</i> on the orchestra, and on this Briarean +instrument he played with the most amazing skill. Others have surpassed +him in the richness of the musical substance out of which their +tone-pictures are woven, in symmetry of form, in finish of detail; but +no one has ever equaled him in that absolute mastery over instruments, +by which a hundred become as plastic and flexible as one, and are made +to embody every phase of the composer's thought with that warmth of +color and precision of form long believed to be necessarily confined to +the sister arts. +</p> +<center> +THE END. +</center> + + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br><br><br><br><br><br></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Great Italian and French Composers, by +George T. 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Ferris + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Great Italian and French Composers + +Author: George T. Ferris + +Release Date: January 4, 2006 [EBook #17462] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + + +GREAT + +ITALIAN AND FRENCH + +COMPOSERS + +BY + +GEORGE T. FERRIS + + + +Copyright, 1878, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. + + + + +NOTE. + +The task of compressing into one small volume suitable sketches of the +more famous Italian and French composers has been, in view of the extent +of the field and the wealth of material, a somewhat embarrassing one, +especially as the purpose was to make the sketches of interest to +the general music-loving public, and not merely to the critic and +the scholar. The plan pursued has been to devote the bulk of space to +composers of the higher rank, and to pass over those less known with +such brief mention as sufficed to outline their lives and fix their +place in the history of music. In gathering the facts embodied in +these musical sketches, the author acknowledges his obligations to the +following works: Hullah's "History of Modern Music"; Fetis's "Biographie +Universelle des Musiciens"; Clementi's "Biographie des Musiciens"; +Hogarth's "History of the Opera"; Sutherland Edwards's "History of the +Opera"; Schlueter's "History of Music"; Chorley's "Thirty Years' Musical +Reminiscences"; Stendhalls "Vie de Rossini"; Bellasys's "Memorials of +Cherubini"; Grove's "Musical Dictionary"; Crowest's "Musical Anecdotes"; +and the various articles in the standard cyclopaedias. + +"The Great Italian and French Composers" is a companion work to "The +Great German Composers," which was published earlier in the series in +which the present volume appears. + + + + +CONTENTS. + +Palestrixa + +Piccini, Paisiello, and Cimarosa + +Rossini + +Donizetti and Bellini + +Verdi + +Cherubini and his Predecessors + +Meiuel, Spontini, and Halevy + +Boieldieu and Auber + +Meyerbeer + +Gounod and Thomas + +Berlioz + + + + +THE GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. + + + + +PALESTRINA. + + +I. + +The Netherlands share other glories than that of having nursed the most +indomitable spirit of liberty known to mediteval Europe. The fine +as well as the industrial arts found among this remarkable people, +distinguished by Erasmus as possessed of the _patientia laboris_, +an eager and passionate culture. The early contributions of the Low +Countries to the growth of the pictorial art are well known to all. But +to most it will be a revelation that the Belgian school of music was the +great fructifying influence of the fifteenth century, to which Italy and +Germany owe a debt not easily measured. The art of interweaving parts +and that science of sound known as counterpoint were placed by this +school of musical scholars and workers on a solid basis, which enabled +the great composers who came after them to build their beautiful tone +fabrics in forms of imperishable beauty and symmetry. For a long time +most of the great Italian churches had Belgian chapel-masters, and +the value of their example and teachings was vital in its relation to +Italian music. + +The last great master among the Belgians, and, after Palestrina, +the greatest of the sixteenth century, was Orlando di Lasso, born in +Hainault, in the year 1520. His life of a little more than three score +years and ten was divided between Italy and Germany. He left the deep +imprint of his severe style, though but a young man, on his Italian +_confreres_, and the young Palestrina owed to him much of the largeness +and beauty of form through which he poured his genius in the creation of +such works as have given him so distinct a place in musical history. The +pope created Orlando di Lasso Knight of the Golden Spur, and sought to +keep him in Italy. Unconcerned as to fame, the gentle, peaceful musician +lived for his art alone, and the flattering expressions of the great +were not so much enjoyed as endured by him. A musical historian, +Heimsoeth, says of him: "He is the brilliant master of the North, +great and sublime in sacred composition, of inexhaustible invention, +displaying much breadth, variety, and depth in his treatment; he +delights in full and powerful harmonies, yet, after all--owing to an +existence passed in journeys, as well as service at court, and occupied +at the same time with both sacred and secular music--he came short of +that lofty, solemn tone which pervades the works of the great master of +the South, Palestrina, who with advancing years restricted himself more +and more to church music." Of the celebrated penitential psalms of Di +Lasso, it is said that Charles IX. of France ordered them to be written +"in order to obtain rest for his soul after the horrible massacre of St. +Bartholomew." Aside from his works, this musician has a claim on +fame through his lasting improvements in musical form and method. He +illuminated, and at the same time closed, the great epoch of Belgian +ascendancy, which had given three hundred musicians of great science +to the times in which they lived. So much has been said of Orlando di +Lasso, for he was the model and Mentor of the greatest of early church +composers, Palestrina. + + +II. + +The melodious and fascinating style, soon to give birth to the +characteristic genius of the opera, was as yet unborn, though dormant. +In Rome, the chief seat of the Belgian art, the exclusive study of +technical skill had frozen music to a mere formula. The Gregorian +chant had become so overladen with mere embellishments as to make the +prescribed church-form difficult of recognition in its borrowed garb, +for it had become a mere jumble of sound. Musicians, indeed, carried +their profanation so far as to take secular melodies as the themes for +masses and motetts. These were often called by their profane titles. So +the name of a love-sonnet or a drinking-song would sometimes be attached +to a miserere. The council of Trent, in 1562, cut at these evils with +sweeping axe, and the solemn anathemas of the church fathers roused the +creative powei's of the subject of this sketch, who raised his art to +an independent national existence, and made it rank with sculpture and +painting, which had already reached their zenith in Leonardo Da Vinci, +Raphael, Correggio, Titian, and Michel Angelo. Henceforth Italian music +was to be a vigorous, fruitful stock. + +Giovanni Perluigui Aloisio da Palestrina was born at Palestrina, the +ancient Praeneste, in 1524.* + + * Our composer, as was common with artists and scholars in + those days, took the name of his natal town, and by this he + is known to fame. Old documents also give him the old Latin + name of the town with the personal ending. + +The memorials of his childhood are scanty. We know but little except +that his parents were poor peasants, and that he learned the rudiments +of literature and music as a choir-singer, a starting-point so common in +the lives of great composers. In 1540 he went to Rome and studied in +the school of Goudimel, a stern Huguenot Fleming, tolerated in the papal +capital on account of his superior science and method of teaching, and +afterward murdered at Lyons on the day of the Paris massacre. Palestrina +grasped the essential doctrines of the school without adopting its +mannerisms. At the age of thirty he published his first compositions, +and dedicated them to the reigning pontiff, Julius III. In the formation +of his style, which moved with such easy, original grace within the old +prescribed rules, he learned much from the personal influence and advice +of Orlando di Lasso, his warm friend and constant companion during these +earlier days. + +Several of his compositions, written at this time, are still performed +in Rome on Good Friday, and Goethe and Mendelssohn have left their +eloquent tributes to the impression made on them by music alike simple +and sublime. The pope was highly pleased with Palestrina's noble music, +and appointed him one of the papal choristers, then regarded as a great +honor. But beyond Rome the new light of music was but little known. +The Council of Trent, in their first indignation at the abuse of church +music, had resolved to abolish everything but the simple Gregorian +chants, but the remonstrances of the Emperor Ferdinand and the Roman +cardinals stayed the austere fiat. The final decision was made to rest +on a new composition of Palestrina, who was permitted to demonstrate +that the higher forms of musical art were consistent with the +solemnities of church worship. + +All eyes were directed to the young musician, for the very existence +of his art was at stake. The motto of his first mass, "Illumina oculos +meos," shows the pious enthusiasm with which he undertook his labors. +Instead of one, he composed three six-part masses. The third of these +excited such admiration that the pope exclaimed in raptures, "It is John +who gives us here in this earthly Jerusalem a foretaste of that new song +which the holy Apostle John realized in the heavenly Jerusalem in his +prophetic trance." This is now known as the "mass of Pope Marcel," in +honor of a former patron of Palestrina. + +A new pope, Paul IV., on ascending the pontifical throne, carried his +desire of reforming abuses to fanaticism. He insisted on all the papal +choristers being clerical. Palestrina had married early in life a Roman +lady, of whom all we know is that her name was Lucretia. Four children +had blessed the union, and the composer's domestic happiness became a +bar to his temporal preferment. With two others he was dismissed from +the chapel because he was a layman, and a trifling pension allowed him. +Two months afterward, though, he was appointed chapel-master of St. +John Lateran. His works now succeeded each other rapidly, and different +collections of his masses were dedicated to the crowned heads of Europe. +In 1571 he was appointed chapel-master of the Vatican, and Pope Gregory +XIII. gave special charge of the reform of sacred music to Palestrina. + +The death of the composer's wife, whom he idolized, in 1580, was a blow +from which he never recovered. In his latter days he was afflicted with +great poverty, for the positions he held were always more honorable than +lucrative. Mental depression and physical weakness burdened the last few +years of his pious and gentle life, and he died after a lingering and +severe illness. The register of the pontifical chapel contains this +entry: "February 2, 1594. This morning died the most excellent musician, +Signor Giovanni Palestrina, our dear companion and _maestro di capella_ +of St. Peter's church, whither his funeral was attended not only by all +the musicians of Rome, but by an infinite concourse of people, when his +own 'Libera me, Domine' was sung by the whole college." + +Such are the simple and meagre records of the life of the composer, who +carved and laid the foundation of the superstructure of Italian music; +who, viewed in connection with his times and their limitations, must be +regarded as one of the great creative minds in his art; who shares with +Sebastian Bach the glory of having built an imperishable base for the +labors of his successors. + + +III. + +Palestrixa left a great mass of compositions, all glowing with the fire +of genius, only part of which have been published. His simple life was +devoted to musical labor, and passed without romance, diversion, or +excitement. His works are marked by utter absence of contrast and +color. Without dramatic movement, they are full of melody and majesty, a +majesty serene, unruffled by the slightest suggestion of human passion. +Voices are now and then used for individual expression, but either in +unison or harmony. As in all great church music, the chorus is the key +of the work. The general judgment of musicians agrees that repose and +enjoyment are more characteristic of this music than that of any +other master. The choir of the Sistine chapel, by the inheritance of +long-cherished tradition, is the most perfect exponent of the +Palestrina music. During the annual performance of the "Improperie" and +"Lamentations," the altar and walls are despoiled of their pictures and +ornaments, and everything is draped in black. The cardinals dressed in +serge, no incense, no candles: the whole scene is a striking picture of +trouble and desolation. The faithful come in two by two and bow before +the cross, while the sad music reverberates through the chapel arches. +This powerful appeal to the imagination, of course, lends greater power +to the musical effect. But all minds who have felt the lift and beauty +of these compositions have acknowledged how far they soar above words +and creeds, and the picturesque framework of a liturgy. + +Mendelssohn, in a letter to Zelter on the Palestrina music as heard in +the Sistine chapel, says that nothing could exceed the effect of the +blending of the voices, the prolonged tones gradually merging from one +note and chord to another, softly swelling, decreasing, at last dying +out. "They understand," he writes, "how to bring out and place each +trait in the most delicate light, without giving it undue prominence; +one chord gently melts into another. The ceremony at the same time is +solemn and imposing; deep silence prevails in the chapel, only broken +by the reechoing Greek 'holy,' sung with unvarying sweetness and +expression." The composer Paer was so impressed with the wonderful +beauty of the music and the performance, that he exclaimed, "This is +indeed divine music, such as I have long sought for, and my imagination +was never able to realize, but which, I knew, must exist." + +Palestrina's versatility and genius enabled him to lift ecclesiastical +music out of the rigidity and frivolity characterizing on either +hand the opposing ranks of those that preceded him, and to embody +the religious spirit in works of the highest art. He transposed the +ecclesiastical melody (_canto fermo_) from the tenor to the soprano +(thus rendering it more intelligible to the ear), and created that +glorious thing choir song, with its refined harmony, that noble music +of which his works are the models, and the papal chair the oracle. No +individual preeminence is ever allowed to disturb and weaken the ideal +atmosphere of the whole work. However Palestrina's successors have aimed +to imitate his effects, they have, with the exception of Cherubini, +failed for the most part; for every peculiar genus of art is the result +of innate genuine inspiration, and the spontaneous growth of the age +which produces it. As a parent of musical form he was the protagonist +of Italian music, both sacred and secular, and left an admirable model, +which even the new school of opera so soon to rise found it necessary to +follow in the construction of harmony. The splendid and often licentious +music of the theatre built its most worthy effects on the work of the +pious composer, who lived, labored, and died in an atmosphere of almost +anchorite sanctity. + +The great disciples of his school, Nannini and Allegri, continued his +work, and the splendid "Miserere" of the latter was regarded as such +an inestimable treasure that no copy of it was allowed to go out of the +Sistine chapel, till the infant prodigy, Wolfgang Mozart, wrote it out +from the memory of a single hearing. + + + + +PICCINI, PAISIELLO, AND CIMAROSA + + +I. + +Music, as speaking the language of feeling, emotion, and passion, found +its first full expansion in the operatic form. There had been attempts +to represent drama with chorus, founded on the ancient Greek drama, but +it was soon discovered that dialogue and monologue could not be embodied +in choral forms without involving an utter absurdity. The spirit of +the renaissance had freed poetry, statuary, and painting, from the +monopolizing elaims of the church. Music, which had become a well +equipped and developed science, could not long rest in a similar +servitude. Though it is not the aim of the author to discuss operatic +history, a brief survey of the progress of opera from its birth cannot +be omitted. + +The oldest of the entertainments which ripened into Italian opera +belongs to the last years of the fifteenth century, and was the work +of the brilliant Politian, known as one of the revivalists of Greek +learning attached to the court of Cosmo de' Medici and his son Lorenzo. +This was the musical drama of "Orfeo." The story was written in Latin, +and sung in music principally choral, though a few solo phrases were +given to the principal characters. It was performed at Rome with great +magnificence, and Vasari tells us that Peruzzi, the decorator of the +papal theatre, painted such scenery for it that even the great Titian +was so struck with the _vraisemblance_ of the work that he was not +satisfied until he had touched the canvas to be sure of its not being in +relief. We may fancy indeed that the scenery was one great attraction +of the representation. In spite of spasmodic encouragement by the more +liberally minded pontiffs, the general weight of church influence was +against the new musical tendency, and the most skilled composers were at +first afraid to devote their talents to further its growth. + +What musicians did not dare undertake out of dread of the thunderbolts +of the church, a company of _literati_ at Florence commenced in 1580. +The primary purpose was the revival of Greek art, including music. This +association, in conjunction with the Medicean Academy, laid down the +rule that distinct individuality of expression in music was to be sought +for. As results, quickly came musical drama with recitative (modern form +of the Greek chorus) and solo melody for characteristic parts of the +legend or story. Out of this beginning swiftly grew the opera. Composers +in the new form sprung up in various parts of Italy, though Naples, +Venice, and Florence continued to be its centres. + +Between 1637 and 1700, there were performed three hundred operas at +Venice alone. An account of the performance of "Berenice," composed by +Domenico Freschi, at Padua, in 1680, dwarfs all our present ideas of +spectacular splendor. In this opera there were choruses of a hundred +virgins and a hundred soldiers; a hundred horsemen in steel armor; a +hundred performers on trumpets, cornets, sackbuts, drums, flutes, and +other instruments, on horseback and on foot; two lions led by two Turks, +and two elephants led by two Indians; Berenice's triumphal car drawn +by four horses, and six other cars with spoils and prisoners, drawn by +twelve horses. Among the scenes in the first act was a vast plain +with two triumphal arches; another with pavilions and tents; a square +prepared for the entrance of the triumphal procession, and a forest +for the chase. In the second act there were the royal apartments of +Berenice's temple of vengeance, a spacious court with view of the prison +and a covered way with long lines of chariots. In the third act there +were the royal dressing-room, the stables with a hundred live horses, +porticoes adorned with tapestry, and a great palace in the perspective. +In the course of the piece there were representations of the hunting of +the boar, the stag, and the lions. The whole concluded with a huge globe +descending from the skies, and dividing itself in lesser globes of fire +on which stood allegorical figures of fame, honor, nobility, virtue, and +glory. The theatriccal manager had princes and nobles for bankers and +assistants, and they lavished their treasures of art and money to +make such spectacles as the modern stagemen of London and Paris cannot +approach. + +In Evelyn's diary there is an entry describing opera at Venice in 1645. +"This night, having with my lord Bruce taken our places before, we +went to the opera, where comedies and other plays are represented +in recitative musiq by the most excellent musicians, vocal and +instrumental, with variety of scenes painted and contrived with no +lesse art of perspective, and machines for flying in the aire, and other +wonderful motions; taken together it is one of the most magnificent and +expensive diversions the wit of man can invent. The history was Hercules +in Lydia. The sceanes changed thirteen times. The famous voices, Anna +Rencia, a Roman and reputed the best treble of women; but there was +a Eunuch who in my opinion surpassed her; also a Genoise that in my +judgment sung an incomparable base. They held us by the eyes and ears +till two o'clock i' the morning." Again he writes of the carnival +of 1640: "The comedians have liberty and the operas are open; witty +pasquils are thrown about, and the mountebanks have their stages at +every corner. The diversion which chiefly took me up was three noble +operas, where were most excellent voices and music, the most celebrated +of which was the famous and beautiful Anna Rencia, whom we invited to +a fish dinner after four daies in Lent, when they had given over at the +theatre." Old Evelyn then narrates how he and his noble friend took the +lovely diner out on a junketing, and got shot at with blunderbusses from +the gondola of an infuriated rival. + +Opera progressed toward a fixed status with a swiftness hardly +paralleled in the history of any art. The soil was rich and fully +prepared for the growth, and the fecund root, once planted, shot into +a luxuriant beauty and symmetry, which nothing could check. The Church +wisely gave up its opposition, and henceforth there was nothing to +impede the progress of a product which spread and naturalized itself +in England, France, and Germany. The inventive genius of Monteverde, +Carissimi, Scarlatti (the friend and rival of Handel), Durante, and +Leonardo Leo, perfected the forms of the opera nearly as we have them +today. A line of brilliant composers in the school of Durante and Leo +brings us down through Pergolesi, Derni, Terradiglias, Jomelli, Traetta, +Ciccio di Majo, Galuppi, and Giuglielmi, to the most distinguished of +the early Italian composers, Nicolo Piccini, who, mostly forgotten +in his works, is principally known to modern fame as the rival of the +mighty Gluck in that art controversy which shook Paris into such bitter +factions. Yet, overshadowed as Piccini was in the greatness of his +rival, there can be no question of his desert as the most brilliant +ornament and exponent of the early operatic school. No greater honor +could have been paid to him than that he should have been chosen as +their champion by the _Italianissimi_ of his day in the battle royal +with such a giant as Gluck, an honor richly deserved by a composer +distinguished by multiplicity and beauty of ideas, dramatic insight, and +ardent conviction. + + +II. + +Niccolo Piccini, who was not less than fifty years of age when he left +Naples for the purpose of outrivaling Gluck, was born at Bari, in the +kingdom of Naples, in 1728. His father, also a musician, had destined +him for holy orders, but Nature made him an artist. His great delight +even as a little child was playing on the harpsichord, which he quickly +learned. One day the bishop of Bari heard him playing and was amazed +at the power of the little _virtuoso_. "By all means, send him to a +conservatory of music," he said to the elder Piccini. "If the vocation +of the priesthood brings trials and sacrifices, a musical career is +not less beset with obstacles. Music demands great perseverance and +incessant labor. It exposes one to many chagrins and toils." + +By the advice of the shrewd prelate, the precocious boy was placed at +the school of St. Onofrio at the age of fourteen. At first confided to +the care of an inferior professor, he revolted from the arid teachings +of a mere human machine. Obeying the dictates of his daring fancy, +though hardly acquainted with the rudiments of composition, he +determined to compose a mass. The news got abroad that the little +Niccolo was working on a grand mass, and the great Leo, the chief of the +conservatory, sent for the trembling culprit. + +"You have written a mass?" he commenced. + +"Excuse me, sir, I could not help it," said the timid boy. + +"Let me see it." + +Niccolo brought him the score and all the orchestral parts, and Leo +immediately went to the concert-room, assembled the orchestra, and +gave them the parts. The boy was ordered to take his place in front and +conduct the performance, which he went through with great agitation. + +"I pardon you this time," said the grave maestro, at the end; "but, if +you do such a thing again, I will punish you in such a manner that you +will remember it as long as you live. Instead of studying the +principles of your art, you give yourself up to all the wildness of your +imagination; and, when you have tutored your ill-regulated ideas into +something like shape, you produce what you call a mass, and no doubt +think you have produced a masterpiece." + +When the boy burst into tears at this rebuke, Leo clasped him in his +arms, told him he had great talent, and after that took him under +his special instruction. Leo was succeeded by Durante, who also loved +Piccini, and looked forward to a future greatness for him. He was wont +to say the others were his pupils, but Piccini was his son. After +twelve years spent in the conservatory, Piccini commenced an opera. The +director of the principal Neapolitan theatre said to Prince Vintimille, +who introduced the young musician, that his work was sure to be a +failure. + +"How much can you lose by his opera," the prince replied, "supposing it +be a perfect fiasco?" The manager named the sum. + +"There is the money, then," replied Piccini's generous patron, handing +him a purse. "If the 'Dorme Despetose' (the name of the opera) should +fail, you may keep the money, but otherwise return it to me." + +The friends of Lagroscino, the favorite composer of the day, were +enraged when they heard that the next new work was to be from an obscure +youth, and they determined to hiss the performance. So great, however, +was the delight of the public with the freshness and beauty of Piccini's +music, that even those who came to condemn remained to applaud. The +reputation of the composer went on increasing until he became the +foremost name of musical Italy, for his fertility of production was +remarkable; and he gave the theatres a brilliant succession of comic and +serious works. In 1758 he produced at Rome his "Alessandro nell' Indie," +whose success surpassed all that had preceded it, and two years later +a still finer masterpiece, "La Buona Figluola," written to a text +furnished by the poet Goldoni, and founded on the story of Richardson's +"Pamela." This opera was produced at every playhouse on the Italian +peninsula in the course of a few years. A pleasant _mot_ by the Duke of +Brunswick is worth preserving in this connection. Piccini had married a +beautiful singer named Vicenza Sibilla, and his home was very happy. One +day the German prince visited Piccini, and found him rocking the cradle +of his youngest child, while the eldest was tugging at the paternal +coat-tails. The mother, being _en deshabille_, ran away at the sight +of a stranger. The duke excused himself for his want of ceremony, and +added, "I am delighted to see so great a man living in such simplicity, +and that the author of 'La Bonne Fille' is such a good father." +Piccini's placid and pleasant life was destined, however, to pass into +stormy waters. + +His sway over the stage and the popular preference continued until +1773, when a clique of envious rivals at Rome brought about his first +disaster. The composer was greatly disheartened, and took to his bed, +for he was ill alike in mind and body. The turning-point in his career +had come, and he was to enter into an arena which taxed his powers in a +contest such as he had not yet dreamed of. His operas having been +heard and admired in France, their great reputation inspired the +royal favorite, Mme. du Barry, with the hope of finding a successful +competitor to the great German composer, patronized by Marie Antoinette. +Accordingly, Piccini was offered an indemnity of six thousand francs, +and a residence in the hotel of the Neapolitan ambassador. When the +Italian arrived in Paris, Gluck was in full sway, the idol of the court +and public, and about to produce his "Armide." + +Piccini was immediately commissioned to write a new opera, and he +applied to the brilliant Marmontel for a libretto. The poet rearranged +one of Quinault's tragedies, "Roland," and Piccini undertook the +difficult task of composing music to words in a language as yet unknown +to him. Marcnontel was his unwearied tutor, and he writes in his +"Memoirs" of his pleasant yet arduous task: "Line by line, word by word, +I had everything to explain; and, when he had laid hold of the meaning +of a passage, I recited it to him, marking the accent, the prosody, +and the cadence of the verses. He listened eagerly, and I had the +satisfaction to know that what he heard was carefully noted. His +delicate ear seized so readily the accent of the language and the +measure of the poetry, that in his music he never mistook them. It was +an inexpressible pleasure to me to see him practice before my eyes an +art of which before I had no idea. His harmony was in his mind. He wrote +his airs with the utmost rapidity, and when he had traced its designs, +he filled up all the parts of the score, distributing the traits of +harmony and melody, just as a skillful painter would distribute on his +canvas the colors, lights, and shadows of his picture. When all this +was done, he opened his harpsichord, which he had been using as his +writing-table; and then I heard an air, a duet, a chorus, complete in +all its parts, with a truth of expression, an intelligence, a unity +of design, a magic in the harmony, which delighted both my ear and my +feelings." + +Piccini's arrival in Paris had been kept a close secret while he was +working on the new opera, but Abbe du Rollet ferreted it out, and +acquainted Gluck, which piece of news the great German took with +philosophical disdain. Indeed, he attended the rehearsal of "Roland;" +and when his rival, in despair over his ignorance of French and the +stupidity of the orchestra, threw down the baton in despair, Gluck took +it up, and by his magnetic authority brought order out of chaos +and restored tranquillity, a help as much, probably, the fruit of +condescension and contempt as of generosity. + +Still Gluck was not easy in mind over this intrigue of his enemies, and +wrote a bitter letter, which was made public, and aggravated the war +of public feeling. Epigrams and accusations flew back and forth like +hailstones.* + + * See article on Gluck in "Great German Composers." + +"Do you know that the Chevalier (Gluck's title) has an Armida and +Orlando in his portfolio?" said Abbe Arnaud to a Piccinist. + +"But Piccini is also at work on an Orlando," was the retort. + +"So much the better," returned the abbe, "for then we shall have an +Orlando and also an Orlandino," was the keen answer. + +The public attention was stimulated by the war of pamphlets, lampoons, +and newspaper articles. Many of the great _literati_ were Piccinists, +among them Marmontel, La Harpe, D'Alembert, etc. Suard du Rollet and +Jean Jacques Rousseau fought in the opposite ranks. Although the nation +was trembling on the verge of revolution, and the French had just lost +their hold on the East Indies; though Mirabeau was thundering in the +tribune, and Jacobin clubs were commencing their baleful work, soon to +drench Paris in blood, all factions and discords were forgotten. +The question was no longer, "Is he a Jansenist, a Molinist, an +Encyclopaedist, a philosopher, a free-thinker?" One question only was +thought of: "Is he a Gluckist or Piccinist?" and on the answer often +depended the peace of families and the cement of long-established +friendships. + +Piccini's opera was a brilliant success with the fickle Parisians, +though the Gluckists sneered at it as pretty concert music. The retort +was that Gluck had no gift of melody, though they admitted he had the +advantage over his rival of making more noise. The poor Italian was so +much distressed by the fierce contest that he and his family were in +despair on the night of the first representation. He could only say +to his weeping wife and son: "Come, my children, this is unreasonable. +Remember that we are not among savages; we are living with the politest +and kindest nation in Europe. If they do not like me as a musician, they +will at all events respect me as a man and a stranger." To do justico +to Piccini, a mild and timid man, he never took part in the controversy, +and always spoke of his opponent with profound respect and admiration. + + +III. + +Marie Antoinette, whom Mme. du Barry and her clique looked on as +Piccini's enemy, astonished both cabals by appointing Piccini her +singing-master, an unprofitable honor, for he received no pay, and was +obliged to give costly copies of his compositions to the royal family. +He might have quoted from the Latin poet in regard to this favor from +Marie Antoinette, whose faction in music, among other names, was known +as the Greek party, "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes." * + + * I fear the Greeks, though offering gifts. + +Beaumarchais, the brilliant author of "Figaro," had found the same +inconvenience when acting as court teacher to the daughters of Louis XV. +The French kings were parsimonious except when lavishing money on their +vices. + +The action of the dauphiness, however, paved the way for a +reconciliation between Piccini and Gluck. Berton, the manager of the +opera, gave a luxurious banquet, and the musicians, side by side, +pledged each other in libations of champagne. Gluck got confidential +in his cups. "These French," he said, "are good enough people, but they +make me laugh. They want us to write songs for them, and they can't +sing." In fact the quarrel was not between the musicians but their +adherents. In his own heart Piccini knew his inferiority to Gluck. + +De Vismes, Berton's successor, proposed that both should write operas on +the same subject, "Iphigenia in Tauris," and gave him a libretto. "The +French public will have for the first time," he said, "the pleasure of +hearing two operas on the same theme, with the same incidents, the +same characters, but composed by two great masters of totally different +schools." + +"But," objected the alarmed Italian, "if Gluck's opera is played first, +the public will be so delighted that they will not listen to mine." + +"To avoid that catastrophe," said the director, "we will play yours +first." + +"But Gluck will not permit it." + +"I give you my word of honor," said De Vismes, "that your opera shall be +put in rehearsal and brought out as soon as it is finished." + +Before Piccini had finished his opera, he heard that his rival was +back from Germany with his "Iphigenia" completed, and that it was in +rehearsal. The director excused himself on the plea of its being a royal +command. Gluck's work was his masterpiece, and produced an unparalleled +sensation among the Parisians. Even his enemies were silenced, and La +Harpe said it was the _chef d'oeuvre_ of the world. Piccini's work, +when produced, was admired, but it stood no chance with the profound, +serious, and wonderfully dramatic composition of his rival. + +On the night of the first performance Mile. Laguerre, to whom Piccini +had trusted the role of Iphigenia, could not stand straight from +intoxication. "This is not 'Iphigenia in Tauris,'" said the witty Sophie +Arnould, "but 'Iphigenia in champagne.'" She compensated afterward +though by singing the part with exquisite effect. + +While the Gluck-Piccini battle was at its height, an amateur who was +disgusted with the contest returned to the country and sang the praises +of the birds and their gratuitous performances in the following epigram: + + "La n'est point d'art, d'ennui scientifique; + Piccini, Gluck, n'ont point note les airs. + Nature seule en dicta la musique, + Et Marmontel n'en a pas fait les vers." + +The sentiment of this was probably applauded by the many who were +wearied of the bitter recriminations, which degraded the art which they +professed to serve. + +During the period when Gluck and Piccini were composing for the French +opera, its affairs flourished liberally under the sway of De Vismes. +Gluck, Piccini, and Rameau wrote serious operas, while Piccini, +Sacchini, Anfossi, and Paisiello composed comic operas. The ballet +flourished with unsurpassed splendor, and on the whole it may be said +that never has the opera presented more magnificence at Paris than +during the time France was on the eve of the Reign of Terror. The +gay capital was thronged with great singers, the traditions of whose +artistic ability compare favorably with those of a more recent period. + +The witty and beautiful Sophie Arnould, who had a train of princes at +her feet, was the principal exponent of Gluck's heroines, while Mile. +La-guerre was the mainstay of the Piccinists. The rival factions made +the names of these charming and capricious women their war-cries not +less than those of the composers. The public bowed and cringed before +these idols of the stage. Gaetan Vestris, the first of the family, known +as the "Dieu de la Danse," and who held that there were only three great +men in Europe, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Voltaire, and himself, +dared to dictate even to Gluck. "Write me the music of a chaconne, +Monsieur Gluek," said the god of dancing. + +"A chaconne!" said the enraged composer. "Do you think the Greeks, whose +manners we are endeavoring to depict, knew what a chaconne was?" + +"Did they not?" replied Vestris, astonished at this news, and in a tone +of compassion continued, "then they are much to be pitied." + +Vestris did not obtain his ballet music from the obdurate German; but, +when Piccini's rival "Iphigenie en Tauride" was produced, such beautiful +dance measures were furnished by the Italian composer as gave Vestris +the opportunity for one of his greatest triumphs. + + +IV. + +The contest between Gluck and Piccini, or rather the cabals who adopted +the two musicians as their figure-heads, was brought to an end by the +death of the former. An attempt was made to set up Sacchini in his +place, but it proved unavailing, as the new composer proved to be quite +as much a follower of the prevailing Italian method as of the new school +of Gluck. The French revolution swept away Piccini's property, and he +retired to Italy. Bad fortune pursued him, however. Queen Caroline of +Naples conceived a dislike to him and used her influence to injure his +career, out of a fit of wounded vanity. + +"Do you not think I remember my sister, Marie Antoinette?" queried the +somewhat ill-favored queen. Piccini, embarrassed but truthful, replied: +"Your majesty, there maybe a family likeness, but no resemblance." A +fatality attended him even to Venice. In 1792 he was mobbed and his +house burned, because the populace regarded him as a republican, for +he had a French son-in-law. Some partial musical successes, however, +consoled him, though they flattered his _amour propre_ more than they +benefited his purse. On his return to Naples he was subjected to a +species of imprisonment during four years, for royal displeasure in +those days did not confine itself merely to lack of court favor. Reduced +to great poverty, the composer who had been the favorite of the rich and +great for so many years knew often the actual pangs of hunger, and eked +out his subsistence by writing conventual psalms, as payment for the +broken food doled out by the monks. + +At last he was released, and the tenor, David, sent him funds to pay his +journey to Paris. Napoleon, the first consul, received him cordially in +the Luxembourg palace. + +"Sit down," said he to Piccini, who remained standing, "a man of your +greatness stands in no one's presence." His reception in Paris was, +in fact, an ovation. The manager of the opera gave him a pension of +twenty-four hundred francs, a government pension was also accorded, and +he was appointed sixth inspector at the Conservatory. But the benefits +of this pale gleam of wintry sunshine did not long remain. He died at +Passy in the year 1800, and was followed to the grave by a great throng +of those who loved his beautiful music and admired his gentle life. + +In the present day Gluck appears to have vanquished Piccini, because +occasionally an opera of the former is performed, while Piccini's works +are only known to the musical antiquarian. But even the marble temples +of Gluck are moss-grown and neglected, and that great man is known to +the present day rather as one whose influence profoundly colored and +changed the philosophy of opera, than through any immediate acquaintance +with his productions. The connoisseurs of the eighteenth century found +Piccini's melodies charming, but the works that endure as masterpieces +are not those which contain the greatest number of beauties, but those +of which the form is the most perfect. Gluck had larger conceptions +and more powerful genius than his Italian rival, but the latter's +sweet spring of melody gave him the highest place which had so far been +attained in the Italian operatic school. + +"Piccini," says M. Genguene, his biographer, "was under the middle size, +but well made, with considerable dignity of carriage. His countenance +was very agreeable. His mind was acute, enlarged, and cultivated. Latin +and Italian literature was familiar to him when he went to France, and +afterward he became almost as well acquainted with French literature. He +spoke and wrote Italian with great purity, but among his countrymen +he preferred the Neapolitan dialect, which he considered the most +expressive, the most difficult and the most figurative of all languages. +He used it principally in narration, with a gayety, a truth, and a +pantomimic expression after the manner of his country, which delighted +all his friends, and made his stories intelligible even to those who +knew Italian but slightly." + +As a musician Piccini was noticeable, according to the judgment of his +best critics, for the purity and simplicity of his style. He always +wished to preserve the supremacy of the voice, and, though he well knew +how to make his instrumentation rich and effective, he was a resolute +opponent to the florid and complex accompaniments which were coming into +vogue in his day. His recorded opinion on this subject may have some +interest for the musicians of the present day: "Were the employment +which Nature herself assigns to the instruments of an orchestra +preserved to them, a variety of effects and a series of infinitely +diversified pictures would be produced. But they are all thrown in at +once and used incessantly, and they thus overpower and indurate the +ear, without presenting any picture to the mind, to which the ear is +the passage. I should be glad to know how they will arouse it when it +is accustomed to this uproar, which will soon happen, and of what new +witchcraft they will avail themselves.... It is well known what occurs +to palates blunted by the use of spirituous liquors. In a few +months everything may be learned which is necessary to produce these +exaggerated effects, but it requires much time and study to be able to +excite genuine emotion." Piccini followed strictly the canons of the +Italian school; and, though far inferior in really great qualities to +his rival Gluck, his compositions had in them so much of fluent grace +and beauty as to place him at the head of his predecessors. Some curious +critics have indeed gone so far as to charge that many of the finest +arias of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini owe their paternity to this +composer, an indictment not uncommon in music, for most of the great +composers have rifled the sweets of their predecessors without scruple. + + +V. + +Paisiello and Cimarosa, in their style and processes of work, seem to +have more nearly caught the mantle of Piccini than any others, though +they were contemporaries as well as successors. Giovanni Paisiello, +born in 1741, was educated, like many other great musicians, at the +conservatory of San Onofrio. During his early life he produced a great +number of pieces for the Italian theatres, and in 1776 accepted the +invitation of Catherine to became the court composer at St. Petersburgh, +where he remained nine years and produced several of his best operas, +chief among them, "Il Barbiere di Seviglia" (a different version of +Beaumarchais's celebrated comedy from that afterward used by Rossini). + +The empress was devotedly attached to him and showed her esteem in many +signal ways. On one occasion, while Paisiello was accompanying her in +a song, she observed that he shuddered with the bitter cold. On this +Catherine took off her splendid ermine cloak, decorated with clasps of +brilliants, and threw it over her tutor's shoulders. In a quarrel which +Paisiello had with Marshal Beloseloky, the temporary favorite of the +Russian Messalina, her favor was shown in a still more striking way. The +marshal had given the musician a blow, on which Paisiello, a very large, +athletic man, drubbed the Russian general most unmercifully. The latter +demanded the immediate dismissal of the composer for having insulted a +dignitary of the empire. Catherine's reply was similar to the one made +by Francis the First of France in a parallel case about Leonardo da +Vinci: "I neither can nor will attend to your request;' you forgot your +dignity when you gave an unoffending man and a great artist a blow. Are +you surprised that he should have forgotten it too? As for rank, it is +in my power to make fifty marshals, but not one Paisiello." + +Some years after his return to Italy, he was engaged by Napoleon as +chapel-master; for that despot ruled the art and literature of his times +as autocratically as their politics. Though Paisiello did not wish to +obey the mandate, to refuse was ruin. The French ruler had already +shown his favor by giving him the preference over Cherubim in several +important musical contests, for the latter had always displayed stern +independence of courtly favor. On Paisiello's arrival in Paris, several +lucrative appointments indicated the sincerity of Napoleon's intentions. +The composer did not hesitate to stand on his rights as a musician +on all occasions. When Napoleon complained of the inefficiency of the +chapel service, he said, courageously: "I can't blame people for doing +their duty carelessly, when they are not justly paid." The cunning +Italian knew how to flatter, though, when occasion served. He once +addressed his master as "Sire." + +"'Sire,' what do you mean?" answered the first consul. "I am a general +and nothing more." + +"Well, General," continued the composer, "I have come to place myself at +your majesty's orders." + +"I must really beg you," rejoined Napoleon, "not to address me in this +manner." + +"Forgive me, General," said Paisiello. "But I cannot give up the habit +I have contracted in addressing sovereigns, who, compared with you, are +but pigmies. However, I will not forget your commands, and, if I have +been unfortunate enough to offend, I must throw myself on your majesty's +indulgence." + +Paisiello received ten thousand francs for the mass written for +Napoleon's coronation, and one thousand for all others. As he produced +masses with great rapidity, he could very well afford to neglect +operatic writing during this period. His masses were pasticcio work made +up of pieces selected from his operas and other compositions. This could +be easily done, for music is arbitrary in its associations. Love songs +of a passionate and sentimental cast were quickly made religious by +suitable words. Thus the same melody will depict equally well the rage +of a baffled conspirator, the jealousy of an injured husband, the grief +of lovers about to part, the despondency of a man bent on suicide, the +devotion of the nun, or the rapt adoration of worship. A different text +and a slight change in time effect the marvel, and hardly a composer +has disdained to borrow from one work to enrich another. His only opera +composed in Paris, "Proserpine," was not successful. + +Failure of health obliged Paisiello to return to Naples, when he +again entered the service of the king. Attached to the fortunes of the +Bonaparte family, his prosperity fell with theirs. He had been crowned +with honors by all the musical societies of the world, but his pensions +and emoluments ceased with the fall of Joachim Murat from the Neapolitan +throne. He died June 5,1816, and the court, which neglected him living, +gave him a magnificent funeral. + +"Paisiello," says the Chevalier Le Sueur, "was not only a great +musician, but possessed a large fund of general information. He was +well versed in the dead languages, acquainted with all branches of +literature, and on terms of friendship with the most distinguished +persons of the age. His mind was noble and above all mean passions; he +neither knew envy nor the feeling of rivalry.... He composed," says the +same writer, "seventy-eight operas, of which twenty-seven were serious, +and fifty-one comic, eight _intermezzi_, and an immense number of +cantatas, oratorios, masses, etc.; seven symphonies for King Joseph of +Spain, and many miscellaneous pieces for the court of Russia." + +Paisiello's style, according to Fetis, was characterized by great +simplicity and apparent facility. His few and unadorned notes, full of +grace, were yet deep and varied in their expression. In his simplicity +was the proof of his abundance. It was not necessary for him to have +recourse to musical artifice and complication to conceal poverty of +invention. His accompaniments were similar in character, clear and +picturesque, without pretense of elaboration. The latter not only +relieved and sustained the voice, but were full of original effects, +novel to his time. He was the author, too, of important improvements in +instrumental composition. He introduced the viola, clarinet, and bassoon +into the orchestra of the Italian opera. Though, voluminous both in +serious and comic opera, it was in the latter that he won his chief +laurels. His "Pazza per Amore" was one of the great Pasta's favorites, +and Catalani added largely to her reputation in the part of _La +Frascatana_. Several of Paisiello's comic operas still keep a dramatic +place on the German stage, where excellence is not sacrificed to +novelty. + + +VI. + +A still higher place must be assigned to another disciple and follower +of the school perfected by Piccini, Dominic Cimarosa, born in Naples +in 1754. His life down to his latter years was an uninterrupted flow of +prosperity. His mother, an humble washerwomen, could do little for her +fatherless child, but an observant priest saw the promise of the lad, +and taught him till he was old enough to enter the Conservatory of +St. Maria di Loretto. His early works showed brilliant invention and +imagination, and the young Cimarosa, before he left the Conservatory, +had made himself a good violinist and singer. He worked hard, during a +musical apprenticeship of many years, to lay a solid foundation for +the fame which his teachers prophesied for him from the onset. Like +Paisiello, he was for several years attached to the court of Catherine +II. of Russia. He had already produced a number of pleasing works, +both serious and comic, for the Italian theatres, and his faculty of +production was equaled by the richness and variety of his scores. +During a period of four years spent at the imperial court of the North, +Cimarosa produced nearly five hundred works, great and small, and +only left the service of his magnificent patroness, who was no less +passionately fond of art than she was great as a ruler and dissolute as +a woman, because the severe climate affected his health, for he was a +typical Italian in his temperament. + +He was arrested in his southward journey by the urgent persuasions of +the Emperor Leopold, who made him chapel-master, with a salary of twelve +thousand florins. The taste for the Italian school was still paramount +at the musical capital of Austria. Though such composers as Haydn, +Salieri, and young Mozart, who had commenced to be welcomed as an +unexampled prodigy, were in Vienna, the court preferred the suave and +shallow beauties of Italian music to their own serious German school, +which was commencing to send down such deep roots into the popular +heart. + +Cimarosa produced "Il Matrimonio Segreto" (The Secret Marriage), +his finest opera, for his new patron. The libretto was founded on a +forgotten French operetta, which again was adapted from Garrick and +Colman's "Clandestine Marriage." The emperor could not attend the first +representation, but a brilliant audience hailed it with delight. Leopold +made amends, though, on the second night, for he stood in his box, and +said, aloud: + +"Bravo, Cimarosa, bravissimo! The whole opera is admirable, delightful, +enchanting! I did not applaud, that I might not lose a single note of +this masterpiece. You have heard it twice, and I must have the same +pleasure before I go to bed. Singers and musicians pass into the next +room. Cimarosa will come, too, and preside at the banquet prepared for +you. When you have had sufficient rest, we will begin again. I +encore the whole opera, and in the mean while let us applaud it as it +deserves." + +The emperor gave the signal, and, midst a thunderstorm of plaudits, the +musicians passed into their midnight feast. There is no record of any +other such compliment, except that to the Latin dramatist, Plautus, +whose "Eunuchus" was performed twice on the same day. + +Yet the same Viennese public, six years before, had actually hissed +Mozart's "Nozze di Figaro," which shares with Rossini's "Il Barbiere" +the greatest rank in comic opera, and has retained, to this day, its +perennial freshness and interest. Cimarosa himself did not share the +opinion of his admirers in respect to Mozart. A certain Viennese painter +attempted to flatter him, by decrying Mozart's music in comparison with +his own. The following retort shows the nobility of genius: "I, sir? +What would you call the man who would seek to assure you that you were +superior to Raphael?" Another acute rejoinder, on the respective merits +of Mozart and Cimarosa, was made by the French composer, Gretry, in +answer to a criticism by Napoleon, when first consul, that great man +affecting to be a _dilettante_ in music: + +"Sire, Cimarosa puts the statue on the theatre and the pedestal in the +orchestra, instead of which Mozart puts the statue in the orchestra and +the pedestal on the theatre." + +The composer's hitherto brilliant career was doomed to a gloomy close. +On returning to Naples, at the Emperor Leopold's death, Cimarosa +produced several of his finest works, among which musical students place +first: "Il Matrimonio per Susurro," "La Penelope," "L'Olimpiade," "II +Sacrificio d'Abramo," "Gli Amanti Comici," and "Gli Orazi." These were +performed almost simultaneously in the theatres of Paris, Naples, and +Vienna. Cimarosa attached himself warmly to the French cause in Italy, +and when the Bourbons finally triumphed the musician suffered their +bitterest resentment. He narrowly escaped with his life, and languished +for a long time in a dungeon, so closely immured that it was for a long +time believed by his friends that his head had fallen on the block. + +At length released, he quitted the Neapolitan territory, only to die at +Venice, in a few months, "in consequence," Stendhal says, in his "Life +of Rossini," "of the barbarous treatment he had met with in the prison +into which he had been thrown by Queen Caroline." He died January 11, +1801. + +Cimarosa's genius embraced both the tragic and comic schools of +composition. He may be specially called a genuine master of musical +comedy. He was the finest example of the school perfected by Piccini, +and was indeed the link between the old Italian opera and the new +development of which Rossini is such a brilliant exponent. Schluter, in +his "History of Music," says of him: "Like Mozart, he excels in +those parts of an opera which decide its merits as a work of art, the +_ensembles_ and _finale_. His admirable, and by no means antiquated +opera, 'Il Matrimonio Segreto' (the charming offspring of his 'secret +marriage' with the Mozart opera) is a model of exquisite and graceful +comedy. The overture bears a striking resemblance to that of 'Figaro,' +and the instrumentation of the whole opera is highly characteristic, +though not so prominent as in Mozart. Especially delightful are the +secret love-scenes, written evidently _con amore_, the composer having +practised them many a time in his youth." + +This opera is still performed in many parts of Europe to delighted +audiences, and is ranked by competent critics as the third finest +comic opera extant, Mozart and Rossini only surpassing him in their +masterpieces. It was a great favorite with Lablache, and its magnificent +performance by Grisi, Mario, Tamburini, and the king of bassos, is a +gala reminiscence of English and French opera-goers. + +We quote an opinion also from another able authority: "The drama of 'Gli +Orazi' is taken from Corneille's tragedy 'Les Horaces.' The music is +full of noble simplicity, beautiful melody, and strong expression. In +the airs dramatic truth is never sacrificed to vocal display, and the +concerted pieces are grand, broad, and effective. Taken as a whole, the +piece is free from antiquated and obsolete forms; and it wants nothing +but an orchestral score of greater fullness and variety to satisfy +the modern ear. It is still frequently performed in Germany, though +in France and England, and even in its native country, it seems to be +forgotten." + +Cardinal Consalvi, Cimarosa's friend, caused splendid funeral honors to +be paid to him at Rome. Canova executed a marble bust of him, which was +placed in the gallery of the Capitol. + + + + +ROSSINI. + + +I. + +The "Swan of Pesaro" is a name linked with some of the most charming +musical associations of this age. Though forty years silence made +fruitless what should have been the richest creative period of Rossini's +life, his great works, poured forth with such facility, and still +retaining their grasp in spite of all changes in public opinion, stamp +him as being the most gifted composer ever produced by a country so +fecund in musical geniuses. The old set forms of Italian opera had +already yielded in large degree to the energy and pomp of French +declamation, when Rossini poured into them afresh such exhilaration and +sparkle as again placed his country in the van of musical Europe. +With no pretension to the grand, majestic, and severe, his fresh and +delightful melodies, flowing without stint, excited alike the critical +and the unlearned into a species of artistic craze, a mania which has +not yet subsided. The stiff and stately Oublicheff confesses, with many +compunctions of conscience, that, when listening for the first time to +one of Rossini's operas, he forgot for the time being all that he had +ever known, admired, played, or sung, for he was musically drunk, as if +with champagne. Learned Germans might shake their heads and talk about +shallowness and contrapuntal rubbish, his _crescendo_ and _stretto_ +passages, his tameness and uniformity even in melody, his want of +artistic finish; but, as Richard Wagner, his direct antipodes, frankly +confesses in his "Oper und Drama," such objections were dispelled +by Rossini's opera-airs as if they were mere delusions of the fancy. +Essentially different from Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Haydn, or even +Weber, with whom he has some affinities, he stands a unique figure in +the history of art, an original both as man and musician. + +Gioacchino Rossini was the son of a town-trumpeter and an operatic +singer of inferior rank, born in Pesaro, Romagna, February 29, 1792. The +child attended the itinerant couple in their visits to fairs and musical +gatherings, and was in danger, at the age of seven, of becoming +a thorough-paced little vagabond, when maternal alarm trusted his +education to the friendly hands of the music-master Prinetti. At this +tender age even he had been introduced to the world of art, for he sang +the part of a child at the Bologna opera. + +"Nothing," said Mme. Georgi-Righetti, "could be imagined more tender, +more touching, than the voice and action of this remarkable child." + +The young Rossini, after a year or two, came under the notice of the +celebrated teacher Tesei, of Bologna, who gave him lessons in pianoforte +playing and the voice, and obtained him a good place as boy-soprano +at one of the churches. He now attracted the attention of the Countess +Perticari, who admired his voice, and she sent him to the Lyceum to +learn fugue and counterpoint at the feet of a very strict Gamaliel, +Padre Mallei. The youth was no dull student, and, in spite of his +capricious indolence, which vexed the soul of his tutor, he made such +rapid progress that at the age of sixteen he was chosen to write the +cantata, annually awarded to the most promising student. Success greeted +the juvenile effort, and thus we see Rossini fairly launched as a +composer. Of the early operas which he poured out for five years it is +not needful to speak, except that one of them so pleased the austere +Marshal Massena that he exempted the composer from conscription. +The first opera which made Rossini's name famous through Europe was +"Tancredi," written for the Venetian public. To this opera belongs the +charming "Di tanti palpiti," written under the following circumstances: +Mme. Melanotte, the _prima donna_, took the whim during the final +rehearsal that she would not sing the opening air, but must have +another. Rossini went home in sore disgust, for the whole opera was +likely to be put off by this caprice. There were but two hours before +the performance, he sat waiting for his macaroni, when an exquisite air +came into his head, and it was written in five minutes. + +After his great success he received offers from almost every town in +Italy, each clamoring to be served first. Every manager was required +to furnish his theatre with an opera from the pen of the new idol. For +these earlier essays he received a thousand francs each, and he wrote +five or six a year. Stendhall, Rossini's spirited biographer, gives +a picturesque account of life in the Italian theatres at this time, a +status which remains in some of its features to-day: + +"The mechanism is as follows: The manager is frequently one of the most +wealthy and considerable persons of the little town he inhabits. He +forms a company consisting of _prima donna, tenoro, basso cantante, +basso buffo_, a second female singer, and a third _basso_. The +_libretto_, or poem, purchased for sixty or eighty francs from some +lucky son of the muses, who is generally a half-starved abbe, the +hanger-on of some rich family in the neighborhood. The character of the +parasite, so admirably painted by Terence, is still to be found in all +its glory in Lombardy, where the smallest town can boast of some five or +six families of some wealth. + +"A _maestro_, or composer, is then engaged to write a new opera, and +he is obliged to adapt his own airs to the voices and capacity of the +company. The manager intrusts the care of the financial department to +a _registrario_, who is generally some pettifogging attorney, who holds +the position of his steward. The next thing that generally happens is +that the manager falls in love with the _prima donna_; and the progress +of this important amour gives ample employment to the curiosity of the +gossips. + +"The company thus organized at length gives its first representation, +after a month of cabals and intrigues, which furnish conversation for +the town. This is an event in the simple annals of the town, of the +importance of which the residents of large places can form no idea. +During months together a population of eight or ten thousand people do +nothing but discuss the merit of the forthcoming music and singers +with the eager impetuosity which belongs to the Italian character and +climate. The first representation, if successful, is generally followed +by twenty or thirty more of the same piece, after which the company +breaks up.... From this little sketch of theatrical arrangements in +Italy some idea may be formed of the life which Rossini led from 1810 to +1816." Between these years he visited all the principal towns, remaining +three or four months at each, the idolized guest of the _dilettanti_ +of the place. Rossini's idleness and love of good cheer always made +him procrastinate his labors till the last moment, and placed him in +dilemmas from which only his fluency of composition extricated him. His +biographer says: + +"The day of performance is fast approaching, and yet he cannot resist +the pressing invitations of these friends to dine with them at the +tavern. This, of course, leads to a supper, the champagne circulates +freely, and the hour of morning steals on apace. At length a +compunctious visiting shoots across the mind of the truant composer. He +rises abruptly; his friends insist on seeing him home; and they parade +the silent streets bareheaded, shouting in chorus whatever comes +uppermost, perhaps a portion of a _miserere_, to the great scandal of +pious Catholics tucked snugly in their beds. At length he reaches +his lodging, and shutting himself up in his chamber is, at this, to +every-day mortals, most ungenial hour, visited by some of his most +brilliant inspirations. These he hastily scratches down on scraps +of paper, and next morning arranges them, or, in his own phrase, +instruments them, amid the renewed interruptions of his visitors. At +length the important night arrives. The _maestro_ takes his place at +the pianoforte. The theatre is overflowing, people having flocked to the +town from ten leagues distance. Every inn is crowded, and those unable +to get other accommodations encamp around the theatre in their various +vehicles. All business is suspended, and, during the performances, the +town has the appearance of a desert. The passions, the anxieties, the +very life of a whole population are centered in the theatre." + +Rossini would preside at the first three representations, and, after +receiving a grand civic banquet, set out for the next place, his +portmanteau fuller of music-paper than of other effects, and perhaps +a dozen sequins in his pocket. His love of jesting during these gay +Bohemian wanderings made him perpetrate innumerable practical jokes, +not sparing himself when he had no more available food for mirth. On one +occasion, in traveling from Ancona to Reggio, he passed himself off for +a musical professor, a mortal enemy of Rossini, and sang the words of +his own operas to the most execrable music, in a cracked voice, to show +his superiority to that donkey, Rossini. An unknown admirer of his was +in such a rage that he was on the point of chastising him for slandering +the great musician, about whom Italy raved. + +Our composer's earlier style was quite simple and unadorned, a fact +difficult for the present generation, only acquainted with the florid +beauties of his later works, to appreciate. Rossini only followed +the traditions of Italian music in giving singers full opportunity to +embroider the naked score at their own pleasure. He was led to change +this practice by the following incident. The tenor-singer Velluti was +then the favorite of the Italian theatres, and indulged in the most +unwarrantable tricks with his composers. During the first performance +of "L'Aureliano," at Naples, the singer loaded the music with such +ornaments that Rossini could not recognize the offspring of his own +brains. A fierce quarrel ensued between the two, and the composer +determined thereafter to write music of such a character that the most +stupid singer could not suppose any adornment needed. From that time the +Rossini music was marked by its florid and brilliant embroidery. Of the +same Velluti, spoken of above, an incident is told, illustrating the +musical craze of the country and the period. A Milanese gentleman, +whose father was very ill, met his friend in the street--"Where are you +going?" "To the Scala to be sure." "How! your father lies at the point +of death." "Yes! yes! I know, but Velluti sings to-night." + + +II. + +An important step in Rossini's early career was his connection with the +widely known impresario of the San Carlo, Naples, Barbaja. He was under +contract to produce two new operas annually, to rearrange all old +scores, and to conduct at all of the theatres ruled by this manager. He +was to receive two hundred ducats a month, and a share in the profits of +the bank of the San Carlo gambling-saloon. His first opera composed here +was "Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra," which was received with a +genuine Neapolitan _furore_. Rossini was feted and caressed by the +ardent _dilettanti_ of this city to his heart's content, and was such an +idol of the "fickle fair" that his career on more than one occasion +narrowly escaped an untimely close, from the prejudice of jealous +spouses. The composer was very vain of his handsome person, and boasted +of his _escapades d'amour_. Many, too, will recall his _mot_, spoken to +a beauty standing between himself and the Duke of Wellington: "Madame, +how happy should you be to find yourself placed between the two greatest +men in Europe!" + +One of Rossini's adventures at Naples has in it something of romance. He +was sitting in his chamber, humming one of his own operatic airs, when +the ugliest Mercury he had ever seen entered and gave him a note, then +instantly withdrew. This, of course, was a tender invitation, and an +assignation at a romantic spot in the suburb. On arriving Rossini +sang his _aria_ for a signal, and from the gate of a charming park +surrounding a small villa appeared his beautiful and unknown inamorata. +On parting it was agreed that the same messenger should bring notice of +the second appointment. Rossini suspected that the lady, in disguise, +was her own envoy, and verified the guess by following the light-footed +page. He then discovered that she was the wife of a wealthy Sicilian, +widely noted for her beauty, and one of the reigning toasts. On renewing +his visit, he had barely arrived at the gate of the park, when a +carbine-bullet grazed his head, and two masked assailants sprang toward +him with drawn rapiers, a proceeding which left Rossini no option but to +take to his heels, as he was unarmed. + +During the composer's residence at Naples he was made acquainted with +many of the most powerful princes and nobles of Europe, and his name +became a recognized factor in European music, though his works were +not widely known outside of his native land. His reputation for genius +spread by report, for all who came in contact with the brilliant, +handsome Rossini were charmed. That which placed his European fame on +a solid basis was the production of "Il Barbiere di Seviglia" at Rome +during the carnival season of 1816. + +Years before Rossini had thought of setting the sparkling comedy of +Beaumarchais to music, and Sterbini, the author of the _libretto_ used +by Paisiello, had proposed to rearrange the story. Rossini, indeed, had +been so complaisant as to write to the older composer for permission to +set fresh music to the comedy; a concession not needed, for the plays +of Metastasio had been used by different musicians without scruple. +Paisiello intrigued against the new opera, and organized a conspiracy to +kill it on the first night. Sterbini made the libretto totally different +from the other, and Rossini finished the music in thirteen days, during +which he never left the house. "Not even did I get shaved," he said to a +friend. "It seems strange that through the 'Barber' you should have gone +without shaving." "If I had shaved," Rossini explained, "I should have +gone out; and, if I had gone out, I should not have come back in time." + +The first performance was a curious scene. The Argentina Theatre was +packed with friends and foes. One of the greatest of tenors, Garcia, the +father of Malibran and Pauline Viardot, sang Almaviva. Rossini had been +weak enough to allow Garcia to sing a Spanish melody for a serenade, for +the latter urged the necessity of vivid national and local color. The +tenor had forgotten to tune his guitar, and in the operation on the +stage a string broke. This gave the signal for a tumult of ironical +laughter and hisses. The same hostile atmosphere continued during the +evening. Even Madame Georgi-Righetti, a great favorite of the Romans, +was coldly received by the audience. In short, the opera seemed likely +to be damned. + +When the singers went to condole with Rossini, they found him enjoying a +luxurious supper with the gusto of the _gourmet_ that he was. Settled +in his knowledge that he had written a masterpiece, he could not be +disturbed by unjust clamor. The next night the fickle Romans made ample +amends, for the opera was concluded amid the warmest applause, even from +the friends of Paisiello. + +Rossini's "Il Barbiere," within six months, was performed on nearly +every stage in Europe, and received universally with great admiration. +It was only in Paris, two years afterward, that there was some coldness +in its reception. Every one said that after Paisiello's music on the +same subject it was nothing, when it was suggested that Paisiello's +should be revived. So the St. Petersburg "Barbiere" of 1788 was +produced, and beside Rossini's it proved so dull, stupid, and antiquated +that the public instantly recognized the beauties of the work which they +had persuaded themselves to ignore. Yet for this work, which placed the +reputation of the young composer on a lofty pedestal, he received only +two thousand francs. + +Our composer took his failures with great phlegm and good nature, based, +perhaps, on an invincible self-confidence. When his "Sigismonde" had +been hissed at Venice, he sent his mother a _fiasco_ (bottle). In +the last instance he sent her, on the morning succeeding the first +performance, a letter with a picture of a _fiaschetto_ (little bottle). + + +III. + +The same year (1816) was produced at Naples the opera of "Otello," which +was an important point of departure in the reforms introduced by Rossini +on the Italian stage. Before speaking further of this composer's career, +it is necessary to admit that every valuable change furthered by him had +already been inaugurated by Mozart, a musical genius so great that he +seems to have included all that went before, all that succeeded him. It +was not merely that Rossini enriched the orchestration to such a degree, +but, revolting from the delay of the dramatic movement, caused by +the great number of arias written for each character, he gave large +prominence to the concerted pieces, and used them where monologue had +formerly been the rule. He developed the basso and baritone parts, +giving them marked importance in serious opera, and worked out the +choruses and finales with the most elaborate finish. + +Lord Mount Edgcumbe, a celebrated connoisseur and admirer of the old +school, wrote of these innovations, ignoring the fact that Mozart had +given the weight of his great authority to them before the daring young +Italian composer: + +"The construction of these newly-invented pieces is essentially +different from the old. The dialogue, which used to be carried on in +recitative, and which, in Metastasio's operas, is often so beautiful +and interesting, and now cut up (and rendered unintelligible if it +were worth listening to) into _pezzi concertati_, or long singing +conversations, which present a tedious succession of unconnected, +ever-changing motives, having nothing to do with each other; and if a +satisfactory air is for a moment introduced, which the ear would like +to dwell upon, to hear modulated, varied, and again returned to, it is +broken off, before it is well understood, by a sudden transition in an +entirely different melody, time, and key, and recurs no more, so that +no impression can be made, or recollection of it preserved. Single songs +are almost exploded.... Even the _prima donna_, who formerly would have +complained at having less than three or four airs allotted to her, is +now satisfied with having one single _cavatina_ given to her during the +whole opera." + +In "Otello," Rossini introduced his operatic changes to the Italian +public, and they were well received; yet great opposition was manifested +by those who clung to the time-honored canons. Sigismondi, of the Naples +Conservatory, was horror-stricken on first seeing the score of this +opera. The clarionets were too much for him, but on seeing third and +fourth horn-parts, he exclaimed: "What does the man want? The greatest +of our composers have always been contented with two. Shades of +Pergolesi, of Leo, of Jomelli! How they must shudder at the bare +thought! Four horns! Are we at a hunting-party? Four horns! Enough to +blow us to perdition!" Donizetti, who was Sigismondi's pupil, also tells +an amusing incident of his preceptor's disgust. He was turning over a +score of "Semiramide" in the library, when the _maestro_ came in and +asked him what music it was. "Rossini's," was the answer. Sigismondi +glanced at the page and saw 1. 2. 3. trumpets, being the first, second, +and third trumpet parts. Aghast, he shouted, stuffing his fingers in +his ears, "One hundred and twenty-three trumpets! _Corpo di Cristo!_ +the world's gone mad, and I shall go mad too!" And so he rushed from the +room, muttering to himself about the hundred and twenty-three trumpets. + +The Italian public, in spite of such criticism, very soon accepted the +opera of "Otello" as the greatest serious opera ever written for their +stage. It owed much, however, to the singers who illustrated its roles. +Mme. Colbran, afterward Rossini's wife, sang Desdemona, and Davide, +Otello. The latter was the predecessor of Rubini as the finest singer of +the Rossinian music. He had the prodigious compass of three octaves; +and M. Bertin, a French critic, says of this singer, so honorably linked +with the career of our composer: "He is full of warmth, _verve_, energy, +expression, and musical sentiment; alone he can fill up and give life to +a scene; it is impossible for another singer to carry away an audience +as he does, and, when he will only be simple, he is admirable. He is the +Rossini of song; he is the greatest singer I ever heard." Lord Byron, +in one of his letters to Moore, speaks of the first production at Milan, +and praises the music enthusiastically, while condemning the libretto as +a degradation of Shakespeare. + +"La Cenerentola" and "La Gazza Ladra" were written in quick succession +for Naples and Milan. The former of these works, based on the old +Cinderella myth, was the last opera written by Rossini to illustrate the +beauties of the contralto voice, and Madame Georgi-Righetti, the early +friend and steadfast patroness of the musician during his early days of +struggle, made her last great appearance in it before retiring from the +stage. In this composition, Rossini, though one of the most affluent +and rapid of composers, displays that economy in art which sometimes +characterized him. He introduced in it many of the more beautiful airs +from his earlier and less successful works. He believed on principle +that it was folly to let a good piece of music be lost through being +married to a weak and faulty libretto. The brilliant opera of "La +Gazza Ladra," set to the story of a French melodrama, "La Pie Voleuse," +aggravated the quarrel between Paer, the director of the French opera, +and the gifted Italian. Paer had designed to have written the music +himself, but his librettist slyly turned over the poem to Rossini, who +produced one of his masterpieces in setting it. The audience at La Scala +received the work with the noisiest demonstrations, interrupting the +progress of the drama with constant cries of "_Bravo! Maestro!" "Viva +Rossini!"_ The composer afterward said that acknowledging the calls of +the audience fatigued him much more than the direction of the opera. +When the same work was produced four years after in London, under Mr. +Ebers's management, an incident related by that _impresario_ in his +"Seven Years of the King's Theatre" shows how eagerly it was received by +an English audience. + +"When I entered the stage door, I met an intimate friend, with a long +face and uplifted eyes. 'Good God! Ebers, I pity you from my soul. This +ungrateful public,' he continued. 'The wretches! Why! my dear sir, they +have not left you a seat in your own house.' Relieved from the fears he +had created, I joined him in his laughter, and proceeded, assuring him +that I felt no ill toward the public for their conduct toward me." + +Passing over "Armida," written for the opening of the new San Carlo +at Naples, "Adelaida di Borgogna," for the Roman Carnival of 1817, +and "Adina," for a Lisbon theatre, we come to a work which is one of +Rossini's most solid claims on musical immortality, "Mose in Egitto," +first produced at the San Carlo, Naples, in 1818. In "Mose," Rossini +carried out still further than ever his innovations, the two principal +roles--_Mose, and Faraoni_--being assigned to basses. On the first +representation, the crossing of the Red Sea moved the audience to +satirical laughter, which disconcerted the otherwise favorable reception +of the piece, and entirely spoiled the final effects. The manager was at +his Avit's end, till Tottola, the librettist, suggested a prayer for the +Israelites before and after the passage of the host through the cleft +waters. Rossini instantly seized the idea, and, springing from bed in +his night-shirt, wrote the music with almost inconceivable rapidity, +before his embarrassed visitors recovered from their surprise. The same +evening the magnificent _Dal tuo stellato soglio_ ("To thee, Great +Lord") was performed with the opera. + +Let Stendhall, Rossini's biographer, tell the rest of the story: "The +audience was delighted as usual with the first act, and all went well +till the third, when, the passage of the Red Sea being at hand, the +audience as usual prepared to be amused. The laughter was just beginning +in the pit, when it was observed that Moses was about to sing. He began +his solo, the first verse of a prayer, which all the people repeat in +chorus after Moses. Surprised at this novelty, the pit listened and +the laughter entirely ceased. The chorus, exceedingly fine, was in the +minor. Aaron continues, followed by the people. Finally, Eleia addresses +to Heaven the same supplication, and the people respond. Then all fall +on their knees and repeat the prayer with enthusiasm; the miracle is +performed, the sea is opened to leave a path for the people protected +by the Lord. This last part is in the major. It is impossible to imagine +the thunders of applause that resounded through the house: one would +have thought it was coming down. The spectators in the boxes, standing +up and leaning over, called out at the top of their voices, '_Bello, +bello! O che hello!_', I never saw so much enthusiasm nor such a +complete success, which was so much the greater, inasmuch as the people +were quite prepared to laugh.... I am almost in tears when I think of +this prayer. This state of things lasted a long time, and one of its +effects was to make for its composer the reputation of an assassin, +for Dr. Cottogna is said to have remarked: 'I can cite to you more than +forty attacks of nervous fever or violent convulsions on the part of +young women, fond to excess of music, which have no other origin than +the prayer of the Hebrews in the third act, with its superb change of +key.'" Thus by a stroke of genius, a scene which first impressed the +audience as a piece of theatrical burlesque, was raised to sublimity by +the solemn music written for it. + +M. Bochsa some years afterward produced "Mose" as an oratorio in London, +and it failed. A new libretto, however, "Pietro L'Eremito,"* again +transformed the music into an opera. + + * The same music was set to a poem founded on the first + crusade, all the most effective situations being + dramatically utilized for the Christian legend. + +Ebers tells us that Lord Sefton, a distinguished connoisseur, only +pronounced the general verdict in calling it the greatest of serious +operas, for it was received with the greatest favor. A gentleman of high +rank was not satisfied with assuring the manager that he had deserved +well of his country, but avowed his determination to propose him for +membership at the most exclusive of aristocratic clubs--White's. + +"La Donna del Lago," Rossini's next great work, also first produced at +the San Carlo during the Carnival of 1820, though splendidly performed, +did not succeed well the first night. The composer left Naples the same +night for Milan, and coolly informed every one _en route_ that the +opera was very successful, which proved to be true when he reached his +journey's end, for the Neapolitans on the second night reversed their +decision into an enthusiasm as marked as their coldness had been. + +Shortly after this Rossini married his favorite _prima donna_, Madame +Colbran. He had just completed two of his now forgotten operas, "Bianca +e Faliero," and "Matilda di Shabran," but did not stay to watch their +public reception. He quietly took away the beautiful Colbran, and at +Bologne was married by the archbishop. Thence the freshly-wedded couple +visited Vienna, and Rossini there produced his "Zelmira," his wife +singing the principal part. One of the most striking of this composer's +works in invention and ingenious development of ideas, Carpani says +of it: "It contains enough to furnish not one but four operas. In this +work, Rossini, by the new riches which he draws from his prodigious +imagination, is no longer the author of 'Otello,' 'Tancredi,' 'Zoraide,' +and all his preceding works; he is another composer, new, agreeable, +and fertile, as much as at first, but with more command of himself, more +pure, more masterly, and, above all, more faithful to the interpretation +of the words. The forms of style employed in this opera according +to circumstances are so varied, that now we seem to hear Gluck, now +Traetta, now Sacchini, now Mozart, now Handel; for the gravity, the +learning, the naturalness, the suavity of their conceptions, live and +blossom again in 'Zelmira.' The transitions are learned, and inspired +more by considerations of poetry and sense than by caprice and a mania +for innovation. The vocal parts, always natural, never trivial, give +expression to the words without ceasing to be melodious. The great +point is to preserve both. The instrumentation of Rossini is really +incomparable by the vivacity and freedom of the manner, by the variety +and justness of the coloring." Yet it must be conceded that, while this +opera made a deep impression on musicians and critics, it did not please +the general public. It proved languid and heavy with those who could not +relish the science of the music and the skill of the combinations. Such +instances as this are the best answer to that school of critics, +who have never ceased clamoring that Rossini could write nothing but +beautiful tunes to tickle the vulgar and uneducated mind. + +"Semiramide," first performed at the Fenice theatre in Venice on +February 3, 1823, was the last of Rossini's Italian operas, though it +had the advantage of careful rehearsals and a noble caste. It was not +well received at first, though the verdict of time places it high among +the musical masterpieces of the century. In it were combined all of +Rossini's, ideas of operatic reform, and the novelty of some of the +innovations probablv accounts for the inability of his earlier public to +appreciate its merits. Mme. Rossini made her last public appearance in +this great work. + + +IV. + +Henceforward the career of the greatest of the Italian composers, the +genius who shares with Mozart the honor of having impressed himself more +than any other on the style and methods of his successors, was to +be associated with French music, though never departing from his +characteristic quality as an original and creative mind. He modified +French music, and left great disciples on whom his influence was +radical, though perhaps we may detect certain reflex influences in his +last and greatest opera, "William Tell." But of this more hereafter. + +Before finally settling in the French capital, Rossini visited London, +where he was received with great honors. "When Rossini entered,"* says +a writer in a London paper of that date, "he was received with loud +plaudits, all the persons in the pit standing on the seats to get a +better view of him. + + * His first English appearance in public was at the King's + Theatre on the 24th of January, 1824, when he conducted his + own opera, "Zelmira." + +He continued for a minute or two to bow respectfully to the audience, +and then gave the signal for the overture to begin. He appeared stout +and somewhat below the middle height, with rather a heavy air, and a +countenance which, though intelligent, betrayed none of the vivacity +which distinguishes his music; and it was remarked that he had more of +the appearance of a sturdy, beef-eating Englishman, than a fiery and +sensitive native of the south." + +The king, George IV., treated Rossini with peculiar consideration. On +more than one occasion he walked with him arm-in-arm through a crowded +concert-hall to the conductor's stand. Yet the composer, who seems +not to have admired his English Majesty, treated the monarch with much +independence, not to say brusqueness, on one occasion, as if to signify +his disdain of even royal patronage. At a grand concert at St. James's +Palace, the king said, at the close of the programme, "Now, Rossini, +we will have one piece more, and that shall be the _finale_." The other +replied, "I think, sir, we have had music enough for one night," and +made his bow. + +He was an honored guest at the most fashionable houses, where his +talents as a singer and player were displayed with much effect in an +unconventional, social way. Auber, the French composer, was present on +one of these occasions, and indicates how great Rossini could have been +in executive music had he not been a king in the higher sphere. "I shall +never forget the effect," writes Auber, "produced by his lightning-like +execution. When he had finished I looked mechanically at the ivory +keys. I fancied I could see them smoking." Rossini was richer by seven +thousand pounds by this visit to the English metropolis. Though he had +been under engagement to produce a new opera as well as to conduct those +which had already made him famous, he failed to keep this part of his +contract. Passages in his letters at this time would seem to indicate +that Rossini was much piqued because the London public received his +wife, to whom he was devotedly attached, with coldness. Notwithstanding +the beauty of her face and figure, and the greatness of her style both +as actress and singer, she was pronounced _passee_ alike in person +and voice, with a species of brutal frankness not uncommon in English +criticism. + +When Rossini arrived in Paris he was almost immediately appointed +director of the Italian Opera by the Duc de Lauriston. With this and the +Academie he remained connected till the revolution of 1830. "Le Siege +de Corinthe," adapted from his old work, "Maometto II.," was the first +opera presented to the Parisian public, and, though admired, did not +become a favorite. The French _amour propre_ was a little stung when it +was made known that Rossini had simply modified and reshaped one of his +early and immature productions as his first attempt at composition in +French opera. His other works for the French stage were "Il Viaggio a +Rheims," "Le Comte Ory," and "Guillaume Tell." + +The last-named opera, which will ever be Rossini's crown of glory as a +composer, was written with his usual rapidity while visiting the chateau +of M. Aguado, a country-seat some distance from Paris. This work, one of +the half-dozen greatest ever written, was first produced at the Academie +Royale on August 3, 1829. In its early form of libretto it had a run of +fifty-six representations, and was then withdrawn from the stage; and +the work of remodeling from five to three acts, and other improvements +in the dramatic framework, was thoroughly carried out. In its new form +the opera blazed into an unprecedented popularity, for of the greatness +of the music there had never been but one judgment. Fetis, the eminent +critic, writing of it immediately on its production, said, "The work +displays a new man in an old one, and proves that it is in vain to +measure the action of genius," and follows with, "This production opens +a new career to Rossini," a prophecy unfortunately not to be realized, +for Rossini was soon to retire from the field in which he had made such +a remarkable career, while yet in the very prime of his powers. + +"Guillaume Tell" is full of melody, alike in the solos and the massive +choral and ballet music. It runs in rich streams through every part of +the composition. The overture is better known to the general public +than the opera itself, and is one of the great works of musical art. +The opening andante in triple time for the five violoncelli and double +basses at once carries the hearer to the regions of the upper Alps, +where amid the eternal snows Nature sleeps in a peaceful dream. We +perceive the coming of the sunlight, and the hazy atmosphere clearing +away before the newborn day. In the next movement the solitude is +all dispelled. The raindrops fall thick and heavy, and a thunderstorm +bursts. But the fury is soon spent, and the clouds clear away. The +shepherds are astir, and from the mountain-sides come the peculiar +notes of the "Ranz des Vaches" from their pipes. Suddenly all is changed +again. + +Trumpets call to arms, and with the mustering battalions the music +marks the quickstep, as the shepherd patriots march to meet the +Austrian chivalry. A brilliant use of the violins and reeds depicts +the exultation of the victors on their return, and closes one of the +grandest sound-paintings in music. + +The original cast of "Guillaume Tell" included the great singers then +in Paris, and these were so delighted with the music, that the morning +after the first production they assembled on the terrace before his +house and performed selections from it in his honor. + +With this last great effort Rossini, at the age of thirty-seven, may +be said to have retired from the field of music, though his life was +prolonged for forty years. True, he composed the "Stabat Mater" and the +"Messe Solennelle," but neither of these added to the reputation won +in his previous career. The "Stabat Mater," publicly performed for the +first time in 1842, has been recognized, it is true, as a masterpiece; +but its entire lack of devotional solemnity, its brilliant and showy +texture, preclude its giving Rossini any rank as a religious composer. + +He spent the forty years of his retirement partly at Bologna, partly at +Passy, near Paris, the city of his adoption. His hospitality welcomed +the brilliant men from all parts of Europe who loved to visit him, and +his relations with other great musicians were of the most kindly and +cordial character. His sunny and genial nature never knew envy, and +he was quick to recognize the merits of schools opposed to his own. He +died, after intense suffering, on November 13, 1868. He had been some +time ill, and four of the greatest physicians in Europe were his almost +constant attendants. The funeral of "The Swan of Pesaro," as he was +called by his compatriots, was attended by an immense concourse, and his +remains rest in Pere-Lachaise. + + +V. + +Moscheles, the celebrated pianist, gives us some charming pictures of +Rossini in his home at Passy, in his diary of 1860. He writes: "Felix +[his son] had been made quite at home in the villa on former occasions. +To me the _parterre salon_, with its rich furniture, was quite new, and +before the _maestro_ himself appeared we looked at his photograph in a +circular porcelain frame, on the sides of which were inscribed the names +of his works. The ceiling is covered with pictures illustrating scenes +out of Palestrina's and Mozart's lives; in the middle of the room stands +a Pleyel piano. When Rossini came in he gave me the orthodox Italian +kiss, and was effusive of expressions of delight at my reappearance, +and very complimentary on the subject of Felix. In the course of our +conversation he was full of hard-hitting truths on the present study and +method of vocalization. 'I don't want to hear anything more of it,' he +said; 'they scream. All I want is a resonant, full-toned voice, not +a screeching voice. I care not whether it be for speaking or singing, +everything ought to sound melodious.'" So, too, Rossini assured +Moscheles that he hated the new school of piano-players, saying the +piano was horribly maltreated, for the performers thumped the keys as +if they had some vengeance to wreak on them. When the great player +improvised for Rossini, the latter says: "It is music that flows from +the fountain-head. There is reservoir water and spring water. The former +only runs when you turn the cock, and is always redolent of the vase; +the latter always gushes forth fresh and limpid. Nowadays people +confound the simple and the trivial; a _motif_ of Mozart they would call +trivial, if they dared." + +On other occasions Moscheles plays to the _maestro_, who insists on +having discovered barriers in the "humoristic variations," so boldly do +they seem to raise the standard of musical revolution; his title of the +"Grand Valse" he finds too unassuming. "Surely a waltz with some angelic +creature must have inspired you, Moscheles, with this composition, and +_that_ the title ought to express. Titles, in fact, should pique the +curiosity of the public." "A view uncongenial to me," adds Moscheles; +"however, I did not discuss it.... A dinner at Rossini's is calculated +for the enjoyment of a 'gourmet,' and he himself proved to be the one, +for he went through the very select _menu_ as only a connoisseur would. +After dinner he looked through my album of musical autographs with the +greatest interest, and finally we became very merry, I producing my +musical jokes on the piano, and Felix and Clara figuring in the duet +which I had written for her voice and his imitation of the French +horn. Rossini cheered lustily, and so one joke followed another till we +received the parting kiss and 'good night.'... At my next visit, +Rossini showed me a charming 'Lied oline Worte,' which he composed only +yesterday; a graceful melody is embodied in the well-known technical +form. Alluding to a performance of 'Semiramide,' he said with a +malicious smile, 'I suppose you saw the beautiful decorations in it?' He +has not received the Sisters Marchisio for fear they should sing to +him, nor has he heard them in the theatre; he spoke warmly of Pasta, +Lablache, Rubini, and others, then he added that I ought not to look +with jealousy upon his budding talent as a pianoforte-player, but that, +on the contrary, I should help to establish his reputation as such in +Leipsic. He again questioned me with much interest about my intimacy +with Clementi, and, calling me that master's worthy successor, he said +he should like to visit me in Leipsic, if it were not for those dreadful +railways, which he would never travel by. All this in his bright and +lively way; but when we came to discuss Chevet, who wishes to supplant +musical notes by ciphers, he maintained in an earnest and dogmatic +tone that the system of notation, as it had developed itself since +Pope Gregory's time, was sufficient for all musical requirements. He +certainly could not withhold some appreciation for Chevet, but refused +to indorse the certificate granted by the Institute in his favor; the +system he thought impracticable. + +"The never-failing stream of conversation flowed on until eleven +o'clock, when I was favored with the inevitable kiss, which on this +occasion was accompanied by special farewell blessings." + +Shortly after Moscheles had left Paris, his son forwarded to him most +friendly messages from Rossini, and continues thus: "Rossini sends you +word that he is working hard at the piano, and, when you next come +to Paris, you shall find him in better practice.... The conversation +turning upon German music, I asked him 'which was his favorite among the +great masters?' Of Beethoven he said: 'I take him twice a week, Haydn +four times, and Mozart every day. You will tell me that Beethoven is a +Colossus who often gives you a dig in the ribs, while Mozart is always +adorable; it is that the latter had the chance of going very young to +Italy, at a time when they still sang well.' Of Weber he says, 'He has +talent enough, and to spare' (Il a du talent a revendre, celui-la). He +told me in reference to him, that, when the part of 'Tancred' was sung +at Berlin by a bass voice, Weber had written violent articles not only +against the management, but against the composer, so that, when Weber +came to Paris, he did not venture to call on Rossini, who, however, let +him know that he bore him no grudge for having made these attacks; on +receipt of that message Weber called and they became acquainted. + +"I asked him if he had met Byron in Venice? 'Only in a restaurant,' was +the answer, 'where I was introduced to him; our acquaintance, therefore, +was very slight; it seems he has spoken of me, but I don't know what he +says.' I translated for him, in a somewhat milder form, Byron's words, +which happened to be fresh in my memory: 'They have been crucifying +Othello into an opera; the music good but lugubrious, but, as for the +words, all the real scenes with Iago cut out, and the greatest nonsense +instead, the handkerchief turned into a billet-doux, and the first +singer would not black his face--singing, dresses, and music very good.' +The _maestro_ regretted his ignorance of the English language, and said, +'In my day I gave much time to the study of our Italian literature. +Dante is the man I owe most to; he taught me more music than all my +music-masters put together, and when I wrote my 'Otello,' I would +introduce those lines of Dante--you know the song of the gondolier. +My librettist would have it that gondoliers never sang Dante, and but +rarely Tasso, but I answered him, 'I know all about that better than +you, for I have lived in Venice and you haven't. Dante I must and will +have.'" + + +VI. + +An ardent disciple of Wagner sums up his ideas of the mania for +the Rossini music, which possessed Europe for fifteen years, in the +following: "Rossini, the most gifted and spoiled of her sons [speaking +of Italy] sallied forth with an innumerable army of Bacchantic melodies +to conquer the world, the Messiah of joy, the breaker of thought and +sorrow. Europe, by this time, had tired of the empty pomp of French +declamation. It lent but too willing an ear to the new gospel, and +eagerly quaffed the intoxicating potion, which Rossini poured out in +inexhaustible streams." This very well expresses the delight of all the +countries of Europe in music which for a long time almost monopolized +the stage. + +The charge of being a mere tune-spinner, the denial of invention, depth, +and character, have been common watchwords in the mouths of critics +wedded to other schools. But Rossini's place in music stands unshaken by +all assaults. The vivacity of his style, the freshness of his melodies, +the richness of his combinations, made all the Italian music that +preceded him pale and colorless. No other writer revels in such luxury +of beauty, and delights the ear with such a succession of delicious +surprises in melody. + +Henry Chorley, in his "Thirty Years' Musical Recollections," rebukes the +bigotry which sees nothing good but in its own kind: "I have never been +able to understand why this [referring to the Rossinian richness of +melody] should be contemned as necessarily false and meretricious--why +the poet may not be allowed the benefit of his own period and time--why +a lover of architecture is to be compelled to swear by the _Dom_ +at Bamberg, or by the Cathedral at Monreale--that he must abhor and +denounce Michel Angelo's church or the Baths of Diocletian at Rome--why +the person who enjoys 'Il Barbiere' is to be denounced as frivolously +faithless to Mozart's 'Figaro'--and as incapable of comprehending +'Fidelio,' because the last act of 'Otello' and the second of 'Guillaume +Tell' transport him into as great an enjoyment of its kind as do +the duet in the cemetery between 'Don Juan' and 'Leporello' and the +'Prisoners' Chorus.' How much good, genial pleasure has not the world +lost in music, owing to the pitting of styles one against the other! +Your true traveler will be all the more alive to the beauty of Nuremberg +because he has looked out over the 'Golden Shell' at Palermo; nor +delight in Rhine and Danube the less because he has seen the glow of a +southern sunset over the broken bridge at Avignon." + +As grand and true as are many of the essential elements in the Wagner +school of musical composition, the bitterness and narrowness of spite +with which its upholders have pursued the memory of Rossini is equally +offensive and unwarrantable. Rossini, indeed, did not revolutionize +the forms of opera as transmitted to him by his predecessors, but he +reformed and perfected them in various notable ways. Both in comic +and serious opera, music owes much to Rossini. He substituted genuine +singing for the endless recitative of which the Italian opera before him +largely consisted; he brought the bass and baritone voices to the front, +banished the pianoforte from the orchestra, and laid down the principle +that the singer should deliver the notes written for him without +additions of his own. He gave the chorus a much more important part than +before, and elaborated the concerted music, especially in the _finales_, +to a degree of artistic beauty before unknown in the Italian opera. +Above all, he made the operatic orchestra what it is to-day. Every new +instrument that was invented Rossini found a place for in his brilliant +scores, and thereby incurred the warmest indignation of all writers +of the old school. Before him the orchestras had consisted largely of +strings, but Rossini added an equally imposing clement of the brasses +and reeds. True, Mozart had forestalled Rossini in many if not all these +innovations, a fact which the Italian cheerfully admitted; for, with +the simple frankness characteristic of the man, he always spoke of his +obligations to and his admiration of the great German. To an admirer who +was one day burning incense before him, Rossini said, in the spirit of +Cimarosa quoted elsewhere: "My 'Barber' is only a bright farce, but in +Mozart's 'Marriage of Figaro' you have the finest possible masterpiece +of musical comedy." + +With all concessions made to Mozart as the founder of the forms of +modern opera, an equally high place must be given to Rossini for the +vigor and audacity with which he made these available, and impressed +them on all his contemporaries and successors. Though Rossini's +self-love was flattered by constant adulation, his expressions of +respect and admiration for such composers as Mozart, Gluck, Beethoven, +and Cherubini display what a catholic and generous nature he possessed. +The judgment of Ambros, a severe critic, whose bias was against Rossini, +shows what admiration was wrung from him by the last opera of the +composer: "Of all that particularly characterizes Rossini's early operas +nothing is discoverable in 'Tell;' there is none of his usual mannerism; +but, on the contrary, unusual richness of form and careful finish of +detail, combined with grandeur of outline. Meretricious embellishment, +shakes, runs, and cadences are carefully avoided in this work, which is +natural and characteristic throughout; even the melodies have not the +stamp and style of Rossini's earlier times, but only their graceful +charm and lively coloring." + +Rossini must be allowed to be unequaled in genuine comic opera, and +to have attained a distinct greatness in serious opera, to be the most +comprehensive and at the same time the most national composer of Italy, +to be, in short, the Mozart of his country. After all has been admitted +and regretted--that he gave too little attention to musical science; +that he often neglected to infuse into his work the depth and passion of +which it was easily capable; that he placed too high a value on merely +brilliant effects _ad captandum vulgus_--there remains the fact that his +operas embody a mass of imperishable music, which will live with the +art itself. Musicians of every country now admit his wondrous grace, +his fertility and freshness of invention, his matchless treatment of the +voice, his effectiveness in arrangement of the orchestra. He can +never be made a model, for his genius had too much spontaneity and +individuality of color. But he impressed and modified music hardly less +than Gluck, whose tastes and methods were entirely antagonistic to his +own. That he should have retired from the exercise of his art while in +the full flower of his genius is a perplexing fact. No stranger story +is recorded in the annals of art with respect to a genius who filled +the world with his glory, and then chose to vanish, "not unseen." On +finishing his crowning stroke of genius and skill in "William Tell," he +might have said with Shakespeare's enchanter, Prospero: + + ".... But this magic I here abjure; and when I have required + Some heavenly music (which even now I do) + To work mine end upon their senses that + This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff-- + Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, + And, deeper than did ever plummet sound, I'll drown my book." + +A bright English critic, whose style is as charming as his judgments are +good, says, in his study of the Donizetti music: "I find myself thinking +of his music as I do of Domenichino's pictures of 'St. Agnes' and the +'Rosario' in the Bologna gallery, of the 'Diana' in the Borghese Palace +at Rome, as pictures equable and skillful in the treatment of their +subjects, neither devoid of beauty of form nor of color, but which +make neither the pulse quiver nor the eye wet; and then such a sweeping +judgment is arrested by a work like the 'St. Jerome' in the Vatican, +from which a spirit comes forth so strong and so exalted, that the +beholder, however trained to examine, and compare, and collect, finds +himself raised above all recollections of manner by the sudden ascent +of talent into the higher world of genius. Essentially a second-rate +composer,* Donizetti struck out some first-rate things in a happy hour, +such as the last act of 'La Favorita.'" + + * Mr. Chorley probably means "second-rate" as compared with + the few very great names, which can be easily counted on the + fingers. + +Both Donizetti and Bellini, though far inferior to their master in +richness of resources, in creative faculty and instinct for what may +be called dramatic expression in pure musical form, were disciples of +Rossini in their ideas and methods of work. Milton sang of Shakespeare-- + + "Sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, + "Warbles his native wood-notes wild!" + +In a similar spirit, many learned critics have written of Rossini, and +if it can be said of him in a musical sense that he had "little Latin +and less Greek," still more true is it of the two popular composers +whose works have filled so large a space in the opera-house of the last +thirty years, for their scores are singularly thin, measured by the +standard of advanced musical science. Specially may this be said of +Bellini, in many respects the greater of the two. There is scarcely +to be found in music a more signal example to show that a marked +individuality may rest on a narrow base. In justice to him, however, it +may be said that his early death prevented him from doing full justice +to his powers, for he had in him the material out of which the great +artist is made. Let us first sketch the career of Donizetti, the author +of sixty-four operas, besides a mass of other music, such as cantatas, +ariettas, duets, church music, etc., in the short space of twenty-six +years. + +Gaetano Donizetti was born at Bergamo, September 25, 1798, his father +being a man of moderate fortune.* + + * Admirers of the author of "Don Pasquale" and "Lucia" may + be interested in knowing that Donizetti was of Scotch + descent. His grandfather was a native of Perthshire, named + Izett. The young Scot was beguiled by the fascinating tongue + of a recruiting-sergeant into his Britannic majesty's + service, and was taken prisoner by General La Hoche during + the latter's invasion of Ireland. Already tired of a + private's life, he accepted the situation, and was induced + to become the French general's private secretary. + Subsequently he drifted to Italy, and married an Italian + lady of some rank, denationalizing his own name into + Donizetti. The Scottish predilections of our composer show + themselves in the music of "Don Pasquale," noticeably in + "Com' e gentil;" and the score of "Lucia" is strongly + flavored by Scottish sympathy and minstrelsy. + +Receiving a good classical education, the young Gaeetano had three +careers open before him: the bar, to which the will of his father +inclined; architecture, indicated by his talent for drawing; and music, +to which he was powerfully impelled by his own inclinations. His +father sent him, at the age of seventeen, to Bologna to benefit by the +instruction of Padre Mattel, who had also been Rossini's master. The +young man showed no disposition for the heights of musical science as +demanded by religious composition, and, much to his father's disgust, +avowed his determination to write dramatic music. Paternal anger, for +the elder Donizetti seems to have had a strain of Scotch obstinacy and +austerity, made the youth enlist as a soldier, thinking to find time for +musical work in the leisure of barrack-life. His first opera, "Enrico +di Borgogna," was so highly admired by the Venetian manager, to whom, it +was offered, that he induced friends of his to release young Donizetti +from his military servitude. He now pursued musical composition with a +facility and industry which astonished even the Italians, familiar with +feats of improvisation. In ten years twenty-eight operas were produced. +Such names as "Olivo e Pasquale," "La Convenienze Teatrali," "Il +Borgomaestro di Saardam," "Gianni di Calais," "L'Esule di Roma," "Il +Castello di Kenilworth," "Imelda di Lambertazzi," have no musical +significance, except as belonging to a catalogue of forgotten titles. +Donizetti was so poorly paid that need drove him to rapid composition, +which could not wait for the true afflatus. + +It was not till 1831 that the evidence of a strong individuality was +given, for hitherto he had shown little more than a slavish imitation +of Rossini. "Anna Bolena" was produced at Milan and gained him great +credit, and even now, though it is rarely sung even in Italy, it is +much respected as a work of art as well as of promise. It was first +interpreted by Pasta and Rubini, and Lablache won his earliest London +triumph in it. "Marino Faliero" was composed for Paris in 1835, and +"L'Elisir d'Amore," one of the most graceful and pleasing of Donizetti's +works, for Milan in 1832. "Lucia di Lammermoor," based on Walter Scott's +novel, was given to the public in 1835, and has remained the most +popular of the composer's operas. _Edgardo_ was written for the great +French tenor, Duprez, _Lucia_ for Persiani. + +Donizetti's kindness of heart was illustrated by the interesting +circumstances of his saving an obscure Neapolitan theatre from ruin. +Hearing that it was on the verge of suspension and the performers +in great distress, the composer sought them out and supplied their +immediate wants. The manager said a new work from the pen of Donizetti +would be his salvation. "You shall have one within a week," was the +answer. + +Lacking a subject, he himself rearranged an old French vaudeville, and +within the week the libretto was written, the music composed, the parts +learned, the opera performed, and the theatre saved. There could be no +greater proof of his generosity of heart and his versatility of talent. +In these days of bitter quarreling over the rights of authors in their +works, it may be amusing to know that Victor Hugo contested the rights +of Italian librettists to borrow their plots from French plays. When +"Lucrezia Borgia," composed for Milan in 1834, was produced at Paris +in 1840, the French poet instituted a suit for an infringement of +copyright. He gained his action, and "Lucrezia Borgia" became "La +Rinegata," Pope Alexander the Sixth's Italians being metamorphosed into +Turks.* + + * Victor Hugo did the same thing with Verdi's "Ernani," and + other French authors followed with legal actions. The matter + was finally arranged on condition of an indemnity being paid + to the original French dramatists. The principle involved + had been established nearly two centuries before. In a + privilege granted to St. Amant in 1653 for the publication + of his "Moise Sauve," it was forbidden to extract from that + epic materials for a play or poem. The descendants of + Beaumarchais fought for the same concession, and not very + long ago it was decided that the translators and arrangers + of "Le Nozze di Figaro" for the Theatre Lyrique must share + their receipts with the living representatives of the author + of "Le Mariage de Figaro." + +"Lucrezia Borgia," which, though based on one of the most dramatic of +stories and full of beautiful music, is not dramatically treated by the +composer, seems to mark the distance about half way between the styles +of Rossini and Verdi. In it there is but little recitative, and in the +treatment of the chorus we find the method which Verdi afterward came to +use exclusively. When Donizetti revisited Paris in 1840 he produced in +rapid succession "I Martiri," "La Fille du Regiment," and "La Favorita." +In the second of these works Jenny Lind, Sontag, and Alboni won bright +triumphs at a subsequent period. + + +II. + +"La Favorita," the story of which was drawn from "L'Ange de Nigida," +and founded in the first instance on a French play, "Le Comte de +Commingues," was put on the stage at the Academie with a magnificent +cast and scenery, and achieved a success immediately great, for as +a dramatic opera it stands far in the van of all the composer's +productions. The whole of the grand fourth act, with the exception of +one cavatina, was composed in three hours. Donizetti had been dining at +the house of a friend, who was engaged in the evening to go to a ball. +On leaving the house, his host, with profuse apologies, begged +the composer to stay and finish his coffee, of which Donizetti was +inordinately fond. The latter sent out for music paper, and, finding +himself in the vein for composition, went on writing till the completion +of the work. He had just put the final stroke to the celebrated "_Viens +dans un autre patrie_" when his friend returned at one in the morning +to congratulate him on his excellent method of passing the time, and to +hear the music sung for the first time from Donizetti's own lips. + +After visiting Rome, Milan, and Vienna, for which last city he wrote +"Linda di Chamouni," our composer returned to Paris, and in 1843 wrote +"Don Pasquale" for the Theatre Italien, and "Don Sebastian" for +the Academie. Its lugubrious drama was fatal to the latter, but the +brilliant gayety of "Don Pasquale," rendered specially delightful by +such a magnificent cast as Grisi, Mario, Tamburini, and Lablache, made +it one of the great art attractions of Paris, and a Fortunatus purse for +the manager. The music of this work perhaps is the best ever written by +Donizetti, though it lacks the freshness and sentiment of his "Elisir +d'Amore," which is steeped in rustic poetry and tenderness like a rose +wet with dew. The production of "Maria di Rohan" in Vienna the same +year, an opera with some powerful dramatic effects and bold music, gave +Ronconi the opportunity to prove himself not merely a fine buffo singer, +but a noble tragic actor. In this work Donizetti displays that rugged +earnestness and vigor so characteristic of Verdi; and, had his life been +greatly prolonged, we might have seen him ripen into a passion and power +at odds with the elegant frivolity which for the most part tainted +his musical quality. Donizetti's last opera, "Catarina Comaro" the +sixty-third one represented, was brought out at Naples in the year 1844 +without adding aught to his reputation. Of this composer's long list of +works only ten or eleven retain any hold on the stage, his best serious +operas being "La Favorita," "Linda," "Anna Bolena," "Lucrezia Borgia," +and "Lucia;" the finest comic works, "L'Elisir d'Amore," "La Fille du +Regiment," and "Don Pasquale." + +In composing Donizetti never used the pianoforte, writing with great +rapidity and never making corrections. Yet curious to say, he could +not do anything without a small ivory scraper by his side, though never +using it. It was given him by his father when commencing his career, +with the injunction that, as he was determined to become a musician, he +should make up his mind to write as little rubbish as possible, advice +which Donizetti sometimes forgot. + +The first signs of the malady, which was the cause of the composer's +death, had already shown themselves in 1845. Fits of hallucination and +all the symptoms of approaching derangement displayed themselves with +increasing intensity. An incessant worker, overseer of his operas on +twenty stages, he had to pay the tax by which his fame became his ruin. +It is reported that he anticipated the coming scourge, for during the +rehearsals of "Don Sebastian" he said, "I think I shall go mad yet." +Still he would not put the bridle on his restless activity. At last +paralysis seized him, and in January, 1846, he was placed under the +care of the celebrated Dr. Blanche at Ivry. In the hope that the mild +influence of his native air might heal his distempered brain, he was +sent to Bergamo, in 1848, but died in his brother's arms April 8th. +The inhabitants of the Peninsula were then at war with Austria, and +the bells that sounded the knell of Donizetti's departure mingled their +solemn peals with the roar of the cannon fired to celebrate the victory +of Goito. + +His faithful valet, Antoine, wrote to Adolphe Adam, describing his +obsequies: "More than four thousand persons," he relates, "were present +at the ceremony. The procession was composed of the numerous clergy of +Bergamo, the most illustrious members of the community and its environs, +and of the civic guard of the town and the suburbs. The discharge of +musketry, mingled with the light of three or four thousand torches, +presented a fine effect; the whole was enhanced by the presence of +three military bands and the most propitious weather it was possible to +behold. The young gentlemen of Bergamo insisted on bearing the remains +of their illustrious fellow-townsman, although the cemetery was a league +and a half from the town. The road was crowded its whole length by +people who came from the surrounding country to witness the procession; +and to give due praise to the inhabitants of Bergamo, never, hitherto, +had such great honors been bestowed upon any member of that city." + + +III. + +The future author of "Norma" and "La Sonnambula," Bellini, took his +first lessons in music from his father, an organist at Catania.* + + * Bellini was born in 1802, nine years after his + contemporary and rival, Donizetti, and died in 1835, + thirteen years before. + +He was sent to the Naples Conservatory by the generosity of a noble +patron, and there was the fellow-pupil of Mercadante, a composer who +blazed into a temporary lustre which threatened to outshine his fellows, +but is now forgotten except by the antiquarian and the lover of church +music. Bellini's early works, for he composed three before he was +twenty, so pleased Barbaja, the manager of the San Carlo and La Scala, +that he intrusted the youth with the libretto of "Il Pirata," to be +composed for representation at Florence. The tenor part was written for +the great singer, Rubini, whose name has no peer among artists, since +male sopranos were abolished by the outraged moral sense of society. +Rubini retired to the country with Bellini, and studied, as they were +produced, the simple touching airs with which he so delighted the public +on the stage. + +La Scala rang with plaudits when the opera was produced, and Bellini's +career was assured. "I Capuletti" was his next successful opera, +performed at Venice in 1829, but it never became popular out of Italy. + +The significant period of Bellini's life was in the year 1831, which +produced "La Sonnambula," to be followed by "Norma" the next season. +Both these were written for and introduced before the Neapolitan public. +In these works he reached his highest development, and by them he is +best known to fame. The opera-story of "La Sonnambula," by Romani, +an accomplished writer and scholar, is one of the most artistic and +effective ever put into the hands of a composer. M. Scribe had already +used the plot both as the subject of a vaudeville and a choregraphie +drama; but in Romani's hands it became a symmetrical story full of +poetry and beauty. The music of this opera, throbbing with pure melody +and simple emotion, as natural and fresh as a bed of wild flowers, went +to the heart of the universal public, learned and unlearned; and, in +spite of its scientific faults, it will never cease to delight future +generations, as long as hearts beat and eyes are moistened with human +tenderness and sympathy. And yet, of this work an English critic wrote, +on its first London presentation: + +"Bellini has soared too high; there is nothing of grandeur, no touch of +true pathos in the common-place workings of his mind. He cannot reach +the _opera semiseria_; he should confine his powers to the musical +drama, the one-act _opera buffa_." But the history of art-criticism is +replete with such instances. + +"Norma" was also a grand triumph for the young composer from the outset, +especially as the lofty character of the Druid priestess was sung by +that unapproachable lyric tragedienne, the Siddons of the opera, Madame +Pasta. Bellini is said to have had this queen of dramatic song in +his mind in writing the opera, and right nobly did she vindicate his +judgment, for no European audience afterward but was thrilled and +carried away by her masterpiece of acting and singing in this part. + +Bellini himself considered "Norma" his _chef d'oeuvre_. A beautiful +Parisienne attempted to extract from his reluctant lips his preference +of his own works. The lady finally overcame his evasions by the query: +"But if you were out at sea, and should be shipwrecked--" "Ah!" he +cried, without allowing her to finish. "I would leave all the rest and +try to save 'Norma.'" + +"I Puritani" was composed for and performed at Paris in 1834, by that +splendid quartette of artists, Grisi, Rubini, Tamburini, and Lablache. +Bellini compelled the singers to execute after _his_ style. While Rubini +was rehearsing the tenor part, the composer cried out in rage: "You put +no life into your music. Show some feeling. Don't you know what love +is?" Then changing his tone: "Don't you know your voice is a goldmine +that has not been fully explored? You are an excellent artist, but that +is not sufficient. You must forget yourself and represent _Gualtiero_. +Let's try again." The tenor, stung by the admonition, then gave the part +magnificently. After the success of "I Puritani," the composer received +the Cross of the Legion of Honor, an honor then not often bestowed. +The "Puritani" season is still remembered, it is said, with peculiar +pleasure by the older connoisseurs of Paris and London, as the +enthusiasm awakened in musical circles has rarely been equaled. + +Bellini had placed himself under contract to write two new works +immediately, one for Paris, the other for Naples, and retired to the +villa of a friend at Puteaux to insure the more complete seclusion. +Here, while pursuing his art with almost sleepless ardor, he was +attacked by his fatal malady, intestinal fever. + +"From his youth up," says his biographer Mould, "Vincenzo's eagerness in +his art was such as to keep him at the piano night and day, till he was +obliged forcibly to leave it. The ruling passion accompanied him through +his short life, and by the assiduity with which he pursued it brought on +the dysentery which closed his brilliant career, peopling his last +hours with the figures of those to whom his works owed so much of their +success." + +During the moments of delirium which preceded his death, he was +constantly speaking of Lablache, Tamburini, and Grisi; and one of his +last recognizable impressions was that he was present at a brilliant +representation of his last opera at the Salle Favart. His earthly career +closed September 23, 1835, at the age of thirty-one. + +On the eve of his interment, the Theatre Italien reopened with the +"Puritani." It was an occasion full of solemn gloom. Both the +musicians and audience broke from time to time into sobs. Tamburini, in +particular, was so oppressed by the death of his young friend that his +vocalization, generally so perfect, was often at fault, while the faces +of Grisi, Rubini, and Lablache too plainly showed their aching hearts. + +Rossini, Cherubini, Paer, and Carafa had charge of the funeral, and M. +Habeneck, _chef d'orchestre_ of the Academie Royale, of the music. The +next remarkable piece on the funeral programme was a _Lacrymosa_ for +four voices without accompaniment, in which the text of the Latin +hymn was united to the beautiful tenor melody in the third act of +the "Puritani." This was executed by Rubini, Ivanoff, Tamburini, and +Lablache. The services were performed at the Church of the Invalides, +and the remains were interred in Pere Lachaise. + +Rossini had ever shown great love for Bellini, and Rosario Bellini, +the stricken father, wrote to him a touching letter, in which, after +speaking of his grief and despair, the old man said: + +"You always encouraged the object of my eternal regret in his labors; +you took him under your protection, you neglected nothing that could +increase his glory and his welfare. After my son's death, what have +you not done to honor my son's name and render it dear to posterity? I +learned this from the newspapers; and I am penetrated with gratitude for +your excessive kindness as well as for that of a number of distinguished +artists, which also I shall never forget. Pray, sir, be my interpreter, +and tell these artists that the father and family of Bellini, as well as +of our compatriots of Catania, will cherish an imperishable recollection +of this generous conduct. I shall never cease to remember how much you +did for my son. I shall make known everywhere, in the midst of my tears, +what an affectionate heart belongs to the great Rossini, and how kind, +hospitable, and full of feeling are the artists of France." + +Bellini was affable, sincere, honest, and affectionate. Nature gave him +a beautiful and ingenuous face, noble features, large, clear blue eyes, +and abundant light hair. His countenance instantly won on the regards +of all that met him. His disposition was melancholy; a secret depression +often crept over his most cheerful hours. We are told there was a +tender romance in his earlier life. The father of the lady he loved, +a Neapolitan judge, refused his suit on account of his inferior social +position. When Bellini became famous the judge wished to make amends, +but Bellini's pride interfered. Soon after the young lady, who loved him +unalterably, died, and it was said the composer never recovered from the +shock. + + +IV. + +Donizetti and Bellini were peculiarly moulded by the great genius of +Rossini, but in their best works they show individuality, color, and +special creative activity. The former composer, one of the most affluent +in the annals of music, seemed to become more fresh in his fancies +with increased production. He is an example of how little the skill and +touch, belonging to unceasing work, should be despised in comparison +with what is called inspiration. Donizetti arrived at his freshest +creations at a time when there seemed but little left for him except the +trite and threadbare. There are no melodies so rich and well fancied as +those to be found in his later works; and in sense of dramatic form +and effective instrumentation (always a faulty point with Donizetti) he +displayed great progress at the last. It is, however, a noteworthy fact, +that the latest Italian composers have shown themselves quite weak +in composing expressly for the orchestra. No operatic overture since +"William Tell" has been produced by this school of music, worthy to be +rendered in a concert-room. + +Donizetti lacked the dramatic instinct in conceiving his music. In +attempting it he became hollow and theatric; and beautiful as are the +melodies and concerted pieces in "Lucia," where the subject ought to +inspire a vivid dramatic nature with such telling effects, it is in the +latter sense one of the most disappointing of operas. + +He redeemed himself for the nonce, however, in the fourth act of "La +Favorita," where there is enough musical and dramatic beauty to condone +the sins of the other three acts. The solemn and affecting church chant, +the passionate romance for the tenor, the great closing duet in which +the ecstasy of despair rises to that of exaltation, the resistless +sweep of the rhythm--all mark one of the most effective single acts ever +written. He showed himself here worthy of companionship with Rossini and +Meyerbeer. + +In his comic operas, "L'Elisir d'Amore," "La Fille du Regiment," and +"Don Pasquale," there is a continual well-spring of sunny, bubbling +humor. They are slight, brilliant, and catching, everything that +pedantry condemns, and the popular taste delights in. Mendelssohn, the +last of the German classical composers, admired "L'Elisir" so much that +he said he would have liked to have written it himself. It may be said +that while Donizetti lacks grand conceptions, or even great heauties +for the most part, his operas contain so much that is agreeable, so many +excellent opportunities for vocal display, such harmony between sound +and situation, that he will probably retain a hold on the stage when +much greater composers are only known to the general public by name. + +Bellini, with less fertility and grace, possessed far more +picturesqueness and intensity. His powers of imagination transcended his +command over the working tools of his art. Even more lacking in exact +and extended musical science than Donizetti, he could express what came +within his range with a simple vigor, grasp, and beauty, which make +him a truly dramatic composer. In addition to this, a matter which many +great composers ignore, Bellini had extraordinary skill in writing music +for the voice, not that which merely gave opportunity for executive +trickery and embellishment, but the genuine accents of passion, pathos, +and tenderness, in forms best adapted to be easily and effectively +delivered. + +He had no flexibility, no command over mirthful inspiration, such as +we hear in Mozart, Rossini, or even Donizetti. But his monotone is in +sublile rapport with the graver aspects of nature and life. Chorley sums +up this characteristic of Bellini in the following words: + +"In spite of the inexperience with which the instrumental score is +filled up, the opening scene of 'Norma' in the dim druidical wood +bears the true character of ancient sylvan antiquity. There is daybreak +again--a fresh tone of reveille--in the prelude to 'I Puritani.' If +Bellini's genius was not versatile in its means of expression, if it had +not gathered all the appliances by which science fertilizes Nature, it +beyond all doubt included appreciation of truth, no less than instinct +for beauty." + + + + +VERDI. + + +I. + +In 1872 the Khedive of Egypt, an oriental ruler, whose love of western +art and civilization has since tangled him in economic meshes to escape +from which has cost him his independence, produced a new opera with +barbaric splendor of appointments, at Grand Cairo. The spacious theatre +blazed with fantastic dresses and showy uniforms, and the curtain rose +on a drama which gave a glimpse to the Arabs, Copts, and Francs present +of the life and religion, the loves and hates of ancient Pharaonic +times, set to music by the most celebrated of living Italian composers. + +That an eastern prince should have commissioned Giuseppe Verdi to write +"Aida" for him, in his desire to emulate western sovereigns as a patron +of art, is an interesting fact, but not wonderful or significant. + +The opera itself was freighted, however, with peculiar significance as +an artistic work, far surpassing that of the circumstances which gave it +origin, or which saw its first production in the mysterious land of the +Nile and Sphinx. + +Originally a pupil, thoroughly imbued with the method and spirit of +Rossini, though never lacking in original quality, Verdi as a young man +shared the suffrages of admiring audiences with Donizetti and Bellini. +Even when he diverged widely from his parent stem and took rank as the +representative of the melodramatic school of music, he remained true to +the instincts of his Italian training. + +The remarkable fact is that Verdi, at the age of fifty-eight, when it +might have been safely assumed that his theories and preferences were +finally crystallized, produced an opera in which he clasped hands with +the German enthusiast, who preached an art system radically opposed to +his own and lashed with scathing satire the whole musical cult of the +Italian race. + +In "Aida" and the "Manzoni Mass," written in 1873, Verdi, the leader +among living Italian composers, practically conceded that, in the long, +bitterly fought battle between Teuton and Italian in music, the former +was the victor. In the opera we find a new departure, which, if not +embodying all the philosophy of the "new school," is stamped with its +salient traits, viz.: The subordination of all the individual effects +to the perfection and symmetry of the whole; a lavish demand on all the +sister arts to contribute their rich gifts to the heightening of the +illusion; a tendency to enrich the harmonic value in the choruses, the +concerted pieces, and the instrumentation, to the great sacrifice of the +solo pieces; the use of the heroic and mythical element as a theme. + +Verdi, the subject of this interesting revolution, has filled a very +brilliant place in modern musical art, and his career has been in some +ways as picturesque as his music. + +Verdi's parents were literally hewers of wood and drawers of water, +earning their bread, after the manner of Italian peasants, at a small +settlement called La Roncali, near Busseto, where the future composer +was born on October 9, 1814. + +His earliest recollections were with the little village church, where +the little Giuseppe listened with delight to the church organ, for, as +with all great musicians, his fondness for music showed itself at a very +early age. The elder Verdi, though very poor, gratified the child's love +of music when he was about eight by buying a small spinet, and placing +him under the instruction of Provesi, a teacher in Busseto. The boy +entered on his studies with ardor, and made more rapid progress than the +slender facilities which were allowed him would ordinarily justify. + +An event soon occurred which was destined to wield a lasting influence +on his destiny. He one day heard a skillful performance on a fine piano, +while passing by one of the better houses of Busseto. From that time +a constant fascination drew him to the house; for day after day he +lingered and seemed unwilling to go away lest he should perchance lose +some of the enchanting sounds which so enraptured him. The owner of +the premises was a rich merchant, one Antonio Barezzi, a cultivated +and high-minded man, and a passionate lover of music withal. 'Twas his +daughter whose playing gave the young Verdi such pleasure. + +Signor Barezzi had often seen the lingering and absorbed lad, who +stood as if in a dream, oblivious to all that passed around him in the +practical work-a-day world. So one day he accosted him pleasantly and +inquired why he came so constantly and stayed so long doing nothing. + +"I play the piano a little," said the boy, "and I like to come here and +listen to the fine playing in your house." + +"Oh! if that is the case, come in with me that you may enjoy it more +at your ease, and hereafter you are welcome to do so whenever you feel +inclined." + +It may be imagined the delighted boy did not refuse the kind invitation, +and the acquaintance soon ripened into intimacy, for the rich merchant +learned to regard the bright young musician with much affection, which +it is needless to say was warmly returned. Verdi was untiring in study +and spent the early years of his youth in humble quiet, in the midst of +those beauties of nature which have so powerful an influence in molding +great susceptibilities. At his seventeenth year he had acquired as much +musical knowledge as could be acquired at a place like Busseto, and he +became anxious to go to Milan to continue his studies. The poverty of +his family precluding any assistance from this quarter, he was obliged +to find help from an eleemosynary fund then existing in his native town. +This was an institution called the Monte di Pieta, which offered yearly +to four young men the sum of twenty-five _lire_ a month each, in order +to help them to an education; and Verdi, making an application and +sustained by the influence of his friend the rich merchant, was one of +the four whose good fortune it was to be selected. + +The allowance thus obtained with some assistance from Barezzi enabled +the ambitious young musician to go to Milan, carrying with him some +of his compositions. When he presented himself for examination at the +conservatory, he was made to play on the piano, and his compositions +examined. The result fell on his hopes like a thunder-bolt. The pedantic +and narrow-minded examiners not only scoffed at the state of his musical +knowledge, but told him he was incapable of becoming a musician. To +weaker souls this would have been a terrible discouragement, but to his +ardor and self-confidence it was only a challenge. Barezzi had equal +confidence in the abilities of his _protege_, and warmly encouraged him +to work and hope. Verdi engaged an excellent private teacher and pursued +his studies with unflagging energy, denying himself all but the barest +necessities, and going sometimes without sufficient food. + +A stroke of fortune now fell in his way; the place of organist fell +vacant at the Busseto church, and Verdi was appointed to fill it. He +returned home, and was soon afterward married to the daughter of the +benefactor to whom he owed so much. He continued to apply himself with +great diligence to the study of his art, and completed an opera early +in 1839. He succeeded in arranging for the production of this work, +"L'Oberto, Conte de San Bonifacio," at La Scala, Milan; but it excited +little comment and was soon forgotten, like the scores of other shallow +or immature compositions so prolifically produced in Italy. + +The impresario, Merelli, believed in the young composer though, for +he thought he discovered signs of genius. So he gave him a contract to +write three operas, one of which was to be an _opera buffa_, and to be +ready in the following autumn. With hopeful spirits Verdi set to work +on the opera, but that year of 1840 was to be one of great trouble and +trial. Hardly had he set to work all afire with eagerness and hope, +when he was seized with severe illness. His recovery was followed by the +successive sickening of his two children, who died, a terrible blow to +the father's fond heart. Fate had the crowning stroke though still to +give, for the young mother, agonized by this loss, was seized with a +fatal inflammation of the brain. Thus within a brief period Verdi was +bereft of all the sweet consolations of home, and his life became a +burden to him. Under these conditions he was to write a comic opera, +full of sparkle, gayety, and humor. Can we wonder that his work was a +failure? The public came to be amused by bright, joyous music, for it +was nothing to them that the composer's heart was dead with grief at his +afflictions. The audience hissed "Un Giorno di Regno," for it proved +a funereal attempt at mirth. So Verdi sought to annul the contract. To +this the impresario replied: "So be it, if you wish; but, whenever you +want to write again on the same terms, you will find me ready." + +To tell the truth, the composer was discouraged by his want of success, +and wholly broken down by his numerous trials. He now withdrew from all +society, and, having hired a small room in an out-of-the-way part of +Milan, passed most of his time in reading the worst books that could +be found, rarely going out, unless occasionally in the evening, never +giving his attention to study of any kind, and never touching the piano. +Such was his life from October, 1840, to January, 1841. One evening, +early in the new year, while out walking, he chanced to meet Merelli, +who took him by the arm; and, as they sauntered toward the theatre, the +impresario told him that he was in great trouble, Nicolai, who was to +write an opera for him, having refused to accept a _libretto_ entitled +"Nabucco." + +To this Verdi replied: + +"I am glad to be able to relieve you of your difficulty. Don't you +remember the libretto of 'Il Proscritto,' which you procured for me, and +for which I have never composed the music? Give that to Nicolai in place +of 'Nabucco.'" + +Merelli thanked him for his kind offer, and, as they reached the +theatre, asked him to go in, that they might ascertain whether the +manuscript of "Il Proscritto" was really there. It was at length found, +and Verdi was on the point of leaving, when Merelli slipped into his +pocket the book of "Nabucco," asking him to look it over. For want +of something to do, he took up the drama the next morning and read it +through, realizing how truly grand it was in conception. But, as a lover +forces himself to feign indifference to his coquettish _innamorata_, so +he, disregarding his inclinations, returned the manuscript to Merelli +that same day. + +"Well?" said Merelli, inquiringly. + +"Musicabilissimo!" he replied; "full of dramatic power and telling +situations!" + +"Take it home with you, then, and write the music for it." + +Verdi declared that he did not wish to compose, but the worthy +impresario forced the manuscript on him, and persisted that he should +undertake the work. The composer returned home with the libretto, but +threw it on one side without looking at it, and for the next five months +continued his reading of bad romances and yellow-covered novels. + +The impulse of work soon came again, however. One beautiful June day the +manuscript met his eye, while looking listlessly over some old papers. +He read one scene and was struck by its beauty. The instinct of musical +creation rushed over him with irresistible force; he seated himself at +the piano, so long silent, and began composing the music. The ice was +broken. Verdi soon entered into the spirit of the work, and in three +months "Nabucco" was entirely completed. Merelli gladly accepted it, and +it was performed at La Scala in the spring of 1842. As a result Verdi +was besieged with petitions for new works from every impresario in +Italy. + + +II. + +From 1812 to 1851 Verdi's busy imagination produced a series of operas, +which disputed the palm of popularity with the foremost composers of his +time. "I Lombardi," brought out at La Scala in 1843; "Ernani," at Venice +in 1844; "I Due Foscari," at Rome in 1844; "Giovanna D'Arco," at Milan, +and "Alzira," at Naples in 1845; "Attila," at Venice in 1846; and +"Macbetto," at Florence in 1847, were--all of them--successful works. +The last created such a genuine enthusiasm that he was crowned with a +golden aurel-wreath and escorted home from the theatre by an enormous +crowd. "I Masnadieri" was written for Jenny Lind, and performed first +in London in 1847 with that great singer, Gardoni, and Lablache, in the +cast. His next productions were "Il Corsaro," brought out at Trieste +in 1848; "La Battaglia di Legnano" at Rome in 1849; "Luisa Miller" at +Naples in the same year; and "Stiffelio" at Trieste in 1850. By this +series of works Verdi impressed himself powerfully on his age, but in +them he preserved faithfully the color and style of the school in which +he had been trained. But he had now arrived at the commencement of his +transition period. A distinguished French critic marks this change in +the following summary: "When Verdi began to write, the influences of +foreign literature and new theories on art had excited Italian +composers to seek a violent expression of the passions, and to leave +the interpretation of amiable and delicate sentiments for that of sombre +flights of the soul. A serious mind gifted with a rich imagination, +Verdi became the chief of the new school. His music became more intense +and dramatic; by vigor, energy, _verve_, a certain ruggedness and +sharpness, by powerful effects of sound, he conquered an immense +popularity in Italy, where success had hitherto been attained only by +the charm, suavity, and abundance of the melodies produced." + +In "Rigoletto," produced in Venice in 1851, the full flowering of his +genius into the melodramatic style was signally shown. The opera story +adapted from Victor Hugo's "Le Roi s'amuse" is itself one of the most +dramatic of plots, and it seemed to have fired the composer into music +singularly vigorous, full of startling effects and novel treatment. Two +years afterward were brought out at Rome and Venice respectively two +operas, stamped with the same salient qualities, "Il Trovatore" and +"La Traviata," the last a lyric adaptation of Dumas _fils's_ "Dame +aux Camelias." These three operas have generally been considered his +masterpieces, though it is more than possible that the riper judgment of +the future will not sustain this claim. Their popularity was such that +Verdi's time was absorbed for several years in their production at +various opera-houses, utterly precluding new compositions. Of his later +operas may be mentioned "Les Vepres Siciliennes," produced in Paris in +1855; "Un Ballo in Maschera," performed at Rome in 1859; "La Forza del +Destino," written for St. Petersburg, where it was sung in 1863; "Don +Carlos," produced in London in 1867; and "Aida" in Grand Cairo in +1872. When the latter work was finished, Verdi had composed twenty-nine +operas, beside lesser works, and attained the age of fifty-seven. + +Verdi's energies have not been confined to music. An ardent patriot, he +has displayed the deepest interest in the affairs of his country, and +taken an active part in its tangled politics. After the war of 1859 he +was chosen a member of the Assembly of Parma, and was one of the most +influential advocates for the annexation to Sardinia. Italian unity +found in him a passionate advocate, and, when the occasion came, his +artistic talent and earnestness proved that they might have made a +vigorous mark in political oratory as well as in music. + +The cry of "Viva Verdi" often resounded through Sardinia and Italy, and +it was one of the war-slogans of the Italian war of liberation. This +enigma is explained in the fact that the five letters of his name are +the initials of those of Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia. His private +resources were liberally poured forth to help the national cause, and in +1861 he was chosen a deputy in Parliament from Parma. Ten years later he +was appointed by the Minister of Public Instruction to superintend the +reorganization of the National Musical Institute. + +The many decorations and titular distinctions lavished on him show the +high esteem in which he is held. He is a member of the Legion of Honor, +corresponding member of the French Academy of Fine Arts, grand cross +of the Prussian order of St. Stanislaus, of the order of the Crown of +Italy, and of the Egyptian order of Osmanli. He divides his life between +a beautiful residence at Genoa, where he overlooks the waters of the +sparkling Mediterranean, and a country villa near his native Busseto, +a house of quaint artistic architecture, approached by a venerable, +moss-grown stone bridge, at the foot of which are a large park and +artificial lake. When he takes his evening walks, the peasantry, who are +devotedly attached to him, unite in singing choruses from his operas. + +In Verdi's bedroom, where alone he composes, is a fine piano--of which +instrument, as well as of the violin, he is a master--a modest library, +and an oddly-shaped writing-desk. Pictures and statuettes, of which he +is very fond, are thickly strewn about the whole house. Verdi is a +man of vigor' ous and active habits, taking an ardent interest in +agriculture. But the larger part of his time is taken up in composing, +writing letters, and reading works on philosophy, politics, and history. +His personal appearance is very distinguished. A tall figure with sturdy +limbs and square shoulders, surmounted by a finely-shaped head; abundant +hair, beard, and mustache, whose black is sprinkled with gray; dark-gray +eyes, regular features, and an earnest, sometimes intense, expression +make him a noticeable-looking man. Much sought after in the brilliant +society of Florence, Rome, and Paris, our composer spends most of his +time in the elegant seclusion of home. + + +III. + +Verdi is the most nervous, theatric, sensuous composer of the present +century. Measured by the highest standard, his style must be criticised +as often spasmodic, tawdry, and meretricious. He instinctively adopts +a bold and eccentric treatment of musical themes; and, though there are +always to be found stirring movements in his scores as well as in his +opera stories, he constantly offends refined taste by sensation and +violence. + +With a redundancy of melody, too often of the cheap and shallow kind, he +rarely fails to please the masses of opera-goers, for his works enjoy +a popularity not shared at present by any other composer. In Verdi a +sudden blaze of song, brief spirited airs, duets, trios, etc., take +the place of the elaborate and beautiful music, chiseled into order and +symmetry, which characterizes most of the great composers of the past. +Energy of immediate impression is thus gained at the expense of that +deep, lingering power, full of the subtile side-lights and shadows of +suggestion, which is the crowning benison of great music. He stuns the +ear and captivates the senses, but does not subdue the soul. + +Yet, despite the grievous faults of these operas, they blaze with gems, +and we catch here and there true swallow-flights of genius, that the +noblest would not disown. With all his puerilities there is a mixture +of grandeur. There are passages in "Ernani," "Rigoletto," "Traviata," +"Trovatore," and "Aida," so strong and dignified, that it provokes a +wonder that one with such capacity for greatness should often descend +into such bathos. + +To better illustrate the false art which mars so much of Verdi's +dramatic method, a comparison between his "Rigoletto," so often claimed +as his best work, and Rossini's "Otello" will be opportune. The air sung +by _Gilda_ in the "Rigoletto," when she retires to sleep on the eve of +the outrage, is an empty, sentimental yawn; and in the quartet of +the last act, a noble dramatic opportunity, she ejects a chain of +disconnected, unmusical sobs, as offensive as _Violetta's_ consumptive +cough. _Desdemona's_ agitated air, on the other hand, under Rossini's +treatment, though broken short in the vocal phrase, is magnificently +sustained by the orchestra, and a genuine passion is made consistently +musical; and then the wonderful burst of bravura, where despair and +resolution run riot without violating the bounds of strict beauty in +music--these are master-strokes of genius restrained by art. + +In Verdi, passion too often misses intensity and becomes hysterical. +He lacks the elements of tenderness and humor, but is frequently +picturesque and charming by his warmth and boldness of color. His +attempts to express the gay and mirthful, as for instance in the +masquerade music of "Traviata" and the dance music of "Rigoletto," are +dreary, ghastly, and saddening; while his ideas of tenderness are apt +to take the form of mere sentimentality. Yet generalities fail in +describing him, for occasionally he attains effects strong in their +pathos, and artistically admirable; as, for example, the slow air for +the heroine, and the dreamy song for the gypsy mother in the last act +of "Trovatore." An artist who thus contradicts himself is a perplexing +problem, but we must judge him by the habitual, not the occasional. + +Verdi is always thoroughly in earnest, never frivolous. He walks on +stilts indeed, instead of treading the ground or cleaving the air, +but is never timid or tame in aim or execution. If he cannot stir the +emotions of the soul he subdues and absorbs the attention against +even the dictates of the better taste; while genuiue beauties gleaming +through picturesque rubbish often repay the true musician for what he +has undergone. + +So far this composer has been essentially representative of melodramatic +music, with all the faults and virtues of such a style. In "Aida," +his last work, the world remarked a striking change. The noble +orchestration, the power and beauty of the choruses, the sustained +dignity of treatment, the seriousness and pathos of the whole work, +reveal how deeply new purposes and methods have been fermenting in the +composer's development. Yet in the very prime of his powers, though +no longer young, his next work ought to settle the value of the hopes +raised by the last. + + + + +CHERUBINI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. + +I. + +In France, as in Italy, the regular musical drama was preceded by +mysteries, masks, and religious plays, which introduced short musical +parts, as also action, mechanical effects, and dancing. The ballet, +however, where dancing was the prominent feature, remained for a long +time the favorite amusement of the French court until the advent of Jean +Baptiste Lulli. The young Florentine, after having served in the king's +band, was promoted to be its chief, and the composer of the music of +the court ballets. Lulli, born in 1633, was bought of his parents +by Chevalier de Guise, and sent to Paris as a present to Mlle, de +Montpensier, the king's niece. His capricious mistress, after a year +or two, deposed the boy of fifteen from the position of page to that of +scullion; but Count Nogent, accidentally hearing him sing and struck by +his musical talent, influenced the princess to place him under the care +of good masters. Lulli made such rapid progress that he soon commenced +to compose music of a style superior to that before current in +divertissements of the French court. + +The name of Philippe Quinault is closely associated with the musical +career of Lulli; for to the poet the musician was indebted for his best +librettos. Born at Paris in 1636, Quinault's genius for poetry displayed +itself at an early age. Before he was twenty he had written several +successful comedies. Though he produced many plays, both tragedies and +comedies, well known to readers of French poetry, his operatic poems are +those which have rendered his memory illustrious. He died on November +29,1688. It is said that during his last illness he was extremely +penitent on account of the voluptuous tendency of his works. All his +lyrical dramas are full of beauty, but "Atys," "Phaeton," "Isis," and +"Armide" have been ranked the highest. "Armide" was the last of the +poet's efforts, and Lulli was so much in love with the opera, when +completed, that he had it performed over and over again for his own +pleasure without any other auditor. When "Atys" was performed first in +1676, the eager throng began to pour in the theatre at ten o'clock in +the morning, and by noon the building was filled. The King and the Count +were charmed with the work in spite of the bitter dislike of Boileau, +the Aristarchus of his age. "Put me in a place where I shall not be able +to hear the words," said the latter to the box-keeper; "I like Lulli's +music very much, but have a sovereign contempt for Quinault's words." +Lulli obliged the poet to write "Armide" five times over, and the +felicity of his treatment is proved by the fact that Gluck afterward set +the same poem to the music which is still occasionally sung in Germany. + +Lulli in the course of his musical career became so great a favorite +with the King that the originally obscure kitchen-boy was ennobled. He +was made one of the King's secretaries in spite of the loud murmurs of +this pampered fraternity against receiving into their body a player +and a buffoon. The musician's wit and affability, however, finally +dissipated these prejudices, especially as he was wealthy and of +irreproachable character. + +The King having had a severe illness in 1686, Lulli composed a "Te Deum" +in honor of his recovery. When this was given, the musician, in beating +time with great ardor, struck his toe with his baton. This brought on a +mortification, and there was great grief when it was announced that he +could not recover. The Princes de Vendome lodged four thousand pistoles +in the hands of a banker, to be paid to any physician who would cure +him. Shortly before his death his confessor severely reproached him for +the licentiousness of his operas, and refused to give him absolution +unless he consented to burn the score of "Achille et Polyxene," which +was ready for the stage. The manuscript was put into the flames, and +the priest made the musician's peace with God. One of the young princes +visited him a few days after, when he seemed a little better. + +"What, Baptiste," the former said, "have you burned your opera? You were +a fool for giving such credit to a gloomy confessor and burning good +music." + +"Hush, hush!" whispered Lulli with a satirical smile on his lip. "I +cheated the good father. I only burned a copy." + +He died singing the words, "Il faut mourir, pecheur, il faut mourir" to +one of his own opera airs. + +Lulli was not only a composer, but created his own orchestra, trained +his artists in acting and singing, and was machinist as well as +ballet-master and music-director. He was intimate with Corneille, +Moliere, La Fontaine, and Boileau; and these great men were proud to +contribute the texts to which he set his music. He introduced female +dancers into the ballet, disguised men having hitherto served in this +capacity, and in many essential ways was the father of early French +opera, though its foundation had been laid by Cardinal Mazarin. He +had to fight against opposition and cabals, but his energy, tact, and +persistence made him the victor, and won the friendship of the leading +men of his time. Such of his music as still exists is of a pleasing and +melodious character, full of vivacity and lire, and at times indicates +a more deep and serious power than that of merely creating catching +and tuneful airs. He was the inventor of the operatic overture, and +introduced several new instruments into the orchestra. Apart from his +splendid administrative faculty, he is entitled to rank as an original +and gifted, if not a great, composer. + +A lively sketch of the French opera of this period is given by Addison +in No. 29 of the "Spectator." "The music of the French," he says, "is +indeed very properly adapted to their pronunciation and accent, as their +whole opera wonderfully favors the genius of such a gay, airy people. +The chorus in which that opera abounds gives the parterre frequent +opportunities of joining in concert with the stage. This inclination of +the audience to sing along with the actors so prevails with them that +I have sometimes known the performer on the stage to do no more in a +celebrated song than the clerk of a parish church, who serves only +to raise the psalm, and is afterward drowned in the music of the +congregation. Every actor that comes on the stage is a beau. The queens +and heroines are so painted that they appear as ruddy and cherry-cheeked +as milkmaids. The shepherds are all embroidered, and acquit themselves +in a ball better than our English dancing-masters. I have seen a couple +of rivers appear in red stockings; and Alpheus, instead of having +his head covered with sedge and bulrushes, making love in a fair, +full-bottomed periwig, and a plume of feathers; but with a voice so +full of shakes and quavers, that I should have thought the murmur of a +country brook the much more agreeable music. I remember the last opera +I saw in that merry nation was the 'Rape of Proserpine,' where Pluto, +to make the more tempting figure, puts himself in a French equipage, and +brings Ascalaphus along with him as his _valet de chambre_. This is what +we call folly and impertinence, but what the French look upon as gay and +polite." + + +II. + +The French musical drama continued without much chance in the hands of +the Lulli school (for the musician had several skillful imitators and +successors) till the appearance of Jean Philippe Rameau, who inaugurated +a new era. This celebrated man was born in Auvergne in 1683, and was +during his earlier life the organist of the Clermont cathedral church. +Here he pursued the scientific researches in music which entitled him +in the eyes of his admirers to be called the Newton of his art. He had +reached the age of fifty without recognition as a dramatic composer, +when the production of "Hippolyte et Aricie" excited a violent feud +by creating a strong current of opposition to the music of Lulli. He +produced works in rapid succession, and finally overcame all obstacles, +and won for himself the name of being the greatest lyric composer which +France up to that time had produced. His last opera, "Les Paladins," was +given in 1760, the composer being then seventy-seven. + +The bitterness of the art-feuds of that day, afterward shown in the +Gluck-Piccini contest, was foreshadowed in that waged by Rameau against +Lulli, and finally against the Italian newcomers, who sought to take +possession of the French stage. The matter became a natioual quarrel, +and it was considered an insult to France to prefer the music of an +Italian to that of a Frenchman--an insult which was often settled by the +rapier point, when tongue and pen had failed as arbitrators. The subject +was keenly debated by journalists and pamphleteers, and the press +groaned with essays to prove that Rameau was the first musician in +Europe, though his works were utterly unknown outside of France. Perhaps +no more valuable testimony to the character of these operas can be +adduced than that of Baron Grimm: + +"In his operas Rameau has overpowered all his predecessors by dint of +harmony and quantity of notes. Some of his choruses are very fine. +Lulli could only sustain his vocal psalmody by a simple bass; Rameau +accompanied almost all his recitatives with the orchestra. These +accompaniments are generally in bad taste; they drown the voice rather +than support it, and force the singers to scream and howl in a manner +which no ear of any delicacy can tolerate. We come away from an opera +of Rameau's intoxicated with harmony and stupefied with the noise of +voice and instruments. His taste is always Gothic, and, whether his +subject is light or forcible, his style is equally heavy. He was not +destitute of ideas, but did not know what use to make of them. In his +recitatives the sound is continually in opposition to the sense, though +they occasionally contain happy declamatory passages.... If he had +formed himself in some of the schools of Italy, and thus acquired a +notion of musical style and hahits of musical thought, he never would +have said (as he did) that all poems were alike to him, and that he +could set the 'Gazette de France' to music." + +From this it may be gathered that Rameau, though a scientific and +learned musician, lacked imagination, good taste, and dramatic +insight--qualities which in the modern lyric school of France have been +so preeminent. It may be admitted, however, that he inspired a taste for +sound musical science, and thus prepared the way for the great Gluck, +who to all and more of Rameau's musical knowledge united the grand +genius which makes him one of the giants of his art. + +Though Rameau enjoyed supremacy over the serious opera, a great +excitement was created in Paris by the arrival of an Italian company, +who in 1752 obtained permission to perform Italian burlettas and +intermezzi at the opera-house. The partisans of the French school took +alarm, and the admirers of Lulli and Rameau forgot their bickerings to +join forces against the foreign intruders. The battle-field was strewed +with floods of ink, and the literati pelted each other with ferocious +lampoons. + +Among the literature of this controversy, one pamphlet has an +imperishable place, Rousseau's famous "Lettre sur la Musique Francaise," +in which the great sentimentalist espoused the cause of Italian music +with an eloquence and acrimony rarely surpassed. The inconsistency of +the author was as marked in this as in his private life. Not only did he +at a later period become a great advocate of Gluck against Piocini, +but, in spite of his argument that it was impossible to compose music to +French words, that the language was quite unfit for it, that the French +never had music and never would, he himself had composed a good deal +of music to French words and produced a French opera, "Le Devin du +Village." Diderot was also a warm partisan of the Italians. Pergolesi's +beautiful music having been murdered by the French orchestra players at +the Grand Opera-House, Diderot proposed for it the following witty and +laconic inscription: "Hic Marsyas Apollinem."* + + * Here Marsyas flayed Apollo. + +Rousseau's opera, "Le Devin du Village," was performed with considerable +success, in spite of the repugnance of the orchestral performers, +of whom Rousseau always spoke in terms of unmeasured contempt, to do +justice to the music. They burned Rousseau in effigy for his scoffs. +"Well," said the author of the "Confessions," "I don't wonder that they +should hang me now, after having so long put me to the torture." + +The eloquence and abuse of the wits, however, did not long impair the +supremacy of Rameau; for the Italian company returned to their own +land, disheartened by their reception in the French capital. Though this +composer commenced so late in life, he left thirty-six dramatic works. +His greatest work was "Castor et Pollux." Thirty years later Grimm +recognized its merits by admitting, in spite of the great faults of the +composer, "It is the pivot on which the glory of French music turns." +When Louis XIV. offered Rameau a title, he answered, touching his breast +and forehead, "My nobility is here and here." This composer marked a +step forward in French music, for he gave it more boldness and freedom, +and was the first really scientific and well-equipped exponent of +a national school. His choruses were full of energy and fire, his +orchestral effects rich and massive. He died in 1764, and the mortuary +music, composed by himself, was performed by a double orchestra and +chorus from the Grand Opera. + + +III. + +A distinguished place in the records of French music must be assigned to +Andre Ernest Gretry, born at Liege in 1741. His career covered the +most important changes in the art as colored and influenced by national +tastes, and he is justly regarded as the father of comic opera in his +adopted country. His childish life was one of much severe discipline and +tribulation, for he was dedicated to music by his father, who was first +violinist in the college of St. Denis when he was only six years old. He +afterward wrote of this time in his "Essais sur la Musique": "The hour +for the lesson afforded the teacher an opportunity to exercise his +cruelty. He made us sing each in turn, and woe to him who made the least +mistake; he was beaten unmercifully, the youngest as well as the oldest. +He seemed to take pleasure in inventing torture. At times he would place +us on a short round stick, from which we fell head over heels if we made +the least movement. But that which made us tremble with fear was to +see him knock down a pupil and beat him; for then we were sure he would +treat some others in the same manner, one victim being insufficient to +gratify his ferocity. To maltreat his pupils was a sort of mania with +him; and he seemed to feel that his duty was performed in proportion to +the cries and sobs which he drew forth." + +In 1759 Gretry went to Rome, where he studied counterpoint for five +years. Some of his works were received favorably by the Roman public, +and he was made a member of the Philharmonic Society of Bologna. Pressed +by pecuniary necessity, Gretry determined to go to Paris; but he stopped +at Geneva on the route to earn money by singing-lessons. Here he met +Voltaire at Ferney. "You are a musician and have genius," said the great +man; "it is a very rare thing, and I take much interest in you." In +spite of this, however, Voltaire would not write him the text for an +opera. The philosopher of Ferney feared to trust his reputation with an +unknown musician. When Gretry arrived in Paris he still found the same +difficulty, as no distinguished poet was disposed to give him a libretto +till he had made his powers recognized. After two years of starving and +waiting, Marmontel gave him the text of "The Huron," which was brought +out in 1769 and well received. Other successful works followed in rapid +succession. + +At this time Parisian frivolity thought it good taste to admire the +rustic and naive. The idyls of Gessner and the pastorals of Florian +were the favorite reading, and Watteau the popular painter. Gentlefolks, +steeped in artifice, vice, and intrigue, masked their empty lives under +the as sumption of Arcadian simplicity, and minced and ambled in the +costumes of shepherds and shepherdesses. Marie Antoinette transformed +her chalet of Petit Trianon into a farm, where she and her courtiers +played at pastoral life--the farce preceding the tragedy of the +Revolution. It was the effort of dazed society seeking change. Gretry +followed the fashionable bent by composing pastoral comedies, and +mounted on the wave of success. + +In 1774 "Fausse Magie" was produced with the greatest applause. Rousseau +was present, and the composer waited on him in his box, meeting a most +cordial reception. On their way home after the opera, Gretry offered +his new friend his arm to help him over an obstruction. Rousseau with +a burst of rage said, "Let me make use of my own powers," and +thenceforward the sentimental misanthrope refused to recognize the +composer. About this time Gretry met the English humorist Hales, who +afterward furnished him with many of his comic texts. The two combined +to produce the "Jugement de Midas," a satire on the old style of music, +which met with remarkable popular favor, though it was not so well +received by the court. + +The crowning work of this composer's life was given to the world in +1785. This was "Richard Coeur de Lion," and it proved one of the great +musical events of the period. Paris was in ecstasies, and the judgment +of succeeding generations has confirmed the contemporary verdict, as +it is still a favorite opera in France and Germany. The works afterward +composed by Gretry showed decadence in power. Singularly rich in fresh +and sprightly ideas, he lacked depth and grandeur, and failed to suit +the deeper and sounder taste which Cherubini and Mehul, great followers +in the footsteps of Gluck, gratified by a series of noble masterpieces. +Gretry's services to his art, however, by his production of comic +operas full of lyric vivacity and sparkle, have never been forgotten nor +underrated. His bust was placed in the opera-house during his lifetime, +and he was made a member of the French Academy of Fine Arts and +Inspector of the Conservatory. Gretry possessed qualities of heart which +endeared him to all, and his death in 1813 was the occasion of a +general outburst of lamentation. Deputations from the theatres and +the Conservatory accompanied his remains to the cemetery, where Mehul +pronounced an eloquent eulogium. In 1828 a nephew of Gretry caused the +heart of him who was one of the glorious sons of Liege to be returned to +his native city. + +Gretry founded a school of musical composition in France which has since +been cultivated with signal success, that of lyric comedy. The efforts +of Lulli and Rameau had been turned in another direction. The former had +done little more than set courtly pageants to music, though he had +done this with great skill and tact, enriching them with a variety +of concerted and orchestral pieces, and showing much fertility in the +invention alike of pathetic and lively melodies. Rameau followed in the +footsteps of Lulli, but expanded and crystallized his ideas into a more +scientific form. He had indeed carried his love of form to a radical +extreme. Jean Jacques Rousseau, who extended his taste for nature and +simplicity to music, blamed him severely as one who neglected genuine +natural tune for far-fetched harmonies, on the ground that "music is a +child of nature, and has a language of its own for expressing emotional +transports, which can not be learned from thorough bass rules." Again +Rousseau, in his forcible tract on French music, says of Rameau, from +whose school Gretry's music was such a significant departure: + +"One must confess that M. Rameau possesses very great talent, much fire +and euphony, and a considerable knowledge of harmonious combinations and +effects; one must also grant him the art of appropriating the ideas of +others by changing their character, adorning and developing them, and +turning them around in all manner of ways, On the other hand, he shows +less facility in inventing new ones. Altogether he has more skill than +fertility, more knowledge than genius, or rather genius smothered +by knowledge, but always force, grace, and very often a beautiful +_cantileana_. His recitative is not as natural but much more varied than +that of Lulli; admirable in a few scenes, but bad as a rule." Rousseau +continues to reproach Rameau with a too powerful instrumentation, +compared with Italian simplicity, and sums up that nobody knew better +than Rameau how to conceive the spirit of single passages and to produce +artistic contrasts, but that he entirely failed to give his operas +"a happy and much-to-be-desired unity." In another part of the quoted +passage Rousseau says that Rameau stands far beneath Lulli in _esprit_ +and artistic tact, but that he is often superior to him in dramatic +expression. + +A clear understanding of the musical position of Rameau is necessary to +fully appreciate the place of Gretry, his antithesis as a composer. +For a short time the popularity of Rameau had been shaken by an Italian +opera company, called by the French _Les Bouffons_, who had created a +genuine sensation by their performance of airy and sparkling operettas, +entirely removed in spirit from the ponderous productions of the +prevailing school. Though the Italian comedians did not meet with +permanent success, the suave charm of their music left behind it +memories which became fruitful.* + + * In its infancy Italian comic opera formed the _intermezzo_ + between the acts of a serious opera, and--similar to the + Greek sylvan drama which followed the tragic trilogy--was + frequently a parody on the piece which preceded it; though + more frequently still (as in Pergolcsi's "Serra Padrona") it + was not a satire on any particular subject, but designed to + heighten the ideal artistic effect of the serious opera by + broad comedy. Having acquired a complete form on the boards + of the small theatres, it was transferred to the larger + stage. Though it lacked the external splendor and consummate + vocalization of the elder sister, its simpler forms endowed + it with a more characteristic rendering of actual life. + +It furnished the point of departure for the lively and facile genius +of Gretry, who laid the foundation stones of that lyric comedywhich has +flourished in France with so much luxuriance. From the outset merriment +and humor were by no means the sole object of the French comic opera, +as in the case of its Italian sister. Gretry did not neglect to turn the +nobler emotions to account, and by a judicious admixture of sentiment +he gave an ideal coloring to his works, which made them singularly +fascinating and original. Around Gretry flourished several disciples and +imitators, and for twenty years this charming hybrid between opera and +vaudeville engrossed French musical talent, to the exclusion of other +forms of composition. It was only when Gluck * appeared on the scene, +and by his commanding genius restored serious opera to its supremacy, +that Grotry's repute was overshadowed. From this decline in public +favor he never fully recovered, for the master left behind him gifted +disciples, who embodied his traditions, and were inspired by his lofty +aims--preeminently so in the case of Cherubini, perhaps the greatest +name in French music. While French comic opera, since the days of +Gretry, has become modified in some of its forms, it preserves the +spirit and coloring which he so happily imparted to it, and looks back +to him as its founder and lawgiver. + + *See article on "Gluck," in "The Great German Composers" + (a companion volume to this), in which his connection with + French music is discussed. + + +IV. + +One of the most accomplished of historians and critics, Oulibischeff, +sums up the place of Cherubini in musical art in these words: "If on the +one hand Gluck's calm and plastic grandeur, and on the other the tender +and voluptuous charm of the melodies of Piccini and Zacchini, had suited +the circumstances of a state of society sunk in luxury and nourished +with classical exhibitions, this could not satisfy a society shaken to +the very foundations of its faith and organization. The whole of the +dramatic music of the eighteenth century must naturally have appeared +cold and languid to men whose minds were profoundly moved with troubles +and wars; and even at the present day the word languor best expresses +that which no longer touches us in the operas of the last century, +without even excepting those of Mozart himself. What we require for the +pictures of dramatic music is larger frames, including more figures, +more passionate and moving song, more sharply marked rhythms, greater +fullness in the vocal masses, and more sonorous brilliancy in the +instrumentation. All these qualities are to be found in 'Lodoi'ska' +and 'Les Deux Journees'; and Cherubini may not only be regarded as the +founder of the modern French opera, but also as that musician who, after +Mozart, has exerted the greatest general influence on the tendency of +the art. An Italian by birth and the excellence of his education, which +was conducted by Sarti, the great teacher of composition; a German by +his musical sympathies as well as by the variety and profundity of his +knowledge; and a Frenchman by the school and principles to which we +owe his finest dramatic works, Cherubini strikes me as being the most +accomplished musician, if not the greatest genius, of the nineteenth +century." + +Again the English composer Macfarren observes: "Cherubini's position +is unique in the history of his art; actively before the world as +a composer for threescore years and ten, his career spans over more +vicissitudes in the progress of music than that of any other man. +Beginning to write in the same year with Cimarosa, and even earlier than +Mozart, and being the contemporary of Verdi and Wagner, he witnessed +almost the origin of the two modern classical schools of France and +Germany, their rise to perfection, and, if not their decline, the +arrival of a time when criticism would usurp the place of creation, and +when to propound new rules for art claims higher consideration than +to act according to its ever unalterable principles. His artistic life +indeed was a rainbow based on the two extremes of modern music which +shed light and glory on the great art-cycle over which it arched.... +His excellence consists in his unswerving earnestness of purpose, in +the individuality of his manner, in the vigor of his ideas, and in the +purity of his harmony." + +"Such," says M. Miel, "was Cherubim; a colossal and incommensurable +genius, an existence full of days, of masterpieces, and of glory. +Among his rivals he found his most sincere appreciators. The Chevalier +Seyfried has recorded, in a notice on Beethoven, that that grand +musician regarded Cherubini as the first of his contemporary composers. +We will add nothing to this praise: the judgment of such a rival is, for +Cherubini, the voice itself of posterity." + +Luigi Carlo Zanobe Salvadore Maria Cherubini was born at Florence on +September 14, 1700, the son of a harpsichord accompanyist at the Pergola +Theatre. Like so many other great composers, young Cherubini displayed +signs of a fertile and powerful genius at an early age, mastering the +difficulties of music as if by instinct. At the age of nine he was +placed under the charge of Felici, one of the best Tuscan professors of +the day; and four years afterward he composed his first work, a mass. +His creative instinct, thus awakened, remained active, and he produced +a series of compositions which awakened no little admiration, so that he +was pointed at in the streets of Florence as the young prodigy. When he +was about sixteen the attention of the Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany was +directed to him, and through that prince's liberality he was enabled +to become a pupil of the most celebrated Italian master of the age, +Giuseppe Sarti, of whom he soon became the favorite pupil. Under the +direction of Sarti, the young composer produced a series of operas, +sonatas, and masses, and wrote much of the music which appeared under +the maestro's own name--a practice then common in the music and painting +schools of Italy. At the age of nineteen Cherubini was recognized as +one of the most learned and accomplished musicians of the age, and his +services were in active demand at the Italian theatres. In four years +he produced thirteen operas, the names and character of which it is not +necessary now to mention, as they are unknown except to the antiquary +whose zeal prompts him to defy the dust of the Italian theatrical +libraries. Halevy, whose admiration of his master led him to study these +early compositions, speaks of them as full of striking beauties, and, +though crude in many particulars, distinguished by those virile and +daring conceptions which from the outset stamped the originality of the +man. + +Cherubini passed through Paris in 1784, while the Gluck-Piccini +excitement was yet warm, and visited London as composer for the Royal +Italian Opera. Here he became a constant visitor in courtly circles, and +the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Queensbury, and other noble amateurs, +conceived the warmest admiration for his character and abilities. For +some reason, however, his operas written for England failed, and +he quitted England in 1786, intending to return to Italy. But the +fascinations of Paris held him, as they have done so many others, +noticeably so among the great musicians; and what was designed as a +flying visit became a life-long residence, with the exception of brief +interruptions in Germany and Italy, whither he went to fill professional +engagements. + +Cherubini took up his residence with his friend Viotti, who introduced +him to the Queen, Marie Antoinette, and the highest society of the +capital, then as now the art-center of the world. He became an intimate +of the brilliant salons of Mme. de Polignac, Mme. d'Etioles, Mme. de +Richelieu, and of the various bright assemblies where the wit, rank, and +beauty of Paris gathered in the days just prior to the Revolution. The +poet Marmontel became his intimate friend, and gave him the opera story +of "Demophon" to set to music. It was at this period that Cherubini +became acquainted with the works of Haydn, and learned from him how to +unite depth with lightness, grace with power, jest with earnestness, and +toying with dignity. + +A short visit to Italy for the carnival of 1788 resulted in the +production of the opera of "Ifigenia in Aulide" at La Scala, Milan. +The success was great, and this work, the last written for his native +country, was given also at Florence and Parma with no less delight and +approbation on the part of the public. Had Cherubini died at this time, +he would have left nothing but an obscure name for Fetis's immense +dictionary. Unlike Mozart and Schubert, who at the same age had reached +their highest development, this robust and massive genius ripened +slowly. With him as with Gluck, with whom he had so many affinities, +a short life would have been fatal to renown. His last opera showed a +turning point in his development. Halevy, his great disciple, speaks of +this period as follows: "He is already more nervous; there peeps out +I know not exactly how much of force and virility of which the Italian +musicians of his day did not know or did not seek the secret. It is the +dawn of a new day. Cherubini was preparing himself for the combat. Gluck +had accustomed France to the sublime energy of his masterpieces. Mozart +had just written 'Le Nozze di Figaro' and 'Don Giovanni.' He must not +lag behind. He must not be conquered. In that career which he was about +to dare to enter, he met two giants. Like the athlete who descends into +the arena, he anointed his limbs and girded his loins for the fight." + + +V. + +Marmontel had furnished the libretto of an opera to Cherubini, and the +composer shortly after his return from Turin to Paris had it produced at +the Royal Academy of Music. Vogel's opera on the same text, "Demophon," +was also brought out, but neither one met with great success. +Cherubini's work, though full of vigor and force, wanted color and +dramatic point. He was disgusted with his failure, and resolved +to eschew dramatic music; so for the nonce he devoted himself to +instrumental music and cantata. Two works of the latter class, "Amphion" +and "Circe," composed at this time, were of such excellence as to retain +a permanent hold on the French stage. Cherubini, too, became director of +the Italian opera troupe, "Les Bouffons," organized under the patronage +of Leonard, the Queen's performer, and exercised his taste for +composition by interpolating airs of his own into the works of the +Italian composers, which were then interesting the French public as +against the operas of Rameau. + +"At this time," we are told by Laf age, "Cherubini had two distinct +styles, one of which was allied to Paisiello and Cimarosa by the grace, +elegance, and purity of the melodic forms; the other, which attached +itself to the school of Gluck and Mozart, more harmonic than melodious, +rich in instrumental details." This manner was the then unappreciated +type of a new school destined to change the forms of musical art. + +In 1790 the Revolution broke out and rent the established order +of things into fragments. For a time all the interests of art were +swallowed up in the frightful turmoil which made Paris the center of +attention for astonished and alarmed Europe. Cherubini's connection had +been with the aristocracy, and now they were fleeing in a mad panic or +mounting the scaffold. His livelihood became precarious, and he suffered +severely during the first five years of anarchy. His seclusion was +passed in studying music, the physical sciences, drawing, and botany; +and his acquaintance was wisely confined to a few musicians like +himself. Once, indeed, his having learned the violin as a child was the +means of saving his life. Independently venturing out at night, he was +arrested by a roving band of drunken _Sansculottes_, who were seeking +musicians to conduct their street chants. Somebody recognized Cherubini +as a favorite of court circles, and, when he refused to lead their +obscene music, the fatal cry, "The Royalist, the Royalist!" buzzed +through the crowd. At this critical moment another kidnapped player +thrust a violin in Cherubini's hands and persuaded him to yield. So +the two musicians marched all day amid the hoarse yells of the drunken +revolutionists. He was also enrolled in the National Guard, and obliged +to accompany daily the march of the unfortunate throngs who shed their +blood under the axe of the guillotine. Cherubini would have fled from +these horrible surroundings, but it was difficult to evade the vigilance +of the French officials; he had no money; and he would not leave the +beautiful Cecile Tourette, to whom he was affianced. + +One of the theatres opened during the revolutionary epoch was the +Theatre Feydeau. The second opera performed was Cherubini's "Lodoiska" +(1791), at which he had been laboring for a long time, and which was +received throughout Europe with the greatest enthusiasm and delight, not +less in Germany than in France and Italy. The stirring times aroused a +new taste in music, as well as in politics and literature. The dramas of +Racine and the operas of Lulli were akin. No less did the stormy +genius of Schiller find its counterpart in Beethoven and Cherubini. The +production of "Lodoiska" was the point of departure from which the great +French school of serious opera, which has given us "Robert le Diable," +"Les Huguenots," and "Faust," got its primal value and significance. Two +men of genius, Gluck and Gretry, had formed the taste of the public in +being faithful to the accents of nature. The idea of reconciling this +taste, founded on strict truth, with the seductive charm of the Italian +forms, to which the French were beginning to be sensible, suggested to +Cherubini a system of lyric drama capable of satisfying both. Wagner +himself even says, in his "Tendencies and Theories," speaking of +Cherubini and his great co-laborers Mehul and Spontini: "It would be +difficult to answer them, if they now perchance came among us and asked +in what respect we had improved on their mode of musical procedure." + +"Lodoiska," which cast the old Italian operas into permanent oblivion, +and laid the foundation of the modern French dramatic school in music, +has a libretto similar to that of "Fidelio" and Gretry's "Coeur de Lion" +combined, and was taken from a romance of Faiblas by Fillette Loraux. +The critics found only one objection: the music was all so beautiful +that no breathing time was granted the listener. In one year the opera +was performed two hundred times, and at short intervals two hundred more +representations took place. + +The Revolution culminated in the crisis of 1793, which sent the King to +the scaffold. Cherubini found a retreat at La Chartreuse, near Rouen, +the country seat of his friend, the architect Louis. Here he lived in +tranquillity, and composed several minor pieces and a three-act opera, +never produced, but afterward worked over into "Ali Baba" and "Faniska." +In his Norman retreat Cherubini heard of the death of his father, and +while suffering under this infliction, just before his return to Paris +in 1794, he composed the opera of "Elisa." This work wras received +with much favor at the Feydeau theatre, though it did not arouse the +admiration called out by "Lodoiska." + +In 1795 the Paris Conservatory was founded, and Cherubini appointed +one of the five inspectors, as well as professor of counterpoint, his +associates being Lesueur, Gretry, Gossec, and Mehul. The same year +also saw him united to Cecile Tourette, to whom he had been so long and +devotedly attached. Absorbed in his duties at the Conservatory he +did not come before the public again till 1797, when the great tragic +masterpiece of "Medee" was produced at the Feydeau theatre. "Lodoiska" +had been somewhat gay; "Elisa," a work of graver import, followed; +but in "Medee" was attained the profound tragic power of Gluck and +Beethoven. Hoffman's libretto was indeed unworthy of the great music, +but this has not prevented its recognition by musicians as one of the +noblest operas ever written. It has probably been one of the causes, +however, why it is so rarely represented at the present time, its +overture alone being well known to modern musical audiences. This opera +has been compared by critics to Shakespeare's "King Lear," as being a +great expression of anguish and despair in their more stormy phases. +Chorley tells us that, when he first saw it, he was irresistibly +reminded of the lines in Barry Cornwall's poem to Pasta: + + "Now thou art like some winged thing that cries + Above some city, flaming fast to death." + +The poem which Chorley quotes from was inspired by the performance of +the great Pasta in Simone Mayer's weak musical setting of the fable of +the Colchian sorceress, which crowded the opera-houses of Europe. The +life of the French classical tragedy, too, was powerfully assisted by +Rachel. Though the poem on which Cherubini worked was unworthy of his +genius, it could not be from this or from lack of interest in the theme +alone that this great work is so rarely performed; it is because there +have been not more than three or four actresses in the last hundred +years combining the great tragic and vocal requirements exacted by the +part. If the tragic genius of Pasta conld have been united with the +voice of a Catalani, made as it were of adamant and gold, Cherubini's +sublime musical creation would have found an adequate interpreter. +Mdlle. Tietjens, indeed, has been the only late dramatic singer who +dared essay so difficult a task. Musical students rank the instrumental +parts of this opera with the organ music of Bach, the choral fugues +of Handel, and the symphonies of Beethoven, for beauty of form and +originality of ideas. + +On its first representation, on the 13th of March, 1797, one of the +journals, after praising its beauty, professed to discover imitations +of Mehul's manner in it. The latter composer, in an indignant rejoinder, +proclaimed himself and all others as overshadowed by Cherubini's genius: +a singular example of artistic humility and justice. Three years after +its performance in Paris, it was given at Berlin and Vienna, and stamped +by the Germans as one of the world's great musical masterpieces. This +work was a favorite one with Schubert, Beethoven, and Weber, and +there have been few great composers who have not put on record their +admiration of it. + +As great, however, as "Medee" is ranked, "Les Deux Journees,"* produced +in 1800, is the opera on which Cherubim's fame as a dramatic composer +chiefly rests. + + * In German known as "Die Wassertrager," in English "The + Water-Carriers." + +Three hundred consecutive performances did not satisfy Paris; and +at Berlin and Frankfort, as well as in Italy, it was hailed with +acclamation. Bouilly was the author of the opera-story, suggested by the +generous action of a water-carrier toward a magistrate who was related +to the author. The story is so interesting, so admirably written, that +Goethe and Mendelssohn considered it the true model for a comic opera. +The musical composition, too, is nearly faultless in form and replete +with beauties. In this opera Cherubini anticipated the reforms of +Wagner, for he dispensed with the old system which made the drama a web +of beautiful melodies, and established his musical effects for the most +part by the vigor and charm of the choruses and concerted pieces. It +has been accepted as a model work by composers, and Beethoven was in the +habit of keeping it by him on his writing-table for constant study and +reference. + +Spohr in his autobiography says: "I recollect, when the 'Deux Journees' +was performed for the first time, how, intoxicated with delight and +the powerful impression the work had made on me, I asked on that very +evening to have the score given me, and sat over it the whole night; +and that it was that opera chiefly that gave me my first impulse to +composition." Weber, in a letter from Munich written in 1812, says: +"Fancy my delight when I beheld lying upon the table of the hotel the +play-bill with the magic name _Armand_. I was the first person in the +theatre, and planted myself in the middle of the pit, where I waited +most anxiously for the tones which I knew beforehand would elevate and +inspire me. I think I may assert boldly that 'Les Deux Journees' is a +really great dramatic and classical work. Everything is calculated so +as to produce the greatest effect; all the various pieces are so much in +their proper place that you can neither omit one nor make any addition +to them. The opera displays a pleasing richness of melody, vigorous +declamation, and all-striking truth in the treatment of situations, ever +new, ever heard and retained with pleasure." Mendelssohn, too, writing +to his father of a performance of this opera, speaks of the enthusiasm +of the audience as extreme, as well as of his own pleasure as surpassing +anything he had ever experienced in a theatre. Mendelssohn, who never +completed an opera, because he did not find until shortly before +his death a theme which properly inspired him to dramatic creation, +corresponded with Planche, with the hope of getting from the latter a +libretto which should unite the excellences of "Fidelio" with those of +"Les Deux Journees." He found, at last, a libretto, which, if it did not +wholly satisfy him, at least overcame some of his prejudices, in a story +based on the Rhine myth of Lorelei. A fragment of it only was finished, +and the finale of the first act is occasionally performed in England. + + +VI. + +Before Napoleon became First Consul, he had been on familiar terms with +Cherubini. The soldier and the composer were seated in the same box +listening to an opera by the latter. Napoleon, whose tastes for music +were for the suave and sensuous Italian style, turned to him and said: +"My dear Cherubini, you are certainly an excellent musician; but really +your music is so noisy and complicated that I can make nothing of it;" +to which Cherubini replied: "My dear general, you are certainly an +excellent soldier; but in regard to music you must excuse me if I +don't think it necessary to adapt my music to your comprehension." This +haughty reply was the beginning of an estrangement. Another illustration +of Cherubini's sturdy pride and dignity was his rejoinder to Napoleon, +when the latter was praising the works of the Italian composers, and +covertly sneering at his own. "Citizen General," he replied, "occupy +yourself with battles and victories, and allow me to treat according to +my talent an art of which you are grossly ignorant." Even when Napoleon +became Emperor, the proud composer never learned "to crook the pregnant +hinges of his knee" to the man before whom Europe trembled. + +On the 12th of December, 1800, a grand performance of "The Creation" +took place at Paris. Napoleon on his way to it narrowly escaped being +killed by an infernal machine. Cherubini was one of the deputation, +representing the various corporations and societies of Paris, who waited +on the First Consul to congratulate him upon his escape. Cherubini kept +in the background, when the sarcasm, "I do not see Monsieur Cherubini," +pronounced in the French way, as if to indicate that Cherubini was not +worthy of being ranked with the Italian composers, brought him promptly +forward. "Well," said Napoleon, "the French are in Italy." "Where would +they not go," answered Cherubini, "led by such a hero as you?" This +pleased the First Consul, who, however, soon got to the old musical +quarrel. "I tell you I like Paisiello's music immensely; it is soft and +tranquil. You have much talent, but there is too much accompaniment." +Said Cherubini, "Citizen Consul, I conform myself to French taste." + +"Your music," continued the other, "makes too much noise. Speak to me +in that of Paisiello; that is what lulls me gently." "I understand," +replied the composer; "you like music which doesn't stop you from +thinking of state affairs." This witty rejoinder made the arrogant +soldier frown, and the talk suddenly ceased. + +As a result of this alienation Cherubini found himself persistently +ignored and ill-treated by the First Consul. In spite of his having +produced such great masterpieces, his income was very small, apart from +his pay as Inspector of the Conservatory. The ill will of the ruler of +France was a steady check to his preferment. When Napoleon established +his consular chapel in 1802, he invited Paisiello from Naples to become +director at a salary of 12,000 francs a year. It gave great umbrage to +the Conservatory that its famous teachers should have been slighted for +an Italian foreigner, and musical circles in Paris were shaken by petty +contentions. Paisiello, however, found the public indifferent to his +works, and soon wearied of a place where the admiration to which he had +been accustomed no longer flattered his complacency. He resigned, and +his position was offered to Mehul, who is said to have declined it +because he regarded Cherubini as far more worthy of it, and to have +accepted it only on condition that his friend could share the duties and +emoluments with him. Cherubini, fretted and irritated by his condition, +retired for a time from the pursuit of his art, and devoted himself to +flowers. The opera of "Anacreon," a powerful but unequal work, which +reflected the disturbance and agitation of his mind, was the sole fruit +of his musical efforts for about four years. + +While Cherubini was in the deepest depression--for he had a large +family depending on him and small means with which to support them--a +ray of sunshine came in 1805 in the shape of an invitation to compose +for the managers of the opera at Vienna. His advent at the Austrian +capital produced a profound sensation, and he received a right royal +welcome from the great musicians of Germany. The aged Haydn, Hummel, +and Beethoven became his warm friends with the generous freemasonry of +genius, for his rank as a musician was recognized throughout Europe. + +The war which broke out after our musician's departure from Paris +between France and Austria ended shortly in the capitulation of Ulm, +and the French Emperor took up his residence at Schonbrunn. Napoleon +received Cherubini kindly when he came in answer to his summons, and +it was arranged that a series of twelve concerts should be given +alternately at Schonbrunn and Vienna. The pettiness which entered into +the French Emperor's nature in spite of his greatness continued to be +shown in his ebullitions of wrath because Cherubini persisted in holding +his own musical views against the imperial opinion. Napoleon, however, +on the eve of his return to France, urged him to accompany him, offering +the long-coveted position of musical director; but Cherubini was under +contract to remain a certain length of time at Vienna, and he would not +break his pledge. + +The winter of 1805 witnessed two remarkable musical events at the +Austrian capital, the production of Beethoven's "Fidelio" and the last +great opera written by Cherubini, "Faniska." Haydn and Beethoven were +both present at the latter performance. The former embraced Cherubini +and said to him, "You are my son, worthy of my love." Beethoven +cordially hailed him as "the first dramatic composer of the age." It is +an interesting fact that two such important dramatic compositions should +have been written at the same time, independently of each other; that +both works should have been in advance of their age; that they should +have displayed a striking similarity of style; and that both should +have suffered from the reproach of the music being too learned for the +public. The opera of "Faniska" is based on a Polish legend of great +dramatic beauty, which, however, was not very artistically treated +by the librettist. Mendelssohn in after years noted the striking +resemblance between Beethoven and our composer in the conception +and method of dramatic composition. In one of his letters to Edouard +Devrient he says, speaking of "Fidelio": "On looking into the score, +as well as on listening to the performance, I everywhere perceive +Cherubim's dramatic style of composition. It is true that Beethoven did +not ape that style, but it was before his mind as his most cherished +pattern." The unity of idea and musical color between "Faniska" and +"Fidelio" seems to have been noted by many critics both of contemporary +and succeeding times. + +Cherubini would gladly have written more for the Viennese, by whom +he had been so cordially treated; but the unsettled times and his +homesickness for Paris conspired to take him back to the city of his +adoption. He exhausted many efforts to find Mozart's tomb in Vienna, and +desired to place a monument over his neglected remains, but failed to +locate the resting-place of one he loved so much. Haydn, Beethoven, +Hummel, Salieri, and the other leading composers reluctantly parted +with him, and on April 1, 1806, his return to Paris was celebrated by +a brilliant fete improvised for him at the Conservatory. Fate, however, +had not done with her persecutions, for fate in France took the shape of +Napoleon, whose hostility, easily aroused, was implacable; who aspired +to rule the arts and letters as he did armies and state policy; who +spared neither Cherubini nor Madame de Stael. Cherubini was neglected +and insulted by authority, while honors were showered on Mehul, Gretry, +Spontini, and Lesueur. He sank into a state of profound depression, and +it was even reported in Vienna that he was dead. He forsook music and +devoted himself to drawing and botany. Had he not been a great musician, +it is probable he would have excelled in pictorial art. One day the +great painter David entered the room where he was working in crayon on a +landscape of the Salvator Rosa style. So pleased was the painter that he +cried, "Truly admirable! Courage!" In 1808 Cherubini found complete +rest in a visit to the country-seat of the Prince de Chimay in Belgium, +whither he was accompanied by his friend and pupil Auber. + + +VII. + +With this period Cherubini closed his career practically as an operatic +composer, though several dramatic works were produced subsequently, and +entered on his no less great sphere of ecclesiastical composition. +At Chimay for a while no one dared to mention music in his presence. +Drawing and painting flowers seemed to be his sole pleasure. At last the +president of the little music society at Chimay ventured to ask him to +write a mass for St. Cecilia's feast day. He curtly refused, but +his hostess noticed that he was agitated by the incident,'as if his +slumbering instincts had started again into life. One day the Princess +placed music paper on his table, and Cherubini on returning from his +walk instantly began to compose, as if he had never ceased it. It is +recorded that he traced out in full score the "Kyrie" of his great +mass in F during the intermission of a single game of billiards. Only +a portion of the mass was completed in time for the festival, but, +on Cherubini's return to Paris in 1809, it was publicly given by an +admirable orchestra, and hailed with a great enthusiasm, that soon +swept through Europe. It was perceived that Cherubini had struck out +for himself a new path in church music. Fetis, the musical historian, +records its reception as follows: "All expressed an unreserved +admiration for this composition of a new order, whereby Cherubini +has placed himself above all musicians who have as yet written in +the concerted style of church music. Superior to the masses of Haydn, +Mozart, and Beethoven, and the masters of the Neapolitan school, that of +Cherubini is as remarkable for originality of idea as for perfection in +art." Picchiante, a distinguished critic, sums up the impressions made +by this great work in the following eloquent and vigorous passage: "All +the musical science of the good age of religious music, the sixteenth +century of the Christian era, was summed up in Palestrina, who +flourished at that time, and by its aid he put into form noble and +sublime conceptions. With the grave Gregorian melody, learnedly +elaborated in vigorous counterpoint and reduced to greater clearness and +elegance without instrumental aid, Palestrina knew how to awaken among +his hearers mysterious, grand, deep, vague sensations, that seemed +caused by the objects of an unknown world, or by superior powers in +the human imagination. With the same profound thoughtfulness of the old +Catholic music, enriched by the perfection which art has attained in two +centuries, and with all the means which a composer nowadays can make +use of, Cherubini perfected another conception, and this consisted in +utilizing the style adapted to dramatic composition when narrating the +church text, by which means he was able to succeed in depicting man in +his various vicissitudes, now rising to the praises of Divinity, now +gazing on the Supreme Power, now suppliant and prostrate. So that, while +Palestrina's music places God before man, that of Cherubini places man +before God." Adolphe Adam puts the comparison more epigrammatically in +saying: "If Palestrina had lived in our own times, he would have been +Cherubini." The masters of the old Roman school of church music had +received it as an emanation of pure sentiment, with no tinge of human +warmth and color. Cherubini, on the contrary, aimed to make his music +express the dramatic passion of the words, and in the realization of +this he brought to bear all the resources of a musical science unequaled +except perhaps by Beethoven. The noble masses in F and D were also +written in 1809 and stamped themselves on public judgment as no less +powerful works of genius and knowledge. + +Some of Cherubini's friends in 1809 tried to reconcile the composer +with the Emperor, and in furtherance of this an opera was written +anonymously, "Pimmalione." Napoleon was delighted, and even affected to +tears. Instantly, however, that Cherubini's name was uttered, he became +dumb and cold. Nevertheless, as if ashamed of his injustice, he sent +Cherubini a large sum of money, and a commission to write the music for +his marriage ode. Several fine works followed in the next two years, +among them the Mass in D, regarded by some of his admirers as his +ecclesiastical masterpiece. Miel claims that in largeness of design and +complication of detail, sublimity of conception and dramatic intensity, +two works only of its class approach it, Beethoven's Mass in D and +Niedermeyer's Mass in D minor. + +In 1811 Halevy, the future author of "La Juive," became Cherubini's +pupil, and a devoted friendship ever continued between the two. The +opera of "Les Abencerages" was also produced, and it was pronounced +nowise inferior to "Medee" and "Les Deux Journees." Mendelssohn many +years afterward, writing to Moscheles in Paris, asked: "Has Onslow +written anything new? And old Cherubini? There's a matchless fellow! +I have got his 'Abencerages,' and can not sufficiently admire the +sparkling fire, the clear original phrasing, the extraordinary delicacy +and refinement with which it is written, or feel grateful enough to the +grand old man for it. Besides, it is all so free and bold and spirited." +The work would have had a greater immediate success, had not Paris been +in profound gloom from the disastrous results of the Moscow campaign and +the horrors of the French retreat, where famine and disease finished the +work of bayonet and cannon-ball. + +The unsettled and disheartening times disturbed all the relations of +artists. There is but little record of Cherubini for several years. A +significant passage in a letter written in 1814, speaking of several +military marches written for a Prussian band, indicates the occupation +of Paris by the allies and Napoleon's banishment in Elba. The period of +"The Hundred Days" was spent by Cherubini in England; and the world's +wonder, the battle of Waterloo, was fought, and the Bourbons were +permanently restored, before he again set foot in Paris. The restored +dynasty delighted to honor the man whom Napoleon had slighted, and gifts +were showered on him alike by the Court and by the leading academies of +Europe. The walls of his studio were covered with medals and diplomas; +and his appointment as director of the King's chapel (which, however, he +refused unless shared with Lesueur, the old incumbent) placed him above +the daily demands of want. So, at the age of fifty-five, this great +composer for the first time ceased to be anxious on the score of his +livelihood. Thenceforward the life of Cherubini was destined to flow +with a placid current, its chief incidents being the great works in +church music, which he poured forth year after year, to the admiration +and delight of the artistic world. These remarkable masses, by their +dramatic power, greatness of design, and wealth of instrumentation, +excited as much discussion and interest throughout Europe as the operas +of other composers. That written in 1816, the C minor requiem mass, is +pronounced by Berlioz to be the greatest work of this description ever +composed. + +We get some pleasant glimpses of Cherubini as a man during this serene +autumn of his life. Spohr tells us how cordially Cherubini, +generally regarded as an austere and irritable man, received him. +The world-renowned master, accustomed to handle instruments in great +orchestral masses, was not familiar with the smaller compositions known +as chamber music, in which the Germans so excelled. He was greatly +delighted when the youthful Spohr turned his attention to this form of +music, and he insisted on the latter directing little concerts over and +over again at his house. + +In 1821 Moscheles writes in his diary, apropos of Cherubini and his +artistic surroundings: "I spent the evening at Ciceri's, son in-law of +Isabey, the famous painter, where I was introduced to one of the most +interesting circles of artists. In the first room were assembled the +most famous painters, engaged in drawing several things for their own +amusement. In the midst of these was Cherubim, also drawing. I had the +honor, like every one newly introduced, of having my portrait taken in +caricature. Begasse took me in hand and succeeded well. In an adjoining +room were musicians and actors, among them Ponchard, Levasseur, Dugazon, +Panseron, Mlle, de Munck, and Mme. Livere, of the Theatre Francais. The +most interesting of their performances, which I attended merely as +a listener, was a vocal quartet by Cherubini, performed under his +direction. Later in the evening, the whole party armed itself with +larger or smaller 'mirlitons' (reed-pipe whistles), and on these small +monotonous instruments, sometimes made of sugar, they played, after +the fashion of Russian horn music, the overture to 'Demophon,' +two frying-pans representing the drums." On the 27th of March this +"mirliton" concert was repeated at Ciceri's, and on this occasion +Cherubini took an active part. Moscheles relates of that evening: +"Horace Vernet entertained us with his ventriloquizing powers, M. Salmon +with his imitation of a horn, and Dugazon actually with a mirliton solo. +Lafont and I represented the classical music, which, after all, held its +own." + +The distinguished pianist, in further pleasant gossip about Cherubini, +tells us of hearing the first performance of a pasticcio opera, composed +by Cherubini, Paer, Berton, Boieldieu, and Kreutzer, in honor of the +christening of the Duke of Bordeaux. Of the part written by Cherubini he +speaks in the warmest praise, and says quizzically of the composer: +"His squeaky sharp little voice was sometimes heard in the midst of his +conducting, and interrupted my state of ecstasy caused by his presence +and composition." + +In 1822 Cherubini became Director of the reestablished Conservatory, +that institution having fallen into some decay, and displayed great +administrative power and grasp of detail in bringing order out of chaos. +His vigilance and experience, seconded by an able staff of professors, +including the foremost musical names of France, soon made the +Conservatory what it has since re? mained, the greatest musical college +of the world. He was incessant in the performance of his duties, and +spared neither himself nor his staff of professors to build up the +institution. His spirit communicated itself both to masters and pupils. +Ten o'clock every morning saw him at his office, and interviews even +with the great were timed watch in hand. This law of order even prompted +him to rebuke the Minister of Fine Arts severely when one day that +functionary met an appointment tardily. Fetis tells us: "To his new +functions he brought the most scrupulous exactitude of duty, that spirit +of order which he possessed during the whole of his life, and an entire +devotion to the prosperity of the establishment. Severe and exacting +toward the professors and servants as he was with himself, he brought +with him little love in his connections with the artists placed under +his authority." His official duties finished, this incessant worker +occupied his time with original composition, or copying out the scores +of other composers from memory. + +Though habitually cold and severe in his manner during these latter +years, there was a spring of playful tenderness beneath. One day a child +of great talent was brought by his father, a poor man, to see Cherubini. +The latter's first exclamation was: "This is not a nursing hospital for +infants." Relenting somewhat, he questioned the boy, and soon discovered +his remarkable talents. The same old man was charmed and caressed the +youngster, saying, "Bravo, my little friend! But why are you here, and +what can I do for you?" "A thing that is very easy, and which would make +me very happy," was the reply; "put me into the Conservatory." "It's a +thing done," said Cherubini; "you are one of us." He afterward said to +his friends playfully: "I had to be careful about pushing the questions +too far, for the baby was beginning to prove that he knew more about +music than I did myself." + +His merciless criticism of his pupils did not surpass his own modesty +and diffidence. One day, when a symphony of Beethoven was about to be +played at a concert, just prior to one of his own works, he said, "Now I +am going to appear as a very small boy indeed." The mutual affection of +Cherubini and Beethoven remained unabated through life, as is shown by +the touching letter written by the latter just before his death, but +which Cherubini did not receive till after that event. The letter was as +follows: + +Vienna, March 15,1823. + +Highly esteemed Sir: I joyfully take advantage of this opportunity to +address you. + +I have done so often in spirit, as I prize your theatrical works beyond +others. The artistic world has only to lament that in Germany, at least, +no new dramatic work of yours has appeared. Highly as all your works +are valued by true connoisseurs, still it is a great loss to art not to +possess any fresh production of your great genius for the theatre. + +True art is imperishable, and the true artist feels heartfelt pleasure +in grand works of genius, and that id what enchants me when I hear a new +composition of yours; in fact, I take greater interest in it than in my +own; in short, I love and honor you. Were it not that my continued bad +health stops my coming to see you in Paris, with what exceeding delight +would I discuss questions of art with you! Do not think that this is +meant merely to serve as an introduction to the favor I am about to ask +of you. I hope and feel sure that you do not for a moment suspect me of +such base sentiments. I recently completed a grand solemn Mass, and have +resolved to offer it to the various European courts, as it is not my +intention to publish it at present. I have therefore asked the King of +France, through the French embassy here, to subscribe to this work, and +I feel certain that his Majesty would at your recommendation agree to do +so. + +My critical situation demands that I should not solely fix my eyes upon +heaven, as is my wont; on the contrary, it would have me fix them also +upon earth, here below, for the necessities of life. + +Whatever may be the fate of my request to you, I shall for ever continue +to love and esteem you; and you for ever remain of all my contemporaries +that one whom I esteem the most. + +If you should wish to do me a very great favor, you would effect this by +writing to me a few lines, which would solace me much. Art unites all; +how much more, then, true artists! and perhaps you may deem me worthy of +being included in that number. + +With the highest esteem, your friend and servant, + +LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN. + +LUDWIG CHERUBINI. + + +Cherubini's admiration of the great German is indicated in an anecdote +told by Professor Ella. The master rebuked a pupil who, in referring +to a performance of a Beethoven symphony, dwelt mostly on the executive +excellence: "Young man, let your sympathies be first wedded to the +creation, and be you less fastidious of the execution; accept the +interpretation, and think more of the creation of these musical works +which are written for all time and all nations, models for imitation and +above all criticism." + + +VIII. + +As a man Cherubini presented himself in many different aspects. +Extremely nervous, _brusque_, irritable, and absolutely independent, he +was apt to offend and repel. But under his stern reserve of character +there beat a warm heart and generous sympathies. This is shown by the +fact that, in spite of the unevenness of his temper, he was almost +worshiped by those around him. Auber, Halevy, Berton, Boieldieu, Mehul, +Spontini, and Adam, who were so intimately associated with him, speak of +him with words of the warmest affection. Halevy, indeed, rarely alluded +to him without tears rushing to his eyes; and the slightest term of +disrespect excited his warmest indignation. It is recorded that, after +rebuking a pupil with sarcastic severity, his fine face would relax with +a smile so affectionate and genial that his whilom victim could feel +nothing but enthusiastic respect. Without one taint of envy in his +nature, conscious of his own extraordinary powers, he was quick to +recognize genius in others; and his hearty praise of the powers of +his rivals shows how sound and generous the heart was under his +irritability. His proneness to satire and power of epigram made him +enemies, but even these yielded to the suavity and fascination which +alternated with his bitter moods. His sympathies were peculiarly open +for young musicians. Mendelssohn and Liszt were stimulated by his warm +and encouraging praise when they first visited Paris; and even Berlioz, +whose turbulent conduct in the Conservatory had so embittered him at +various times, was heartily applauded when his first great mass was +produced. Arnold gives us the following pleasant picture of Cherubini: + +"Cherubini in society was outwardly silent, modest, unassuming, +pleasing, obliging, and possessed of the finest manners. At the same +time, he who did not know that he was with Cherubini would think +him stern and reserved, so well did the composer know how to conceal +everything, if only to avoid ostentation. He truly shunned brag or +speaking of himself. Cherubini's voice was feeble, probably from +narrow-chestedness, and somewhat hoarse, but was otherwise soft and +agreeable. His French was Italianized.... His head was bent forward, +his nose was large and aquiline; his eyebrows were thick, black, +and somewhat bushy, overshadowing his eyes. His eyes were dark, and +glittered with an extraordinary brilliancy that animated in a wonderful +way the whole face. A thin lock of hair came over the center of his +forehead, and somehow gave to his countenance a peculiar softness." + +The picture painted by Ingres, the great artist, now in the Luxembourg +gallery, represents the composer with Polyhymnia in the background +stretching out her hand over him. His face, framed in waving silvery +hair, is full of majesty and brightness, and the eye of piercing luster. +Cherubini was so gratified by this effort of the painter that he sent +him a beautiful canon set to wrords of his own. Thus his latter years +were spent in the society of the great artists and wits of Paris, +revered by all, and recognized, after Beethoven's death, as the musical +giant of Europe. Rossini, Meyerbeer, Weber, Schumann--in a word, the +representatives of the most diverse schools of composition--bowed +equally before this great name. Rossini, who was his antipodes in genius +and method, felt his loss bitterly, and after his death sent Cherubini's +portrait to his widow with these touching words: "Here, my dear madam, +is the portrait of a great man, who is as young in your heart as he is +in my mind." + +Actively engaged as Director of the Conservatory, which he governed with +consummate ability, his old age was further employed in producing that +series of great masses which rank with the symphonies of Beethoven. His +creative instinct and the fire of his imagination remained unimpaired +to the time of his death. Mendelssohn in a letter to Moscheles speaks +of him as "that truly wonderful old man, whose genius seems bathed +in immortal youth." His opera of "Ali Baba," composed at seventy-six, +though inferior to his other dramatic works, is full of beautiful and +original music, and was immediately produced in several of the principal +capitals of Europe; and the second Requiem mass, written in his +eightieth year, is one of his masterpieces. + +On the 12th of March, 1842, the old composer died, surrounded by his +affectionate family and friends. His fatal illness had been brought on +in part by grief for the death of his son-in-law, M. Tureas, to whom he +was most tenderly attached. His funeral was one of great military and +civic magnificence, and royalty itself could not have been honored +with more splendid obsequies. The congregation of men great in arms +and state, in music, painting, and literature, who did honor to the +occasion, has rarely been equaled. His own noble Requiem mass, composed +the year before his death, was given at the funeral services in the +church of St. Roch by the finest orchestra and voices in Europe. Similar +services were held throughout Europe, and everywhere the opera-houses +were draped in black. Perhaps the death of no musician ever called forth +such universal exhibitions of sorrow and reverence. + +Cherubini's life extended from the early part of the reign of Louis XVI. +to that of Louis Philippe, and was contemporaneous with many of the +most remarkable events in modern history. The energy and passion which +convulsed society during his youth and early manhood undoubtedly had +much to do in stimulating that robust and virile quality in his mind +which gave such character to his compositions. The fecundity of his +intellect is shown in the fact that he produced four hundred and thirty +works, out of which only eighty have been published. In this catalogue +there are twenty-five operas and eleven masses. + +As an operatic composer he laid the foundation of the modern French +school. Uniting the melody of the Italian with the science of the +German, his conceptions had a dramatic fire and passion which were, +however, free from anything appertaining to the sensational and +meretricious. His forms were indeed classically severe, and his style is +defined by Adolphe Adam as the resurrection of the old Italian school, +enriched by the discoveries of modern harmony. Though he was the creator +of French opera as we know it now, he was free from its vagaries +and extravagances. He set its model in the dramatic vigor and +picturesqueness, the clean-cut forms, and the noble instrumentation +which mark such masterpieces as "Faniska," "Aledee," "Les Deux +Journees," and "Lodoiska." The purity, classicism, and wealth of ideas +in these works have always caused them to be cited as standards of ideal +excellence. The reforms in opera of which Gluck was the protagonist, and +Wagner the extreme modern exponent, characterize the dramatic works +of Cherubini, though he keeps them within that artistic limit which a +proper regard for melodic beauty prescribes. In the power and propriety +of musical declamation his operas are conceded to be without a +superior. His overtures hold their place in classical music as ranking +with the best ever written, and show a richness of resource and +knowledge of form in treating the orchestra which his his contemporaries +admitted were only equaled by Beethoven. + +Cherubini's place in ecclesiastical music is that by which he is best +known to the musical public of to-day; for his operas, owing to the +immense demands they make on the dramatic and vocal resources of the +artist, are but rarely presented in France, Germany, and England, and +never in America. They are only given where music is loved on account +of its noble traditions, and not for the mere sake of idle and luxurious +amusement. As a composer of masses, however, Cherubini's genius is +familiar to all who frequent the services of the Roman Church. His +relation to the music of Catholicism accords with that of Sebastian Bach +to the music of Protestantism. Haydn, Mozart, and even Beethoven, +are held by the best critics to be his inferiors in this form of +composition. His richness of melody, sense of dramatic color, and +great command of orchestral effects, gave him commanding power in the +interpretation of religious sentiments; while an ardent faith inspired +with passion, sweetness, and devotion what Place styles his "sublime +visions." Miel, one of his most competent critics, writes of him in this +eloquent strain: "If he represents the passion and death of Christ, the +heart feels itself wounded with the most sublime emotion; and when +he recounts the 'Last Judgment' the blood freezes with dread at the +redoubled and menacing calls of the exterminating angel. All those +admirable pictures that the Raphaels and Michael Angelos have painted +with colors and the brush, Cherubini brings forth with the voice and +orchestra." In brief, if Cherubini is the founder of a later school +of opera, and the model which his successors have always honored and +studied if they have not always followed, no less is he the chief of +a later, and by common consent the greatest, school of modern church +music. + + + + +MEHUL, SPONTINI, AND HALEVY. + +I. + +The influence of Gluck was not confined to Cherubini, but was hardly +less manifest in molding the style and conceptions of Mehul and +Spontini,* who held prominent places in the history of the French opera. + + * It is a little singular that some of the most + distinguished names in the annals of French music were + foreigners. Thus Gluck was a German, as also was Meyerbeer, + while Cherubini and Spontini were Italians. + +Henri Etienne Mehul was the son of a French soldier stationed at the +Givet barracks, where he was born June 24, 1763. His early love of music +secured for him instructions from the blind organist of the Franciscan +church at that garrison town, under whom he made astonishing progress. +He soon found he had outstripped the attainments of his teacher, and +contrived to place himself under the tuition of the celebrated Wilhelm +Hemser, who was organist at a neighboring monastery. Here Mehul spent a +number of happy and useful years, studying composition with Hemser and +literature with the kind monks, who hoped to persuade their young charge +to devote himself to ecclesiastical life. + +Mehul's advent in Paris, whither he went at the age of sixteen, soon +opened his eyes to his true vocation, that of a dramatic composer. The +excitement over the contest between Gluck and Piccini was then at its +height, and the youthful musician was not long in espousing the side of +Gluck with enthusiasm. He made the acquaintance of Gluck accidentally, +the great ehevalier interposing one night to prevent his being ejected +from the theatre, into one of whose boxes Mehul had slipped without +buying a ticket. Thence forward the youth had free access to the opera, +and the friendship and tuition of one of the master minds of the age. + +An opera, "Cora et Alonzo," had been composed at the age of twenty and +accepted at the opera; but it was not till 1790 that he got a hearing in +the comic opera of "Euphrasque et Coradin," composed under the direction +of Gluck. This work was brilliantly successful, and "Stratonice," which +anpeared two years afterward, established his reputation. The French +critics describe both these early works as being equally admirable in +melody, orchestral accompaniment, and dramatic effect. The stormiest +year of the revolution was not favorable to operatic composition, and +Mehul wrote but little music except pieces for republican festivities, +much to his own disgust, for he was by no means a warm friend of the +republic. + +In 1797 he produced his "Le Jeune Henri," which nearly caused a riot in +the theatre. The story displeased the republican audience, who hissed +and hooted till the turmoil compelled the fall of the curtain. They +insisted, however, on the overture, which is one of great beauty, +being performed over and over again, a compliment which has rarely been +accorded to any composer. Mehul's appointment as inspector and professor +in the newly organized Conservatory, at the same time with Cherubini, +left him but little leisure for musical composition; but he found time +to write the spectacular opera "Adrian," which was fiercely condemned by +a republican audience, not as a musical failure, but because their alert +and suspicious tempers suspected in it covert allusions to the dead +monarchy. Even David, the painter, said he would set the torch to the +opera-house rather than witness the triumph of a king. In 1806 Mehul +produced the opera "Uthal," a work of striking vigor founded on an +Ossianic theme, in which he made the innovation of banishing the violins +from the orchestra, substituting therefor the violas. + +It was in "Joseph," however, composed in 1807, that this composer +vindicated his right to be called a musician of great genius, and +entered fully into a species of composition befitting his grand style. +Most of his contemporaries were incapable of appreciating the greatness +of the work, though his gifted rival Cherubini gave it the warmest +praise. In Germany it met with instant and extended success, and it is +one of the few French operas of the old school which still continue to +be given on the German stage. In England it is now frequently sung as an +oratorio. It is on this remarkable work that Mehul's lasting reputation +as a composer rests outside of his own nation. The construction of +the opera of "Joseph" is characterized by admirable symmetry of form, +dramatic power, and majesty of the choral and concerted passages, +while the sustained beauty of the orchestration is such as to challenge +comparison with the greatest works of his contemporaries. Such at +least is the verdict of Fetis, who was by no means inclined to be +over-indulgent in criticising Mehul. The fault in this opera, as in all +of Mehul's works, appears to have been a lack of bright and graceful +melody, though in the modern tendencies of music this defect is rapidly +being elevated into a virtue. + +The last eight years of Mehul's life were depressed by melancholy and +suffering, proceeding from pulmonary disease. He resigned his place in +the Conservatory, and retired to a pleasant little estate near Paris, +where he devoted himself to raising flowers, and found some solace in +the society of his musical friends and former pupils, who were assiduous +in their attentions. Finally becoming dangerously ill, he went to the +island of Hyeres to find a more genial climate. But here he pined for +Paris and the old companionships, and suffered more perhaps by fretting +for the intellectual cheer of his old life than he gained by balmy air +and sunshine. He writes to one of his friends after a short stay at +Hyeres: "I have broken up all my habits; I am deprived of all my old +friends; I am alone at the end of the world, surrounded by people whose +language I scarcely understand; and all this sacrifice to obtain a +little more sun. The air which best agrees with me is that which I +breathe among you." He returned to Paris for a few weeks only, to +breathe his last on October 18, 1817, aged fifty-four. + +Mehul was a high-minded and benevolent man, wrapped up in his art, +and singularly childlike in the practical affairs of life. Abhorring +intrigue, he was above all petty jealousies, and even sacrificed the +situation of chapel-master under Napoleon, because he believed it should +have been given to the greatest of his rivals, Cherubini. When he +died Paris recognized his goodness as a man as well as greatness as a +musician by a touching and spontaneous expression of grief, and funeral +honors were given him throughout Europe. In 1822 his statue was crowned +on the stage of the Grand Opera, at a performance of his "Valentine de +Rohan." Notwithstanding his early death, he composed forty-two operas, +and modern musicians and critics give him a notable place among those +who were prominent in building up a national stage. A pupil and disciple +of Gluck, a cordial co-worker with Cherubini, he contributed largely to +the glory of French music, not only by his genius as a composer, but +by his important labors in the reorganization of the Conservatory, +that nursery which has fed so much of the highest musical talent of the +world. + + +II. + +Luigi Gaspardo Pacifico Spontini, born of peasant parents at Majolati, +Italy, November 14, 1774, displayed his musical passion at an early age. +Designed for holy orders from childhood, his priestly tutors could not +make him study; but he delighted in the service of the church, with its +or^an and choir effects, for here his true vocation asserted itself. He +was wont, too, to hide in the belfry, and revel in the roaring orchestra +of metal, when the chimes were rung. On one occasion a stroke of +lightning precipitated him from his dangerous perch to the floor below, +and the history of music nearly lost one of its great lights. The bias +of his nature was intractable, and he was at last permitted to study +music, at first under the charge of his uncle Joseph, the cure of Jesi, +and finally at the Naples Conservatory, where he was entered at the age +of sixteen. + +His first opera, "I Puntigli delle Donne," was composed at the age of +twenty-one, and performed at Rome, where it was kindly received. The +French invasion unsettled the affairs of Italy, and Spontini wandered +somewhat aimlessly, unable to exercise his talents to advantage till he +went to Paris in 1803, where he found a large number of brother Italian +musicians, and a cordial reception, though himself an obscure and +untried youth. He produced several minor works on the French stage, +noticeably among them the one-act opera of "Milton," in which he stepped +boldly out of his Italian mannerism, and entered on that path afterward +pursued with such brilliancy and boldness. Yet, though his talents began +to be recognized, life was a trying struggle, and it is doubtful if he +could have overcome the difficulties in his way when he was ready to +produce "La Vestale," had he not enlisted the sympathies of the +Empress Josephine, who loved music, and played the part of patroness as +gracefully as she did all others. + +By Napoleon's order "La Vestale" was rehearsed against the wish of the +manager and critics of the Academy of Music, and produced December 15, +1807. Previous to this some parts of it had been performed privately +at the Tuileries, and the Emperor had said: "M. Spontini, your opera +abounds in fine airs and effective duets. The march to the place of +execution is admirable. You will certainly have the great success you +so well deserve." The imperial prediction was justified by consecutive +performances of one hundred nights. His next work, "Fernand Cortez," +sustained the impression of genius earned for him by its predecessor. +The scene of the revolt is pronounced by competent critics to be one of +the finest dramatic conceptions in operatic music. + +In 1809 Spontini married the niece of Erard, the great pianoforte-maker, +and was called to the direction of the Italian opera; but he retained +this position only two years, from the disagreeable conditions he had to +contend with, and the cabals that were formed against him. The year 1814 +witnessed the production of "Pelage," and two years later "Les Dieux +Rivaux" was composed, in conjunction with Persuis, Berton, and Kreutzer; +but neither work attracted much attention. The opera of "Olympic," +worked out on the plan of "La Vestale" and "Cortez," was produced in +1819. Spontini was embittered by its poor success, for he had built many +hopes on it, and wrought long and patiently. That he was not in his best +vein, and like many other men of genius was not always able to estimate +justly his own work, is undeniable; for Spontini, contrary to the +opinion of his contemporaries and of posterity, regarded this as his +best opera. His acceptance of the Prussian King's offer to become +musical director at Berlin was the result of his chagrin. Here he +remained for twenty years. "Olympic" succeeded better at Berlin, though +the boisterousness of the music seems to have called out some sharp +strictures even among the Berlinese, whose penchant for noisy operatic +effects was then as now a butt for the satire of the musical wits. +Apropos of the long run of "Olympic" at Berlin, an amusing anecdote +is told on the authority of Castel-Blaze. A wealthy amateur had become +deaf, and suffered much from his deprivation of the enjoyment of his +favorite art. After trying many physicians, he was treated in a novel +fashion by his latest doctor. "Come with me to the opera this evening," +wrote down the doctor. "What's the use? I can't hear a note," was the +impatient rejoinder. "Never mind," said the other; "come, and you will +see something at all events." So the twain repaired to the theatre to +hear Spontini's "Olympie." All went well till one of the overwhelming +finales, which happened to be played that evening more _fortissimo_ +than usual. The patient turned around beaming with delight, exclaiming, +"Doctor, I can hear." As there was no reply, the happy patient again +said, "Doctor, I tell you, you have cured me." A blank stare alone met +him, and he found that the doctor was as deaf as a post, having fallen +a victim to his own prescription. The German wits had a similar joke +afterward at Halevy's expense. The "Punch" of Vienna said that Halevy +made the brass play so loudly that the French horn was actually blown +quite straight. + +Among the works produced at Berlin were "Nurmahal," in 1825; "Alcidor," +the same year; and in 1829, "Agnes von Hohenstaufen." Various other new +works were given from time to time, but none achieved more than a brief +hearing. Spontini's stiff-necked and arrogant will kept him in continual +trouble, and the Berlin press aimed its arrows at him with incessant +virulence: a war which the composer fed by his bitter and witty +rejoinders, for he was an adept in the art of invective. Had he not been +singularly adroit, he would have been obliged to leave his post. But +he gloried in the disturbance he created, and was proof against the +assaults of his numerous enemies, made so largely by his having come +of the French school, then as now an all-sufficient cause of Teutonic +dislike. Spontini's unbending intolerance, however, at last undermined +his musical supremacy, so long held good with an iron hand; and an +intrigue headed by Count Bruehl, intendant of the Royal Theatre, at last +obliged him to resign after a rule of a score of years. His influence on +the lyric theatre of Berlin, however, had been valuable, and he had the +glory of forming singers among the Prussians, who until his time had +thought more of cornet-playing than of beautiful and true vocalization. +The Prussian King allowed him on his departure a pension of 16,000 +francs. + +When Spontini returned to Paris, though he was appointed member of the +Academy of Fine Arts, he was received with some coldness by the musical +world. He had no little difficulty in getting a production of his +operas; only the Conservatory remained faithful to him, and in their +hall large audiences gathered to hear compositions to which the +opera-house denied its stage. New idols attracted the public, and +Spontini, though burdened with all the orders of Europe, was obliged to +rest in the traditions of his earlier career. A passionate desire to see +his native land before death made him leave Paris in 1850, and he went +to Majolati, the town of his birth, where he died after a residence of a +few months. His cradle was his tomb. + + +III. + +A well-known musical critic sums up his judgment of Halevy in these +words: "If in France a contemporary of Louis XIV., an admirer of Racine, +could return to us, and, full of the remembrance of his earthly career +under that renowned monarch, he should wish to find the nobly pathetic, +the elevated inspiration, the majestic arrangements of the olden times +upon a modern stage, we would not take him to the Theatre Francais, but +to the Opera on the day in which one of Halevy's works was given." + +Unlike Mehul and Spontini, with whom in point of style and method Halevy +must be associated, he was not in any direct sense a disciple of Gluck, +but inherited the influence of the latter through his great successor +Cherubini, of whom Halevy was the favorite pupil and the intimate +friend. Fromental Halevy, a scion of the Hebrew race, which has +furnished so many geniuses to the art world, left a deep impress on +his times, not simply by his genius and musical knowledge, which was +profound, varied, and accurate, but by the elevation and nobility which +lifted his mark up to a higher level than that which we accord to +mere musical gifts, be they ever so rich and fertile. The motive that +inspired his life is suggested in his devout saying that music is an +art that God has given us, in which the voices of all nations may unite +their prayers in one harmonious rhythm. + +Halevy was a native of Paris, born May 27, 1799. He entered the +Conservatory at the age of eleven years, where he soon attracted the +particular attention of Cherubini. When he was twenty the Institute +awarded him the grand prize for the composition of a cantata; and he +also received a government pension which enabled him to dwell at Rome +for two years, assiduously cultivating his talents in composition. +Halevy returned to Paris, but it was not till 1827 that he succeeded +in having an opera produced. This portion of his life was full of +disappointment and chilled ambitions; for, in spite of the warm +friendship of Cherubini, who did everything to advance his interests, he +seemed to make but slow progress in popular estimation, though a number +of operas were produced. + +Halevy's full recognition, however, was found in the great work of "La +Juive," produced February 23, 1835, with lavish magnificence. It is said +that the managers of the Opera expended 150,000 francs in putting it +on the stage. This opera, which surpasses all his others in passion, +strength, and dignity of treatment, was interpreted by the greatest +singers in Europe, and the public reception at once assured the composer +that his place in music was fixed. Many envious critics, however, +declaimed against him, asserting that success was not the legitimate +desert of the opera, but of its magnificent presentation. Halevy +answered his detractors by giving the world a delightful comic opera, +"L'Eclair," which at once testified to the genuineness of his musical +inspiration and the versatility of his powers, and was received by the +public with even more pleasure than "La Juive." + +Halevy's next brilliant stroke (three unsuccessful works in the mean +while having been written) was "La Reine de Chypre," produced in 1841. +A somewhat singular fact occurred during the performance of this opera. +One of the singers, every time he came to the passage, + + Ce mortel qu'on remarque + Tient-il Plus que nous de la Parque + Le fil? + +was in the habit of fixing his eyes on a certain proscenium box wherein +were wont to sit certain notabilities in politics and finance. As +several of these died during the first run of the work, superstitious +people thought the box was bewitched, and no one cared to occupy it. Two +fine works, "Charles VI." and "Le Val d'Andorre," succeeded at intervals +of a few years; and in 1849 the noble music to AEschylus's "Prometheus +Bound" was written with an idea of reproducing the supposed effects of +the enharmonic style of the Greeks. + +Halevy's opera of "The Tempest," written for London, and produced in +1850, rivaled the success of "La Juive." Balfe led the orchestra, and +its popularity caused the basso Lablache to write the following epigram: + + The "Tempest" of Halevy + Differs from other tempests. + These rain hail, + That rains gold. + +The Academy of Fine Arts elected the composer secretary in 1854, and +in the exercise of his duties, which involved considerable literary +composition, Halevy showed the same elegance of style and good taste +which marked his musical writings. He did not, however, neglect his own +proper work, and a succession of operas, which were cordially received, +proved how unimpaired and vigorous his intellectual faculties remained. + +The composer's death occurred at Nice, whither he had gone on account of +failing strength, March 17, 1862. His last moments were cheered by +the attentions of his family and the consolations of philosophy and +literature, which he dearly loved to discuss with his friends. His +ruling passion displayed itself shortly before his end in characteristic +fashion. Trying in vain to reach a book on the table, he said: "Can I do +nothing now in time?" On the morning of his death, wishing to be turned +on his bed, he said to his daughter, "Lay me down like a gamut," at +each movement repeating with a soft smile, "Do, re, mi," etc., until the +change was made. These were his last words. + +The celebrated French critic Sainte-Beuve pays a charming tribute to +Halevy, whom he knew and loved well: + +"Halevy had a natural talent for writing, which he cultivated and +perfected by study, by a taste for reading which he always +gratified in the intervals of labor, in his study, in public +conveyances--everywhere, in fine, when he had a minute to spare. He +could isolate himself completely in the midst of the various noises of +his family, or the conversation of the drawing-room if he had no part in +it. He wrote music, poetry, and prose, and he read with imperturbable +attention while people around him talked. + +"He possessed the instinct of languages, was familiar with German, +Italian, English, and Latin, knew something of Hebrew and Greek. He was +conversant with etymology, and had a perfect passion for dictionaries. +It was often difficult for him to find a word; for on opening the +dictionary somewhere near the word for which he was looking, if his eye +chanced to fall on some other, no matter what, he stopped to read that, +then another and another, until he sometimes forgot the word he sought. +It is singular that this estimable man, so fully occupied, should at +times have nourished some secret sadness. Whatever the hidden wound +might be, none, not even his most intimate friends, knew what it was. +He never made any complaint. Halevy's nature was rich, open and +communicative. He was well organized, accessible to the sweets of +sociability and family joys. In fine, he had, as one may say, too many +strings to his bow to be very unhappy for any length of time. To define +him practically, I would say he was a bee that had not lodged himself +completely in his hive, but was seeking to make honey elsewhere too." + + +IV. + +MEHUL labored successfully in adapting the noble and severe style of +Gluck to the changing requirements of the French stage. The turmoil and +passions of the revolution had stirred men's souls to the very roots, +and this influence was perpetuated and crystallized in the new forms +given to French thought by Napoleon's wonderful career. Mehul's +musical conceptions, which culminated in the opera of "Joseph," were +characterized by a stir, a vigor, and largeness of dramatic movement, +which came close to the familiar life of that remarkable period. His +great rival Cherubini, on the other hand, though no less truly dramatic +in fitting musical expression to thought and passion, was so austere +and rigid in his ideals, so dominated by musical form and an accurate +science which would concede nothing to popular prejudice and ignorance, +that he won his laurels, not by force of the natural flow of popular +sympathy, but by the sheer might of his genius. Cherubini's severe works +made them models and foundation stones for his successors in French +music; but Mehul familiarized his audiences with strains dignified yet +popular, full of massive effects and brilliant combinations. The people +felt the tramp of the Napoleonic armies in the vigor and movement of his +measures. + +Spontini embodied the same influences and characteristics in still +larger degree, for his musical genius was organized on a more massive +plan. Deficient in pure graceful melody alike with Mehul, he delighted +in great masses of tone and vivid orchestral coloring. His music was +full of the military fire of his age, and dealt for the most part with +the peculiar tastes and passions engendered by a condition of chronic +warfare. Therefore dramatic movement in his operas was always of the +heroic order, and never touched the more subtile and complex elements +of life. Spontini added to the majestic repose and ideality of the Gluck +music-drama (to use a name now naturalized in art by Wagner) the keenest +dramatic vigor. Though he had a strong command of effects by his power +of delineation and delicacy of detail, his prevalent tastes led him to +encumber his music too often with overpowering military effects, alike +tonal and scenic. Riehl, a great German critic, says: "He is more +successful in the delineation of masses and groups than in the portrayal +of emotional scenes; his rendering of the national struggle between the +Spaniards and Mexicans in 'Cortez' is, for example, admirable. He +is likewise most successful in the management of large masses in +the instrumentation. In this respect he was, like Napoleon, a great +tactician." In "La Vestale" Spontini attained his _chef-d'oeuvre_. +Schuelter in his "History of Music" gives it the following encomium: "His +portrayal of character and truthful delineation of passionate emotion +in this opera are masterly indeed. The subject of 'La Vestale' (which +resembles that of 'Norma,' but how differently treated!) is tragic and +sublime as well as intensely emotional. Julia, the heroine, a prey to +guilty passion; the severe but kindly high priestess; Licinius, the +adventurous lover, and his faithful friend Cinna; pious vestals, +cruel priests, bold warriors, and haughty Romans, are represented with +statuesque relief and finish. Both these works, 'La Vestale' (1802) +and 'Cortez' (1809), ire among the finest that have been written for the +stage; they are remarkable for naturalness and sublimeness, qualities +lost sight of in the noisy instrumentation of his later works." + +Halevy, trained under the influences of Cherubini, was largely inspired +by that great master's musical purism and reverence for the higher laws +of his art. Halevy's powerful sense of the dramatic always influenced +his methods and sympathies. Not being a composer of creative +imagination, however, the melodramatic element is more prominent than +the purely tragic or comic. His music shows remarkable resources in the +production of brilliant and captivating though always tasteful effects, +which rather please the senses and the fancy than stir the heart and +imagination. Here and there scattered through his works, notably so +in "La Juive," are touches of emotion and grandeur; but Halevy must +be characterized as a composer who is rather distinguished for the +brilliancy, vigor, and completeness of his art than for the higher +creative power, which belongs in such preeminent degree to men like +Rossini and Weber, or even to Auber, Meyerbeer, and Gounod. It is +nevertheless true that Halevy composed works which will retain a high +rank in French art. "La Juive," "Guido," "La Reine de Chypre," and +"Charles VI." are noble lyric dramas, full of beauties, though it is +said they can never be seen to the best advantage off the French stage. +Halevy's genius and taste in music bear much the same relation to the +French stage as do those of Verdi to the Italian stage; though the +former composer is conceded by critics to be a greater purist in musical +form, if he rarely equals the Italian composer in the splendid bursts +of musical passion with which the latter redeems so much that is +meretricious and false, and the charming melody which Verdi shares with +his countrymen. + + + + +BOIELDIEU AND AUBER. + + +I. + +The French school of light opera, founded by Givtry, reached its +greatest perfection in the authors of "La Dame Blanche" and "Fra +Diavolo," though to the former of these composers must be accorded the +peculiar distinction of having given the most perfect example of this +style of composition. Francois Adrien Boieldieu, the scion of a Norman +family, was born at Rouen, December 16, 1775. He received his early +musical training at the hands of Broche, a great musician and the +cathedral organist, but a drunkard and brutal taskmaster. At the age of +sixteen he had become a good pianist and knew something of composition. +At all events his passionate love of the theatre prompted him to try his +hand at an opera, which was actually performed at Rouen. The revolution +which made such havoc with the clergy and their dependents ruined +the Boieldieu family (the elder Boieldieu had been secretary of the +archiepiscopal diocese), and young Francois, at the age of nineteen, was +set adrift on the world, his heart full of hope and his ambition bent +on Paris, whither he set his feet. Paris, however, proved a stern +stepmother at the outset, as she always has been to the struggling and +unsuccessful. He was obliged to tune pianos for his living, and was glad +to sell his brilliant _chansons_, which afterward made a fortune for his +publisher, for a few francs apiece. + +Several years of hard work and bitter privation finally culminated in +the acceptance of an opera, "La Famille Suisse," at the Theatre Faydeau +in 1796, where it was given on alternate nights with Cherubini's +"Medee." Other operas followed in rapid succession, among which may be +mentioned "La Dot de Suzette" (1798) and "Le Calife de Bagdad" (1800). +The latter of these was remarkably popular, and drew from the severe +Cherubim the following rebuke: "Malheureux! Are you not ashamed of such +undeserved triumph?" Boieldieu took the brusque criticism meekly and +preferred a request for further instruction from Cherubini--a proof +of modesty and good sense quite remarkable in one who had attained +recognition as a favorite with the musical public. Boieldieu's three +years' studies under the great Italian master were of much service, for +his next work, "Ma Tante Aurore," produced in 1803, showed noticeable +artistic progress. + +It was during this year that Boieldieu, goaded by domestic misery +(for he had married the danseuse Clotilde Mafleuray, whose notorious +infidelity made his name a byword), exiled himself to Russia, even then +looked on as an El Dorado for the musician, where he spent eight years +as conductor and composer of the Imperial Opera. This was all but a +total eclipse in his art-life, for he did little of note during the +period of his St. Petersburg career. + +He returned to Paris in 1811, where he found great changes. Mehul and +Cherubini, disgusted with the public, kept an obstinate silence; and +Nicolo was not a dangerous rival. He set to work with fresh zeal, and +one of his most charming works, "Jean de Paris," produced in 1812, was +received with a storm of delight. This and "La Dame Blanche" are the two +masterpieces of the composer in refined humor, masterly delineation, +and sustained power both of melody and construction. The fourteen years +which elapsed before Boieldieu's genius took a still higher flight +were occupied in writing works of little value except as names in a +catalogue. The long-expected opera "La Dame Blanche" saw the light in +1825, and it is to-day a stock opera in Europe, one Parisian theatre +alone having given it nearly 2,000 times. Boieldieu's latter years were +uneventful and unfruitful. He died in 1834 of pulmonary disease, the +germs of which were planted by St. Petersburg winters. "Jean de Paris" +and "La Dame Blanche" are the two works, out of nearly thirty operas, +which the world cherishes as masterpieces. + + +II. + +Daniel Francois Esprit Auber was born at Caen, Normandy, January 29, +1784. He was destined by his parents for a mercantile career, and was +articled to a French firm in London to perfect himself in commercial +training. As a child he showed his passion and genius for music, a fact +so noticeable in the lives of most of the great musicians. He composed +ballads and romances at the age of eleven, and during his London life +was much sought after as a musical prodigy alike in composition and +execution. In consequence of the breach of the treaty of Amiens in +1804, he was obliged to return to Paris, and we hear no more of the +counting-room as a part of his life. His resetting of an old libretto +in 1811 attracted the attention of Cherubini, who impressed himself +so powerfully on French music and musicians, and the master offered to +superintend his further studies, a chance eagerly seized by Auber. To +the instruction of Cherubini Auber owed his mastery over the technical +difficulties of his art. Among the pieces written at this time was +a mass for the Prince of Chimay, of which the prayer was afterward +transferred to "Masaniello." The comic opera "Le Sejour Militaire," +produced in 1813, when Auber was thirty, was really his debut as a +composer. It was coldly received, and it was not till the loss of +private fortune set a sharp spur to his creative activity that he set +himself to serious work. "La Bergere Chatelaine," produced in 1820, +was his first genuine success, and equal fortune attended "Emma" in the +following season. + +The duration and climax of Auber's musical career were founded on his +friendship and, artistic alliance with Scribe, one of the most fertile +librettists and playwrights of modern times. To this union, which lasted +till Scribe's death, a great number of operas, comic and serious, owe +their existence: not all of equal value, but all evincing the apparently +inexhaustible productive genius of the joint authors. The works on which +Auber's claims to musical greatness rest are as follows: "Leicester," +1822; "Le Macon," 1825, the composer's _chef-d'ouvre_ in comic opera; "La +Muette de Portici," otherwise "Masaniello," 1828; "Fra Piavolo," 1830; +"Lestocq," 1835; "Le Cheval do Ihonze," 1835; "L'Ambassadrice," 1836; +"Le Domino Noir," 1837; "Les Diamants de la Couronne," 1841; "Carlo +Braschi," 1842; "Haydee," 1847; "L'Enfant Prodigue," 1850; "Zerline," +1851, written for Madame Alboni; "Manon Lescaut," 1856; "La Fiancee du +Roi de Garbe," 1867; "Le Premier Jour de Bonheur," 1868; and "Le Reve +d'Amour," 1869. The last two works were composed after Auber had passed +his eightieth year. + +The indifference of this Anacreon of music to renown is worthy of +remark. He never attended the performance of his own pieces, and +disdained applause. The highest and most valued distinctions were +showered on him; orders, jeweled swords, diamond snuffboxes, were poured +in from all the courts of Europe. Innumerable invitations urged him to +visit other capitals, and receive honor from imperial hands. But Auber +was a true Parisian, and could not be induced to leave his beloved city. +He was a Member of the Institute, Commander of the Legion of Honor, +and Cherubini's successor as Director of the Conservatory. He enjoyed +perfect health up to the day of his death in 1871. Assiduous in his +duties at the Conservatory, and active in his social relations, which +took him into the most brilliant circles of an extended period, covering +the reigns of Napoleon I., Charles X., Louis Philippe, and Napoleon +III., he yet always found time to devote several hours a day to +composition. Auber was a small, delicate man, yet distinguished in +appearance, and noted for wit. His _bons mots_ were celebrated. While +directing a musical _soiree_ when over eighty, a gentleman having taken +a white hair from his shoulder, he said laughingly, "This hair must +belong to some old fellow who passed near me." + +A good anecdote is told _a propos_ of an interview of Auber with Charles +X. in 1830. "Masaniello," a bold and revolutionary work, had just been +produced, and stirred up a powerful popular ferment. "Ah, M. Auber," +said the King, "you have no idea of the good your work has done me." +"How, sire?" "All revolutions resemble each other. To sing one is +to provoke one. What can I do to please you?" "Ah, sire! I am not +ambitious." "I am disposed to name you director of the court concerts. +Be sure that I shall remember you. But," added he, taking the artist's +arm with a cordial and confidential air, "from this day forth you +understand me well, M. Auber, I expect you to bring out the 'Muette' but +_very seldom_." It is well known that the Brussels riots of 1830, which +resulted in driving the Dutch out of the country, occurred immediately +after a performance of this opera, which thus acted the part of +"Lillibulero" in English political annals. It is a striking coincidence +that the death of the author of this revolutionary inspiration, May 13, +1871, was partly caused by the terrors of the Paris Commune. + + +III. + +Boieldieu and Auber are by far the most brilliant representatives of the +French school of Opera Comique. The work of the former which shows his +genius at its best is "La Dame Blanche." It possesses in a remarkable +degree dramatic _verve_, piquancy of rhythm, and beauty of structure. +Mr. Franz Hueffer speaks of this opera as follows: + +"Peculiar to Boieldieu is a certain homely sweetness of melody which +proves its kinship to that source of all truly national music, the +popular song. The 'Dame Blanche' might be considered as the artistic +continuation of the _chanson_, in the same sense as Weber's 'Der +Freischtitz' has been called a dramatized _Volkslied_. With regard +to Boieldieu's work, this remark indicates at the same time a strong +development of what has been described as the 'amalgamating force of +French art and culture'; for it must be borne in mind that the subject +treated is Scotch. The plot is a compound of two of Scott's novels: the +'Monastery' and 'Guy Mannering.' Julian, _alias_ George Brown, comes +to his paternal castle unknown to himself. He hears the songs of his +childhood, which awaken old memories in him; but he seems doomed to +misery and disappointment, for on the day of his return his hall and +his broad acres are to become the property of a villain, the unfaithful +steward of his own family. Here is a situation full of gloom and sad +foreboding. But Scribe and Boieldieu knew better. Their hero is a +dashing cavalry officer, who makes love to every pretty woman he comes +across, the 'White Lady of Avenel' among the number. Yet no one who has +witnessed the impersonation of George Brown by the great Roger can +have failed to be impressed with the grace and noble gallantry of the +character." + +The tune of "Robin Adair," introduced by Boieldieu and described as "le +chant ordinaire de la tribu d'Avenel," would hardly be recognized by a +genuine Scotchman; but what it loses in homely vigor it has gained in +sweetness. The musician's taste is always gratified in Boieldieu's two +great comic operas by the grace and finish of the instrumentation, and +the carefully composed _ensembles_, while the public is delighted with +the charming ballads and songs. The airs of "La Dame Blanche" are more +popular in classic Germany than those of any other opera. Boieldieu may +then be characterized as the composer who carried the French operetta +to its highest development, and endowed it in the fullest sense with all +the grace, sparkle, dramatic symmetry, and gamesome touch so essentially +the heritage of the nation. + +Auber's position in art may be defined as that of the last great +representative of French comic opera, the legitimate successor of +Boieldieu, whom he surpasses in refinement and brilliancy of individual +effects, while he is inferior in simplicity, breadth, and that firm +grasp of details which enables the composer to blend all the parts into +a perfect whole. In spite of the fact that "La Muette," Auber's greatest +opera, is a romantic and serious work, full of bold strokes of +genius that astonish no less than they please, he must be held to be +essentially a master in the field of operatic comedy. In the great opera +to which allusion has been made the passions of excited public feeling +have their fullest sway, and heroic sentiments of love and devotion are +expressed in a manner alike grand and original. The traditional forms +of the opera are made to expand with the force of the feeling bursting +through them. But this was the sole flight of Auber into the higher +regions of his art, the offspring of the thoroughly revolutionized +feeling of the time (1828), which within two years shook Europe with +such force. Aside from this outcome of his Berserker mood, Auber is +a charming exponent of the grace, brightness, and piquancy of French +society and civilization. If rarely deep, he is never dull, and no +composer has given the world more elegant and graceful melodies of +the kind which charm the drawing-room and furnish a good excuse for +young-lady pianism. + +The following sprightly and judicious estimate of Auber by one of the +ablest of modern critics, Henry Chorley, in the main lixes him in his +right place: + +"He falls short of his mark in situations of profound pathos (save +perhaps in the sleep-song of 'Masaniello'). He is greatly behind his +Italian brethren in those mad scenes which they so largely affect. He is +always light and piquant for voices, delicious in his treatment of the +orchestra, and at this moment of writing--though I believe the patriarch +of opera-writers (born, it is said, in 1784), having begun to compose +at an age when other men have died exhausted by precocious labor--is +perhaps the lightest-hearted, lightest-handed man still pouring out +fragments of pearl and spangles of pure gold on the stage.... With all +this it is remarkable as it is unfair, that among musicians--when +talk is going around, and this person praises that portentous piece +of counterpoint, and the other analyzes some new chord the uoliness of +which has led to its being neglected by former composers--the name of +this brilliant man is hardly if ever heard at all. His is the next name +among the composers belonging to the last thirty years which should be +heard after that of Rossini, the number and extent of the works produced +by him taken into account, and with these the beauties which they +contain." + + + + +MEYERBEER. + + +I. + +Few great names in art have been the occasion of such diversity of +judgment as Giacomo Meyerbeer, whose works fill so large a place in +French music. By one school of critics he is lauded beyond all measure +as one whose scientific skill and gorgeous orchestration are only +equaled by his richness of melody and genius for dramatic and scenic +effects; "by far the greatest composer of recent years;" by another +class we hear him stigmatized as "the very caricature of the universal +Mozart... the Cosmopolitan Jew, who hawks his wares among all nations +indifferently, and does his best to please customers of every kind." The +truth lies between the two, as is wont to be the case in such extremes +of opinion. Meyerbeer's remarkable talent so nearly approaches genius +as to make the distinction a difficult one. He can not be numbered among +those great creative artists who by force of individuality have molded +musical epochs and left an undying imprint on their own and succeeding +ages. On the other hand, his remarkable power of combining the resources +of the lyric stage in a grand mosaic of all that can charm the eye and +car, of wedding rich and gorgeous music with splendid spectacle, gives +him a unique place in music; for, unlike Wagner, whose ideas of stage +necessities are no less exacting, Meyerbeer aims at no reforms in lyric +music, but only to develop the old forms to their highest degree of +effect, under conditions that shall gratify the general artistic sense. +To accomplish this, he spares no means either in or out of music. Though +a German, there is but little of the Teutonic _genre_ in the music of +Weber's fellow pupil. When at the outset he wrote for Italy, he showed +but little of that easy Assomption of the genius of Italian art which +many other foreign composers have attained. It was not till he formed +his celebrated art partnership with Scribe, the greatest of librettists, +and succeeded in opening the gates of the Grand Opera of Paris with all +its resources, more vast than exist anywhere else, that Meyerbeer found +his true vocation, the production of elaborate dramas in music of the +eclectic school. He inaugurated no clearly defined tendencies in his +art; he distinctively belongs to no national school of music; but his +long and important connection with the French lyric stage classifies him +unmistakably with the composers of this nation. + +The subject of this sketch belonged to a family of marked ability. Jacob +Beer was a rich Jewish banker of Berlin, highly honored for his robust +intellect and scholarly culture as well as his wealth. William, one of +the sons, became a distinguished astronomer; another, Michael, achieved +distinction as a dramatic poet; while the eldest, Jacob, was the +composer, who gained his renown under the Italianized name of Giacomo +Meyerbeer, a part of the surname having been adopted from that of the +rich banker Meyer, who left the musician a great fortune. + +Meyerbeer was born at Berlin, September 5, 1794, and was a musical +prodigy from his earliest years. When only four years old he would +repeat on the piano the airs he heard from the hand-organs, composing +his own accompaniment. At five he took lessons of Lanska, a pupil of +Clementi, and at six he made his appearance at a concert. Three years +afterward the critics spoke of him as one of the best pianists in +Berlin. He studied successively under the greatest masters of the time, +Clemcnti, Bernhard Anselm Weber, and Abbe Vogler. While in the latter's +school at Darmstadt, he had for fellow pupils Carl von Weber, Winter, +and Gansbachcr. Every morning the abbe called together his pupils after +mass, gave them some theoretical instruction, then assigned each one a +theme for composition. There was great emulation and friendship between +Meyerbeer and Weber, which afterward cooled, however, owing to Weber's +disgust at Meyerbeer's lavish catering to an extravagant taste. Weber's +severe and bitter criticisms were not forgiven by the Franco-German +composer. + +Meyerbeer's first work was the oratorio "Gott und die Natur," which was +performed before the Grand Duke with such success as to gain for him +the appointment of court composer. Meyerbeer's concerts at Darmstadt +and Berlin were brilliant exhibitions; and Moscheles, no mean judge, has +told us that if Meyerbeer had devoted himself to the piano, no performer +in Europe could have surpassed him. By advice of Salieri, whom Meyerbeer +met in Vienna, he proceeded to Italy to study the cultivation of +the voice; for he seems in early life to have clearly recognized how +necessary it is for the operatic composer to understand this, though, +in after-years, he treated the voice as ruthlessly in many of his most +important arias and scenas as he would a brass instrument. He arrived in +Vienna just as the Rossini madness was at its height, and his own blood +was fired to compose operas _a la Rossini_ for the Italian theatres. +So he proceeded with prodigious industry to turn out operas. In 1818 he +wrote "Romilda e Costanza" for Padua; in 1819, "Semiramide" for Turin; +in 1820, "Emma di Resburgo" for Venice; in 1822, "Margherita d'Anjou" +for Milan; and in 1823, "L'Esule di Granata," also for Milan. These +works of the composer's 'prentice hand met with the usual fate of the +production of the thousand and one musicians who pour forth operas in +unremitting flow for the Italian theatres; but they were excellent drill +for the future author of "Robert le Diable" and "Les Huguenots." On +returning to Germany Meyerbeer was very sarcastically criticised on the +one side as a fugitive from the ranks of German music, on the other as +an imitator of Rossini. + +Meyerbeer returned to Venice, and in 1824 brought out "Il Crociato +in Egitto" in that city, an opera which made the tour of Europe, and +established a reputation for the author as the coming rival of Rossini, +no one suspecting from what Meyerbeer had then accomplished that he +was about to strike boldly out in a new direction. "II Crociato" was +produced in Paris in 1825, and the same year in London. In the latter +city, Veluti, the last of the male sopranists, was one of the principal +singers in the opera; and it was said by some of the ill-natured critics +that curiosity to see and hear this singer of a peculiar kind, of whom +it was said, "Non vir sed Veluti," had as much to do with the success +of the opera as its merits. Lord Mount Edgcumbe, however, an excellent +critic, wrote of it "as quite of the new school, but not copied from +its founder, Rossini; original, odd, flighty, and it might be termed +fantastic, but at times beautiful. Here and there most delightful +melodies and harmonies occurred, but it was unequal, solos being as rare +as in all the modern operas." This was the last of Meyerbeer's operas +written in the Italian style. In 1827 the composer married, and for +several years lived a quiet, secluded life. The loss of his first two +children so saddened him as to concentrate his attention for a while +on church music. During this period he composed only a "Stabat," a +"Miserere," a "Te Deum," and eight of Klopstock's songs. But he was +preparing for that new departure on which his reputation as a great +composer now rests, and which called forth such bitter condemnation +on the one hand, such thunders of eulogy on the other. His old fellow +pupil, Weber, wrote of him in after-years: "He prostituted his profound, +admirable, and serious German talent for the applause of the crowd which +he ought to have despised." And Mendelssohn wrote to his father in words +of still more angry disgust: "When in 'Robert le Diable' nuns appear one +after the other and endeavor to seduce the hero, till at length the lady +abbess succeeds; when the hero, aided by a magic branch, gains access +to the sleeping apartment of his lady, and throws her down, forming +a tableau which is applauded here, and will perhaps be applauded in +Germany; and when, after that, she implores for mercy in an aria; when, +in another opera, a girl undresses herself, singing all the while that +she will be married to-morrow, it may be effective, but I find no +music in it. For it is vulgar, and if such is the taste of the day, and +therefore necessary, I prefer writing sacred music." + + +II. + +"Robert le Diable" was produced at the Academie Royale in 1831, and +inaugurated the brilliant reign of Dr. Veron as manager. The bold +innovations, the powerful situations, the daring methods of the +composer, astonished and delighted Paris, and the work was performed +more than a hundred consecutive times. The history of "Robert le Diable" +is in some respects curious. It was originally written for the Vontadour +Theatre, devoted to comic opera; but the company were found unable +to sing the difficult music. Meyerbeer was inspired by Weber's "Der +Freischtitz" to attempt a romantic, semi-fantastic legendary opera, and +trod very closely in the footsteps of his model. It was determined to so +alter the libretto and extend and elaborate the music as to fit it for +the stage of the Grand Opera. MM. Scribe and Delavigne, the librettists, +and Meyerbeer, devoted busy days and nights to hurrying on the work. The +whole opera was remodeled, recitative substituted for dialogue, and one +of the most important characters,--Rainibaud, cut out in the fourth and +fifth acts--a suppression which is claimed to have befogged a very clear +and intelligible plot. Highly suggestive in its present state of Weber's +opera, the opera of "Robert le Diable" is said to have been marvelously +similar to "Der Freischtitz" in the original form, though inferior in +dignity of motive. + +Paris was all agog with interest at the first production. The critics +had attended the rehearsals, and it was understood that the libretto, +the music, and the ballet were full of striking interest. Nourrit +played the part of _Robert_; Levasseur, _Bertram_; Mme. Cinti Damoreau, +_Isabelle_; and Mile. Dorus, _Alice_. The greatest dancers of the +age were in the ballet and the brilliant Taglioni led the band of +resuscitated nuns. Ilabeneck was conductor, and everything had been done +in the way of scenery and costumes. The success was a remarkable one, +and Meyerbeer's name became famous throughout Europe. + +Dr. Veron, in his "Memoires d'un Bourgeois de Paris," describes a +thrilling yet ludicrous accident that occurred on the first night's +performance. After the admirable trio, which is the _d'enoument_ of +the work, Levasseur, who personated Bertram, sprang through the trap +to rejoin the kingdom of the dead, whence he came so mysteriously. +_Robert_, on the other hand, had to remain on the earth, a converted +man, and destined to happiness in marriage with his princess, +_Isabelle_. Nourrit, the _Robert_ of the performance, misled by the +situation and the fervor of his own feelings, threw himself into the +trap, which was not properly set. Fortunately the mattresses beneath had +not all been removed, or the tenor would have been killed, a doom which +those on the stage who saw the accident expected. The audience supposed +it was part of the opera, and the people on the stage were full of +terror and lamentation, when Nourrit appeared to calm their fears. +Mile. Dorus burst into tears of joy, and the audience, recognizing the +situation, broke into shouts of applause. + +The opera was brought out in London the same year, with nearly the same +cast, but did not excite so much enthusiasm as in Paris. Lord Mount +Edgcumbe, who represented the connoisseurs of the old school, expressed +the then current opinion of London audiences: "Never did I see a more +disagreeable or disgusting performance. The sight of the resurrection +of a whole convent of nuns, who rise from their graves and begin dancing +like so many bacchantes, is revolting; and a sacred service in a church, +accompanied by an organ on the stage, not very decorous. Neither does +the music of Meyerbeer compensate for a fable which is a tissue of +nonsense and improbability."* + + * Yet Lord Mount Edgcumbe is inconsistent enough to be an + ardent admirer of Mozart's "Zauberflote." + +M. Veron was so delighted with the great success of "Robert" that he +made a contract with Meyerbeer for another grand opera, "Les Huguenots," +to be completed by a certain date. Meanwhile, the failing health of Mme. +Meyerbeer obliged the composer to go to Italy, and work on the opera was +deferred, thus causing him to lose thirty thousand francs as the penalty +of his broken contract. At length, after twenty-eight rehearsals, and +an expense of more than one hundred and sixty thousand francs in +preparation, "Les Huguenots" was given to the public, February 26, 1836. +Though this great work excited transports of enthusiasm in Paris, it was +interdicted in many of the cities of Southern Europe on account of the +subject being a disagreeable one to ardent and bigoted Catholics. In +London it has always been the most popular of Meyerbeer's three great +operas, owing perhaps partly to the singing of Mario and Grisi, and more +lately of Titiens and Giuglini. + +When Spontini resigned his place as chapel-master at the Court of +Berlin, in 1832, Meyerbeer succeeded him. He wrote much music of an +accidental character in his new position, but a slumber seems to have +fallen on his greater creative faculties. The German atmosphere was not +favorable to the fruitfulness of Meyerbeer's genius. He seems to have +needed the volatile and sparkling life of Paris to excite him into full +activity. Or perhaps he was not willing to produce one of his operas, +with their large dependence on elaborat e splendor of production, +away from the Paris Grand Opera. During Meyerbeer's stay in Berlin he +introduced Jenny Lind to the Berlin public, as he afterward did indeed +to Paris, her _debut_ there being made in the opening performance of +"Das Feldlager in Schlesien," afterward remodeled into "L'Etoile du +Nord." + +Meyerbeer returned to Paris in 1849, to present the third of his great +operas, "Le Prophete." It was given with Roger, Viardot-Garcia, and +Castellan in the principal characters. Mme. Viardot-Garcia achieved one +of her greatest dramatic triumphs in the difficult part of _Fides_. +In London the opera also met with splendid success, having, as Chorley +tells us, a great advantage over the Paris presentation in "the +remarkable personal beauty of Signor Mario, whose appearance in his +coronation robes reminded one of some bishop-saint in a picture by Van +Eyck or Durer, and who could bring to bear a play of feature without +grimace into the scene of false fascination, entirely beyond the reach +of the clever French artist Roger, who originated the character." + +"L'Etoile du Nord" was given to the public February 16, 1854. Up to this +time the opera of "Robert" had been sung three hundred and thirty-three +times, "Les Huguenots" two hundred and twenty-two, and "Le Prophete" a +hundred and twelve. The "Pardon de Ploermel," also known as "Dinorah," +was offered to the world of Paris April 4, 1859. Both these operas, +though beautiful, are inferior to his other works. + + +III. + +Meyerbeer, a man of handsome private fortune, like Mendelssohn, made +large sums by his operas, and was probably the wealthiest of the great +composers. He lived a life of luxurious ease, and yet labored with +intense zeal a certain number of hours each day. A friend one day begged +him to take more rest, and he answered smilingly, "If I should +leave work, I should rob myself of my greatest pleasure; for I am +so accustomed to work that it has become a necessity." Probably few +composers have been more splendidly rewarded by contemporary fame and +wealth, or been more idolized by their admirers. No less may it be said +that few have been the object of more severe criticism. His youth was +spent amid the severest classic influences of German music, and the +spirit of romanticism and nationality, which blossomed into such +beautiful and characteristic works as those composed by his friend +and fellow pupil Weber, also found in his heart an eloquent echo. But +Meyerbeer resolutely disenthralled himself from what he appeared to have +regarded as trammels, and followed out an ambition to be a cosmopolitan +composer. In pursuit of this purpose he divested himself of that fine +flavor of individuality and devotion to art for its own sake which marks +the highest labors of genius. He can not be exempted from the criticism +that he regarded success and the immediate plaudits of the public as +the only satisfactory rewards of his art. He had but little of the lofty +content which shines out through the vexed and clouded lives of +such souls as Beethoven and Gluck in music, of Bacon and Milton in +literature, who looked forward to immortality of fame as the best +vindication of their work. A marked characteristic of the man was +a secret dissatisfaction with all that he accomplished, making him +restless and unhappy, and extremely sensitive to criticism. With this +was united a tendency at times to oscillate to the other extreme of +vaingloriousness. An example of this was a reply to Rossini one night at +the opera when they were listening to "Robert le Diable." The "Swan +of Pesaro" was a warm admirer of Meyerbeer, though the latter was a +formidable rival, and his works had largely replaced those of the other +in popular repute. Sitting together in the same box, Rossini, in his +delight at one portion of the opera, cried out in his impulsive Italian +way, "If you can write anything to surpass this, I will undertake to +dance upon my head." "Well, then," said Meyerbeer, "you had better soon +commence practicing, for I have just commenced the fourth act of 'Les +Huguenots.'" Well might he make this boast, for into the fourth act of +his musical setting of the terrible St. Bartholomew tragedy he put the +finest inspirations of his life. + +Singular to say, though he himself represented the very opposite pole +of art spirit and method, Mozart was to him the greatest of his +predecessors. Perhaps it was this very fact, however, which was at the +root of his sentiment of admiration for the composer of "Don Giovanni" +and "Le Nozze di Figaro." A story is told to the effect that Meyerbeer +was once dining with some friends, when a discussion arose respecting +Mozart's position in the musical hierarchy. Suddenly one of the guests +suggested that "certain beauties of Mozart's music had become stale with +age. I defy you," he continued, "to listen to 'Don Giovanni' after the +fourth act of the 'Huguenots.'" "So much the worse, then, for the +fourth act of the 'Huguenots,'" said Meyerbeer, furious at the clumsy +compliment paid to his own work at the expense of his idol. + +Critics wedded to the strict German school of music never forgave +Meyerbeer for his dereliction from the spirit and influences of his +nation, and the prominence which he gave to melodramatic effects and +spectacular show in his operas. Not without some show of reason, they +cite this fact as proof of poverty of musical invention. Mendelssohn, +who was habitually generous in his judgment, wrote to the poet Immermann +from Paris of "Robert le Diable": "The subject is of the romantic order; +i.e., the devil appears in it (which suffices the Parisians for romance +and imagination). Nevertheless, it is very bad, and, were it not for +two brilliant seduction scenes, there would, not even be effect.... +The opera does not please me; it is devoid of sentiment and feeling.... +People admire the music, but where there is no warmth and truth, I can +not even form a standard of criticism." + +Schlueter, the historian of music, speaks even more bitterly of +Meyerbeer's irreverence and theatric sensationalism: "'Les Huguenots' +and the far weaker production 'Le Prophete' are, we think, all the more +reprehensible (nowadays especially, when too much stress is laid on +the subject of a work, and consequently on the libretto of an opera), +because the Jew has in these pieces ruthlessly dragged before the +footlights two of the darkest pictures in the annals of Catholicism, nor +has he scrupled to bring high mass and chorale on the boards." + +Wagner, the last of the great German composers, can not find words too +scathing and bitter to mark his condemnation of Meyerbeer. Perhaps his +extreme aversion finds its psychological reason in the circumstance that +his own early efforts were in the sphere of Meyerbeer and Hale-vy, and +from his present point of view he looks back with disgust on what he +regards as the sins of his youth. The fairest of the German estimates of +the composer, who not only cast aside the national spirit and methods, +but offended his countrymen by devoting himself to the French stage, is +that of Vischer, an eminent writer on aasthetics: "Notwithstanding +the composer's remarkable talent for musical drama, his operas +contain sometimes too much, sometimes too little--too much in the +subject-matter, external adornment, and effective 'situations'--too +little in the absence of poetry, ideality, and sentiment (which are +essential to a work of art), as well as in the unnatural and constrained +combinations of the plot." + +But despite the fact that Meyerbeer's operas contain such strange scenes +as phantom nuns dancing, girls bathing, sunrise, skating, gunpowder +explosions, a king playing the flute, and the prima donna leading a +goat, dramatic music owes to him new accents of genuine pathos and an +addition to its resources of rendering passionate emotions. Through +much that is merely showy and meretricious there come frequent bursts of +genuine musical power and energy, which give him a high and unmistakable +rank, though he has had less permanent influence in molding and +directing the development of musical art than any other composer who has +had so large a place in the annals of his time. + +The last twelve years of Meyerbeer's life were spent, with the exception +of brief residences in Germany and Italy, in Paris, the city of his +adoption, where all who were distinguished in art and letters paid their +court to him. When he was seized with his fatal illness he was hard at +work on "L'Africaine," for which Scribe had also furnished the libretto. +His heart was set on its completion, and his daily prayer was that his +life might be spared to finish it. But it was not to be. He died May 2, +1864. The same morning Rossini called to inquire after the health of the +sick man, equally his friend and rival. When he heard the sad news he +sank into a fit of profound despondency and grief, from which he did not +soon recover. All Paris mourned with him, and even Germany forgot its +critical dislike to join in regret at the loss of one who, with all his +defects, was so great an artist and so good a man. + +Meyerbeer seems to have been greatly afraid of being buried alive. In +his pocketbook after his death was found a paper giving directions that +small bells should be attached to his hands and feet, and that his body +should be carefully watched for four days, after which it should be sent +to Berlin to be interred by the side of his mother, to whom he had been +most tenderly attached. + +The composer was the intimate friend of most of the celebrities of his +time in art and literature. Victor Hugo, Lamartine, George Sand, Balzac, +Alfred de Musset, Delacroix, Jules Janin, and Theophile Gautier were his +familiar intimates; and the reunions between these and other gifted +men, who then made Paris so intellectually brilliant, are charmingly +described by Liszt and Moscheles. Meyerbeer's correspondence, which was +extensive, deserves publication, as it displays marked literary faculty, +and is full of bright sympathetic thought, vigorous criticism, and +playful fancy. The following letter to Jules Janin, written from Berlin +a few years before his death, gives some pleasant insight into his +character: + +Your last letter was addressed to me at Konigsberg; but I was in Berlin +working--working away like a young man, despite my seventy years, which +somehow certain people, with a peculiar generosity, try to put upon me. +As I am not at Konigsberg, where I am to arrange for the Court concert +for the eighteenth of this month, I have now leisure to answer +your letter, and will immediately confess to you how greatly I was +disappointed that you were so little interested in Rameau; and yet +Rameau was always the bright star of your French opera, as well as your +master in the music. He remained to you after Lulli, and it was he who +prepared the way for the Chevalier Gluck: therefore his family have a +right to expect assistance from the Parisians, who on several occasions +have cared for the descendants of Racine and the grandchildren of the +great Corneille. If I had been in Paris, I certainly would have given +two hundred francs for a seat; and I take this opportunity to beg you +to hand that sum to the poor family, who can not fail to be unhappy in +their disappointment. At the same time I send you a power of attorney +for M. Guyot, by which I renounce all claims to the parts of my +operas which may be represented at the benefit for the celebrated and +unfortunate Rameau family. Why will you not come to Konigsberg at the +festival? Why, in other words, are you not in Berlin? What splendid +music we have in preparation! As to myself, it is not only a source of +pleasure to me, but I feel it a duty, in the position I hold, to compose +a grand march, to be performed at Konigsberg while the royal procession +passes from the castle into the church, where the ceremony of crowning +is to take place. I will even compose a hymn, to be executed on the day +that our king and master returns to his good Berlin. Besides, I have +promised to write an overture for the great concert of the four nations, +which the directors of the London exhibition intend to give at the +opening of the same, next spring, in the Crystal Palace. All this keeps +me back: it has robbed me of my autumn, and will also take a good part +of next spring; but with the help of God, dear friend, I hope we shall +see each other again next year, free from all cares, in the charming +little town of Spa, listening to the babbling of its waters and the +rustling of its old gray oaks. Truly your friend, Meyerbeer. + + +IV. + +Meyerbeer's operas are so intricate in their elements, and travel so far +out of the beaten track of precedent and rule, that it is difficult to +clearly describe their characteristics in a few words. His original +flow of melody could not have been very rich, for none of his tunes have +become household words, and his excessive use of that element of opera +which has nothing to do with music, as in the case of Wagner, can have +but one explanation. It is in the treatment of the orchestra that he +has added most largely to the genuine treasures of music. His command of +color in tone-painting and power of dramatic suggestion have rarely been +equaled, and never surpassed. His genius for musical rhythm is the most +marked element in his power. This is specially noticeable in his dance +music, which is very bold, brilliant, and voluptuous. The vivacity +and grace of the ballets in his operas save more than one act which +otherwise would be insufferably heavy and tedious. It is not too much +to say that the most spontaneous side of his creative fancy is found in +these affluent, vigorous, and stirring measures. + +Meyerbeer appears always to have been uncertain of himself and his work. +There was little of that masterly prevision of effect in his mind which +is one of the attributes of the higher imagination. His operas, though +most elaborately constructed, were often entirely modified and changed +in rehearsal, and some of the finest scenes both in the dramatic and +musical sense were the outcome of some happy accidental suggestion at +the very last moment. "Robert," "Les Huguenots," "Le Prophete," in the +forms we have them, are quite different from those in which they +were first cast. These operas have therefore been called "the most +magnificent patchwork in the history of art," though this is a harsh +phrasing of the fact, which somewhat outrides justice. Certain it +is, however, that Meyerbeer was largely indebted to the chapter of +accidents. + +The testimony of Dr. Veron, who was manager of the Grand Opera during +the most of the composer's brilliant career, is of great interest, as +illustrating this trait of Meyerbeer's composition. He tells us in his +"Memoires," before alluded to, that "Robert" was made and remade +before its final production. The ghastly but effective color of the +resuscitation scene in the graveyard of the ruined convent was a +change wrought by a stage manager, who was disgusted with the chorus of +simpering women in the original. This led Meyerbeer to compose the +weird ballet music which is such a characteristic feature of "Robert le +Diable." So, too, we are told on the same authority, the fourth act of +"Les Huguenots," which is the most powerful single act in Meyerbeer's +operas, owes its present shape to Nourrit, the most intellectual and +creative tenor singer of whom we have record. It was originally +designed that the St. Bartholomew massacre should be organized by _Queen +Marguerite_, but Nourrit pointed out that the interest centering in the +heroine, Valentine, as an involuntary and horrified witness, would be +impaired by the predominance of another female character. So the plot +was largely reconstructed, and fresh music written. Another still more +striking attraction was the addition of the great duet with which +the act now closes--a duet which critics have cited as an evidence +of unequaled power, coming as it does at the very heels of such an +astounding chorus as "The Blessing of the Swords." Nourrit felt that +the parting of the two lovers at such a time and place demanded such an +outburst and confession as would be wrung from them by the agony of +the situation. Meyerbeer acted on the suggestion with such felicity and +force as to make it the crowning beauty of the work. Similar changes +are understood to have been made in "Le Prophete" by advice of Nourrit, +whose poetical insight seems to have been unerring. It was left to +Duprez, Nourrit's successor, however, to be the first exponent of _John +of Leyden_. + +These instances suffice to show how uncertain and unequal was the grasp +of Meyerbeer's genius, and to explain in part why he was so prone to +gorgeous effects, aside from that tendency of the Israelitish nature +which delights in show and glitter. We see something in it akin to the +trick of the rhetorician, who seeks to hide poverty of thought under +glittering phrases. Yet Meyerbeer rose to occasions with a force that +was something gigantic. Once his work was clearly defined in a mind not +powerfully creative, he expressed it in music with such vigor, energy, +and warmth of color as can not be easily surpassed. With this composer +there was but little spontaneous flow of musical thought, clothing +itself in forms of unconscious and perfect beauty, as in the case of +Mozart, Beethoven, Cherubini, Rossini, and others who could be cited. +The constitution of his mind demanded some external power to bring forth +the gush of musical energy. + +The operas of Meyerbeer may be best described as highly artistic and +finished mosaic work, containing much that is precious with much that is +false. There are parts of all his operas which can not be surpassed +for beauty of music, dramatic energy, and fascination of effect. In +addition, the strength and richness of his orchestration, which contains +original strokes not found in other composers, give him a lasting claim +on the admiration of the lovers of music. No other composer has united +so many glaring defects with such splendid power; and were it not that +Meyerbeer strained his ingenuity to tax the resources of the singer +in every possible way, not even the mechanical difficulty of producing +these operas in a fashion commensurate with their plan would prevent +their taking a high place among popular operas. + + + + +GOUNOD AND THOMAS. + + +I. + +Moscheles, one of the severe classical pianists of the German school, +writes as follows in 1861 in a letter to a friend: "In Gounod I hail a +real composer. I have heard his 'Faust' both at Leipsic and Dresden, and +am charmed with that refined, piquant music. Critics may rave if they +like against the mutilation of Goethe's masterpiece; the opera is sure +to attract, for it is a fresh, interesting work, with a copious flow of +melody and lovely instrumentation." + +Henry Chorley in his "Thirty Years' Musical Recollections," writing of +the year 1851, says: "To a few hearers, since then grown into a European +public, neither the warmest welcome nor the most bleak indifference +could alter the conviction that among the composers who have appeared +during the last twenty-five years, M. Gounod was the most promising one, +as showing the greatest combination of sterling science, beauty of idea, +freshness of fancy, and individuality. Before a note of 'Sappho' was +written, certain sacred Roman Catholic compositions and some exquisite +settings of French verse had made it clear to some of the acutest judges +and profoundest musicians living, that in him at last something true and +new had come--may I not say, the most poetical of French musicians that +has till now written?" The same genial and acute critic, in further +discussing the envy, jealousy, and prejudice that Gounod awakened in +certain musical quarters, writes in still more decided strains: "The +fact has to be swallowed and digested that already the composer of +'Sappho,' the choruses to 'Ulysse,' 'Le Medecin malgre lui,' 'Faust,' +'Philemon et Baucis,' a superb Cecilian mass, two excellent symphonies, +and half a hundred songs and romances, which may be ranged not far from +Schubert's and above any others existing in France, is one of the very +few individuals left to whom musical Europe is now looking for its +pleasure." Surely it is enough praise for a great musician that, in the +domain of opera, church music, symphony, and song, he has risen above +all others of his time in one direction, and in all been surpassed by +none. + +It was not till "Faust" was produced that Gounod's genius evinced its +highest capacity. For nineteen years the exquisite melodies of this +great work have rung in the ears of civilization without losing one whit +of the power with which they first fascinated the lovers of music. The +verdict which the aged Moscheles passed in his Leipsic home--Moscheles, +the friend of Beethoven, Weber, Schumann, and Mendelssohn; which was +reechoed by the patriarchal Rossini, who came from his Passy retirement +to offer his congratulations; which Auber took up again, as with tears +of joy in his eyes he led Gounod, the ex-pupil of the Conservatory, +through the halls wherein had been laid the foundation of his musical +skill--that verdict has been affirmed over and over again by the world. +For in "Faust" we recognize not only some of the most noble music ever +written, but a highly dramatic expression of spiritual truth. It is +hardly a question that Gounod has succeeded in an unrivaled degree in +expressing the characters and symbolisms of _Mephistopheles, Faust, +and Gretchen_ in music not merely beautiful, but spiritual, humorous, +subtile, and voluptuous, accordingly as the varied meanings of Goethe's +masterpiece demand. + +Visitors at Paris, while the American civil war was at its height, might +frequently have observed at the beautiful Theatre Lyrique, afterward +burned by the Vandals of the Commune, a noticeable-looking man, of +blonde complexion and tawny beard, clear-cut features, and large, +bright, almost somber-looking eyes. As the opera of "Faust" progresses, +his features eloquently express his varying emotions, now of approval, +now of annoyance at different parts of the performance. M. Gounod is +criticising the interpretation of the great opera, which suddenly lifted +him into fame as perhaps the most imaginative and creative of late +composers. + +An aggressive disposition, an energy and faith that accepted no rebuffs, +and the power of "toiling terribly," had enabled Gounod to battle his +way into the front rank. Unlike Rossini and Auber, he disdained social +recreation, and was so rarely seen in the fashionable quarters of Paris +and London that only an occasional musical announcement kept him before +the eyes of the public. Gounod seems to have devoted himself to the +strict sphere of his art-life with an exclusive devotion quite foreign +to the general temperament of the musician, into which something +luxurious and pleasure-loving is so apt to enter. This composer, +standing in the very front rank of his fellows, has injected into the +veins of the French school to which he belongs a seriousness, depth, and +imaginative vigor, which prove to us how much he is indebted to German +inspiration and German models. + +Charles Gounod, born in Paris June 17, 1818, betrayed so much +passion for music during tender years, that his father gave him every +opportunity to gratify and improve this marked bias. He studied under +Reicha and Le Sueur, and finally under Halevy, completing under +the latter the preparation which fitted him for entrance into the +Conservatory. The talents he displayed there were such as to fix on +him the attention of his most distinguished masters. He carried off the +second prize at nineteen, and at twenty-one received the grand prize for +musical composition awarded by the French Institute. His first published +work was a mass performed at the Church of St. Eustache, which, while +not specially successful, was sufficiently encouraging to both the young +composer and his friends. + +Gounod now proceeded to Rome, where there seems to have been some +inclination on his part to study for holy orders. But music was not +destined to be cheated of so gifted a votary. In 1841 he wrote a second +mass, which was so well thought of in the papal capital as to gain for +the young composer the appointment of an honorary chapel-master for +life. This recognition of his genius settled his final conviction that +music was his true life-work, though the religious sentiment, or +rather a sympathy with mysticism, is strikingly apparent in all of his +compositions. The next goal in the composer's art pilgrimage was the +music-loving city of Vienna, the home of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and +Schubert, though its people waited till the last three great geniuses +were dead before it accorded them the loving homage which they have +since so freely rendered. The reception given by the capricious Viennese +to a requiem and a Lenten mass (for as yet Gounod only thought of sacred +music as his vocation) was not such as to encourage a residence. Paris, +the queen of the world, toward which every French exile ever looks with +longing eyes, seemed to beckon him back; so at the age of twenty-five +he turned his steps again to his beloved Lutetia. His education was +finished; he had completed his _Wanderjahre_; and he was eager to enter +on the serious work of life. + +He was appointed chapelmaster at the Church of Foreign Missions, in +which office he remained for six years, in the mean while marrying +a charming woman, the daughter of Herr Zimmermann, the celebrated +theologian and orator. In 1849 he composed his third mass, which made a +powerful impression on musicians and critics, though Gounod's ambition, +which seems to have been powerfully stimulated by his marriage, began +to realize that it was in the field of lyric drama only that his powers +would find their full development. He had been an ardent student in +literature and art as well as in music; his style had been formed on the +most noble and serious German models, and his tastes, awakened into full +activity, carried him with great zeal into the loftier field of operatic +composition. + +The dominating influence of Gluck, so potent in shaping the tastes and +methods of the more serious French composers, asserted itself from the +beginning in the work of Gounod, and no modern composer has been so +brilliant and effective a disciple in carrying out the formulas of +that great master. More free, flexible, and melodious than Spontini and +Halevy, measuring his work by a conception of art more lofty and ideal +than that of Meyerbeer, and in creative power and originality by far +their superior, Gounod's genius, as shown in the one opera of "Faust," +suffices to stamp his great mastership. + +But he had many years of struggle yet before this end was to be +achieved. His early lyric compositions fell dead. Score after score was +rejected by the managers. No one cared to hazard the risk of producing +an opera by this unknown composer. His first essay was a pastoral opera, +"Philemon and Baucis," and it did not escape from the manuscript for +many a long year, though it has in more recent times been received by +critical German audiences with great applause. A catalogue of Gounod's +failures would have no significance except as showing that his industry +and energy were not relaxed by public neglect. His first decided +encouragement came in 1851, when "Sappho" was produced at the French +Opera through the influence of Madame Pauline Viardot, the sister of +Malibran, who had a generous belief in the composer's future, and such +a position in the musical world of Paris as to make her requests almost +mandatory. This opera, based on the fine poem of Emile Augier, was well +received, and cheered Gounod's heart to make fresh efforts. In 1852 +he composed the choruses for Poussard's classical tragedy of "Ulysse," +performed at the Theatre Francais. The growing recognition of the world +was evidenced in his appointment as director of the Normal Singing +School of Paris, the primary school of the Conservatory. In 1854 a +five-act opera, with a libretto from the legend of the "Bleeding Nun," +was completed and produced, and Gounod was further gratified to see that +musical authorities were willing to grant him a distinct place in the +ranks of art, though as yet not a very high one. + +For years Gounod's serious and elevated mind had been pondering on +Goethe's great poem as the subject of an opera, and there is reason to +conjecture that parts of it were composed and arranged, if not fully +elaborated, long prior to its final crystallization. But he was not yet +quite ready to enter seriously on the composition of the masterpiece. +He must still try his hand on lesser themes. Occasional pieces for the +orchestra or choruses strengthened his hold on these important elements +of lyric composition, and in 1858 he produce "Le Medecin malgre lui," +based on Moliere's comedy, afterward performed as an English opera under +the title of "The Mock Doctor." Gounod's genius seems to have had no +affinity for the graceful and sparkling measures of comic music, and +his attempt to rival Rossini and Auber in the field where they were +preeminent was decidedly unsuccessful, though the opera contained much +fine music. + + +II. + +The year of his triumph had at last arrived. He had waited and toiled +for years over "Faust," and it was now ready to flash on the world with +an electric brightness that was to make his name instantly famous. +One day saw him an obscure, third-rate composer, the next one of the +brilliant names in art. "Faust," first performed March 19, 1859, fairly +took the world by storm. Gounod's warmest friends were amazed by +the beauty of the masterpiece, in which exquisite melody, great +orchestration, and a dramatic passion never surpassed in operatic art, +were combined with a scientific skill and precision which would vie +with that of the great masters of harmony. Carvalho, the manager of the +Theatre Lyrique, had predicted that the work would have a magnificent +reception by the art world, and lavished on it every stage resource. +Madame Miolan-Carvalho, his brilliant wife, one of the leading sopranos +of the day, sang the role of the heroine, though five years afterward +she was succeeded by Nilsson, who invested the part with a poetry and +tenderness which have never been quite equaled. + +"Faust" was received at Berlin, Vienna, Milan, St. Petersburg, and +London, with an enthusiasm not less than that which greeted its Parisian +debut. The clamor of dispute between the different schools was for the +moment hushed in the delight with which the musical critics and public +of universal Europe listened to the magical measures of an opera which +to classical chasteness and severity of form and elevation of motive +united such dramatic passion, richness of melody, and warmth of +orchestral color. From that day to the present "Faust" has retained its +place as not only the greatest but the most popular of modern operas. +The proof of the composer's skill and sense of symmetry in the +composition of "Faust" is shown in the fact that each part is so nearly +necessary to the work, that but few "cuts" can be made in presentation +without essentially marring the beauty of the work; and it is therefore +given with close faithfulness to the author's score. + +After the immense success of "Faust," the doors of the Academy were +opened wide to Gounod. On February 28, 1862, the "Reine de Saba" was +produced, but was only a _succes d'estime_, the libretto by Gerard de +Nerval not being fitted for a lyric tragedy.* + + * It has been a matter of frequent comment by the ablest + musical critics that many noble operas, now never heard, + would have retained their place in the repertoires of modern + dramatic music, had it not been for the utter rubbish to + which the music has been set. + +Many numbers of this fine work, however, are still favorites on concert +programmes, and it has been given in English under the name of "Irene." +Gounod's love of romantic themes, and the interest in France which +Lamartine's glowing eulogies had excited about "Mireio," the beautiful +national poem of the Provencal, M. Frederic Mistral, led the former to +compose an opera on a libretto from this work, which was given at the +Theatre Lyrique, March 19, 1864, under the name of "Mireille." The +music, however, was rather descriptive and lyric than dramatic, as +befitted this lovely ideal of early French provincial life; and in spite +of its containing some of the most captivating airs ever written, +and the fine interpretation of the heroine by Miolan-Carvalho, it was +accepted with reservations. It has since become more popular in +its three-act form to which it was abridged. It is a tribute to the +essential beauty of Gounod's music that, however unsuccessful as operas +certain of his works have been, they have all contributed charming +_morceaux_ for the enjoyment of concert audiences. Not only did the airs +of "Mireille" become public favorites, but its overture is frequently +given as a distinct orchestral work. + +The opera of "La Colombe," known in English as "The Pet Dove," followed +in 1866; and the next year was produced the five-act opera of "Romeo +et Juliette," of which the principal part was again taken by Madame +Miolan-Carvalho. The favorite pieces in this work, which is a highly +poetic rendering of Shakespeare's romantic tragedy, are the song of +_Queen Mab_, the garden duet, a short chorus in the second act, and +the duel scene in the third act. For some occult reason, "Romeo et +Juliette," though recognized as a work of exceptional beauty and merit, +and still occasionally performed, has no permanent hold on the operatic +public of to-day. + +The evils that fell on France from the German war and the horrors of the +Commune drove Gounod to reside in London, unlike Auber, who resolutely +refused to forsake the city of his love, in spite of the suffering and +privation which he foresaw, and which were the indirect cause of the +veteran composer's death. Gounod remained several years in England, and +lived a retired life, seemingly as if he shrank from public notice +and disdained public applause. His principal appearances were at the +Philharmonic, the Crystal Palace, and at Mrs. Weldon's concerts, where +he directed the performances of his own compositions. The circumstances +of his London residence seem to have cast a cloud over Gounod's life +and to have strangely unsettled his mind. Patriotic grief probably had +something to do with this at the outset. But even more than this as +a source of permanent irritation may be reckoned the spell cast over +Gounod's mind by a beautiful adventuress, who was ambitious to attain +social and musical recognition through the _eclat_ of the great +composer's friendship. Though newspaper report may be credited with +swelling and distorting the naked facts, enough appears to be known to +make it sure that the evil genius of Gounod's London life was a woman, +who traded recklessly with her own reputation and the French composer's +fame. + +However untoward the surroundings of Gounod, his genius did not lie +altogether dormant during this period of friction and fretfulness, +conditions so repressive to the best imaginative work. He composed +several masses and other church music; a "Stabat Mater" with orchestra; +the oratorio of "Tobie"; "Gallia," a lamentation for France; incidental +music for Legouve's tragedy of "Les Deux Reines," and for Jules +Barbier's "Jeanne d'Arc"; a large number of songs and romances, both +sacred and secular, such as "Nazareth," and "There is a Green Hill"; +and orchestral works, a "Salterello in A," and the "Funeral March of a +Marionette." + +At last he broke loose from the bonds of Delilah, and, remembering that +he had been elected to fill the place of Clapisson in the Institute, +he returned to Paris in 1876 to resume the position which his genius +so richly deserved. On the 5th of March of the following year his +"Cinq-Mars" was brought out at the Theatre de l'Opera Comique; but +it showed the traces of the haste and carelessness with which it was +written, and therefore commanded little more than a respectful hearing. +His last opera, "Polyeucte," produced at the Grand Opera, October 7, +1878, though credited with much beautiful music, and nobly orchestrated, +is not regarded by the French critics as likely to add anything to the +reputation of the composer of "Faust." Gounod, now at the age of sixty, +if we judge him by the prolonged fertility of so many of the great +composers, may be regarded as not having largely passed the prime of +his powers. The world still has a right to expect much from his genius. +Conceded even by his opponents to be a great musician and a thorough +master of the orchestra, more generous critics in the main agree to rank +Gounod as the most remarkable contemporary composer, with the possible +exception of Richard Wagner. The distinctive trait of his dramatic +conceptions seems to be an imagination hovering between sensuous images +and mystic dreams. Originally inspired by the severe Greek sculpture +of Gluck's music, he has applied that master's laws in the creation of +tone-pictures full of voluptuous color, but yet solemnized at times by +an exaltation which recalls the time when as a youth he thought of the +spiritual dignity of the priesthood. The use he makes of his religious +reminiscences is familiarly illustrated in "Faust." The contrast between +two opposing principles is marked in all of Gounod's dramatic works, and +in "Faust" this struggle of "a soul which invades mysticism and which +still seeks to express voluptuousness" not only colors the music with a +novel fascination, but amounts to an interesting psychological problem. + + +III. + +Gounod's genius fills too large a space in contemporary music to be +passed over without a brief special study. In pursuit of this no better +method suggests itself than an examination of the opera of "Faust," into +which the composer poured the finest inspirations of his life, even +as Goethe embodied the sum and flower of his long career, which had +garnered so many experiences, in his poetic masterpiece. + +The story of "Faust" has tempted many composers. Prince Radziwill tried +it, and then Spohr set a version of the theme at once coarse and cruel, +full of vulgar witchwork and love-making only fit for a chambermaid. +Since then Schumann, Liszt, Wagner, and Berlioz have treated the story +orchestrally with more or less success. Gounod's treatment of the poem +is by far the most intelligible, poetic, and dramatic ever attempted, +and there is no opera since the days of Gluck with so little weak music, +except Beethoven's "Fidelio." + +In the introduction the restless gloom of the old philospher and the +contrasted joys of youth engaged in rustic revelry outside are expressed +with graphic force; and the Kirmes music in the next act is so quaint +and original, as well as melodious, as to give the sense of delightful +comedy. When _Marguerite_ enters on the scene, we have a waltz and +chorus of such beauty and piquancy as would have done honor to Mozart. +Indeed, in the dramatic use of dance music Gounod hardly yields in +skill and originality to Meyerbeer himself, though the latter composer +specially distinguished himself in this direction. The third and fourth +acts develop all the tenderness and passion of _Marguerite's_ character, +all the tragedy of her doom. + +After _Faust's_ beautiful monologue in the garden come the song of the +"King of Thule" and _Marguerites_ delight at finding the jewels, which +conjoined express the artless vanity of the child in a manner alike full +of grace and pathos. The quartet that follows is one of great beauty, +the music of each character being thoroughly in keeping, while the +admirable science of the composer blends all into thorough artistic +unity. It is hardly too much to assert that the love scene which closes +this act has nothing to surpass it for fire, passion, and tenderness, +seizing the mind of the hearer with absorbing force by its suggestion +and imagery, while the almost cloying sweetness of the melody is such +as Rossini and Schubert only could equal. The full confession of the +enamored pair contained in the brief _adagio_ throbs with such rapture +as to find its most suggestive parallel in the ardent words commencing +"Gallop apace, ye fiery-looted steeds," placed by Shakespeare in the +mouth of the expectant _Juliet_. + +Beauties succeed each other in swift and picturesque succession, fitting +the dramatic order with a nicety which forces the highest praise of +the critic. The march and chorus marking the return of _Valentine's_ +regiment beat with a fire and enthusiasm to which the tramp of +victorious squadrons might well keep step. The wicked music of +_Mephistopheles_ in the sarcastic serenade, the powerful duel trio, and +_Valentine's_ curse are of the highest order of expression; while the +church scene, where the fiend whispers his taunts in the ear of the +disgraced _Marguerite_, as the gloomy musical hymn and peals of the +organ menace her with an irreversible doom, is a weird and thrilling +picture of despair, agony, and devilish exultation. + +Gounod has been blamed for violating the reverence due to sacred things, +employing portions of the church service in this scene, instead of +writing music for it. But this is the last resort of critical hostility, +seeking a peg on which to hang objection. Meyerbeer's splendid +introduction of Luther's great hymn, "Ein' feste Burg," in "Les +Huguenots," called forth a similar criticism from his German assailants. +Some of the most dramatic effects in music have been created by this +species of musical quotation, so rich in its appeal to memory and +association. Who that has once heard can forget the thrilling power of +"La Marseillaise" in Schumann's setting of Heinrich Heine's poem of "The +Two Grenadiers"? The two French soldiers, weary and broken-hearted after +the Russian campaign, approach the German frontier. The veterans are +moved to tears as they think of their humiliated Emperor. Up speaks one +suffering with a deadly hurt to the other: "Friend, when I am dead, +bury me in my native France, with my cross of honor on my breast, and +my musket in my hand, and lay my good sword by my side." Until this time +the melody has been a slow and dirge-like stave in the minor key. The +old soldier declares his belief that he will rise again from the clods +when he hears the victorious tramp of his Emperor's squadrons passing +over his grave, and the minor breaks into a weird setting of the +"Marseillaise" in the major key. Suddenly it closes with a few solemn +chords, and, instead of the smoke of battle and the march of the phantom +host, the imagination sees the lonely plain with its green mounds and +moldering crosses. + +Readers will pardon this digression illustrating an artistic law, of +which Gounod has made such effective use in the church scene of his +"Faust" in heightening its tragic solemnity. The wild goblin symphony +in the fifth act has added some new effects to the gamut of deviltry in +music, and shows that Weber in the "Wolf's Glen" and Meyerbeer in the +"Cloisters of St. Rosalie" did not exhaust the somewhat limited field. +The whole of this part of the act, sadly mutilated and abridged often +in representation, is singularly picturesque and striking as a musical +conception, and is a fitting companion to the tragic prison scene. +The despair of the poor crazed _Marguerite_; her delirious joy in +recognizing _Faust_; the temptation to fly; the final outburst of faith +and hope, as the sense of Divine pardon sinks into her soul--all these +are touched with the fire of genius, and the passion sweeps with an +unfaltering force to its climax. These references to the details of a +work so familiar as "Faust," conveying of course no fresh information to +the reader, have been made to illustrate the peculiarities of Gounod's +musical temperament, which sways in such fascinating contrast between +the voluptuous and the spiritual. But whether his accents belong to +the one or the other, they bespeak a mood flushed with earnestness and +fervor, and a mind which recoils from the frivolous, however graceful it +may be. + +In the Franco-German school, of which Gounod is so high an exponent, the +orchestra is busy throughout developing the history of the emotions, and +in "Faust" especially it is as busy a factor in expressing the passions +of the characters as the vocal parts. Not even in the "garden scene" +does the singing reduce the instruments to a secondary importance. The +difference between Gounod and Wagner, who professes to elaborate the +importance of the orchestra in dramatic music, is that the former has a +skill in writing for the voice which the other lacks. The one lifts the +voice by the orchestration, the other submerges it. Gounod's affluence +of lovely melody can only be compared with that of Mozart and Rossini, +and his skill and ingenuity in treating the orchestra have wrung +reluctant praise from his bitterest opponents. + +The special power which makes Gounod unique in his art, aside from those +elements before alluded to as derived from temperament, is his unerring +sense of dramatic fitness, which weds such highly suggestive music +to each varying phase of character and action. To this perhaps one +exception may be made. While he possesses a certain airy playfulness, +he fails in rich broad humor utterly, and situations of comedy are by no +means so well handled as the more serious scenes. + +A good illustration of this may be found in "Le Medecin malgre lui," +in the couplets given to the drunken _Sganarelle_. They are beautiful +music, but utterly unflavored with the _vis comica_. + +Had Gounod written only "Faust," it should stamp him as one of the +most highly gifted composers of his age. Noticeably in his other works, +preeminently in this, he has shown a melodic freshness and fertility, +a mastery of musical form, a power of orchestration, and a dramatic +energy, which are combined to the same degree in no one of his rivals. +Therefore it is just to place him in the first rank of contemporary +composers. + + +IV. + +Among contemporary French composers there is no name which suggests +itself in comparison with that of Gounod so worthily as that of Ambroise +Thomas, famous in every country where the opera is a favorite form of +public amusement, as the author of "Mignon" and "Hamlet." Lacking the +depth and passion of Gounod, he is distinguished by a peculiar sparkle, +grace, and Gallic lightness of touch; and if we do not find in him the +earnestness and spiritual significance of his rival's conceptions, +there is, on the other hand, in the works of Thomas, a glow of poetic +sentiment which invests them with a charming atmosphere, peculiarly +their own. Perhaps in his own country Thomas enjoys a repute still +higher than that of Gounod, for his genius is more peculiarly French, +while the composer of "Faust" shows the radical influence of the German +school, not only in the cast of his thoughts and temperament, but in his +technical musical methods. Still, as all artists are profoundly moved +by the tendencies of their age, it would not be difficult to find in the +later works of Thomas, on which his celebrity is based, some unconscious +modeling of form wrought by that musical school of which Richard Wagner +is the most advanced type. + +Ambroise Thomas was born at Metz, France, on August 5, 1811, and is +therefore by seven years the senior of Charles Gounod. His aptitudes for +music were so strong that he learned the notes as quickly as he acquired +the letters of the alphabet. At the age of four he was instructed in his +_solfeggi_ by his father, who was a professor of music, and three years +later he began to take lessons on the violin and piano. When he was +seventeen he was thoroughly proficient in all the preparatory studies +demanded for admission to the Paris Conservatoire, and he easily +obtained admission into that great institution. He first studied under +Zimmermann and Kalkbrenner, and afterward under Dourlen, Barbereau, Le +Sueur, and Reicha. For successive years he carried off first prizes: for +the piano in 1829; for harmony, in 1830; and in 1832 the highest honor +in composition was awarded him, the Prix de Rome, which allowed him to +go to Italy as a government stipendiary. + +Our young laureate passed three years in Italy, spending most of his +time at Rome and Naples. The special result of his Italian studies was +a requiem mass, which was performed with great approbation from its +musical judges at Paris and Rome. After traveling in Germany, Thomas +returned to Paris in 1836, thoroughly equipped for his career as +composer, for he had been an indefatigable student, and neglected no +opportunity of perfecting his knowledge. The first step in the brilliant +career of Thomas was the production of a comic opera in one act, "La +Double Echelle," produced in 1837. This met with a good reception, +and it was promptly followed by the production of several other light +scores, that further enhanced his reputation for talent. He was not +generally recognized by musicians as a man of marked promise till he +produced "Mina," a comic opera in three acts, which was represented in +1843. The beauty of the instrumentation and the melodious richness of +the work were unmistakable, and henceforth every production of the young +composer was watched with great interest. + +Ambroise Thomas could not be said to have reached a great popular +success until he produced "Le Caid," a work of the _opera-boitffe_ +type, which instantly became an immense public favorite. This was first +represented in 1849, and it has always held its place on the French +stage as one of the most delightful works of its class, in spite of +the competition of such later outgrowths of the opera-bouffe, school +as Offenbach, Lecocq, and others. The score of this work proved to be +immensely amusing and brightly melodious, and it was such a pecuniary +success that the more judicious friends of Thomas feared that he might +be seduced into cultivating a field far below the powers of his poetic +imagination and thorough musical science. Strong heads might easily be +turned by such lavish applause, and it would not have been wonderful had +Thomas, dazzled by the reception of "Le Caid," remained for a long +time a wanderer from the path which lay open to his great talents. The +composer's ambition, however, proved to be too high to content itself +with ephemeral success, or cultivating the more frivolous forms of his +art, however profitable aid pleasant these might be. + +In 1850 Ambroise Thomas produced two operas: "Le Songe d'une Nuit +d'Ete," resembling in style somewhat that masterpiece produced in +after-years, "Mignon," and a somber work based on the legend of "The Man +with the Iron Mask," "Le Secret de la Reine." The melodramatic character +of this latter work seems to have been imitated from the highly accented +and artificial style of Verdi, instead of possessing the bright and airy +charm natural to Thomas. The vacancy left by Spontini's death in the +French Institute was filled by the election of M. Thomas, who was deemed +most worthy, among all the musical names offered, of taking the place of +the author of "La Vestale." He justified the taste of his co-members by +his production in 1853 of the comic opera of "La Tonelli," a work +which, though not greatly successful with "hoi polloi," was an admirable +specimen of light and graceful opera at its best. The new academician +was recompensed for the public indifference by the cordial appreciation +which connoisseurs gave this tasteful and scientific production. +Another comic opera, "Psyche," which soon appeared, though full of witty +burlesque and humor in the libretto, and marked by delicious melody in +every part, failed to please, perhaps on account of the predominance +of feminine roles, and the absence of a good tenor part. Still a third +comic opera, the "Carnaval de Venise" saw the light the same season, +which was written in large measure to show the marvelous flexibility of +Mme. Cabal's voice. Very few singers have been able to sing the role of +_Sylvia_, who warbles a violin concerto from beginning to end, under the +title of an "Ariette without Words." + +Ambroise Thomas remained silent now for half a dozen years, aside from +the composition of a few charming songs. It is natural to suppose that +he was brooding over the conception of his greatest work, which was next +to see the light of day, and add one more to the great operas of the +world. Such compositions are not hastily manufactured, but grow +for years out of the travail of heart and brain, deep thought, high +imaginings, passionate sensibilities, elaborately wrought by time and +patience, till at last they are crystallized into form. + +"Mignon," a comic opera in three acts, was first represented at the +Theatre Lyrique, on November 17, 1866, before one of the most brilliant +and enthusiastic audiences ever gathered in Paris. Its success was +magnificent. This was seven years after Gounod had made such a great +stride among the composers of the age, by the production of "Faust"; +and it is within bounds to say that, since "Faust," no opera had been +produced in Paris so vital with the breath of genius and great purpose, +so full of sentiment and poetry, so symmetrical and balanced in its +differentiation of music measured by its dramatic value, so instantly +and splendidly recognized by the public, cultured and ignorant, gentle +and simple. + +Like "Faust," too, the opera of Thomas was based on a creation of +Goethe. Without the pathetic episode of "Mignon," the novel of "Wilhelm +Meister" would lose much of its dramatic strength and quality. Of +course, every libretto must part with some of the charm of the story +on which it is built; but in this instance the author succeeds in +preserving nearly all the intrinsic worth of the Mignon episode. The +music is admirably suited to a noble theme. There is hardly a weak +bar in it from beginning to end; and some of the work here done by the +composer will compare favorably with any operatic music ever hoard. In +this opera melodic phrase goes hand in hand with character and motive, +and _Mignon, Philina, Wilhelm Meister, and Lothario_, are distinguished +in the music with the finest dramatic discrimination. + +Among the operas of recent years, "Mignon" ranks among the first for +its taste, grace, and poetry. The first act is vigorous, bright, and +picturesque; the second, touched with the finest points of passion and +humor; the third is inspired with a pathos and poetic ardor which lift +the composer to do his most magnificent work. But to describe "Mignon" +to the public of today, which has heard it almost an innumerable number +of times, is, as much as in the case of Gounod's "Faust," "carrying +coals to Newcastle." + +In 1868 Thomas produced "Hamlet," and it was represented at the Grand +Opera, with Mile. Christine Nilsson in the role of _Ophelia_, the +same singer having, if we mistake not, created the role of _Mignon_. +"Hamlet," though a marked artistic success, has failed to make the +same popular impression as "Mignon," possibly because the theme is less +suited to operatic treatment; for the music _per se_ is of a fine type, +and full of the genuine accents of passion. + +In addition to the works named above, Ambroise Thomas has written "La +Gypsy," "Le Panier Fleuri," "Carline," "Le Roman d'Elvire," several +fine masses, many beautiful songs, a requiem, and miscellaneous +church-pieces. Thomas is famous in France for the generous encouragement +and help which he extends to all young musicians, assistance which his +position in the Paris Conservatoire helps to make most valuable. He +is now seventy-one years old, and, should he add nothing more to the +musical treasures of the present generation, much of what he has already +done will give him a permanent place in the temple of lyric music. + + + + +BERLIOZ. + + +I. + +In the long list of brilliant names which have illustrated the fine +arts, there is none attached to a personality more interesting and +impressive than that of Hector Berlioz. He stands solitary, a colossus +in music, with but few admirers and fewer followers. Original, puissant +in faculties, fiercely dogmatic and intolerant, bizarre, his influence +has impressed itself profoundly on the musical world both for good +and evil, but has failed to make disciples or to rear a school. +Notwithstanding the defects and extravagances of Berlioz, it is safe to +assert that no art or philosophy can boast of an example of more perfect +devotion to an ideal. The startling originality of Berlioz as a musician +rests on a mental and emotional organization different from and in some +respects superior to that of any other eminent master. He possessed an +ardent temperament; a gorgeous imagination, that knew no rest in its +working, and at times became heated to the verge of madness; a most +subtile sense of hearing; an intellect of the keenest analytic turn; a +most arrogant will, full of enterprise and daring, which clung to its +purpose with unrelenting tenacity; and passions of such heat and fervor +that they rarely failed when aroused to carry him beyond all bounds +of reason. His genius was unique, his character cast in the mold of a +Titan, his life a tragedy. Says Blaze de Bussy: "Art has its martyrs, +its forerunners crying in the wilderness, and feeding on roots. It has +also its spoiled children sated with bonbons and dainties." Berlioz +belongs to the former of these classes, and, if ever a prophet lifted up +his voice with a vehement and incessant outcry, it was he. + +Hector Berlioz was born on December 11, 1803, at Cote Saint Andre, +a small town between Grenoble and Lyons. His father was an excellent +physician of more than ordinary attainments, and he superintended his +son's studies with great zeal in the hope that the lad would also become +an ornament of the healing profession. But young Hector, though an +excellent scholar in other branches, developed a special aptitude +for music, and at twelve he could sing at sight, and play difficult +concertos on the flute. The elder regarded music only as a graceful +ornament to life, and in no wise encouraged his son in thinking of music +as a profession. So it was not long before Hector found his attention +directed to anatomy, physiology, osteology, etc. In his father's library +he had already read of Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, etc., and had found a +manuscript score of an opera which he had committed to memory. His +soul revolted more and more from the path cut out for him. "Become a +physician!" he cried, "study anatomy; dissect; take part in horrible +operations? No! no! That would be a total subversion of the natural +course of my life." + +But parental resolution carried the day, and, after he had finished the +preliminary course of study, he was ordered up to Paris to join the army +of medical students. So at the age of nineteen we find him lodged in +the Quartier Latin. His first introduction to medical studies had been +unfortunate. On entering a dissecting-room he had been so convulsed with +horror as to leap from the window, and rush to his lodgings in an agony +of dread and disgust, whence he did not emerge for twenty-four hours. +At last, however, by dint of habit he became somewhat used to the +disagreeable facts of his new life, and, to use his own words, "bade +fair to add one more to the army of bad physicians," when he went to +the opera one night and heard "Les Danaides," Salieri's opera, performed +with all the splendid completeness of the Academie Royale. This awakened +into fresh life an unquenchable thirst for music, and he neglected his +medical studies for the library of the Conservatoire, where he learned +by heart the scores of Gluck and Rameau. At last, on coming out one +night from a performance of "Iphigenie," he swore that henceforth music +should have her divine rights of him, in spite of all and everything. +Henceforth hospital, dissecting-room, and professor's lectures knew him +no more. + +But to get admission to the Conservatoire was now the problem; Berlioz +set to work on a cantata with orchestral accompaniments, and in the mean +time sent the most imploring letters home asking his father's sanction +for this change of life. The inexorable parent replied by cutting off +his son's allowance, saying that he would not help him to become one +of the miserable herd of unsuccessful musicians. The young enthusiast's +cantata gained him admission to the classes of Le Sueur and Reicha at +the Conservatoire, but alas! dire poverty stared him in the face. The +history of his shifts and privations for some months is a sad one. He +slept in an old, unfurnished garret, and shivered under insufficient +bedclothing, ate his bread and grapes on the Pont Neuf, and sometimes +debated whether a plunge into the Seine would not be the easiest way +out of it all. No mongrel cur in the capital but had a sweeter bone to +crunch than he. But the young fellow for all this stuck to his work with +dogged tenacity, managed to get a mass performed at St. Roch church, and +soon finished the score of an opera, "Les Francs Juges." Flesh and +blood would have given way at last under this hard diet, if he had +not obtained a position in the chorus of the Theatre des Noveauteaus. +Berlioz gives an amusing account of his going to compete with the horde +of applicants--butchers, bakers, shop-apprentices, etc.--each one with +his roll of music under his arm. + +The manager scanned the raw-boned starveling with a look of wonder. +"Where's your music?" quoth the tyrant of a third-class theatre. "I +don't want any, I can sing anything you can give me at sight," was the +answer. "The devil!" rejoined the manager; "but we haven't any music +here." "Well, what do you want?" said Berlioz. "I sing every note of all +the operas of Gluck, Piccini, Salieri, Rameau, Spontini, Gretry, Mozart, +and Cimarosa, from memory." At hearing this amazing declaration, the +rest of the competitors slunk away abashed, and Berlioz, after singing +an aria from Spontini, was accorded the place, which guaranteed him +fifty francs per month--a pittance, indeed, and yet a substantial +addition to his resources. This pot-boiling connection of Berlioz was +never known to the public till after he became a distinguished man, +though he was accustomed to speak in vague terms of his early dramatic +career as if it were a matter of romantic importance. + +At last, however, he was relieved of the necessity of singing on the +stage to amuse the Paris _bourgeoisie_, and in a singular fashion. He +had been put to great straits to get his first work, which had won him +his way into the Conservatoire, performed. An application to the great +Chateaubriand, who was noted for benevolence, had failed, for the author +of "La Genie de Christianisme" was then almost as poor as Berlioz. At +last a young friend, De Pons, advanced him twelve hundred francs. Part +of this Berlioz had repaid, but the creditor, put to it for money, wrote +to Berlioz pere, demanding a full settlement of the debt. The father was +thus brought again into communication with his son, whom he found nearly +sick unto death with a fever. His heart relented, and the old allowance +was resumed again, enabling the young musician to give his whole time to +his beloved art, instantly he convalesced from his illness. + +The eccentric ways and heretical notions of Berlioz made him no favorite +with the dons of the Conservatoire, and by the irritable and autocratic +Cherubini he was positively hated. The young man took no pains to +placate this resentment, but on the other hand elaborated methods of +making himself doubly offensive. His power of stinging repartee stood +him in good stead, and he never put a button on his foil. Had it been in +old Cherubini's power to expel this bold pupil from the Conservatoire, +no scruple would have held him back. But the genius and industry of +Berlioz were undeniable, and there was no excuse for such extreme +measures. Prejudiced as were his judges, he successively took several +important prizes. + + +II. + +Berlioz's happiest evenings were at the Grand Opera, for which he +prepared himself by solemn meditation. At the head of a band of students +and amateurs, he took on himself the right of the most outspoken +criticism, and led the enthusiasm or the condemnation of the audience. +At this time Beethoven was barely tolerated in Paris, and the great +symphonist was ruthlessly clipped and shorn to suit the French taste, +which pronounced him "bizarre, incoherent, diffuse, bustling with +rough modulations and wild harmonies, destitute of melody, forced in +expression, noisy, and fearfully difficult," even as England at the same +time frowned down his immortal works as "obstreperous roarings of +modern frenzy." Berlioz's clear, stern voice would often be heard, +when liberties were taken with the score, loud above the din of the +instruments. "What wretch has dared to tamper with the great Beethoven?" +"Who has taken upon him to revise Gluck?" This self-appointed arbiter +became the dread of the operatic management, for, as a pupil of the +Conservatoire, he had some rights which could not be infringed. + +Berlioz composed some remarkable works while at the Conservatoire, +among which were the "Ouverture des Francs Juges," and the symphonie +"Fantastique," and in many ways indicated that the bent of his genius +had fully declared itself. His decided and indomitable nature disdained +to wear a mask, and he never sugar-coated his opinion, however +unpalatable to others. He was already in a state of fierce revolt +against the conventional forms of the music of his day, and no +trumpet-tones of protest were too loud for him. He had now begun to +write for the journals, though oftentimes his articles were refused on +account of their fierce assaults. "Your hands are too full of stones, +and there are too many glass windows about," was the excuse of one +editor, softening the return of a manuscript. But Berlioz did not fully +know himself or appreciate the tendencies fermenting within him until +in 1830 he became the victim of a grand Shakespearean passion. The great +English dramatist wrought most powerfully on Victor Hugo and Hector +Berlioz, and had much to do with their artistic development. Berlioz +gives a very interesting account of his Shakespearean enthusiasm, which +also involved one of the catastrophes of his own personal life. "An +English company gave some plays of Shakespeare, at that time wholly +unknown to the French public. I went to the first performance of +'Hamlet' at the Odeon. I saw, in the part of _Ophelia_, Harriet +Smithson, who became my wife five years afterward. The effect of her +prodigious talent, or rather of her dramatic genius, upon my heart and +imagination, is only comparable to the complete overturning which the +poet, whose worthy interpreter she was, caused in me. Shakespeare, thus +coming on me suddenly, struck me as with a thunderbolt. His lightning +opened the heaven of art to me with a sublime crash, and lighted up its +farthest depths. I recognized true dramatic grandeur, beauty, and truth. +I measured at the same time the boundless inanity of the notions of +Shakespeare in France, spread abroad by Voltaire, + + '... ce singe de genie, + Chez l'homme en mission par le diable envoye--' + +(that ape of genius, an emissary from the devil to man),' and the +pitiful poverty of our old poetry of pedagogues and ragged-school +teachers. I saw, I understood, I felt that I was alive and must arise +and walk." Of the influence of "Romeo and Juliet" on him, he says: +"Exposing myself to the burning sun and balmy nights of Italy, seeing +this love as quick and sudden as thought, burning like lava, imperious, +irresistible, boundless, and pure and beautiful as the smile of angels, +those furious scenes of vengeance, those distracted embraces, those +struggles between love and death, was too much. After the melancholy, +the gnawing anguish, the tearful love, the cruel irony, the somber +meditations, the heart-rackings, the madness, tears, mourning, the +calamities and sharp cleverness of _Hamlet_; after the gray clouds and +icy winds of Denmark; after the third act, hardly breathing, in pain as +if a hand of iron were squeezing at my heart, I said to myself with the +fullest conviction: 'Ah! I am lost.' I must add that I did not at that +time know a word of English, that I only caught glimpses of Shakespeare +through the fog of Letourneur's translation, and that I consequently +could not perceive the poetic web that surrounds his marvelous creations +like a net of gold. I have the misfortune to be very nearly in the same +sad case to-day. It is much harder for a Frenchman to sound the +depths of Shakespeare than for an Englishman to feel the delicacy +and originality of La Fontaine or Moliere. Our two poets are rich +continents; Shakespeare is a world. But the play of the actors, above +all of the actress, the succession of the scenes, the pantomime and the +accent of the voices, meant more to me, and filled me a thousand times +more with Shakespearean ideas and passion than the text of my colorless +and unfaithful translation. An English critic said last winter in the +'Illustrated London News,' that, after seeing Miss Smithson in _Juliet_, +I had cried out, 'I will marry that woman and write my grandest symphony +on this play.' I did both, but never said anything of the sort." + +The beautiful Miss Smithson became the rage, the inspiration of poets +and painters, the idol of the hour, at whose feet knelt all the _roues_ +and rich idlers of the town. Delacroix painted her as the _Ophelia_ +of his celebrated picture, and the English company made nearly as much +sensation in Paris as the Comedie Francaise recently aroused in London. +Berlioz's mind, perturbed and inflamed with the mighty images of +the Shakespearean world, swept with wide, powerful passion toward +Shakespeare's interpreter. He raged and stormed with his accustomed +vehemence, made no secret of his infatuation, and walked the streets at +night, calling aloud the name of the enchantress, and cooling his heated +brows with many a sigh. He, too, would prove that he was a great artist, +and his idol should know that she had no unworthy lover. He would give +a concert, and Miss Smithson should be present by hook or by crook. +He went to Cherubini and asked permission to use the great hall of the +Conservatoire, but was churlishly refused. Berlioz however, managed to +secure the concession over the head of Cherubini, and advertised his +concert. He went to large expense in copyists, orchestra, solo-singers, +and chorus, and, when the night came, was almost fevered with +expectation. But the concert was a failure, and the adored one was not +there; she had not even heard of it! The disappointment nearly laid +the young composer on a bed of sickness; but, if he oscillated between +deliriums of hope and despair, his powerful will was also full of +elasticity, and not for long did he even rave in the utter ebb of +disappointment. Throughout the whole of his life, Berlioz displayed this +swiftness of recoil; one moment crazed with grief and depression, +the next he would bend to his labor with a cool, steady fixedness of +purpose, which would sweep all interferences aside like cobwebs. But +still, night after night, he would haunt the Odeon, and drink in the +sights and sounds of the magic world of Shakespeare, getting fresh +inspiration nightly for his genius and love. If he paid dearly for this +rich intellectual acquaintance by his passion for La Belle Smithson, he +yet gained impulses and suggestions for his imagination, ravenous of new +impressions, which wrought deeply and permanently. Had Berlioz known the +outcome, he would not have bartered for immunity by losing the jewels +and ingots of the Shakespeare treasure-house. + +The year 1830 was for Berlioz one of alternate exaltation and misery; +of struggle, privation, disappointment; of all manner of torments +inseparable from such a volcanic temperament and restless brain. But he +had one consolation which gratified his vanity. He gained the Prix de +Rome by his cantata of "Sardanapalus." This honor had a practical value +also. It secured him an annuity of three thousand francs for a period of +five years, and two years' residence in Italy. Berlioz would never let +"well enough" alone, however. He insisted on adding an orchestral part +to the completed score, describing the grand conflagration of the palace +of Sardanapalus. When the work was produced, it was received with a +howl of sarcastic derision, owing to the latest whim of the composer. So +Berlioz started for Italy, smarting with rage and pain, as if the Furies +were lashing him with their scorpion whips. + + +III. + +The pensioners of the Conservatoire lived at Rome in the Villa Medici, +and the illustrious painter, Horace Vernet, was the director, though he +exercised but little supervision over the studies of the young men under +his nominal charge. Berlioz did very much as he pleased--studied little +or much as the whim seized him, visited the churches, studios, and +picture-galleries, and spent no little of his time by starlight and +sunlight roaming about the country adjacent to the Holy City in search +of adventures. He had soon come to the conclusion that he had not much +to learn of Italian music; that he could teach rather than be taught. He +speaks of Roman art with the bitterest scorn, and Wagner himself never +made a more savage indictment of Italian music than does Berlioz in his +"Memoires." At the theatres he found the orchestra, dramatic unity, and +common-sense all sacrificed to mere vocal display. At St. Peter's and +the Sistine Chapel religious earnestness and dignity were frittered away +in pretty part-singing, in mere frivolity and meretricious show. The +word "symphony" was not known except to indicate an indescribable +noise before the rising of the curtain. Nobody had heard of Weber and +Beethoven, and Mozart, dead more than a score of years, was mentioned by +a well-known musical connoisseur as a young man of great promise! Such +surroundings as these were a species of purgatory to Berlioz, against +whose bounds he fretted and raged without intermission. The director's +receptions were signalized by the performance of insipid cavatinas, and +from these, as from his companions' revels in which he would sometimes +indulge with the maddest debauchery as if to kill his own thoughts, he +would escape to wander in the majestic ruins of the Coliseum and see the +magic Italian moonlight shimmer through its broken arches, or stroll on +the lonely Campagna till his clothes were drenched with dew. No fear of +the deadly Roman malaria could check his restless excursions, for, like +a fiery horse, he was irritated to madness by the inaction of his life. +To him the _dolce far niente_ was a meaningless phrase. His comrades +scoffed at him and called him "_Pere la Joie_," in derision of the +fierce melancholy which despised them, their pursuits and pleasures. + +At the end of the year he was obliged to present, something before +the Institute as a mark of his musical advancement, and he sent on a +fragment of his "Mass" heard years before at St. Roch, in which the wise +judges professed to find the "evidences of material advancement, and the +total abandonment of his former reprehensible tendencies." One can +fancy the scornful laughter of Berlioz at hearing this verdict. But his +Italian life was not altogether purposeless. He revised his "Symphonie +Fantastique," and wrote its sequel, "Lelio," a lyrical monologue, in +which he aimed to express the memories of his passion for the beautiful +Miss Smithson. These two parts comprised what Berlioz named "An Episode +in the Life of an Artist." Our composer managed to get the last six +months of his Italian exile remitted, and his return to Paris was +hastened by one of those furious paroxysms of rage to which such +ill-regulated minds are subject. He had adored Miss Smithson as a +celestial divinity, a lovely ideal of art and beauty, but this had not +prevented him from basking in the rays of the earthly Venus. Before +leaving Paris he had had an intrigue with a certain Mile. M------, +a somewhat frivolous and unscrupulous beauty, who had bled his not +overfilled purse with the avidity of a leech. Berlioz heard just before +returning to Paris that the coquette was about to marry, a conclusion +one would fancy which would have rejoiced his mind. But, no! he was +worked to a dreadful rage by what he considered such perfidy! His one +thought was to avenge himself. He provided himself with three loaded +pistols--one for the faithless one, one for his rival, and one for +himself--and was so impatient to start that he could not wait for +passports. He attempted to cross the frontier in women's clothes, and +was arrested. A variety of _contretemps_ occurred before he got to +Paris, and by that time his rage had so cooled, his sense of the +absurdity of the whole thing grown so keen, that he was rather willing +to send Mile. M------his blessing than his curse. + +About the time of Berlioz's arrival, Miss Smithson also returned +to Paris after a long absence, with the intent of undertaking the +management of an English theatre. It was a necessity of our composer's +nature to be in love, and the flames of his ardor, fed with fresh fuel, +blazed up again from their old ashes. Berlioz gave a concert, in which +his "Episode in the Life of an Artist" was interpreted in connection +with the recitations of the text. The explanations of "Lelio" so +unmistakably pointed to the feeling of the composer for herself, that +Miss Smithson, who by chance was present, could not be deceived, though +she never yet had seen Berlioz. A few days afterward a benefit concert +was arranged, in which Miss Smithson's troupe was to take part, as well +as Berlioz, who was to direct a symphony of his own composition. At +the rehearsal, the looks of Berlioz followed Miss Smithson with such +an intent stare, that she said to some one, "Who is that man whose eyes +bode me no good?" This was the first occasion of their personal meeting, +and it may be fancied that Berlioz followed up the introduction with his +accustomed vehemence and pertinacity, though without immediate effect, +for Miss Smithson was more inclined to fear than to love him. + +The young directress soon found out that the rage for Shakespeare, which +had swept the public mind under the influence of the romanticism led by +Victor Hugo, Dumas, Theophile Gautier, Balzac, and others, was spurious. +The wave had been frothing but shallow, and it ebbed away, leaving the +English actress and her enterprise gasping for life. With no deeper +tap-root than the Gallic love of novelty and the infectious enthusiasm +of a few men of great genius, the Shakespearean mania had a short +life, and Frenchmen shrugged their shoulders over their own folly, in +temporarily preferring the English barbarian to Racine, Corneille, and +Moliere. The letters of Berlioz, in which he scourges the fickleness +of his countrymen in returning again to their "false gods," are +masterpieces of pointed invective. + +Miss Smithson was speedily involved in great pecuniary difficulty, and, +to add to her misfortunes, she fell down stairs and broke her leg, +thus precluding her own appearance on the stage. Affairs were in this +desperate condition, when Berlioz came to the fore with a delicate and +manly chivalry worthy of the highest praise. He offered to pay Miss +Smithson's debts, though a poor man himself, and to marry her without +delay. The ceremony took place immediately, and thus commenced a +connection which hampered and retarded Berlioz's career, as well as +caused him no little personal unhappiness. He speedily discovered that +his wife was a woman of fretful, imperious temper, jealous of mere +shadows (though Berlioz was a man to give her substantial cause), and +totally lacking in sympathy writh his high-art ideals. + +When Mme. Berlioz recovered, it was to find herself unable longer to +act, as her leg was stiff and her movements unsuited to the exigencies +of the stage. Poor Berlioz was crushed by the weight of the obligations +he had assumed, and, as the years went on, the peevish plaints of an +invalid wife, who had lost her beauty and power of charming, withered +the affection which had once been so fervid and passionate. Berlioz +finally separated from his once beautiful and worshiped Harriet +Smithson, but to the very last supplied her wants as fully as he +could out of the meager earnings of his literary work and of musical +compositions, which the Paris public, for the most part, did not care to +listen to. For his son, Louis, the only offspring of this union, Berlioz +felt a devoted affection, and his loss at sea in after-years was a blow +that nearly broke his heart. + + +IV. + +Owing to the unrelenting hostility of Cherubini, Berlioz failed to +secure a professorship at the Conservatoire, a place to which he was +nobly entitled, and was fain to take up with the position of librarian +instead. The paltry wage he eked out by journalistic writing, for the +most part as musical critic of the "Journal des Debats," by occasional +concerts, revising proofs, in a word anything which a versatile and +desperate Bohemian could turn his hand to. In fact, for many years the +main subsistence of Berlioz was derived from feuilleton-writing and +the labors of a critic. His prose is so witty, brilliant, fresh, and +epigrammatic that he would have been known to posterity as a clever +_litterateur_, had he not preferred to remain merely a great musician. +Dramatic, picturesque, and subtile, with an admirable sense of art-form, +he could have become a powerful dramatist, perhaps a great novelist. But +his soul, all whose aspirations set toward one goal, revolted from the +labors of literature, still more from the daily grind of journalistic +drudgery. In that remarkable book, "Memoires de Hector Berlioz," he +has made known his misery, and thus recounts one of his experiences: +"I stood at the window gazing into the gardens, at the heights of +Montmartre, at the setting sun; reverie bore me a thousand leagues from +my accursed comic opera. And when, on turning, my eyes fell upon the +accursed title at the head of the accursed sheet, blank still, and +obstinately awaiting my word, despair seized upon me. My guitar rested +against the table; with a kick I crushed its side. Two pistols on the +mantel stared at me with great round eyes. I regarded them for +some time, then beat my forehead with clinched hand. At last I wept +furiously, like a schoolboy unable to do his theme. The bitter tears +were a relief. I turned the pistols toward the wall; I pitied my +innocent guitar, and sought a few chords, which were given without +resentment. Just then my son of six years knocked at the door [the +little Louis whose death, years after, was the last bitter drop in the +composer's cup of life]; owing to my ill-humor, I had unjustly scolded +him that morning. 'Papa,' he cried, 'wilt thou be friends?' 'I _will_ be +friends; come on, my boy'; and I ran to open the door. I took him on +my knee, and, with his blonde head on my breast, we slept together.... +Fifteen years since then, and my torment still endures. Oh, to be always +there!--scores to write, orchestras to lead, rehearsals to direct. Let +me stand all day with _baton_ in hand, training a chorus, singing their +parts myself, and beating the measure until I spit blood, and cramp +seizes my arm; let me carry desks, double basses, harps, remove +platforms, nail planks like a porter or a carpenter, and then spend the +night in rectifying the errors of engravers or copyists. I have done, +do, and will do it. That belongs to my musical life, and I bear it +without thinking of it, as the hunter bears the thousand fatigues of the +chase. But to scribble eternally for a livelihood--!" + +It may be fancied that such a man as Berlioz did not spare the lash, +once he griped the whip-handle, and, though no man was more generous +than he in recognizing and encouraging genuine merit, there was none +more relentless in scourging incompetency, pretentious commonplace, and +the blind conservatism which rests all its faith in what has been. +Our composer made more than one powerful enemy by this recklessness in +telling the truth, where a more politic man would have gained friends +strong to help in time of need. But Berlioz was too bitter and reckless, +as well as too proud, to debate consequences. + +In 1838 Berlioz completed his "Benvenuto Cellini," his only attempt at +opera since "Les Francs Juges," and, wonderful to say, managed to get it +done at the opera, though the director, Duponchel, laughed at him as a +lunatic, and the whole company already regarded the work as damned in +advance. The result was a most disastrous and _eclatant_ failure, and +it would have crushed any man whose moral backbone was not forged of +thrice-tempered steel. With all these back-sets Hector Berlioz was not +without encouragement. The brilliant Franz Liszt, one of the musical +idols of the age, had bowed before him and called him master, the great +musical protagonist. Spontini, one of the most successful composers of +the time, held him in affectionate admiration, and always bade him be +of good cheer. Paganini, the greatest of violinists, had hailed him as +equal to Beethoven. + +On the night of the failure of "Benvenuto Cellini," a strange-looking +man with disheveled black hair and eyes of piercing brilliancy had +forced his way around into the green-room, and, seeking out Berlioz, had +fallen on his knees before him and kissed his hand passionately. Then +he threw his arms around him and hailed the astonished composer as the +master-spirit of the age in terms of glowing eulogium. The next morning, +while Berlioz was in bed, there was a tap at the door, and Paganini's +son, Achille, entered with a note, saying his father was sick, or he +would have come to pay his respects in person. On opening the note +Berlioz found a most complimentary letter, and a more substantial +evidence of admiration, a check on Baron Rothschild for twenty thousand +francs! Paganini also gave Berlioz a commission to write a concerto for +his Stradivarius viola, which resulted in a grand symphony, "Harold +en Italie," founded on Byron's "Childe Harold," but still more an +inspiration of his own Italian adventures, which had had a strong flavor +of personal if they lacked artistic interest. + +The generous gift of Paganini raised Berlioz from the slough of +necessity so far that he could give his whole time to music. Instantly +he set about his "Romeo and Juliet" symphony, which will always remain +one of his masterpieces--a beautifully chiseled work, from the hands +of one inspired by gratitude, unfettered imagination, and the sense of +blessed repose. Our composer's first musical journey was an extensive +tour in Germany in 1841, of which he gives charming memorials in +his letters to Liszt, Heine, Ernst, and others. His reception was as +generous and sympathetic as it had been cold and scornful in France. +Everywhere he was honored and praised as one of the great men of the +age. Mendelssohn exchanged _batons_ with him at Leipsic, notwithstanding +the former only half understood this stalwart Berserker of music. Spohr +called him one of the greatest artists living, though his own direct +antithesis, and Schumann wrote glowingly in the "Neue Zeitschrift": "For +myself, Berlioz is as clear as the blue sky above. I really think there +is a new time in music coming." Berlioz wrote joyfully to Heine: "I came +to Germany as the men of ancient Greece went to the oracle at Delphi, +and the response has been in the highest degree encouraging." But his +Germanic laurels did him no good in France. The Parisians would have +none of him except as a writer of _feuilletons_, who pleased them by +the vigor with which he handled the knout, and tickled the levity of +the million, who laughed while they saw the half-dozen or more victims +flayed by merciless satire. Berlioz wept tears of blood because he had +to do such executioner's work, but did it none the less vigorously for +all that. + +The composer made another musical journey in Austria and Hungary in +1844-'45, where he was again received with the most enthusiastic praise +and pleasure. It was in Hungary, especially, that the warmth of his +audiences overran all bounds. One night, at Pesth, where he played the +"Rackoczy Indule," an orchestral setting of the martial hymn of the +Magyar race, the people were worked into a positive frenzy, and they +would have flung themselves before him that he might walk over their +prostrate bodies. Vienna, Pesth, and Prague, led the way, and the other +cities followed in the wake of an enthusiasm which has been accorded +to not many artists. The French heard these stories with amazement, for +they could not understand how this musical demigod could be the same +as he who was little better than a witty buffoon. During this absence +Berlioz wrote the greater portion of his "Damnation de Faust," and, as +he had made some money, he obeyed the strong instinct which always ruled +him, the hope of winning the suffrages of his own countrymen. + +An eminent French critic claims that this great work, of which we shall +speak further on, contains that which Gounod's "Faust" lacks--insight +into the spiritual significance of Goethe's drama. Berlioz exhausted all +his resources in producing it at the Opera Comique in 1846, but again +he was disappointed by its falling stillborn on the public interest. +Berlioz was utterly ruined, and he fled from France in the dead of +winter as from a pestilence. + +The genius of this great man was recognized in Holland, Russia, Austria, +and Germany, but among his own countrymen, for the most part, his name +was a laughing-stock and a by-word. He offended the pedants and the +formalists by his daring originality, he had secured the hate of rival +musicians by the vigor and keenness of his criticisms. Berlioz was in +the very heat of the artistic controversy between the classicists and +romanticists, and was associated with Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, +Delacroix, Liszt, Chopin, and others, in fighting that acrimonious +art-battle. While he did not stand formally with the ranks, he yet +secured a still more bitter portion of hostility from their powerful +opponents, for, to opposition in principle, Berlioz united a caustic +and vigorous mode of expression. His name was a target for the wits. "A +physician who plays on the guitar and fancies himself a composer," was +the scoff of malignant gossips. The journals poured on him a flood +of abuse without stint. French malignity is the most venomous and +unscrupulous in the world, and Berlioz was selected as a choice victim +for its most vigorous exercise, none the less willingly that he had +shown so much skill and zest in impaling the victims of his own artistic +and personal dislike. + + +V. + +To continue the record of Berlioz's life in consecutive narrative would +be without significance, for it contains but little for many years +except the same indomitable battle against circumstance and enmity, +never yielding an inch, and always keeping his eyes bent on his own +lofty ideal. In all of art history is there no more masterful heroic +struggle than Berlioz waged for thirty-five years, firm in his belief +that some time, if not during his own life, his principles would be +triumphant, and his name ranked among the immortals. But what of the +mean while? This problem Berlioz solved, in his later as in earlier +years, by doing the distasteful work of the literary scrub. But never +did he cease composing; though no one would then have his works, his +clear eye perceived the coming time when his genius would not be denied, +when an apotheosis should comfort his spirit wandering in Hades. + +Among Berlioz's later works was an opera of which he had composed both +words and music, consisting of two parts, "The Taking of Troy," and +"The Trojans at Carthage," the latter of which at last secured a few +representations at a minor theatre in 1863. The plan of this work +required that it should be carried out under the most perfect +conditions. "In order," says Berlioz, "to properly produce such a work +as 'Les Trojans,' I must be absolute master of the theatre, as of the +orchestra in directing a symphony. I must have the good-will of all, be +obeyed by all, from prima donna to scene-shifter. A lyrical theatre, as +I conceive it, is a great instrument of music, which, if I am to play, +must be placed unreservedly in my hands." Wagner found a King of Bavaria +to help him carry out a similar colossal scheme at Bayreuth, but ill +luck followed a man no less great through life. His grand "Trojans" +was mutilated, tinkered, patched, and belittled, to suit the Theatre +Lyrique. It was a butchery of the work, but still it yielded the +composer enough to justify his retirement from the "Journal des Debats," +after thirty years of slavery. + +Berlioz was now sixty years old, a lonely man, frail in body, embittered +in soul by the terrible sense of failure. His wife, with whom he had +lived on terms of alienation, was dead; his only son far away, cruising +on a man-of-war. His courage and ambition were gone. To one who remarked +that his music belonged to the future, he replied that he doubted if it +ever belonged to the past. His life seemed to have been a mistake, so +utterly had he failed to impress himself on the public. Yet there were +times when audiences felt themselves moved by the power of his music +out of the ruts of preconceived opinion into a prophecy of his coming +greatness. There is an interesting anecdote told by a French writer: + +"Some years ago M. Pasdeloup gave the _septuor_ from the 'Trojans' at +a benefit concert. The best places were occupied by the people of the +world, but the _elite intelligente_ were ranged upon the highest seats +of the Cirque. The programme was superb, and those who were there +neither for Fashion's nor Charity's sake, but for love of what was +best in art, were enthusiastic in view of all those masterpieces. The +worthless overture of the 'Prophete,' disfiguring this fine _ensemble_, +had been hissed by some students of the Conservatoire, and, accustomed +as I was to the blindness of the general public, knowing its implacable +prejudices, I trembled for the fate of the magnificent _septuor_ about +to follow. My fears were strangely ill-founded, no sooner had ceased +this hymn of infinite love and peace, than these same students, and the +whole assemblage with them, burst into such a tempest of applause as I +never heard before. Berlioz was hidden in the further ranks, and, the +instant he was discovered, the work was forgotten for the man; his +name flew from mouth to mouth, and four thousand people were standing +upright, with their arms stretched toward him. Chance had placed me near +him, and never shall I forget the scene. That name, apparently ignored +by the crowd, it had learned all at once, and was repeating as that of +one of its heroes. Overcome as by the strongest emotion of his life, +his head upon his breast, he listened to this tumultuous cry of 'Vive +Berlioz!' and when, on looking up, he saw all eyes upon him and all +arms extended toward him, he could not withstand the sight; he trembled, +tried to smile, and broke into sobbing." + +Berlioz's supremacy in the field of orchestral composition, his +knowledge of technique, his novel combination, his insight into the +resources of instruments, his skill in grouping, his rich sense of +color, are incontestably without a parallel, except by Beethoven and +Wagner. He describes his own method of study as follows: + +"I carried with me to the opera the score of whatever work was on +the bill, and read during the performance. In this way I began to +familiarize myself with orchestral methods, and to learn the voice and +quality of the various instruments, if not their range and mechanism. +By this attentive comparison of the effect with the means employed to +produce it, I found the hidden link uniting musical expression to the +special art of instrumentation. The study of Beethoven, Weber, +and Spontini, the impartial examination both of the _customs_ of +orchestration and of _unusual_ forms and combinations, the visits I +made to _virtuosi_, the trials I led them to make upon their respective +instruments, and a little instinct, did for me the rest." + +The principal symphonies of Berlioz are works of colossal character +and richness of treatment, some of them requiring several orchestras. +Contrasting with these are such marvels of delicacy as "Queen Mab," of +which it has been said that the "confessions of roses and the complaints +of violets were noisy in comparison." A man of magnificent genius and +knowledge, he was but little understood during his life, and it was +only when his uneasy spirit was at rest that the world recognized his +greatness. Paris, that stoned him when he was living, now listens to his +grand music with enthusiasm. Hector Berlioz to the last never lost +faith in himself, though this man of genius, in his much suffering from +depression and melancholy, gave good witness to the truth of Goethe's +lines: + + "Who never ate with tears his bread, + Nor, weeping through the night's long hours, + Lay restlessly tossing on his bed-- + He knows ye not, ye heavenly Powers!" + +A man utterly without reticence, who, Gallic fashion, would shout his +wrongs and sufferings to the uttermost ends of the earth, yet without +a smack of Gallic posing and affectation, Berlioz talks much about +himself, and dares to estimate himself boldly. There was no small +vanity about this colossal spirit. He speaks of himself with outspoken +frankness, as he would discuss another. We can not do better than to +quote one of these self-measurements: "My style is in general very +daring, but it has not the slightest tendency to destroy any of the +constructive elements of art. On the contrary, I seek to increase the +number of these elements. I have never dreamed, as has foolishly been +supposed in France, of writing music without melody. That school exists +to-day in Germany, and I have a horror of it. It is easy for any one to +convince himself that, without confining myself to taking a very short +melody for a theme, as the very greatest masters have, I have always +taken care to invest my compositions with a real wealth of melody. The +value of these melodies, their distinction, their novelty, and charm, +can be very well contested; it is not for me to appraise them. But to +deny their existence is either bad faith or stupidity; only as these +melodies are often of very large dimensions, infantile and short-sighted +minds do not clearly distinguish their form; or else they are wedded +to other secondary melodies which veil their outlines from those same +infantile minds; or, upon the whole, these melodies are so dissimilar +to the little waggeries that the musical _plebs_ call melodies that they +can not make up their minds to give the same name to both. The dominant +qualities of my music are passionate expression, internal fire, rhythmic +animation, and unexpected changes." + +Heinrich Heine, the German poet, who was Berlioz's friend, called him +a "colossal nightingale, a lark of eagle-size, such as they tell us +existed in the primeval world." The poet goes on to say: "Berlioz's +music, in general, has in it something primeval if not antediluvian to +my mind; it makes me think of gigantic species of extinct animals, of +fabulous empires full of fabulous sins, of heaped-up impossibilities; +his magical accents call to our minds Babylon, the hanging gardens the +wonders of Nineveh, the daring edifices of Mizraim, as we see them in +the pictures of the Englishman Martin." Shortly after the publication of +"Lutetia," in which this bold characterization was expressed, the first +performance of Berlioz's "Enfance du Christ" was given, and the poet, +who was on his sick-bed, wrote a penitential letter to his friend for +not having given him full justice. "I hear on all sides," he says, "that +you have just plucked a nosegay of the sweetest melodious flowers, and +that your oratorio is throughout a masterpiece of _naivete_. I shall +never forgive myself for having been so unjust to a friend." + +Berlioz died at the age of sixty-five. His funeral services were held +at the Church of the Trinity, a few days after those of Rossini. The +discourse at the grave was pronounced by Gounod, and many eloquent +things were said of him, among them a quotation of the epitaph of +Marshal Trivulce, "_Hic tandem quiescit qui nunquam quievit_" (Here is +he quiet, at last, who never was quiet before). Soon after his death +appeared his "Memoires," and his bones had hardly got cold when the +performance of his music at the Conservatoire, the Cirque, and the +Chatelet began to be heard with the most hearty enthusiasm. + + +VI. + +Theophile Gautier says that no one will deny to Berlioz a great +character, though, the world being given to controversies, it may be +argued whether or not he was a great genius. The world of to-day has but +one opinion on both these questions. The force of Berlioz's character +was phenomenal. His vitality was so passionate and active that brain +and nerve quivered with it, and made him reach out toward experience at +every facet of his nature. Quietude was torture, rest a sin, for this +daring temperament. His eager and subtile intelligence pierced every +sham, and his imagination knew no bounds to its sweep, oftentimes even +disdaining the bounds of art in its audacity and impatience. This big, +virile nature, thwarted and embittered by opposition, became hardened +into violent self-assertion; this naturally resolute will settled back +into fierce obstinacy; this fine nature, sensitive and sincere, got torn +and ragged with passion under the stress of his unfortunate life. But, +at one breath of true sympathy how quickly the nobility of the man +asserted itself! All his cynicism and hatred melted away, and left only +sweetness, truth, and genial kindness. + +When Berlioz entered on his studies, he had reached an age at which +Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Rossini, and others, had already done +some of the best work of their lives. Yet it took only a few years to +achieve a development that produced such a great work as the "Symphonic +Fantastique," the prototype of modern programme music. + +From first to last it was the ambition of Berlioz to widen the domain +of his art. He strove to attain a more intimate connection between +instrumental music and poetry in the portrayal of intense passions, and +the suggestion of well-defined dramatic situations. In spite of the fact +that he frequently overshot his mark, it does not make his works one +whit less astonishing. An uncompromising champion of what has been +dubbed "programme" music, he thought it legitimate to force the +imagination of the hearer to dwell on exterior scenes during the +progress of the music, and to distress the mind in its attempt to find +an exact relation between the text and the music. The most perfect +specimens of the works of Berlioz, however, are those in which the music +speaks for itself, such as the "Scene aux Champs," and the "Marche au +Supplice," in the "Symphonie Fantastique," the "Marche des Pelerins," in +"Harold"; the overtures to "King Lear," "Benvenuto Cellini," "Carnaval +Romain," "Le Corsaire," "Les Francs Juges," etc. + +As a master of the orchestra, no one has been the equal of Berlioz in +the whole history of music, not even Beethoven or Wagner. He treats the +orchestra with the absolute daring and mastery exercised by Paganini +over the violin, and by Liszt over the piano. No one has showed so deep +an insight into the individuality of each instrument, its resources, the +extent to which its capabilities could be carried. Between the phrase +and the instrument, or group of instruments, the equality is perfect; +and independent of this power, made up equally of instinct and +knowledge, this composer shows a sense of orchestral color in combining +single instruments so as to form groups, or in the combination of +several separate groups of instruments by which he has produced the most +novel and beautiful effects--effects not found in other composers. +The originality and variety of his rhythms, the perfection of his +instrumentation, have never been disputed even by his opponents. In many +of his works, especially those of a religious character, there is a +Cyclopean bigness of instrumental means used, entirely beyond parallel +in art. Like the Titans of old, he would scale the very heavens in +his daring. In one of his works he does not hesitate to use three +orchestras, three choruses (all of full dimensions), four organs, and +a triple quartet. The conceptions of Berlioz were so grandiose that he +sometimes disdained detail, and the result was that more than one of his +compositions have rugged grandeur at the expense of symmetry and balance +of form. + +Yet, when he chose, Berlioz could write the most exquisite and dainty +lyrics possible. What could be more exquisitely tender than many of +his songs and romances, and various of the airs and choral pieces +from "Beatrice et Benedict," from "Nuits d'Ete," "Irlande," and from +"L'Enfance du Christ"? + +Berlioz in his entirety, as man and composer, was a most extraordinary +being, to whom the ordinary scale of measure can hardly be applied. +Though he founded no new school, he pushed to a fuller development the +possibilities to which Beethoven reached out in the Ninth Symphony. +He was the great _virtuoso_ on the orchestra, and on this Briarean +instrument he played with the most amazing skill. Others have surpassed +him in the richness of the musical substance out of which their +tone-pictures are woven, in symmetry of form, in finish of detail; but +no one has ever equaled him in that absolute mastery over instruments, +by which a hundred become as plastic and flexible as one, and are made +to embody every phase of the composer's thought with that warmth of +color and precision of form long believed to be necessarily confined to +the sister arts. + +THE END. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Great Italian and French Composers, by +George T. 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