THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS.
 
 GREAT 
 
 ITALIAN AND FRENCH 
 COMPOSERS 
 
 PALESTRINA TO MASSENET 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE T. FERRIS 
 
 .V 
 
 NEW EDITION 
 REVISED AND ILLUSTRATED 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 1914
 
 COPYRKHIT, 1H78, 1805, 
 BY D. AITLKTON AND COMPANY, 
 
 Printed in the United States of America
 
 M-USIC 
 
 L 
 
 PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION. 
 
 THE continuous demand for this series, in- 
 cluding the five volumes, " Great German Com- 
 posers," " Great Italian and French Composers," 
 " Great Singers," First and Second Series, and 
 " Great Violinists and Pianists," has led to the 
 revision of the volumes. Nearly twenty years 
 have passed since the first " The Great German 
 Composers" was written, and many changes 
 have taken place since then. The attempt has 
 been made, so far as is consistent with the limits 
 of space, to bring these little books down to 
 date, revising the articles where it was needed, 
 and making addenda in sketches of living or 
 very recently living composers and artists, who 
 may be said to represent most fully the achieve- 
 ments and tendencies of contemporary music. 
 
 1110379
 
 iv PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION. 
 
 It need scarcely be said that the obligations of 
 limit have, even in this revision, excluded sev- 
 eral subjects fully worthy of association with 
 the others.
 
 NOTE. 
 
 THE task of compressing into one small vol- 
 ume suitable sketches of the more famous Ital- 
 ian and French composers has been, in view of 
 the extent of the field and the wealth of mate- 
 rial, a somewhat embarrassing one, especially as 
 the purpose was to make the sketches of inter- 
 est 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 " Biographic Universelle des Musiciens " ;
 
 vi NOTE. 
 
 dementi's " Biographic des JVIusiciens " ; Ho 
 garth's " History of the Opera " ; Sutherland 
 Edwards's " History of the Opera " ; Schliiter's 
 " History of Music " ; Chorley's " Thirty Years' 
 Musical Reminiscences " ; Stendhall's u Vie du 
 Rossini " ; Bellasys's " Memorials of Cherubi- 
 ni " ; Grove's " Musical Dictionary " ; Cro- 
 west'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. 
 
 Such changes have been made in the re- 
 vised edition in the lives of Verdi and Gounod, 
 the latter only a short time dead, as are nercs 
 sary to render them complete. Sketches have 
 been added of the more prominent masters of 
 the latest French school, St. Sae'ns, Bizet, and 
 Massenet, and portraits of some of the great 
 musicians of Italy and France.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PALESTRINA ...... 7 
 
 PICCINI, PAISIELLO, AND CIUAZOSA ... 17 
 
 ROSSINI ....... 48 
 
 DONIZETTI AND BELLINI .... 85 
 
 VERDI ....... 104 
 
 CHERCBINI AND HIS PREDECESSORS . . . 120 
 
 MEHUL, SPONTINI, AND HALEVY .... 175 
 
 BOIELDIEC AND Al'BER .... 195 
 
 MEYERBEER ...... 205 
 
 GOCNOD AND THOMAS .... 228 
 
 BERLIOZ ....... 255 
 
 SAINT SAENS, BIZET, AND MASSBNKT . . . 292
 
 PORTRAITS. 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 Charles Camille Saint-Saens . Frontispiece 
 
 Gioacchino Rossini . . . . .48 
 
 Giuseppe Verdi ..... 104 
 
 Giacoino Meyerbeer ..... 205 
 Charles Gounod ..... 228 
 
 Jules E. F. Massenet , 292
 
 THE GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH 
 COMPOSERS, 
 
 PALESTRINA. 
 
 THE Netherlands share other glories than that 
 of having nursed the most indomitable spirit of 
 liberty known to mediaeval Europe. The fine as 
 well as the industrial arts found among this re- 
 markable 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 counter- 
 point were placed by this school of musical schol- 
 ars and workers on a solid basis, which enabled
 
 8 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 the great composers who came after them to 
 build their beautiful tone fabrics in forms of im- 
 perishable beauty and symmetry. For a long 
 time most of the great Italian churches had Bel- 
 gian chapel-masters, and the value of their exam- 
 ple and teachings was vital in its relation to Ital- 
 ian music. 
 
 The last great master among the Belgians, and, 
 after Palestrina, the greatest of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, 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 largene.ss 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 Or- 
 lando 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 inex- 
 haustible invention, displaying much breadth, va- 
 riety, and depth in his treatment ; he delights in 
 full and powerful harmonies, yet, after all owing
 
 PALESTRIXA. 9 
 
 to an existence passed in journeys, as well as ser- 
 vice 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 peni- 
 tential 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 meth- 
 od. 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 compos- 
 ers, Palestrina. 
 
 n. 
 
 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 ex- 
 clusive 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
 
 10 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COM POSERS. 
 
 recognition in its borrowed garb, for it had be> 
 come a mere jumble of sound. Musicians, in- 
 deed, carried their profanation so far as to take 
 secular melodies as the themes for masses and 
 motetts. These were often called by their pro- 
 fane 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 crea- 
 tive powers of the subject of this sketch, who 
 raised his art to an independent national exist- 
 ence, and made it rank with sculpture and paint- 
 ing, 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.* 
 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, 
 
 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.
 
 PALESTRIXA. 11 
 
 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 man- 
 nerisms. 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 Fri- 
 day, 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 in- 
 dignation at the abuse of church music, had re- 
 solved to abolish everything but the simple Gre- 
 gorian chants, but the remonstrances of the Em- 
 peror 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
 
 12 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 of musical art were consistent with the solemni- 
 ties 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 com- 
 posed 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 heav- 
 enly 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 pon- 
 tifical 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 domes- 
 tic happiness became a bar to his temporal prefer- 
 ment. 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
 
 PALESTRINA. 13 
 
 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 en- 
 try : " February 2, 1594. This morning died the 
 most excellent musician, Signer Giovanni Pales- 
 trina, our dear companion and maestro di capella 
 of St. Peter's church, whither his funeral was at- 
 tended 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,\iewed 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 im- 
 perishable base for the labors of his successors. 
 2
 
 14 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 III. 
 
 PALESTRINA 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 mel- 
 ody 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 ex- 
 ponent of the Palestrina music. During the an- 
 nual performance of the " Improperie " and "Lam- 
 entations," the altar and walls are despoiled of 
 their pictures and ornaments, and everything is 
 draped in black. The cai'dinals dressed in serge, 
 no incense, no candles: the whole scene is a strik- 
 ing picture of trouble and desolation. The faith- 
 ful come in two by two and bow before the cross, 
 while the sad music reverberates through the 
 chapel arches. This powerful appeal to the imagi- 
 nation, of course, lends greater power to the musi-
 
 PALHSTRI.VA. 15 
 
 cal effect. But all minds who have felt the lift 
 and beauty of these compositions have acknowl- 
 edged how far they soar above words and creeds, 
 and the picturesque framework of a liturgy. 
 
 Mendelssohn, in a letter to Zelter on the Pa 
 lestrina music as heard in the Sistine chapel, says 
 that nothing could exceed the effect of the blend- 
 ing of the voices, the prolonged tones gradually 
 mei'ging 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 reecho- 
 ing Greek ' holy,' sung with unvarying sweetness 
 and expression." The composer Paer was so im- 
 pressed 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 oppos- 
 ing ranks of those that preceded him, and to era- 
 body the religious spirit in works of the highest 
 art. He transposed the ecclesiastical melody 
 (canto fermo) from the tenor to the soprano (thus
 
 16 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 rendering it more intelligible to the ear), and cre- 
 ated that glorious thing choir song, with its re- 
 fined harmony, that noble music of which his 
 works are the models, and the papal chair the 
 oracle. No individual preeminence is ever al- 
 lowed to disturb and weaken the ideal atmo- 
 sphere 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 har- 
 mony. 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 al- 
 lowed to go out of the Sistine chapel, till the in- 
 fant prodigy, Wolfgang Mozart, wrote it out from 
 the memory of a single hearing.
 
 PICCINI, PAISIELLO, AXD CIMAROSA. 17 
 
 PICCINI, PAISIELLO, AND CIMAROSA. 
 
 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 an- 
 cient 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 
 claims 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 ri- 
 pened 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 " Orf eo." The story was written 
 in Latin, and sung in music principally choral, 
 though a few solo phrases were given to the prin- 
 cipal characters. It was performed at Rome with
 
 18 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 great magnificence, and Vasari tells us that Peruz- 
 zi, 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 can- 
 vas to be sure of its not being in relief. We may 
 fancy indeed that the scenery was one great at- 
 traction of the representation. In spite of spas- 
 modic encouragement by the more liberally mind- 
 ed pontiffs, the general weight of church influ- 
 ence 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 com- 
 pany of literati at Florence commenced in 1580. 
 The primary purpose was the revival of Greek 
 art, including music. This association, in conjunc- 
 tion 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 charac- 
 teristic 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 ac-
 
 PICCINT, FAIS1ELLO, AXD CIMAROSA. 19 
 
 count 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 vir- 
 gins and a hundred soldiers ; a hundred horsemen 
 in steel armor ; a hundred performers on trumpets, 
 cornets, sackbuts, drums, flutes, and other instru- 
 ments, on horseback and on foot ; two lions led 
 by two Turks, and two elephants led by two In- 
 dians ; Berenice's triumphal car drawn by four 
 horses, and six other cars with spoils and prison- 
 ers, drawn by twelve horses. Among the scenes 
 in the first act was a vast plain with two triumph- 
 al 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 Be- 
 renice'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 hunt- 
 ing 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 theatri- 
 cal manager had princes and nobles for bankers
 
 20 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 and assistants, and they lavished their treasures 
 of art and money to make such spectacles as the 
 modern stagemen of London and Paris cannot ap- 
 proach. 
 
 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 ex- 
 pensive diversions the wit of man can invent. 
 The history was Hercules in Lydia. The sceanes 
 changed thirteen times. The famous voices, Anna 
 liencia, a Roman and reputed the best treble of 
 women ; but there was a Eunuch who in my opin- 
 ion surpassed her ; also a Genoise that in my judg- 
 ment sung an incomparable base. They held us 
 by the eyes and ears till two o'clock i' the morn- 
 ing." Again he writes of the carnival of 1646 : 
 " 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 in-
 
 PICCIXI, FAISIELLO, AND CIMAROSA. 21 
 
 vited to a fish dinner after four dales 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 op- 
 position, and henceforth there was nothing to im- 
 pede the progress of a product which spread and 
 naturalized itself in England, France, and Ger- 
 many. The inventive genius of Monte verde, Ca- 
 rissimi, Scarlatti (the friend and rival of Han- 
 del), Durante, and Leonardo Leo, perfected the 
 forms of the opera nearly as we have them to- 
 day. A line of brilliant composers in the school 
 of Durante and Leo brings us down through Per- 
 golesi, Demi, Terradiglias, Jomelli, Traetta, Cic- 
 cio di Majo, Galuppi, and Giuglielmi, to the most 
 distinguished of the early Italian composers, Nic- 
 colo 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, over- 
 shadowed as Piccini was in the greatness of his 
 rival, there can be no question of his desert as the
 
 22 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 in- 
 sight, and ardent conviction. 
 
 ii. 
 
 NICCOLO PICCIXI, 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 harpsi- 
 chord, 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 priest- 
 hood brings trials and sacrifices, a musical career 
 is not less beset with obstacles. Music demands 
 great perseverance and incessant labor. It ex- 
 poses one to many chagrins and toils." 
 
 By the advice of the shrewd prelate, the pre- 
 cocious boy was placed at the school of St. Ono- 
 frio at the age of fourteen. At first confided to 
 the care of an inferior professor, he revolted from
 
 PICCIXI, PAISISLLO, AXD CIMAROSA. 23 
 
 the arid teachings of a mere human machine. 
 Obeying the dictates of his daring fancy, though 
 hardly acquainted with the rudiments of compo- 
 sition, he determined to compose a mass. The 
 news got abroad that the little Niccolo was work- 
 ing on a grand mass, and the great Leo, the chief 
 of the conservatory, sent for the trembling cul- 
 prit. 
 
 " 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 ma- 
 estro, 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. In- 
 stead of studying the principles of your art, you 
 give yourself up to all the wildness of your im- 
 agination ; 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
 
 24 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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. lie was wont to say the oth- 
 ers were his pupils, but Piccini was his son. After 
 twelve years spent in the conservatory, Piccini 
 commenced an opera. The director of the prin- 
 cipal Neapolitan theatre said to Prince Vinti- 
 mille, who introduce'd 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 fias- 
 co ? " 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 other- 
 wise return it to me." 
 
 The friends of Lagroscino, the favorite com- 
 poser of the day, were enraged when they heard 
 that the next new work was to be from an ob- 
 scure youth, and they determined to hiss the per- 
 formance. So great, however, was the delight 
 of the public with the freshness and beauty of 
 Piccini's music, that even those who came to con- 
 demn remained to applaud. The reputation of 
 the composer went on increasing until he became 
 the foremost name of musical Italy, for his fer- 
 tility of production was remarkable ; and he gave 
 the theatres a brilliant succession of comic and
 
 PICCINI, PAISIELLO, AND C1MAROSA. 25 
 
 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 Ger- 
 man 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 wa- 
 ters. 
 
 His sway over the stage and the popular pref- 
 erence continued until 1773, when a clique of 
 envious rivals at Rome brought about his first 
 disaster. The composer was greatly disheart- 
 ened, 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
 
 26 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 reputa- 
 tion 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 of- 
 fered an indemnity of six thousand francs, and a 
 residence in the hotel of the Neapolitan ambas- 
 sador. When the Italian arrived in Paris, Gluck 
 was in full sway, the idol of the court and pub- 
 lic, 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 Pic- 
 cini undertook the difficult task of composing 
 music to words in a language as yet unknown to 
 him. Marmontel was his imwearied tutor, and he 
 writes in his " Memoirs " of his pleasant yet ar- 
 duous 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 read- 
 ily the accent of the language and the measm-e of 
 the poetry, that in his music he never mistook 
 them. It was an inexpressible pleasure to me to
 
 FICCIXI, PAISIELLO, AXD CIMAROSA. 27 
 
 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 rapid- 
 ity, 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 at- 
 tended 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, proba- 
 bly, the fruit of condescension and contempt as 
 of generosity. 
 
 {Still Gluck was not easy in mind over this in- 
 trigue of his enemies, and wrote a bitter letter, 
 which was made public, and aggravated the war
 
 28 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COiirOSERb. 
 
 of public feeling. Epigrams and accusations flew 
 back and forth like hailstones.* 
 
 "Do you know that the Chevalier (Gluck's 
 title) has an Armida and Orlando in his port- 
 folio ? " said Abbu 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 arti- 
 cles. Many of the great literati were Piccinists, 
 among them Marmontel, La Harpe, D'Alembert, 
 etc. Suard du Rollet and Jean Jacques Rous- 
 seau 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 commen- 
 cing 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 
 
 * Set article on Gluck in " Great German Composers."
 
 PICCINI, PAISIELLO, AND CIMAROSA. 29 
 
 fickle Parisians, though the Gluckists sneered at 
 it as pretty concert music. The retort was that 
 . Gluck had no gift of melody, though they admit- 
 ted he had the advantage over his rival of making 
 more noise. The poor Italian was so much dis- 
 tressed by the fierce contest that he and his fam- 
 ily were in despair on the night of the first repre- 
 sentation. He could only say to his weeping wife 
 and son : " Come, my children, this is unreason- 
 able. 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 justice 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. 
 
 in. 
 
 MARIE ANTOINETTE, whom Mme. du Barry 
 and her clique looked on as Piccini's enemy, as- 
 tonished both cabals by appointing Piccini her 
 singing-master, an unprofitable honor, for he re- 
 ceived 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 re- 
 gard to this favor from Marie Antoinette, whose 
 faction in music, among other names, was known 
 
 as the Greek party, " Timeo Danaos et dona fe- 
 3
 
 30 GREAT ITALIAN AND FREXCII COMPOSKHS. 
 
 rentes" * 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 parsi- 
 monious 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 mas- 
 ters 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." 
 
 * I fear the Greeka, though offering gifts.
 
 PICCI.M, PAISIELLO, AND CIMAROSA. 31 
 
 " 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 rehear- 
 sal 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 re- 
 hearsal. The director excused himself on the 
 plea of its being a royal command. Gluck's work 
 was his masterpiece, and produced an unparal- 
 leled sensation among the Parisians. Even his 
 enemies were silenced, and La Harpe said it was 
 the chef d'ceuvre of the world. Piccini's work, 
 when produced, was admired, but it stood no 
 chance with the profound, serious, and wonder- 
 fully 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 in- 
 toxication. " 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 perform- 
 ances in the following epigram :
 
 32 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 " La n'est point d'art, d'cnnui scientifique ; 
 Piccini, Gluck, n'ont point not6 les airs. 
 Nature seule en dicta la musique, 
 Et Marmontel n'cn a pas fait les vers." 
 
 The sentiment of this was probably applauded 
 by the many who were wearied of the bitter re- 
 criminations, 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 lime 
 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 princi- 
 pal 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
 
 PICCLVI, PAISIELLO, AND CIMAROSA. 33 
 
 " Dieu tie 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 Gluck," 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 con- 
 tinued, " 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 beau- 
 tiful dance measures were furnished by the Ital- 
 ian 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 un- 
 availing, 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
 
 34 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 retired to Italy. Bad fortune pursued him, how- 
 ever. Queen Caroline of Naples conceived a dis- 
 like 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 may be 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 dis- 
 pleasure in those days did not confine itself mere- 
 ly to lack of court favor. Reduced to great pov- 
 erty, 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 sub- 
 sistence 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. Na- 
 poleon, 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
 
 PICCINI, PAISIELLO, AND CIMAROSA. 35 
 
 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 sun- 
 shine 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 van- 
 quished 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 pres- 
 ent 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 eigh- 
 teenth century found Piccini's melodies charming, 
 but the works that endure as masterpieces are not 
 those which contain the greatest number of beau- 
 ties, but those of which the form is the most per- 
 fect. Gluck had larger conceptions and more 
 powerful genius than his Italian rival, but the 
 hitter's sweet spring of melody gave him the high- 
 est place which had so far been attained in the 
 Italian operatic school. 
 
 "Piccini," says M. Genguene, his biographer,
 
 36 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 " was under the middle size, but well made, with 
 considerable dignity of carriage. His countenance 
 w r as very agreeable. His mind was acute, en- 
 larged, and cultivated. Latin and Italian litera- 
 ture was familiar to him when he went to France, 
 and afterward he became almost as well acquainted 
 with French literature. He spoke and wrote Ital- 
 ian with great purity, but among his countrymen 
 he preferred the Neapolitan dialect, which he con- 
 sidered 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 w r as noticeable, accord- 
 ing 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 instru- 
 mentation rich and effective, he was a resolute 
 opponent to the florid and complex accompani- 
 ments 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 pre- 
 served to them, a variety of effects and a series 
 of infinitely diversified pictures would be pro-
 
 PICCIXI, PAISIELLO, AND CIMAROSA. 37 
 
 duced. 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 ex- 
 aggerated 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 sue-
 
 38 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 cessors. 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 invita- 
 tion 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, " II Barbiere di Seviglia " (a differ- 
 ent 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 accompany- 
 ing her in a song, she observed that he shud- 
 dered 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 fa- 
 vorite 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 hav- 
 ing insulted a dignitary of the empire. Cath- 
 erine's reply was similar to the one made by 
 Francis the First of France in a parallel case 
 about Leonardo da Vinci :
 
 PICCINI, PAISIELLO, AND CIMAROSA. 39 
 
 " I neither can nor will attend to your request ; 
 you forgot your dignity when you gave an un- 
 offending 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 Pai- 
 siello did not wish to obey the mandate, to re- 
 fuse was ruin. The French ruler had already 
 shown his favor by giving him the preference over 
 Cherubini in several important musical contests, 
 for the latter had always displayed stern inde- 
 pendence of courtly favor. On Paisiello's ar- 
 rival in Paris, several lucrative appointments in- 
 dicated 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 occa- 
 sion served. He once addressed his master as 
 "Sire." 
 
 " ' Sire,' what do you mean ? " answered the 
 first consul. "I am a general and nothing 
 more."
 
 40 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 " Well, General," continued the composer, " I 
 have coine 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 conspira- 
 tor, 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 hag disdained to borrow from
 
 PICCIXL PAI3IELLO, AND CIMAROSA. 41 
 
 one work to enrich another. His only opera com- 
 posed 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 Bona- 
 parte family, his prosperity fell with theirs. He 
 had been crowned with honors by all the musical 
 societies of the world, but his pensions and emol- 
 uments 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.' 1 
 
 Paisiello's style, according to Fetis, was char- 
 acterized by great simplicity and apparent facility. 
 His few and unadorned notes, full of grace, were 
 yet deep and varied in their expression. In his
 
 42 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 ef- 
 fects, novel to his time. He was the author, too, 
 of important improvements in instrumental com- 
 position. 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 excel- 
 lence is not sacrificed to novelty. 
 
 VI. 
 
 A STILL higher place must be assigned to an- 
 other 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
 
 PICCIXI, PAKIELLO, AND CIMAROSA. 43 
 
 Loretto. His early works showed brilliant inven- 
 tion and imagination, and the young Cimarosa, 
 before he left the Conservatory, had made himself 
 a good violinist and singer. He worked hard, dur- 
 ing 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 vari- 
 ety 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 tem- 
 perament. 
 
 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 pref erred the suave and shal-
 
 44 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 low 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 " II 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 representa- 
 tion, but a brilliant audience hailed it with de- 
 light. 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 ap- 
 plaud 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.
 
 PIOCINI, PAISIELLO, AND CIMAROSA. 45 
 
 Yet the same Viennese public, six years before, 
 had actually hissed Mozart's " Nozze di Figaro," 
 which shares with Rossini's " II 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 Vien- 
 nese painter attempted to flatter him, by decry- 
 ing 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, Gr6try, 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 Na- 
 ples, at the Emperor Leopold's death, Cimarosa 
 produced several of his finest works, among which 
 musical students place first : " II Matrimonio per 
 Susurro," "La Penelope," " L'Olimpiade," "II 
 Sacrificio d'Abramo," " Gli Amanti Comici," and 
 "Gli Orazi." These were performed almost si- 
 multaneously in the theatres of Paris, Naples, 
 4
 
 46 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 and Vienna. Cimarosa attached himself warmly 
 to the French cause in Italy, and when the Bour- 
 bons finally triumphed the musician suffered their 
 bitterest resentment. He narrowly escaped with 
 his life, and languished for a long time in a dun- 
 geon, 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 com- 
 edy. He was the finest example of the school 
 perfected by Piccini, and was indeed the link 
 between the old Italian opera and the new de- 
 velopment 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 admir- 
 able, and by no means antiquated opera, 4 II 
 Matrimonio Segreto' (the charming offspring of 
 his * secret marriage ' with the Mozart opera) is 
 a model of exquisite and graceful comedy. The
 
 PICCIXI, PAISIELLO, AND CIMAROSA. 47 
 
 overture bears a striking resemblance to that of 
 ' Figaro,' and the instrumentation of the whole 
 opera is highly characteristic, though not so prom- 
 inent 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 mel- 
 ody, 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 anti- 
 '{ii.'Ued and obsolete fs.ms ; and it wants nothing 
 but an orchestral score of greater fullness and 
 variety to satisfy the modern ear. It is still fre- 
 quently performed in Germany, though in France 
 and England, and even in its native country, it 
 seems to be forgotten."
 
 48 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 crea- 
 tive period of Rossini's life, his great works, 
 poured forth with such facility, and still retain- 
 ing their grasp in spite of all changes in public 
 opinion, stamp him as being the most gifted com- 
 poser 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
 
 
 A 
 
 GIOACCHINO ROSSINI.
 
 ROPSINI. 49 
 
 subsided. The stiff and stately Oublicheff con- 
 fesses, 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 contra- 
 puntal 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 dis- 
 pelled 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 thor- 
 ough-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.
 
 50 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENC1I COMPOSERS. 
 
 "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 Per- 
 ticari, 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 Mattel. 
 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 fa- 
 mous 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 re- 
 hearsal that she would not sing the opening air,
 
 ROSSINI. 51 
 
 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 
 th<.' 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 consid- 
 erable persons of the little town he inhabits. He 
 forms a company consisting of prima donna, te- 
 itm-ii, /Htfitio cantante, basso buffo, a second female 
 singer, and a third basso. The libretto, or poem, 
 is purchased for sixty or eighty francs from some 
 unlucky 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 para- 
 site, 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 fami- 
 lies of some wealth. A maestro, or composer, is
 
 52 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 regis- 
 trar io, who is generally some pettifogging attor- 
 ney, 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 charac- 
 ter and climate. The first representation, if suc- 
 cessful, 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
 
 ROSSINI. 53 
 
 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 piano- 
 forte. 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 sus-
 
 54 GREAT ITALIAX AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 penciled, 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 repre- 
 sentations, and, after receiving a grand civic ban- 
 quet, 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 avail- 
 able food for mirth. On one occasion, in travel- 
 ing from Aneona to Reggio, he passed himself off 
 for a musical professor, a mortal enemy of Ros- 
 sini, 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 un- 
 known 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 beau- 
 ties 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
 
 ROSSINI. 55 
 
 the Italian theatres, and indulged in the most un- 
 warrantable 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 coun- 
 try 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 im-j 
 presario of the San Carlo, Naples, Barbaja. He 
 was under contract to produce two new operas 
 annually, to rearrange ail old scores, and to con- 
 duct 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
 
 56 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS, 
 
 was received with a genuine Neapolitan furore. 
 Rossini was feted and caressed by the ardent di- 
 lettanti 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 
 cFamour. 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, 
 w T hen the ugliest Mercury he had ever seen en- 
 tered and gave him a note, then instantly with- 
 drew. 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 sur- 
 rounding 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,
 
 ROSSINI. 57 
 
 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 con- 
 tact with the brilliant, handsome Rossini were 
 charmed. That which placed his European fame 
 on a solid basis was the production of " II Bar- 
 biere di Seviglia " at Rome during the carnival 
 season of 1816. 
 
 Years before Rossini had thought of setting 
 the sparkling comedy of Beaumarchais to mu- 
 sic, 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 
 ly 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,
 
 58 GREAT ITALIAN" AXD FREXCtI COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 al- 
 low Garcia to sing a Spanish melody for a sere- 
 nade, 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 audi- 
 ence. In short, the opera seemed likely to be 
 damned. 
 
 When the singers went to condole with Ros- 
 sini, they found him enjoying a luxurious supper 
 with the gusto of the gourmet that he was. Set- 
 tled in his knowledge that he had written a mas- 
 terpiece, he could not be disturbed by unjust 
 clamor. The next night the fickle Romans made
 
 ROSS I M 59 
 
 ample amends, for the opera was concluded amid 
 the warmest applause, even from the friends of 
 Paisiello. 
 
 Rossini's " II 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 sub- 
 ject it was nothing, when it was suggested that 
 Paisiello's should be revived. So the St. Peters- 
 burg " Barbiere " of 1788 was produced, and be- 
 side Rossini's it proved so dull, stupid, and anti- 
 quated 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 in- 
 vincible 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 &fiaschetto (little bottle). 
 
 in. 
 
 THE same year (1816) was produced at Naples 
 the opera of " Otello," which was an important
 
 60 GREAT ITALIAN AXD FREXCII COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 in- 
 cluded 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 char- 
 acter, he gave large prominence to the concerted 
 pieces, and used them where monologue had for- 
 merly 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 connois- 
 seur 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 recita- 
 tive, 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 conversa- 
 tions, which present a tedious succession of un-
 
 ROSSLVI. 61 
 
 connected, 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 recol- 
 lection of it preserved. Single songs are almost 
 exploded. . . . Even the prima donna, who for- 
 merly 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 dur- 
 ing 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. Si- 
 gismondi, of the Naples Conservatory, was hor- 
 ror-stricken on first seeing the score of this opera. 
 The clarionets were too much for him, but on see- 
 ing 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 turn-
 
 62 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 ing 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. Si- 
 gismondi glanced at the page and saw 1. 2. 3. 
 trumpets, being the first, second, and third trum- 
 pet parts. Aghast, he shouted, stuffing his fingers 
 in his ears, " One hundred and twenty-three trum- 
 pets ! 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 illus- 
 trated its r61es. Mme. Colbran, afterward Ros- 
 sini'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 hon- 
 orably 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 he 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,
 
 ROSSINI. 63 
 
 and praises the music enthusiastically, while con- 
 demning the libretto as a degradation of Shake- 
 speare. 
 
 " 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, dis- 
 plays that economy in art which sometimes char- 
 acterized him. He introduced in it many of the 
 more beautiful airs from his earlier and less suc- 
 cessful 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 li- 
 bretto. 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 demon- 
 strations, interrupting the progress of the drama
 
 64 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 manage- 
 ment, 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 in- 
 timate 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 open- 
 ing 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 1 ," 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
 
 ROSSINI. 65 
 
 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 wit's end, till Tottola, the 
 librettist, suggested a prayer for the Israelites be- 
 fore 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, be- 
 fore 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 con- 
 tinues, followed by the people. Finally, Eleia ad- 
 dresses 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
 
 66 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 com- 
 ing down. The spectators in the boxes, standing 
 up and leaning over, called out at the top of their 
 voices, * Hello, bello ! che bello ! ' 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. ThL 
 state of things lasted a long time, and one of it; 
 effects was to make for its composer the reputa 
 tion 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 convul- 
 sions 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. Ebers 
 
 * 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.
 
 ROSSINI. 67 
 
 tells us that Lord Sefton, a distinguished con- 
 nois.-fiir, 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 com- 
 poser left Naples the same night for Milan, and 
 coolly informed every one en roitte 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, " Bi- 
 anca 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 
 Kossini there produced his " Zelmira," his wife 
 singing the principal part. One of the most strik-
 
 68 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 ing of this composer's works in invention and in- 
 genious 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 an- 
 other composer, new, agreeable, and fertile, as 
 much as at first, but with more command of him- 
 self, more pure, more masterly, and, above all, 
 more faithful to the interpretation of the words. 
 The forms of style employed in this opera accord- 
 ing 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 con- 
 ceptions, 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, al- 
 ways natural, never trivial, give expression to the 
 words without ceasing to be melodious. The 
 great point is to preserve both. The instrumen- 
 tation of Rossini is really incomparable by the 
 vivacity and freedom of the manner, by the va- 
 riety 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
 
 ROSSIXI. 69 
 
 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 clamor- 
 ing that Rossini could write nothing but beauti- 
 ful 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 ver- 
 dict of time places it high among the musical 
 masterpieces of the century. In it were com- 
 bined all of Rossini's ideas of operatic reform, 
 and the novelty of some of the innovations prob- 
 ably accounts for the inability of his earlier pub- 
 lic 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 charac- 
 teristic quality as an original and creative mind. 
 He modified French music, and left great disci- 
 ples on whom his influence was radical, though 
 perhaps we may detect certain reflex influences
 
 70 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 in his last and greatest opera, " William Tell.' 5 
 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 per- 
 sons in the pit standing on the scats to get a bet- 
 ter view of him. 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 coun- 
 tenance 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 English- 
 man, than a fiery and sensitive native of the 
 south." 
 
 The king, George IV., treated Rossini with 
 peculiar consideration. On more than one occa- 
 sion he walked with him arm-in-arm through a 
 crowded concert-hall to the conductor's stand. 
 Yet the composer, who seems not to bjave 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 
 
 * His first English appearance in public was at the King's 
 Theatre on the 21th of January, 1824, when he conducted his 
 own opera, " Zelmira."
 
 ROSSINI. 71 
 
 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 fashion- 
 able houses, where his talents as a singer and 
 player were displayed with much effect in an un- 
 conventional, 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 me- 
 chanically 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 engage- 
 ment to produce a new opera as well as to con- 
 duct those which had already made him famous, 
 he failed to keep this part of his contract. Pas- 
 sages in his letters at this time would seem to in- 
 dicate that Rossini was much piqued because the 
 London public received his wife, to whom he was 
 devotedly attached, with coldness. Notwithstand- 
 ing 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
 
 72 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 voice, with a species of brutal frankness not un- 
 common in English criticism. 
 
 When Rossini arrived in Paris he was almost 
 immediately appointed director of the Italian 
 Opera by the Due de Lauriston. With this and 
 the Academic he remained connected till the revo- 
 lution 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 pro- 
 ductions as his first attempt at composition in 
 French opera. His other works for the French 
 stage were " II Viaggio a Rheims," " Le Comte 
 Ory," and " Guillaume Tell." 
 
 The last-named opera, which will ever be Ros- 
 sini'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 Academic 
 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,
 
 ROSSINI. 73 
 
 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 un- 
 fortunately 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 open 
 ing andante in triple time for the five vioioncelli 
 and double basses at once carries tne nearer to 
 the regions of the upper Alps, where amid thf 
 eternal snows Nature sleeps in a peaceful dream, 
 We perceive the coming of the sunlight, and tne 
 hazy atmosphere clearing away before the new 
 born day. In the next movement the solitude i& 
 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.
 
 74 CHEAT ITALIAN AXD FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 re- 
 turn, and closes one of the grandest sound-paint- 
 ings in music. 
 
 The original cast of " Guillaume Tell " includ- 
 ed 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 pre- 
 vious career. The " Stabat Mater," publicly per- 
 formed for the first time in 1842, has been recog- 
 nized, 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 wel- 
 comed the brilliant men from all parts of Europe 
 who loved to visit him, and his relations with
 
 ROSSINI. 75 
 
 other great musicians were of the most kindly 
 and cordial character. His sunny and genial na- 
 ture never knew envy, and he was quick to recog- 
 nize 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-Lachake. 
 
 v. 
 
 MOSCHELES, the celebrated pianist, gives us 
 some charming pictures of Rossini in his home at 
 Passy, in his diary of I860. He writes : " Felix 
 [his son] had been made quite at home in the 
 villa on former occasions. To me the parterre 
 *<il<t, 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 pict- 
 ures 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-
 
 76 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 redo- 
 lent 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 un- 
 assuming. " Surely a waltz with some angelic 
 creature must have inspired you, Moscheles, with 
 this composition, and that the title ought to ex- 
 press. Titles, in fact, should pique the curiosity 
 of the public." "A view uncongenial to me," 
 adds Moscheles ; " however, I did not discuss it.
 
 ROSSINI. 77 
 
 .... 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 auto- 
 graphs 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 ohne Worte,' which he composed only yes- 
 terday ; a graceful melody is embodied in the 
 well-known technical form. Alluding to a per- 
 formance of ' Semiramide,' he said with a mali- 
 cious smile, ' I suppose you saw the beautiful 
 decorations in it ? ' He has not received the Sis- 
 ters 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 jeal- 
 ousy 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 dementi, and, calling me that 
 master's worthy successor, he said he should like 
 to visit me in Leipsic, if it were not for those
 
 78 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 re- 
 quirements. He certainly could not withhold 
 some appreciation for Chevet, but refused to in- 
 dorse 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 Beetho- 
 ven 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
 
 ROSSIXI. 79 
 
 talent enough, and to spare ' (II a du talent d re- 
 vendre, celui-ld). He told me in reference to him, 
 that, when the part of ' Tancred ' was sung at Ber- 
 lin 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, there- 
 fore, 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 mem- 
 ory : 'They have been crucifying Othello into an 
 opera; the music good but lugubrious, but, as for 
 the words, all the real scenes with lago cut out, 
 and the greatest nonsense instead, the handker- 
 chief 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 ' Otel-
 
 80 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 lo,' 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 follow- 
 ing : " Rossini, the most gifted and spoiled of her 
 sons [speaking of Italy] sallied forth with an in- 
 numerable army of Bacchantic melodies to con- 
 quer 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 crit- 
 ics wedded to other schools. But Rossini's place 
 in music stands unshaken by all assaults. The 
 vivacity of his style, the freshness of his melo-
 
 ROSSIXI. 81 
 
 dk's, the richness of his combinations, made all the 
 Italian music that preceded him pale and color- 
 less. No other writer revels in such luxury of 
 beauty, and delights the ear with such a succes- 
 sion 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 nev- 
 er been able to understand why this [referring to 
 the Rossinian richness of melody] should be con- 
 temned 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 Bam- 
 berg, 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 ' II Barbiere ' is to be de- 
 nounced as frivolously faithless to Mozart's ' Fi- 
 garo' and as incapable of comprehending 'Fi- 
 delio,' 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 ' Leporel- 
 lo ' 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 Pa-
 
 82 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 lermo ; 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 essen- 
 tial 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 un- 
 warrantable. Rossini, indeed, did not revolu- 
 tionize the forms of opera as transmitted to him 
 by his predecessors, but he reformed and perfect- 
 ed 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 bari- 
 tone 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 be- 
 fore, and elaborated the concerted music, espe- 
 cially 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 there- 
 by incurred the warmest indignation of all writers 
 of the old school. Before him the orchestras had 
 consisted largely of strings, but Rossini added
 
 ROSSINI. 83 
 
 an equally imposing element 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 sim- 
 ple frankness characteristic of the man, he always 
 spoke of his obligations to and his admiration of 
 the grea* 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 flat- 
 tered by constant adulation, his expressions of re- 
 spect 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 con- 
 trary, unusual richness of form and careful finish 
 of detail, combined with grandeur of outline.
 
 84 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 Meretricious embellishment, shakes, runs, and ca- 
 dences 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 dis- 
 tinct 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 ad- 
 mitted and regretted that he gave too little at- 
 tention 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 captan- 
 dum vulgus there remains the fact that his operas 
 embody a mass of imperishable music, which will 
 live with the art itself. Musicians of every coun- 
 try now admit his wondrous grace, his fertility 
 and freshness of invention, his matchless treat- 
 ment of the voice, his effectiveness in arrange- 
 ment 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
 
 DONIZETTI AND BELLIXI. 85 
 
 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 " Wil- 
 liam 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." 
 
 DONIZETTI AND BELLINI. 
 
 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
 
 86 GREAT ITALIAN AND FREXCII COMPOSERS. 
 
 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.' " 
 Both Donizetti and Bellini, though far inferior 
 to their master in richness of resources, in crea- 
 tive 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 writ- 
 ten 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 
 
 * Mr. Chorley probably means " second-rate " as compared 
 with the few very great names, which can be easily counted on 
 the fingers.
 
 DOXIZETTI AND BELLINI. 87 
 
 the standard of advanced musical science. Spe- 
 cially 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, Sep- 
 tember 25, 1798, his father being a man of mod- 
 erate fortune.* Receiving a good classical educa- 
 
 * 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 ac- 
 cepted 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.
 
 88 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 tion, the young Gaetano had three careers open 
 before him : the bar, to which the will of his 
 father inclined ; architecture, indicated by his tal- 
 ent for drawing ; and music, to which he was 
 powerfully impelled by his own inclinations. His 
 father sent him, at the age of seventeen, to Bo- 
 logna to benefit by the instruction of Padre Mat- 
 tei, who had also been Rossini's master. The 
 young man showed no disposition for the heights 
 of musical science as demanded by religious com- 
 position, and, much to his father's disgust, avowed 
 his determination to write dramatic music. Pa- 
 ternal 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 bar- 
 rack-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 mili- 
 tary servitude. He now pursued musical compo- 
 sition with a facility and industry which aston- 
 ished even the Italians, familiar with feats of im- 
 provisation. In ten years twenty-eight operas 
 were produced. Such names as " Olivo e Pas- 
 quale," " La Convenienze Teatrali," " II Borgo- 
 maestro di Saardam," " Gianni di Calais," "L'Esule 
 di Roma," " II Castello di Kenilworth," " Imelda 
 di Lambertazzi," have no musical significance, 
 except as belonging to a catalogue of forgotten
 
 DONIZETTI AXD BELLINI. 89 
 
 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 w^s 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 La- 
 blache 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
 
 90 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 " Lu- 
 crezia Borgia " became " La Rinegata," Pope 
 Alexander the Sixth's Italians being metamor- 
 phosed into Turks.* 
 
 "Lucrezia Borgia," which, though based on 
 one of the most dramatic of stories and full of 
 
 * 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 privi- 
 lege granted to St. Amant in 1653 for the publication of his 
 " MoYse Sauvc," it was forbidden to extract from that epic ma- 
 terials for a play or poem. The descendants of Beaumarrhais 
 fought for the same concession, and not very long ago it was 
 decided that the translators and arrangers of " Le No/ze <H 
 Figaro " for the Theatre Lyrique must share their receipts with 
 the living representatives of the author of " Le Manage de 
 Figaro."
 
 DOXIZETTI AXD BELLINI 91 
 
 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 treat- 
 ment 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 
 Re giment," 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 Acade- 
 mic 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 corn-
 
 92 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 pletion 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 lugu- 
 brious drama was fatal to the latter, but the brill- 
 iant gayety of " Don Pasquale," rendered special- 
 ly delightful by such a magnificent cast as Grisi, 
 Mario, Tamburini, and Lablache, made it one of 
 the great art attractions of Paris, and a Fortuna- 
 tus purse for the manager. The music of this 
 work perhaps is the best ever written by Doni- 
 zetti, though it lacks the freshness and sentiment 
 of his " Elisir d'Amore," which is steeped in rus- 
 tic poetry and tenderness like a rose wet with 
 dew. The production of " Maria di Rohan " in 
 Vienna the same year, an opera with some power- 
 ful 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
 
 DONIZETTI AND BELLINI. 93 
 
 the elegant frivolity which for the most part 
 tainted his musical quality. Donizetti's last opera, 
 " Catarina Comaro " the sixty-third one represent- 
 ed, was brought out at Naples in the year 1844 
 without adding aught to his his reputation. Of 
 this composer's long list of works only ten or 
 eleven retain any hold on the stage, his best seri- 
 ous 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 piano- 
 forte, writing with great rapidity and never mak- 
 ing 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 Doni- 
 zetti 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 dis- 
 played 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 anticipa- 
 ted the coming scourge, for during the rehearsals 
 7
 
 94 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 of " Don Sebastian " be said, " I tbink I sball 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 sound- 
 ed the knell of Donizetti's departure mingled their 
 solemn peals with the roar of the cannon fired to 
 celebrate the victory of Goi'to. 
 
 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 illustri- 
 ous members of the community and its environs, 
 and of the civic guard of the town and the sub- 
 urbs. The discharge of musketry, mingled with 
 the light of three or four thousand torches, pre- 
 sented 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 coun-
 
 DONIZETTI AND BELLINI. 95 
 
 try 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." 
 
 in. 
 
 THE future author of " Norma " and " La 
 Sonnambula," Bellini, took his first lessons in 
 music from his father, an organist at Catania.* 
 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 ex- 
 cept 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 " II 
 Pirata," to be composed for representation at Flor- 
 ence. The tenor part was written for the great 
 singer, Rubin i, 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. 
 
 * Bellini was born in 1802, nine years after his contempo- 
 rary and rival, Donizetti, and died in 1835, thirteen years be- 
 fore.
 
 96 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 La Scala rang with plaudits when the opera 
 was produced, and Bellini's career was assured. 
 " I Capuletti " was his next successful opera, per- 
 formed 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 Sonnam- 
 bula," by Romani, an accomplished writer and scho- 
 lar, 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 vau- 
 deville and a choregraphic 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 un- 
 learned ; 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 pre- 
 sentation : 
 
 " Bellini has soared too high ; there is nothing 
 of grandeur, no touch of true pathos in the com-
 
 DONIZETTI AND BELLINI. 97 
 
 mon-place workings of his mind. He cannot reach 
 the opera semi-seria ; 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 Sid- 
 dons 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 
 cTceuvre. 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 Puritan i " 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
 
 98 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 you know what love is?" Then changing his 
 tone : " Don't you know your voice is a gold- 
 mine 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 admo- 
 nition, 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 al- 
 most 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 pas- 
 sion 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.
 
 DOMZETTI AND BELLINI. 99 
 
 During the moments of delirium which preceded 
 his death, he was constantly speaking of Lablache, 
 Tamburini, and Grisi ; and one of his last recog- 
 nizable impressions was that he was present at 
 a brilliant representation of his last opera at the 
 Salle Favart. His earthly career closed Septem- 
 ber 23, 1835, at the age of thirty-one. 
 
 On the eve of his interment, the Theatre Italien 
 reopened with the " Puritani." It was an occa- 
 sion 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 cFor- 
 chestre of the Academic Royale, of the music. 
 The next remarkable piece on the funeral pro- 
 gramme 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 La- 
 blache. 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
 
 100 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 pen- 
 etrated 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 imperish- 
 able 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, hos- 
 pitable, and full of feeling are the artists of 
 France." 
 
 Bellini was affable, sincere, honest, and affec- 
 tionate. Nature gave him a beautiful and ingenu- 
 ous face, noble features, large, clear blue eyes, and 
 abundant light hair. His countenance instantly 
 won on the regards of all that met him. His dis- 
 position was melancholy ; a secret depression often
 
 DONIZETTI AND BELLINI. 101 
 
 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 com- 
 poser 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 drama- 
 tic 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
 
 102 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 the orchestra. No operatic overture since " Wil- 
 liam Tell " has been produced by this school of 
 music, worthy to be rendered in a concert-room. 
 
 Donizetti lacked the dramatic instinct in con- 
 ceiving his music. In attempting it he became 
 hollow and theatric ; and beautiful as are the melo- 
 dies 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 ecs- 
 tasy of despair rises to that of exaltation, the re- 
 sistless sweep of the rhythm all mark one of the 
 most effective single acts ever written. He showed 
 himself here worthy of companionship with Ros- 
 sini and Meyerbeer. 
 
 In his comic operas, " L'Elisir d'Amore," " La 
 Fille du Regiment,' 1 and " Don Pasquale," there 
 is a continual well-spring of sunny, bubbling hu- 
 mor. They are slight, brilliant, and catching, 
 everything that pedantry condemns, and the pop- 
 ular taste delights in. Mendelssohn, the last of 
 the German classical composers, admired " L'Eli- 
 sir " so much that he said he would have liked to 
 have written it himself. It may be said that while
 
 DONIZETTI AND BELLINI. 103 
 
 Donizetti lacks grand conceptions, or even great 
 beauties for the most part, his operas contain so 
 much that is agreeable, so many excellent oppor- 
 tunities 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 with- 
 in 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 com- 
 posers ignore, Bellini had extraordinary skill in 
 writing music for the voice, not that which merely 
 gave opportunity for executive trickery and em- 
 bellishment, 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 mirth- 
 ful inspiration, such as we hear in Mozart, Ros- 
 sini, or even Donizetti. But his monotone is in 
 subtile 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
 
 104 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 sci- 
 ence fertilizes Nature, it beyond all doubt included 
 appreciation of truth, no less than instinct for 
 beauty. 
 
 VERDI. 
 
 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 commis- 
 sioned Giuseppe Verdi to write " Aida " for him, 
 in his desire to emulate western sovereigns as a
 
 GIUSEPPE VERDI.
 
 VERDI. 105 
 
 patron of art, is an interesting fact, but not won- 
 derful or significant. 
 
 The opera itself was freighted, however, with 
 peculiar significance as an artistic work, far sur- 
 passing 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 mu- 
 sic, he remained true to the instincts of his Ital- 
 ian training. 
 
 The remarkable fact is that Verdi, at the age 
 of fifty-eight, when it might have been safely as- 
 sumed 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
 
 10G GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 sacri- 
 fice of the solo pieces ; the use of the heroic and 
 mythical element as a theme. 
 
 Verdi, the subject of this interesting revolu- 
 tion, 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 set- 
 tlement 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
 
 VERDI. 107 
 
 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 Bus- 
 seto. 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 Barez- 
 zi, a cultivated and high-minded man, and a pas- 
 sionate lover of music withal. 'Twas his daugh- 
 ter whose playing gave the young Verdi such 
 pleasure. 
 
 Signer Barezzi had often seen the lingering 
 and absorbed lad, who stood as if in a dream,. obli- 
 vious to all that passed around him in the practi- 
 cal work-a-day world. So one day he accosted 
 him pleasantly and inquired why he came so con- 
 stantly 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 in- 
 clined." 
 
 It may be imagined the delighted boy did not
 
 108 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 assist- 
 ance 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 assist- 
 ance 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 exam- 
 ined. The result fell on his hopes like a thunder-
 
 VERDI. 109 
 
 bolt. The pedantic and narrow-minded examiners 
 not only scoffed at the state of his musical knowl- 
 edge, 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. Ba- 
 rez.zi had equal confidence in the abilities of his 
 protege, and warmly encouraged him to work and 
 hope. VerJi 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 arrang- 
 ing for the production of this work, " L'Oberto, 
 Conte de San Bonifacio," at La Scala, Milan ; 
 but it excited little comment and was soon for- 
 gotten, like the scores of other shallow or imma- 
 ture 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 au-
 
 110 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 tumn. 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. Ili.s 
 recovery was followed by the successive sick- 
 ening 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 discour- 
 aged 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
 
 VERDI. HI 
 
 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, 1 841 . 
 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 
 ' II 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 " II 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 Vant 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
 
 112 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 to his coquettish innamorata, so he, disregarding 
 his inclinations, returned the manuscript to Me- 
 relli that same day. 
 
 " Well ? " said Merelli, inquiringly. 
 
 " Musicabilissimo ! " he replied ; " full of dra- 
 matic power and telling situations ! " 
 
 " Take it home with you, then, and write the 
 music for it." 
 
 Verdi declared that he did not wish to com- 
 pose, but the worthy impresario forced the manu- 
 script on him, and persisted that he should under- 
 take 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 con- 
 tinued his reading of bad romances and yellow- 
 covered novels. 
 
 The impulse of work soon came again, how- 
 ever. 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. Me- 
 relli 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.
 
 VERDI. 113 
 
 II. 
 
 FROM 1842 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 "Mac- 
 betto," at Florence in 1847, were all of them 
 successful works. The last created such a genu- 
 ine enthusiasm that he was crowned with a golden 
 laurel 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 " II Corsaro," brought out at Trieste in 1848 ; 
 " La Battaglia di Legnano " at Rome in 1849 ; 
 " Luisa Miller " at Naples in the same year ; and 
 " Stiff elio " 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 com- 
 mencement of his transition period. A distin- 
 guished French critic marks this change in the 
 following summary : " When Verdi began to 
 write, the influences of foreign literature and new
 
 114 GREAT ITALIAN AXD FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 con- 
 quered 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 melodra- 
 matic 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, 
 "II Trovatore" and "La Traviata," the last a 
 lyric adaptation of Dumas^s's " Dame aux Came- 
 lias." These three operas have generally been 
 considered his masterpieces, though it is more 
 than possible that the riper judgment of the future 
 will riot sustain this claim. Their popularity was 
 such that Verdi's time was absorbed for several
 
 VERDI. 115 
 
 years in their production at various opera-houses, 
 utterly precluding new compositions. Of his later 
 operas may be mentioned "Les Vepres Sicili- 
 ennes," 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," pro- 
 duced in London in 1867 ; and " Aida " in Grand 
 Cairo in 1872. When the latter work was fin- 
 ished, 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 in- 
 fluential 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 let- 
 ters of his name are the initials of those of Vitto- 
 rio Emanuele Re D'ltalia. His private resources
 
 116 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 Prus- 
 sian order of St. Stanislaus, of the order of the 
 Crown of Italy, and of the Egyptian order of Os- 
 manli. 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 devoted- 
 ly 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 statu- 
 ettes, 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
 
 VERDI. 117 
 
 in agriculture. But the larger part of his time is 
 taken up in composing, writing letters, and read- 
 ing 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 sprin- 
 kled 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. 
 
 in. 
 
 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 an 1 eccentric treat- 
 ment 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
 
 118 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 place of the elaborate and beautiful music, chis- 
 eled into order and symmetry, which character- 
 izes 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 ope- 
 ras, they blaze with gems, and we catch here 
 and there true swallow-flights of genius, that the 
 noblest would not disown. With all his pueril- 
 ities there is a mixture of grandeur. There are 
 passages in " Ernani," "Rigoletto," " Traviata," 
 " Trovatore," and " Aida," so strong and digni- 
 fied, 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 compari- 
 son between his " Rigoletto," so often claimed as 
 his best work, and Rossini's " Otello " will be op- 
 portune. The air sung by Gilda in the " Rigo- 
 letto," 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 op- 
 portunity, she ejects a chain of disconnected, un- 
 musical sobs, as offensive as Violettd's consump- 
 tive cough. Desdeiuona's agitated air, on the
 
 VERDI. 110 
 
 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 won- 
 derful burst of bravura, where despair and reso- 
 lution run riot without violating the bonds of 
 strict beauty in music these are master-strokes 
 of genius restrained by art. 
 
 In Verdi's earlier manner the melodramatic 
 sense completly dominated his art ideas. Pic- 
 turesque and charming as he was, thoroughly in 
 earnest, and bold in execution, passion in the 
 operas of that period frequently degenerated into 
 sentimentality and hysteria. But with "Aida" 
 we see the profound influence of that wave of 
 musical reform which had begun to startle the 
 attention of the world. In this fine opera there 
 is almost a radical revolution of method. 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 a new spirit had been fermenting in 
 the composer's development. In the tragic 
 beauty of the story, too, one observes how much 
 greater stress the composer had begun to lay 
 on the work of the libretto. All these traits 
 were noticeable in the opera of " Montezuma," 
 produced at La Scala, Milan, in 1878, though it 
 did not attain more than moderate esteem. In 
 Verdi's subsequent works the new method has
 
 120 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 persistently governed him. The poem of " Otello " 
 was written by Arrigo Bo'ito, noted alike as poet 
 and musician, whose opera of " Mefislofile " ranks 
 among the finest musical works of recent years. 
 " Otello " was produced at La Scala, Milan, in 
 1887, and since has been given in New York, 
 Paris, and London. " Falstaff ," Verdi's first comic 
 opera, the libretto of which was also written by 
 Boito from the standpoint of the poet, not of the 
 mere plot-maker, was given to the world in Milan 
 in the winter of 1892-'93, and was reproduced in 
 Paris in the spring of 1894. Both these operas 
 are composed in a broad, noble style, and, with 
 no diminution of Verdi's almost unrivaled charm 
 of melody, are built with a symmetry of design 
 and fullness of poetic spirit which prove how 
 splendidly the composer has ripened in his old 
 
 CHERUBINI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 
 
 IN France, as in Italy, the regular musical 
 drama was preceded by mysteries, masks, and re- 
 ligious plays, which introduced short musical 
 parts, as also action, mechanical effects, and dan- 
 cing. The ballet, however, where dancing was
 
 CIIEUUmxI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 121 
 
 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 1G33, was bought of his parents by 
 Chevalier de Guise, and sent to Paris as a present 
 to Mile, 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 mu- 
 sic of a style superior to that before current in 
 divertissements of the French court. 
 
 The name of Philippe Quinault is closely asso- 
 ciated with the musical career of Lulli ; for to the 
 poet the musician was indebted for his best libret- 
 tos. 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
 
 122 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 plea- 
 sure 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 be- 
 came 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, how- 
 ever, finally dissipated these prejudices, especially
 
 C1IERUIHXI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 123 
 
 as he was wealthy and of irreproachable charac- 
 ter. 
 
 The King having had a severe illness in 1686, 
 Lulli composed a " Te Deum " in honor of his re- 
 covery. 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 un- 
 less 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 satiri- 
 cal smile on his lip. " I cheated the good father. 
 I only burned a copy. " 
 
 He died singing the words, " II faut mourir, 
 pecheur, il faut mourir" to one of his own opera 
 airs.
 
 124 GREAT ITALIAN' A XI) FRKXCIl COMPOSERS. 
 
 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-mas- 
 ter 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 es- 
 sential 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 charac- 
 ter, full of vivacity and fire, 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 en- 
 titled 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
 
 GHERURIXI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 125 
 
 people. The chorus in which that opera abounds 
 gives the parterre frequent opportunities of join- 
 ing 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 after- 
 ward 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 dan- 
 cing-masters. I have seen a couple of rivers ap- 
 pear 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 Proser- 
 pine,' 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 imper- 
 tinence, but what the French look upon as gay 
 and polite."
 
 126 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE French musical drama continued with- 
 out much change in the hands of the Lulli school 
 (for the musician had several skillful imitators 
 and successors) till the appearance of Jean Phi- 
 lippe Rameau, who inaugurated a new era. This 
 celebrated man was born in Auvergne in 1083, 
 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 New- 
 ton 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 op- 
 position 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 new- 
 comers, who sought to take possession of the 
 French stage. The matter became a natioual 
 quarrel, and it was considered an insult to France
 
 CHERUBIM AND JUS PREDECESSORS. 127 
 
 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 de- 
 bated 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 char- 
 acter 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 accompani- 
 ments 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 instru- 
 ments. 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
 
 128 OKEAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 formed himself in some of the schools of Italy, 
 and thus acquired a notion of musical style and 
 habits 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 ad- 
 mitted, 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 Ra- 
 meau'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 in- 
 truders. 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 Fra^aise," in
 
 CHERUBINI AXD HIS PREDECESSORS. 129 
 
 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 ad- 
 vocate of Gluck against Piccini, 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. Per- 
 golesi'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 : " Hie Marsyas 
 Apollinem ." * 
 
 Rons cau's opera, " Le Devin du Village," was 
 performed with considerable success, in spite of 
 the rqvr-ir.nce of the orchestral performers, of 
 whom ..(. > jau always spoke in terms of unmea- 
 sured 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 hav- 
 ing so long put me to the torture." 
 
 The eloquence and abuse of the wits, howeve^ 
 
 * Here Marsyas flayed Apollo.
 
 130 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS 
 
 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." Thir- 
 ty years later Grimm recognized its merits by ad- 
 mitting, in spite of the great faults of the com- 
 poser, " 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 free- 
 dom, and was the first really scientific and well- 
 equipped exponent of a national school. His 
 choruses were full of energy and fire, his orches- 
 tral 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. 
 
 in. 
 
 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 re- 
 garded as the father of comic opera in his adopted 
 country. His childish life was one of much se-
 
 CHERUBINI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 131 
 
 vere discipline and tribulation, for he was dedi- 
 cated to music by his father, who was first violin- 
 ist in the college of St. Denis when he was only 
 six years old. He afterward wrote of this time 
 in his " Essais BUT 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 in- 
 venting 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 stud- 
 ied counterpoint for five years. Some of his 
 works were received favorably by the Roman 
 public, and he was made a member of the Phil- 
 harmonic Society of Bologna. Pressed by pecu- 
 niary 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 geni-
 
 132 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 us," 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 na'ive. The idyls 
 of Gessner and the pastorals of Florian were the 
 favorite reading, and Watteau the popular paint- 
 er. 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 shep- 
 herdesses. 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 compos- 
 ing pastoral comedies, and mounted on the wave 
 of success. 
 
 In 1774 " Fausse Magie " was produced with
 
 CHERUBIXI AXD HIS PREDECESSORS. 133 
 
 the greatest applause. Rousseau war 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 " Ri- 
 chard Cceur de Lion," and it proved one of the 
 great musical events of the period. Paris was in 
 ecstasies, and the judgment of succeeding gener- 
 ations has confirmed the contemporary verdict, 
 as it is still a favorite opera in France and Ger- 
 many. The works afterward composed by Gre- 
 try showed decadence in power. Singularly rich 
 in fresh and sprightly ideas, he lacked depth and 
 grandeur, and failed to suit the deeper and sound- 
 er taste which Cherubini and Mehul, great fol- 
 lowers in the footsteps of Gluck, gratified by a 
 series of noble masterpieces. Gretry's services to 
 his art, however, by his production of comic op-
 
 134 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 eras 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. 
 Gr6try possessed qualities of heart which en- 
 deared him to all, and his death in 1813 was the 
 occasion of a general outburst of lamentation. 
 Deputations from the theatres and the Conserva- 
 tory 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 composi- 
 tion 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, enrich- 
 ing them with a variety of concerted and orches- 
 tral 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 Rous- 
 seau, who extended his taste for nature and sim- 
 plicity to music, blamed him severely as one who
 
 CHERUBINI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 135 
 
 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 ex- 
 pressing emotional transports, which can not be 
 learned from thorough bass rules." Again Rous- 
 seau, 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 combina- 
 tions 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 in- 
 venting new ones. Altogether he has more skill 
 than fertility, more knowledge than genius, or 
 rather genius smothered by knowledge, but al- 
 ways force, grace, and very often a beautiful canti- 
 lena. 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 contin- 
 ues to reproach Rameau with a too powerful in- 
 strumentation, compared with Italian simplicity, 
 and sums up that nobody knew better than Ra 
 meau how to conceive the spirit of single pas- 
 sages 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
 
 136 GUEAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 of the quoted passage Rousseau says that Ra- 
 meau stands far beneath Lulli in esprit and artis- 
 tic 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 gen- 
 uine 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.* It furnished the point of departure 
 for the lively and facile genius of Gretry, who 
 laid the foundation stones of that lyric comedy 
 
 * 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 fre- 
 quently still (as in Pergolesi's " Serva 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 char- 
 actcristic rendering of actual life.
 
 CHERUDIXI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 137 
 
 which has flourished in France with so much lux- 
 uriance. 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 emo- 
 tions to account, and by a judicious admixture of 
 sentiment he gave an ideal coloring to his works, 
 which made them singularly fascinating and ori- 
 ginal. 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 Gretry's repute was overshadowed. From 
 this decline in public favor he never fully re- 
 covered, 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 Com- 
 posers " (a companion volume to this), in which his connection 
 with French music is discussed.
 
 GlJEAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 rv. 
 
 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 exhi- 
 bitions, this could not satisfy a society shaken to 
 the very foundations of its faith and organiza- 
 tion. The whole of the dramatic music of the 
 eighteenth century must naturally have appeared 
 cold and languid to men whose minds were pro- 
 foundly moved with troubles and wars ; and oven 
 at the present day the word languor best exj.i > sses 
 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 vo- 
 cal masses, and more sonorous brilliancy in the in- 
 strumentation. All these qualities are to be found 
 in ' Lodoi'ska ' and ' Les Deux Journees ' ; and Che- 
 rubini may not only be regarded as the founder 
 of the modern French opera, but also as that mu- 
 sician who, after Mozart, has exerted the greatest 
 general influence on the tendency of the art. An
 
 CHERUBINI AND HIS PREDECESSORS- 139 
 
 Italian by birth and the excellence of his educa- 
 tion, which was conducted by Sarti, the great 
 teacher of composition ; a German by his musical 
 sympathies as well as by the variety and profun- 
 dity 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 great- 
 est genius, of the nineteenth century." 
 
 Again the English composer Macfarren ob- 
 serves : " 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 in- 
 deed 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 earnest- 
 ness of purpose, in the individuality of his man-
 
 140 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 ner, in the vigor of his ideas, and in the purity of 
 his harmony." 
 
 " Such," says M. Miel, " was Cherubini ; a co- 
 lossal 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 com- 
 posers. 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, 1760, 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 com- 
 positions which awakened no little admiration, so 
 that he was pointed at in the streets of Florence 
 as the young prodigy. When he was about six- 
 teen 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
 
 CI1ERUMXI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 141 
 
 pupil of the most celebrated Italian master of the 
 age, Giuseppe Sard, of whom he soon became the 
 favorite pupil. Under the direction of Sarti, the 
 young composer produced a series of operas, sona- 
 tas, 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 Cheru- 
 bini 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 un- 
 known except to the antiquary whose zeal prompts 
 him to defy the dust of the Italian theatrical li- 
 braries. Hale>y, 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 out- 
 set 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 Ital- 
 ian Opera. Here he became a constant visitor in 
 courtly circles, and the Prince of Wales, the Duke 
 of Queensbury, and other noble amateurs, con- 
 ceived the warmest admiration for his character 
 
 and abilities. For some reason, however, his 
 10
 
 142 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 engage- 
 ments. 
 
 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. lie be- 
 came 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 Mar- 
 montel became his intimate friend, and gave him 
 the opera story of " Demophon " to set to music. 
 It was at this period that Cherubini became ac- 
 quainted 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 " Ifige- 
 nia 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
 
 CHERUmXl AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 143 
 
 Parma with no less delight and approbation on 
 the part of the public. Had Cherubim 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 Ital- 
 ian 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 writ- 
 ten ' Le Nozze di Figaro ' and ' Don Giovanni.' 
 He must not lag behind. He must not be con- 
 quered. 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 ?t
 
 144 GREAT ITALIAN ANJ) FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 the Royal Academy of Music. Vogel's opera on 
 the same text, " Deniophon," was also brought 
 out, but neither one met with great success. 
 Cherubim's work, though full of vigor and force, 
 wanted color and dramatic point. He was dis- 
 gusted with his failure, and resolved to eschew 
 dramatic music ; so for the nonce he devoted him- 
 self 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 inter- 
 polating 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, " Cheru- 
 bini had two distinct styles, one of which was 
 allied to Paisiello and Cimarosa by the grace, ele- 
 gance, 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
 
 CHERUBIXI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 145 
 
 the frightful turmoil which made Paris the center 
 of attention for astonished and alarmed Europe. 
 Cherubini's connection had been with the aristoc- 
 racy, 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. Indepen- 
 dently 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 revolution- 
 ists. 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
 
 146 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 leave the beautiful C6cile Tourette, to whom he 
 was affianced. 
 
 One of the theatres opened during the revolu- 
 tionary epoch was the Theatre Feydeau. The 
 second opera performed was Cherubini's " Lodo'is- 
 ka" (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 Ilaly. 
 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 coun- 
 terpart in Beethoven and Cherubini. The produc- 
 tion 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
 
 CHERUJ3IM AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 147 
 
 in what respect we had improved on their mode 
 of musical procedure." 
 
 " Lodo'iska," 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 Gre'try'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 hun- 
 dred more representations took place. 
 
 The Revolution culminated in the crisis of 
 1793, which sent the King to the scaffold. Che- 
 rubini found a retreat at La Chartreuse, near 
 Rouen, the country seat of his friend, the archi- 
 tect Louis. Here he lived in tranquillity, and com- 
 posed several minor pieces and a three-act opera, 
 never produced, but afterward worked over into 
 " Ali Baba " and " Faniska." In his Norman re- 
 treat Cherubini heard of the death of his father, 
 and while suffering under this infliction, just be- 
 fore his return to Paris in 1794, he composed the 
 opera of " Elisa." This work was received with 
 much favor at the Feydeau theatre, though it did 
 not arouse the admiration called out by " Lodo- 
 iska." 
 
 In 1795 the Paris Conservatory was founded, 
 and Cherubini appointed one of the five inspectors,
 
 148 GREAT ITALIAN A-ND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 at- 
 tached. Absorbed in his duties at the Conserva- 
 tory he did not come before the public again till 
 1797, when the great tragic masterpiece of " Me- 
 dee" was produced at the Foydeau theatre. "Lo- 
 doiska " 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 un- 
 worthy of the great music, but this has not pre- 
 vented 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 Shake- 
 speare's " King Lear," as being a great expression 
 of anguish and despair in their more stormy 
 phases. Chorley tells us that, when he first Raw 
 it, he was irresistibly reminded of the lines in 
 Barry Cornwall's poem to Pasta : 
 
 " Now them art like some winged tiling that cries 
 Above some city, flaming fast to death." 
 
 The poem which Chorley quotes from was in- 
 spired by the performance of the great Pasta in 
 Simone Mayer's weak musical setting of the fable
 
 CHERUBIM AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 149 
 
 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 com- 
 bining the great tragic and vocal requirements ex- 
 acted by the part. If the tragic genius of Pasta 
 could have been united with the voice of a Cata- 
 lani, made as it were of adamant and gold, Cheru- 
 bini'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 or- 
 gan 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 
 M t'li ill'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
 
 150 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 Germans as one of the world's great musical mas- 
 terpieces. 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. Three hundred consecu- 
 tive 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 ac- 
 tion of a water-carrier toward a magistrate who 
 was related to the author. The story is so inter- 
 esting, 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 melo- 
 dies, 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. 
 
 * In German known as " Die Wassertrager," in English 
 " The Water-Carriers."
 
 CHERUBINI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 151 
 
 Spohr in his autobiography says: "I recol- 
 lect, 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 Ar- 
 mand. 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. Eve- 
 rything 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 declama- 
 tion, 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 en- 
 thusiasm 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
 
 152 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 until shortly before hi* death a theme which 
 properly inspired him to dramatic creation, cor- 
 responded with Planch6, 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 occa- 
 sionally 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. Napo- 
 leon, 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 gen- 
 eral, 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 com- 
 prehension." This haughty reply was the begin- 
 ning of an estrangement. Another illustration 
 of Cherubini's sturdy pride and dignity was his 
 rejoinder to Napoleon, when the latter was prais-
 
 CIIERUBIXI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 153 
 
 ing the works of the Italjan composers, and cov- 
 ertly sneering at his own. " Citizen General," he 
 replied, " occupy yourself with battles and vic- 
 tories, 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 Eu- 
 rope trembled. 
 
 On the 12th of December, 1800, a grand per- 
 formance 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," an 
 swered 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 tran- 
 quil. You have much talent, but there is too 
 much accompaniment." Said Cherubini, " Citi- 
 zen Consul, I conform myself to French taste."
 
 154 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 " 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 Con- 
 servatory. The ' ill will of the ruler of France 
 Was* a steady check to his preferment. When Na- 
 poleon 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 sha- 
 ken 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 emolu- 
 ments with him. Cherubini, fretted and irritated
 
 CIIERUIJIXI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 155 
 
 by his condition, retired for a time from the pur- 
 suit of his art, and devoted himself to flowers. 
 The opera of " Anacreon," a powerful but une- 
 qual 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 re- 
 ceived a right royal welcome from the great mu- 
 sicians of Germany. The aged Haydn, Hum- 
 mel, and Beethoven became his warm friends with 
 the generous freemasonry of genius, for his rank 
 as a musician was recognized throughout Eu- 
 rope. 
 
 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 Schon- 
 brunn. Napoleon received Cherubini kindly when 
 he came in answer to his summons, and it was ar- 
 ranged that a series of twelve concerts should be 
 given alternately at Schb'nbrunn and Vienna. The 
 pettiness which entered into the French Em- 
 peror's nature in spite of his greatness continued 
 to be shown in his ebullitions of wrath because
 
 15G GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 Cherubini persisted in holding his own musical 
 views against the imperial opinion. Napoleon, 
 bowever, 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 produc- 
 tion of Beethoven's " Fidelio " and the last great 
 opera written by Cherubini, " Faniska." Haydn 
 and Beethoven were both present at the latter per- 
 formance. The former embraced Cherubini and 
 said to him, " You are my son, worthy of my love." 
 Beethoven cordially hailed him as " the first dra- 
 matic composer of the age." It is an interesting 
 fact that two such important dramatic composi- 
 tions 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 dra- 
 matic composition. In one of his letters to Edou-
 
 CIIERUBINI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 157 
 
 ard Devrient he says, speaking of " Fidelio " : 
 " On looking into the score, as well as on listening 
 to the performance, I everywhere perceive Cheru- 
 bini'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 home- 
 sickness for Paris conspired to take him back to 
 the city of his adoption. He exhausted many ef- 
 forts 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 reluc- 
 tantly 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 
 11
 
 158 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 showered on Mehul, Grt'try, Spontini, and Le- 
 sueur. He sank into a state of profound depres- 
 sion, and it was even reported in Vienna that he 
 was dead. He forsook music and devoted him- 
 self to drawing and botany. Had he not been a 
 great musician, it is probable he would have ex- 
 celled in pictorial art. One day the great painter 
 David entered the room where he w T as 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 sev- 
 eral dramatic works were produced subsequently, 
 and entered on his no less great sphere of ecclesias- 
 tical composition. At Chimay for a while no one 
 dared to mention music in his presence. Drawing 
 and painting flowers seemed to be his sole plea- 
 sure. 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 re- 
 fused, 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
 
 CHERUHIM AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 159 
 
 returning from his walk instantly began to com- 
 pose, 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 Eu- 
 rope. It was perceived that Cherubini had struck 
 out for himself a new path in church music. Fetis, 
 the musical historian, records its reception as fol- 
 lows : " 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 remark- 
 able 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 Gre- 
 gorian melody, learnedly elaborated in vigorous 
 counterpoint and reduced to greater clearness and
 
 100 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 su- 
 perior powers in the human imagination. With 
 the same profound thoughtf ulness of the old Cath- 
 olic 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 ris- 
 ing 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 epigram- 
 matically 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 un- 
 equaled except perhaps by Beethoven. The noble 
 masses in F and D were also written in 1809
 
 CHERUBINI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 161 
 
 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 anony- 
 mously, " 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 ecclesias- 
 tical 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 " Me- 
 dee " and " Les Deux Journees." Mendelssohn 
 many years afterward, writing to Moscheles in 
 Paris, asked : " Has Ontslow 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
 
 1C* GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 original phrasing, the extraordinary delicacy and 
 refinement with which it is written, or feel grate- 
 ful 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 dis- 
 astrous 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 dis-' 
 turbed 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 won- 
 der, the battle of Waterloo, was fought, and the 
 Bourbons were permanently restored, before he 
 again set foot in Paris. The restored dynasty de- 
 lighted to honor the man whom Napoleon had 
 slighted, and gifts were showered on him alike by 
 the Court and by the leading academies of Eu- 
 rope. The walls of his studio were covered with 
 medals and diplomas ; and his appointment as di- 
 rector of the King's chapel (which, however, he 
 refused unless shared with Lesueur, the old in- 
 cumbent) placed him above the daily demands of
 
 CliERUBIM AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 163 
 
 want. So, at the age of fifty-five, this great com- 
 poser 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 dis- 
 cussion and interest throughout Europe as the 
 operas of other composers. That written in 1816, 
 the C minor requiem mass, is pronounced by Ber- 
 lioz 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.
 
 164 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 paint- 
 ers, engaged in drawing several things for their 
 own amusement. In the midst of these was Cheru- 
 bini, also drawing. I had the honor, like every 
 one newly introduced, of having my portrait taken 
 in caricature. Begasse took me in hand and suc- 
 ceeded well. In an adjoining room were musici- 
 ans and actors, among them Ponchard, Levasseur, 
 Dugazon, Panseron, Mile, de Munck, and Mme. 
 Livere, of the Theatre Franyais. The most in- 
 teresting of their performances, which I attended 
 merely as a listener, was a vocal quartet by Cheru- 
 bini, 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 re- 
 peated 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 imita- 
 tion of a horn, and Dugazon actually with a mir- 
 liton solo. Lafont and I represented the classical 
 music, which, after all, held its own." 
 
 The distinguished pianist, in further pleasant
 
 CHERUBIXI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 1G5 
 
 gossip about Cherubini, tells us of hearing the 
 first performance of a pasticcio opera, composed 
 by Cherubini, Paer, Berton, Bo'ieldieu, and Kreut- 
 zer, 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 conduct- 
 ing, and interrupted my state of ecstasy caused 
 by his presence and composition." 
 
 In 1822 Cherubini became Director of the re- 
 established Conservatory, that institution having 
 fallen into some decay, and displayed great ad- 
 ministrative power and grasp of detail in bring- 
 ing order out of chaos. His vigilance and ex- 
 perience, 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 pro- 
 fessors to build up the institution. His spirit com- 
 municated 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 tar- 
 dily. Fetis tells us : " To his new functions he 
 brought the most scrupulous exactitude of duty,
 
 166 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 ex- 
 acting 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 man- 
 ner 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 exclama- 
 tion was : " This is not a nursing hospital for in- 
 fants." 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
 
 CHERUBIXI AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 167 
 
 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 theatri- 
 cal 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 is 
 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 ques- 
 tions 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
 
 168 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 recently completed a grand solemn Mass, and have re 
 solved to offer it to the various European courts, as it is 
 not my intention to publish it at present. I have there- 
 fore asked the King of France, through the French em- 
 bassy 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 con- 
 trary, 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 1 and perhaps you may deem me wor- 
 thy of being included in that number. 
 
 With the highest esteem, your friend and servant, 
 
 LUDWIO VAN BEETHOVEN. 
 LUDWIO CHBRUBIHI. 
 
 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 cre- 
 ation, and be you less fastidious of the execution ; 
 accept the interpretation, and think more of the
 
 CHERUBIM AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 169 
 
 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 gener- 
 ous 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 sar- 
 castic 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
 
 170 <;REAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 pos- 
 sessed 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 com- 
 poser know how to conceal everything, if only to 
 avoid ostentation. He truly shunned brag or 
 speaking of himself. Cherubim's voice was feeble, 
 probably from narrow-chested ness, and somewhat 
 hoarse, but was otherwise soft and agreeable. His 
 I'Yench was Italianized. . . . His head was bent 
 forward, his nose was large and aquiline ; his eye- 
 brows 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 fore- 
 head, and somehow gave to his countenance a 
 peculiar softness." 
 
 The picture painted by Ingres, the great artist,
 
 CHERUBINI AND HIS PllEDECESSORS. 171 
 
 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 
 words 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 Eu- 
 rope. 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 Conserva- 
 tory, 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 unim- 
 paired 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," com-
 
 17^ GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 posed 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 sec- 
 ond Requiem mass, written in hia eightieth year, 
 is one of his masterpieces. 
 
 On the 12th of March, 1842, the old composer 
 died, surrounded by his affectionate family and 
 friends. Hi& fatal illness had been brought on in 
 part by grief for the death of his son-in-law, M. 
 Turcas, 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 Phi- 
 lippe, and was contemporaneous with many of the 
 most remarkable events in modern history. The 
 energy and passion which convulsed society dur-
 
 CHERUBIM AND HIS PREDECESSORS 173 
 
 ing his youth and early manhood undoubtedly 
 had much to do in stimulating that robust and 
 virile quality in his mind which gave such charac- 
 ter to his compositions. The fecundity of his in- 
 tellect 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 founda- 
 tion 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 resur- 
 rection 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 pictu- 
 resqueness, the clean-cut forms, and the noble in- 
 strumentation which mark such masterpieces as 
 " Faniska," " Mede"e," " Les Deux Journees," and 
 " Lodo'iska." 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 protago- 
 nist, and Wagner the extreme modern exponent, 
 
 characterize the dramatic works of Cherubini, 
 12
 
 174 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 though he keeps them within that artistic limit 
 which a proper regard for melodic beauty pre- 
 scribes. In the power and propriety of musical 
 declamation his operas are conceded to be with- 
 out a superior. His overtures hold their place in 
 classical music as ranking with the best ever writ- 
 ten, and show a richness of resource and knowl- 
 edge of form in treating the orchestra which his 
 his contemporaries admitted were only equaled by 
 Beethoven. 
 
 Cherubim'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 im- 
 mense demands they make on the dramatic and 
 vocal resources of the artist, are but rarely pre- 
 sented 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, 
 < 'herubini's genius is familiar to all who frequent 
 ilic 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 inter- 
 pretation of religious sentiments ; while an ardent
 
 , SPOXTIXI, AXD IIALfiVY. 175 
 
 faith inspired with passion, sweetness, and devo- 
 tion 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 admi- 
 rable pictures that the Raphaels and Michael An- 
 gelos have painted with colors and the brush, Che- 
 rubini 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 suc- 
 cessors 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. 
 
 M^HUL, SPONTINI, AND HAL^VY. 
 i. 
 
 THE influence of Gluck was not confined to 
 Cherubini, but was hardly less manifest in mold- 
 ing the style and conceptions of Mehul and Spon- 
 tini,* who held prominent places in the history of 
 
 * 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.
 
 176 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 the French opera. 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 as- 
 tonishing progress. He soon found he had out- 
 stripped the attainments of his teacher, and con- 
 trived 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 com- 
 position 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 acquaint- 
 ance of Gluck accidentally, the great chevalier 
 interposing one night to prevent his being ejected 
 from the theatre, into one of whose boxes Mehul 
 had slipped without buying a ticket. Thence for- 
 ward 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 com-
 
 MEHUL, SPONTIXI, AND HAL^VY. 177 
 
 posed at the age of twenty and accepted at the 
 opera ; but it was not till 1790 that he got a hear- 
 ing in the comic opera of " Euphrasque et Cora- 
 din," composed under the direction of Gluck, 
 This work was brilliantly successful, and " Stra- 
 tonice," which aopeared 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 composi- 
 tion, 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. 
 M eh ul'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 fierce- 
 ly condemned by a republican audience, not as a 
 musical failure, but because their alert and sus-
 
 178 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 picious 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 in- 
 stant 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 "Jo 
 seph " 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 com- 
 parison with the greatest works of his contempo- 
 raries. Such at least is the verdict of Fetis, who
 
 MEHUL, SrOXTINl, AND HAL^VY. 179 
 
 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 de- 
 pressed 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 himseL 
 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 companion- 
 ships, 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.
 
 180 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 Mehul was a high-minded and benevolent man, 
 wrapped up in his art, and singularly childlike in 
 the p"actical affairs of life. Abhorring intrigue, 
 he was above all petty jealousies, and even sacri- 
 ficed the situation of chapel-master under Napo- 
 leon, because he believed it should have been given 
 to the greatest of his rivals, Cherubini. When 
 he ^ied Paris recognized his goodness as a man as 
 w i*: as greatness as a musician by a touching and 
 spontaneous expression of grief, and funeral hon- 
 ors 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 ge- 
 nius as a composer, but by his important labors in 
 tb reorganization of the Conservatory, that nur- 
 c^r/ which has fed so much of the highest musi- 
 cal 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,
 
 SPOXTIXI, AND IIALtiVY. 181 
 
 his priestly tutors could not make him study ; but 
 he delighted in the service of the church, with its 
 organ 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 met- 
 al, when the chimes were rung. On one occasion 
 a stroke of lightning precipitated him from his 
 dangerous perch to the floor below, and the his- 
 tory 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 per- 
 formed at Rome, where it was kindly received. 
 The French invasion unsettled the affairs of Italy, 
 and Spontini wandered somewhat aimlessly, una- 
 ble 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 recep- 
 tion, 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 bold- 
 ness. Yet, though his talents began to be recog- 
 nized, life was a trying struggle, and it is doubt-
 
 182 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 ful if he could have overcome the difficulties in 
 his way when he was ready to produce " La Ves- 
 tale," 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 re- 
 hearsed against the wish of the manager and crit- 
 ics of the Academy of Music, and produced De- 
 cember 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 admiral)]).'. 
 You will certainly have the great success you so 
 well deserve." The imperial prediction was jus- 
 tified by consecutive performances of one hun- 
 dred nights. His next work, " Fernand Cortez," 
 sustained the impression of genius earned for 
 him by its predecessor. The seem- 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
 
 MEHUL, SPONTINI, AND HALEVY. 183 
 
 years later " Les Dieux Rivaux " was composed, 
 in conjunction with Persuis, Berton, and Kreut- 
 zer ; 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 boisterous- 
 ness 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. Apro- 
 pos of the long run of " Olympic " at Berlin, an 
 amusing anecdote is told on the authority of Cas- 
 tel-Blaze. A wealthy amateur had become deaf, 
 and suffered much from his deprivation of the en- 
 joyment 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 re-
 
 184 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 joinder. " 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 
 " Olympic." All went well till one of the over- 
 whelming finales, which happened to be played 
 that evening more fortissimo than usual. The 
 patient turned around beaming with delight, ex- 
 claiming, " 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 pre- 
 scription. 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 
 " Ntirmahal," in 1825 ; " Alcidor," the same year; 
 and in 1829, " Agnes von llohenstaufen." Various 
 other new works were given from time to time, but 
 none achieved more than a brief hearing. Spon- 
 tini'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 in- 
 vective. 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
 
 ME1IUL, SPOXTINI, AND IIALEVV. 185 
 
 proof against the assaults of his numerous ene- 
 mies, made so largely by his having come of the 
 French school, then as now an all-sufficient cause 
 of Teutonic dislike. Spontini's unbending intol- 
 erance, however, at last undermined his musical 
 supremacy, so long held good with an iron hand ; 
 and an intrigue headed by Count Brtihl, intendant 
 of the Royal Theatre, at last obliged him to re- 
 sign 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 al- 
 lowed 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 get- 
 ting a production of his operas ; only the Con- 
 servatory remained faithful to him, and in their 
 hall large audiences gathered to hear composi- 
 tions 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
 
 186 <>REAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 he died after a residence of a few months. His 
 cradle was his tomb. 
 
 in. 
 
 A WELL-KNOWN musical critic sums up his 
 judgment of Hale" vy in these words : " If in 
 France a contemporary of Louis XIV., an ad- 
 mirer 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 ma- 
 jestic arrangements of the olden times upon a 
 modern stage, we would not take him to the Th6- 
 atre Fran9ais, but to the Opera on the day in 
 which one of Halevy's works was given." 
 
 Unlike M6hul and Spontini, with whom in 
 point of style and method Halevy must be asso- 
 ciated, 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 He- 
 brew 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 fer- 
 tile. The motive that inspired his life is suggested
 
 MEIIUL, sroXTLVI, AND HALfiVV. 187 
 
 in his devout saying that music is an art that 
 God has given us, in which the voices of all na- 
 tions 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 particu- 
 lar 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. Hale"vy 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 ambi- 
 tions ; for, in spite of the warm friendship of 
 Cherubini, who did everything to advance his in- 
 terests, he seemed to make but slow progress in 
 popular estimation, though a number of operas 
 were produced. 
 
 Hal6vy's full recognition, however, was found 
 in the great work of " La Juive," produced Feb- 
 ruary 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 interpret' 
 ed by the greatest singers in Europe, and the pub- 
 lic reception at once assured the composer that his
 
 188 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 an- 
 swered his detractors by giving the world a de- 
 lightful comic opera, " L'^clair," which at once 
 testified to the genuineness of his musical inspira- 
 tion and the versatility of his powers, and was 
 received by the public with even more pleasure 
 than "La Juive." 
 
 Hale'vy's next brilliant stroke (three unsuccess- 
 ful 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, 
 
 Oe mortel qu'on remarque 
 
 Tient-il 
 Plus que nous de la Parque 
 
 Lefil? 
 
 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, super- 
 stitious people thought the box was bewitched, 
 and no one cared to occupy it. Two fine works, 
 " Charles VI." and " Le Val d'Andorre," succeed- 
 ed at intervals of a few years ; and in 1849 the no- 
 ble music to JEschylus's " Prometheus Bound " was
 
 MfiHUL, SPOXTIXI, AND HALtiVY. 189 
 
 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 suc- 
 cess 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 du- 
 ties, which involved considerable literary compo- 
 sition, 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 dis- 
 played itself shortly before his end in characteris- 
 tic fashion. Trying in vain to reach a book on 
 
 the table, he said : " Can I do nothing now in 
 13
 
 190 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 Hal6vy, 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 con- 
 veyances everywhere, in fine, when he had a 
 minute to spare. He could isolate himself com- 
 pletely 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 atten- 
 tion 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 look- 
 ing, if his eye chanced to fall on some other, ne 
 matter what, he stopped to read that, then another 
 and another, until he sometimes forgot the word
 
 MfiHL'L, SPOXT1XI, AXD HALtiVY. 191 
 
 oe 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. lie never made any complaint. 
 Halevy's nature was rich, open and communica- 
 tive. 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. 
 
 MBHUL 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 per- 
 petuated and crystallized in the new forms given 
 to French thought by Napoleon's wonderful career. 
 M6hul'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 re- 
 markable 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 domi-
 
 192 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 nated by musical form and an accurate science 
 which would concede nothing to popular preju- 
 dice 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 
 Mi'hul familiarized his audiences with strains dig- 
 nified yet popular, full of massive effects and bril- 
 liant 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 mu- 
 sical 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. Spon- 
 tini added to the majestic repose and ideality of 
 the Gluck music-drama (to use a name now natu- 
 ralized in art by Wagner) the keenest dramatic 
 vigor. Though he had a strong command of ef- 
 fects by his power of delineation and delicacy of 
 detail, his prevalent tastes led him to encumber
 
 , SPOXTIXI, AND HALfiVY. 193 
 
 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 manage- 
 ment of large masses in the instrumentation. In 
 this respect he was, like Napoleon, a great tacti- 
 cian." In "La Vestale" Spontini attained his 
 chef-d'oeuvre. Schluter in his "History of Mu- 
 sic " gives it the following encomium : " His por- 
 trayal of character and truthful delineation of 
 passionate emotion in this opera are masterly in- 
 deed. The subject of 'La Vestale' (which re- 
 sembles 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 China ; pious vestals, cruel priests, bold 
 warriors, and haughty Romans, are represented 
 with statuesque relief and finish. Both these 
 works, 'La Vestale' (1807) 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 Cheru-
 
 194 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 bini, was largely inspired by that great master's 
 musical purism and reverence for the higher laws 
 of his art. Ilalevy's powerful sense of the dra- 
 matic always influenced his methods and sympa- 
 thies. Not being a composer of creative imagina- 
 tion, however, the melodramatic element is more 
 prominent than the purely tragic or comic. His 
 music shows remarkable resources in the produc- 
 tion of brilliant and captivating though always 
 tasteful effects, which rather please the senses arid 
 the fancy than stir the heart and imagination. 
 Here and there scattered through his works, nota- 
 bly so in " La Juive," are touches of emotion and 
 grandeur ; but Hale" vy must be characterized as a 
 composer who is rather distinguished for the bril- 
 liancy, 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. Ha- 
 lo vy'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
 
 BOlELDIEU AND AUBER. 195 
 
 Italian composer in the splendid bursts of musi- 
 cal passion with which the latter redeems so much 
 that is meretricious and false, and the charming 
 melody which Verdi shares with his countrymen. 
 
 BOlELDIEU AND AUBER. 
 
 THE French school of light opera, founded by 
 Gretry, reached its greatest perfection in the au- 
 thors 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 composi- 
 tion. Fran QO is Adrieu Bo'ieldieu, 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 ca- 
 thedral organist, but a drunkard and brutal task- 
 master. 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 Bo'ieldieu family (the elder 
 Bo'ieldieu had been secretary of the archiepiscopal 
 diocese), and young Franjois, at the age of nine'
 
 196 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 teen, 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 strug- 
 gling and unsuccessful. He was obliged to tune 
 pianos for his living, and was glad to sell his bril- 
 liant 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 
 Cherubim's " Med6e." 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 remark- 
 ably popular, and drew from the severe Cherubim 
 the following rebuke : " Malheureux ! Are you not 
 ashamed of such undeserved triumph?" Boiel- 
 dieu took the brusque criticism meekly and pre- 
 ferred a request for further instruction from Che- 
 rubini 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 ar- 
 tistic progress. 
 
 It was during this year that Bo'ieldieu, goaded 
 by domestic misery (for he had married the dan-
 
 BOlELDIEU AND ACBER. 197 
 
 seuse Clotilde Mafleuray, whose notorious infidelity 
 made his name a byword), exiled himself to Russia, 
 even then looked on as an El Dorado for the mu- 
 sician, 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. Me'hul 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 construc- 
 tion. 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 un 
 fruitful. He died in 1834 of pulmonary disease, the 
 germs of which w r ere 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.
 
 198 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 II. 
 
 DANIEL FRANCOIS ESPRIT AUBER was born at 
 Caen, Normandy, January 29, 1784. He was des- 
 tined 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 musi- 
 cians. 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 stud- 
 ies, a chance eagerly seized by Auber. To the in- 
 struction 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 after- 
 ward transferred to " Masaniello." The comic 
 opera "Le S6jour 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
 
 BOIELDIEU AND ATJBER. 199 
 
 nis creative activity that he set himself to serious 
 work. " La Bergere Chatelaine," produced in 
 1820, was his first genuine success, and equal for- 
 tune 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 libret- 
 tists 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 Mayon," 1825, the compos- 
 er's chef-d'oeuvre in comic opera ; " La Muette de 
 Portici," otherwise " Masaniello," 1828 ; " Fra 
 Diavolo," 1830 ; " Lestocq," 1835 ; " Le Cheval 
 de Bronze," 1835 ; " L'Ambassadrice," 1836 ; " Le 
 Domino Noir," 1837 ; "Les Diamants de la Cou- 
 ronne," 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 eighti- 
 eth year. 
 
 The indifference of this Anacreon of music to 
 renown is worthy of remark. He never attended
 
 200 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOS KllS. 
 
 the performance of his own pieces, and disdained 
 applause. The highest and most valued distinc- 
 tions were showered on him ; orders, jeweled 
 swords, diamond snuffboxes, were poured in from 
 all the courts of Europe. Innumerable invita- 
 tions 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 Insti- 
 tute, Commander of the Legion of Honor, and 
 Cherubim's successor as Director of the Conserva- 
 tory. 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 rela- 
 tions, which took him into the most brilliant cir- 
 cles of an extended period, covering the reigns of 
 Napoleon I., Charles X., Louis Philippe, and Na- 
 poleon III., he yet always found time to devote 
 several hours a day to composition. Auber was a 
 small, delicate man, yet distinguished in appear- 
 ance, and noted for wit. His bons mots were cele- 
 brated. 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 d propos of an inter- 
 view of Auber with Charles X. in 1830. " Ma- 
 saniello," a bold and revolutionary work, had just 
 been produced, and stirred up a powerful popular
 
 BOlELDHU AND AUBER. 201 
 
 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 am- 
 bitious." "I am disposed to name you director of 
 the court concerts. Be sure that I shall remem- 
 ber '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 per- 
 formance of this opera, which thus acted the part 
 of " Lillibulero " in English political annals. It 
 is a striking coincidence that the death of the au- 
 thor of this revolutionary inspiration, May 13, 
 1871, was partly caused by the terrors of the Paris 
 Commune. 
 
 in. 
 
 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
 
 202 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 sweetness of melody which proves its kinship to 
 that source of all truly national music, the popu- 
 lar song. The 'Dame Blanche' might be con- 
 sidered 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 disappoint- 
 ment, for on the day of his return his hall and his 
 broad acres are to become the property of a vil- 
 lain, the unfaithful steward of his own family. 
 Here is a situation full of gloom and sad foreboding. 
 But Scribe and Boi'eldieu 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 AUBER. 203 
 
 Boleldieu and described as " le cbant 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 Boi'eldieu's two great 
 comic operas by the grace and finish of the instru- 
 mentation, and the carefully composed ensembles, 
 while the public is delighted with the charming bal- 
 lads and songs. The airs of " La Dame Blanche " 
 are more popular in classic Germany than those 
 of any other opera. Boieldieu njay then be char- 
 acterized 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 es- 
 sentially 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 indi- 
 vidual effects, while he is inferior in simplicity, 
 breadth, and that firm grasp of details which en- 
 ables 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 oper- 
 atic comedy. In the great opera to which allu- 
 sion has been made the passions of excited public
 
 204 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 feeling have their fullest sway, and heroic senti- 
 ments 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 fixes 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 Ital- 
 ian 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
 
 GIACOMO MEYERBEER.
 
 MEYERBEER. 205 
 
 other men have died exhausted by precocious la- 
 bor 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 counter- 
 point, and the other analyzes some new chord the 
 ugliness 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 pro- 
 duced by him taken into account, and with these 
 the beauties which they contain." 
 
 MEYERBEER. 
 
 FEW great names in art have been the occa- 
 sion 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 scien- 
 tific skill and gorgeous orchestration are only 
 equaled by his richness of melody and genius for 
 
 dramatic and scenic effects ; by far the greatest 
 14
 
 206 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 indiffer- 
 ently, 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 approach- 
 es genius as to make the distinction a difficult one. 
 He can not be numbered among those great crea- 
 tive artists who by force of individuality have 
 molded musical epochs and left an undying im- 
 print 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 ear, of wed- 
 ding rich and gorgeous music with splendid spec- 
 tacle, gives him a unique place in music ; for, un- 
 like 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 m usic. Though a German, there is but lit- 
 tle 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 assump- 
 tion of the genius of Italian art which many other 
 foreign composers have attained. It was not till
 
 MEYERBEER. 207 
 
 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 any- 
 where else, that Meyerbeer found his true voca- 
 tion, the production of elaborate dramas in music 
 of the eclectic school. He inaugurated no clear- 
 ly defined tendencies in his art ; he distinctively 
 belongs to no national school of music ; but his 
 ;ong 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 fam- 
 ily of marked ability. Jacob Beer was a ribh 
 Jewish banker of Berlin, highly honored for his ro- 
 bust intellect and scholarly culture as well as his 
 wealth. William, one of the sons, became a dis- 
 tinguished astronomer; another, Michael, achieved 
 distinction as a dramatic poet ; while the eldest, 
 Jacob, was the composer, who gained his renown 
 Binder the Italianized name of Giacomo Meyer- 
 -t-t-r, 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 re- 
 peat 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,
 
 208 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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, dementi, Bernhard Anselm Weber, and 
 Abbe Vogler. While in the latter's school at 
 Darmstadt, he had for fellow pupils Carl von 
 Weber, Winter, and Gansbacher. Every morn- 
 ing 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 be- 
 tween 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 sur- 
 passed him. By advice of Salieri, whom Meyer- 
 beer 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 neces- 
 sary it is for the operatic composer to understand
 
 MEYERBEER. 209 
 
 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 com- 
 pose operas d la Rossini for the Italian theatres. 
 So he proceeded with prodigious industry to turn 
 out operas. In 1818 he wrote " Romilda e Cos- 
 tanza" for Padua; in 1819, " Semiramide " for 
 Turin ; in 1820, " Emma di Resburgo " for Ven- 
 ice ; in 1822, " Margherita d'Anjou " for Milan ; 
 and in 1823, " L'Esule di Granata," also for Mi- 
 lan. 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 Meyer- 
 beer 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 " II 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,
 
 210 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 curi- 
 osity 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 concen- 
 trate his attention for a while on church music. 
 During this period he composed only a " Stabat," 
 a " Miserere," a " Te Deum," and eight of Klop- 
 stock's songs. But he was preparing for that new 
 departure on which his reputation as a great com- 
 poser now rests, and which called forth such bitter 
 condemnation on the one hand, such thunders of 
 eulogy on the other. His old fellow pupil, We- 
 ber, wrote of him in after-years : " He prostituted 
 his profound, admirable, and serious German tal- 
 ent for the applause of the crowd which he ought
 
 MEYERBEER. 211 
 
 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 mar- 
 ried 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." 
 
 n. 
 
 " ROBERT LE DIABLE " was produced at the 
 Academic 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 re- 
 spects curious. It was originally written for the 
 Ventadour Theatre, devoted to comic opera ; but 
 the company were found unable to sing the diffi-
 
 212 GREAT ITALIAN AND FftENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 cult music. Meyerbeer was inspired by Weber's 
 " Der Freischtltz " 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 libret- 
 tists, 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, JRaim- 
 baud, cut out in the fourth and fifth acts a sup- 
 pression which is claimed to have befogged a 
 very clear and intelligible plot. Highly sugges- 
 tive in its present state of Weber's opera, the 
 opera of " Robert le Diable " is said to have been 
 marvelously similar to " Der Freischtltz " in the 
 original form, though inferior in dignity of mo- 
 tive. 
 
 Paris was all agog with interest at the first 
 production. The critics had attended the rehear- 
 sals, and it was understood that the libretto, the 
 music, and the ballet were full of striking inter- 
 est. Nourrit played the part of Robert ; Levas- 
 seur, Bertram / Mme. Cinti Damoreau, Isabelle / 
 and Mile. Dorus, Alice. The greatest dancers of 
 the age were in the ballet and the brilliant Tagli- 
 oni led the band of resuscitated nuns. Habeneck 
 was conductor, and everything had been done in 
 the way of scenery and costumes. The success
 
 MEYERBEER. 213 
 
 was a remarkable one, and Meyerbeer's name be- 
 came famous throughout Europe. 
 
 Dr. Veron, in his "Memoires d'un Bourgeoif 
 de Paris," describes a thrilling yet ludicrous ac- 
 cident that occurred on the first night's perform- 
 ance. After the admirable trio, which is the 
 denodment of the work, Levasseur, who person- 
 ated 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 des- 
 tined 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 be- 
 neath 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 
 audit-lire 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
 
 214 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 dan- 
 cing 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 improba- 
 bility." * 
 
 M. Veron was so delighted with the great suc- 
 cess of " Robert " that he made a contract with 
 Meyerbeer for another grand opera, " Les Hugue- 
 nots," to be completed by a certain date. Mean- 
 while, 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 bro- 
 ken contract. At length, after twenty-eight re- 
 hearsals, and an expense of more than one hun- 
 dred and sixty thousand francs in preparation, 
 " Les Huguenots " was given to the public, Feb- 
 ruary 26, 1836. Though this great work excited 
 transports of enthusiasm in Paris, it was inter- 
 dicted 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 Meyer- 
 
 * Yet Lord Mount Edgcumbe is inconsistent enough to be 
 an ardent admirer of Mozart's " Zauherflote."
 
 MEYERBEER. 215 
 
 beer'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 ac- 
 cidental character in his new position, but a slum- 
 ber seems to have fallen on his greater creative 
 faculties. The German atmosphere was not fa- 
 vorable to the fruitfulness of Meyerbeer's genius. 
 He seems to have needed the volatile and spark- 
 ling 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 elabo- 
 rate 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'&oileduNord." 
 
 Meyerbeer returned to Paris in 1849, to pre- 
 sent the third of his great operas, " Le Prophete." 
 It was given with Roger, Viardot- Garcia, and 
 Castellan in the principal characters. Mme. Viar- 
 dot-Garcia achieved one of her greatest dramatic 
 triumphs in the difficult part of Fides. In Lon- 
 don the opera also met with splendid success, hav- 
 ing, as Chorley tells us, a great advantage over 
 the Paris presentation in " the remarkable person-
 
 216 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOHE11S. 
 
 al beauty of Signer Mario, whose appearance in 
 his coronation robes reminded one of some bishop- 
 saint in a picture by Van Eyck or Dtirer, and who 
 could bring to bear a play of feature without 
 grimace into the scene of false fascination, entire- 
 ly beyond the reach of the clever French artist 
 Roger, who originated the character." 
 
 " L'lCtoile du Nord " was given to the public 
 February 16, 1854. Up to this time the opera of 
 "Robert" had been sung three hundred and thir- 
 ty-three times, " Les Huguenots " two hundred 
 and twenty-two, and " Le Prophcte " 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. 
 
 in. 
 
 MEYERBEEK, a man of handsome private for- 
 tune, 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 Avith 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 neces- 
 sity." Probably few composers have been more 
 splendidly rewarded by contemporary fame and
 
 MEYERBEER. 217 
 
 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 Ger- 
 man music, and the spirit of romanticism and na- 
 tionality, 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 pur- 
 suit 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 imme- 
 diate plaudits of the public as the only satisfac- 
 tory 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 char- 
 acteristic of the man was a secret dissatisfaction 
 with all that he accomplished, making him restless 
 and unhappy, and extremely sensitive to criti- 
 cism. With this was united a tendency at times 
 to oscillate to the other extreme of vainglorious- 
 ness. An example of this was a reply to Rossini
 
 218 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 re- 
 pute. 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 Mey- 
 erbeer, " 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 Mey- 
 erbeer 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 mu- 
 sic had become stale with age. I defy you," 
 he continued, " to listen to ' Don Giovanni ' after 
 the fourth act of the ' Huguenots.' "' " So much
 
 MEYERBEER. 219 
 
 the worse, then, for the fourth act of the ' Hugue- 
 nots,' " said Meyerbeer, furious at the clumsy com- 
 pliment 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. Men- 
 delssohn, who was habitually generous in his judg- 
 ment, 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 im- 
 agination). 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." 
 
 Schluter, the historian of music, speaks even 
 more bitterly of Meyerbeer's irreverence and the- 
 atric sensationalism : " ' Les Huguenots ' and the 
 far weaker production 4 Le Prophete' are, we 
 think, all the more reprehensible (nowadays es- 
 pecially, when too much stress is laid on the sub- 
 ject of a work, and consequently on the libretto
 
 220 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 cho- 
 rale on the boards." 
 
 Wagner, the last of the great German com- 
 posers, can not find words too scathing and bitter 
 to mark his condemnation of Meyerbeer. Per- 
 haps his extreme aversion finds its psychological 
 reason in the circumstance that his own early ef- 
 forts 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 esti- 
 mates 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 
 aesthetics : " Notwithstanding the composer's re- 
 markable talent for musical drama, his operas 
 contain sometimes too much, sometimes too little 
 too much in the subject-matter, external adorn- 
 ment, 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 dan- 
 cing, girls bathing, sunrise, skating, gunpowder
 
 MEYERBEER. 221 
 
 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 mere- 
 tricious 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 com- 
 poser 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 adop- 
 tion, 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 pro- 
 found 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 
 15
 
 222 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 bril- 
 liant, are charmingly described by Liszt and Mo- 
 scheles. Meyerbeer's correspondence, which was 
 extensive, deserves publication, as it displays 
 marked literary faculty, and is full of bright 
 sympathetic thought, vigorous criticism, and play- 
 ful fancy. The following letter to Jules Janin, 
 written from Berlin a few years before his death, 
 gives some pleasant insight into his character : 
 
 Yonr 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
 
 MEYERBEER. 223 
 
 the Court concert for the eighteenth of this month, 1 
 have now leisure to answer your letter, and will imme- 
 diately confess to you how greatly I was disappointed 
 that you were so little interested in Rameau ; and yet 
 Rameau was always the hright 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 un- 
 fortunate 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 ex- 
 ecuted 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
 
 224 GREAT ITALIAN* AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 explana- 
 tion. 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 saye more than one act 
 which otherwise would be insufferably heavy and 
 tedious. It is not too much to say that the most
 
 MEYERBEER. 225 
 
 spontaneous side of his creative fancy is found in 
 these affluent, vigorous, and stirring measures. 
 
 Meyerbeer appears always to have been un- 
 certain 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 imagi- 
 nation. His operas, though most elaborately con- 
 structed, were often entirely modified and changed 
 in rehearsal, and some of the finest scenes both in 
 the dramatic and musical sense were the out- 
 come 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 in- 
 debted to the chapter of accidents. 
 
 The testimony of Dr. Veron, who was mana- 
 ger 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 w r rought by a stage 
 manager, who was disgusted with the chorus of
 
 226 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 simpering women in the original. This led Meyer- 
 beer to compose the weird ballet music which ie 
 such a characteristic feature of " Robert le Dia- 
 ble." 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 intel- 
 lectual 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 strik- 
 ing attraction was the addition of the great duet 
 with which the act now closes a duet which crit- 
 ics have cited as an evidence of unequaled power, 
 coming as it does at the very heels of such an as- 
 tounding 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. Simi- 
 lar changes are understood to have been made in 
 " Le Prophete " by advice of Nourrit, whose poeti- 
 cal insight seems to have been unerring. It was
 
 MEYERBEER. 227 
 
 left to Duprez, Nourrit's successor, however, to be 
 the first exponent of John of Ley den. 
 
 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 de- 
 scribed 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 or- 
 chestration, which contains original strokes not
 
 228 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 master- 
 piece ; 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 Euro- 
 pean public, neither the warmest welcome nor 
 the most bleak indifference could alter the con-
 
 ^K^ 
 
 CHARLES GOUNOD.
 
 GOUNOD AND THOMAS. 229 
 
 viction that among the composers who have ap- 
 peared during the last twenty-five years, M. Gou- 
 nod 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 profound- 
 est 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 preju- 
 dice 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 exist- 
 ing 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.
 
 230 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 ver- 
 dict 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 charac- 
 ters and symbolisms of Mephistopheles, Faust, 
 and Gretchen in music not merely beautiful, but 
 spiritual, humorous, subtile, and voluptuous, ac- 
 cordingly as the varied meanings of Goethe's 
 masterpiece demand. 
 
 Visitors at Paris, while the American civil 
 war was at its height, might frequently have ob- 
 served at the beautiful Theatre Lyrique, after- 
 ward burned by the Vandals of the Commune, a
 
 GOUXOD AND THOMAS. 231 
 
 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 ex- 
 press his varying emotions, now of approval, now 
 of annoyance at different parts of the perform- 
 ance. 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 " toil- 
 ing 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 an- 
 nouncement kept him before the eyes of the pub- 
 lic. 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 com- 
 poser, standing in the very front rank of his fel- 
 lows, 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,
 
 232 GREAT ITALIAN" AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 betrayed so much passion for music during tender 
 years, that his father gave him every opportunity 
 to gratify and improve this marked bias. Jle 
 studied under Reicha and Le Sueur, and finally 
 under Hal6vy, 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 re- 
 ceived the grand prize for musical composition 
 awarded by the French Institute. His first pub- 
 lished work was a mass performed at the Church 
 of St. Eustache, which, while not specially success- 
 ful, 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 des- 
 tined 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 rath- 
 er a sympathy with mysticism, is strikingly appar- 
 ent in all of his compositions. The next goal in 
 the composer's art pilgrimage was the music-lov- 
 ing city of Vienna, the home of Haydn, Mozart,
 
 GOUNOD AND THOMAS. 233 
 
 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 encour- 
 age 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 fin- 
 ished ; 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 charm- 
 ing 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 Gou- 
 nod's ambition, which seems to have been power- 
 fully 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
 
 234 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 dis- 
 ciple 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 origi- 
 nality 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 com- 
 positions fell dead. Score after score was rejected 
 by the managers. No one cared to hazard the 
 risk of pi'oducing an opera by this unknown com- 
 poser. His first essay was a pastoral opera, " Phile- 
 mon 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 Ger- 
 man 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 de- 
 cided encouragement came in 1851, when " Sap- 
 pho " was produced at the French Opera through
 
 GOUNOD AND THOMAS. 235 
 
 the influence of Madame Pauline Viardot, the sis- 
 ter of Malibran, who had a generous belief in the 
 composer's future, and such a position in the mu- 
 sical world of Paris as to make her requests al- 
 most mandatory. This opera, based on the fine 
 poem of lmile 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 " TJlysse," performed at the 
 Theatre Fran9ais. 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 mu- 
 sical authorities were willing to grant him a dis- 
 tinct 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 conjec- 
 ture that parts of it were composed and arranged, 
 if not fully elaborated, long prior to its final crys- 
 tallization. But he was not yet quite ready to 
 enter seriously on the composition of the master- 
 piece. 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 produced
 
 236 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 " Le Medecin malgre" lui," based on Moliere's com- 
 edy, afterward performed as an English opera 
 under the title of " The Mock Doctor." Gounod's 
 genius seems to have had no affinity for the grace- 
 ful and sparkling measures of comic music, and 
 bis attempt to rival Rossini and Auber in the field 
 where they were preeminent was decidedly un- 
 successful, 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. Gou- 
 nod'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 pre- 
 dicted 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
 
 GOUNOD A.VD THOMAS. 237 
 
 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 tender- 
 ness which have never been quite equaled. 
 
 " Faust " was received at Berlin, Vienna, Mi- 
 lan, St. Petersburg, and London, with an enthu- 
 siasm not less than that which greeted its Parisian 
 debut. The clamor of dispute between the dif- 
 ferent schools was for the moment hushed in the 
 delight with which the musical critics and public 
 of universal Europe listened to the magical mea- 
 sures 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 there- 
 fore given with close faithfulness to the author's 
 score. 
 
 After the immense success of " Faust," the 
 doors of the Academy were opened wide to Gou- 
 nod. On February 28, 1862, the " Reine de 
 Saba" was produced, but was only a succbs cTes- 
 
 time, the libretto by Gerard de Nerval not being 
 16
 
 238 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 fitted for a lyric tragedy.* 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 
 Provenyal, 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 contain- 
 ing some of the most captivating airs ever written, 
 and the fine interpretation of the heroine by Mio- 
 lan-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, how- 
 ever 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. 
 
 * 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.
 
 GOUXOD AND THOMAS. 239 
 
 The opera of " La Colombe," known in Eng- 
 lish 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 high- 
 ly 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 Gou- 
 nod to reside in London, unlike Auber, who reso- 
 lutely refused to forsake the city of his love, in 
 spite of the suffering and privation which he fore- 
 saw, and which were the indirect cause of the 
 veteran composer's death. Gounod remained sev- 
 eral years in England, and lived a retired life, 
 seemingly as if he shrank from public notice and 
 disdained public applause. His principal appear- 
 ances were at the Philharmonic, the Crystal Pal- 
 ace, and at Mrs. Weldon's concerts, where he 
 directed the performances of his own composi- 
 tions. The circumstances of his London residence 
 seem to have cast a cloud over Gounod's life and 
 to have strangely unsettled his mind. Patriotic
 
 240 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 beaiitiful adventur- 
 ess, who was ambitious to attain social and musi- 
 cal recognition through the falat of the great 
 composer's friendship. Though newspaper re- 
 port 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 Gou- 
 nod, his genius did not lie altogether dormant 
 during this period of friction and fretf ulness, con- 
 ditions 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 trage- 
 dy 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 " Naza- 
 reth," and " There is a Green Hill " ; and orches- 
 tral works, a " Salterello in A," and the " Funeral 
 March of a Marionette." 
 
 At last he broke loose from the bonds of Deli- 
 lah, and, remembering that he had been elected 
 to fill the place of Clapisson in the Institute, he
 
 GOUNOD AND THOMAS. 241 
 
 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 1'Opera Co- 
 mique ; but it showed the traces of the haste and 
 carelessness with which it was written, and there- 
 fore commanded little more than a respectful 
 hearing. Gounod's last two operas, "Polyeucte" 
 and "LeTribut de Zamora," both produced in 
 Paris in the winter of 1879, though marked by 
 characteristic beauty, never became stock operas 
 of the stage. Thenceforward his work was in re- 
 ligious music, his genius returning to its earlier 
 bent. The great oratorio, " Redemption," and 
 the remarkable triology, " Mors et Vila," which 
 had been begun in England and completed after 
 years of work in study and elaboration, were at 
 once accepted as supreme works of their kind 
 worthy to rank with the masterpieces of the 
 world. The repressed aspirations of the com- 
 poser poured through their natural outlet with a 
 spiritual energy and passion which wrought per- 
 manently in profound religious art. The dis- 
 tinctive 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
 
 242 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 the time when as a youth he thought of the spirit- 
 ual dignity of the priesthood. The use he makes 
 of his religious reminiscences is familiarly illus- 
 trated 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. 
 
 HI. 
 
 GOUNOD'S genius fills too large a space in con- 
 temporary 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 em- 
 bodied 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 com- 
 posers. 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 orches- 
 trally with more or less success. Gounod's treat- 
 ment of the poem is by far the most intelligible, 
 poetic, and dramatic ever attempted, and. there is
 
 GOUNOD AND THOMAS. 243 
 
 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 tho 
 next act is so quaint and original, as well as mel > 
 dious, as to give the sense of delightful comedy 
 When Marguerite enters on the scene, we h?\ 
 waltz and chorus of such beauty and piquaiu , ,-, 
 would have done honor to Mozart. Indeed, hi 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 Fausfs beautiful monologue in the gar- 
 den come the song of the " King of Thule " and 
 Marguerite's 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 keep- 
 ing, 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
 
 244 GIIEAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 of the hearer with absorbing force by its sugges- 
 tion and imagery, while the almost cloying sweet- 
 ness of the melody is such as Rossini and Schu- 
 bert only could equal. The full confession of 
 the enamored pair contained in the brief adagio 
 throbs with such rapture as to find its most sug- 
 gestive parallel in the ardent words commencing 
 
 Gallop apace, ye fiery-footed steeds, 
 
 placed by Shakespeare in the mouth of the ex- 
 pectant Juliet. 
 
 Beauties succeed each other in swift and pic- 
 turesque 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 mu- 
 sic 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 devil- 
 ish exultation. 
 
 Gounod has been blamed for violating the rev- 
 erence due to sacred things, employing portions of 
 the church service in this scene, instead of writ-
 
 GOUNOD AND THOMAS. 245 
 
 ing 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' f este Burg," in " Les 
 Huguenots," called forth a similar criticism from 
 his German assailants. Some of the most dra- 
 matic 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 Ger- 
 man 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 be- 
 lief 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 jmantom host, the imagina-
 
 246 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 tion sees the lonely plain with its green mounds 
 and moldering crosses. 
 
 Readers will pardon this digression illustrat- 
 ing 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 musi- 
 cal conception, and is a fitting companion to the 
 tragic prison scene. The despair of the poor 
 crazed Marguerite / her delirious joy in recog- 
 nizing Faust ; the temptation to fly ; the filial 
 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 informa- 
 tion to the reader, have been made to illustrate 
 the peculiarities of Gounod's musical tempera- 
 ment, 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 earnest-
 
 GOUN'OD AND THOMAS. 247 
 
 ness and fervor, and a mind which recoils from 
 the frivolous, however graceful it may be. 
 
 In the Franco-German school, of which Gou- 
 nod is so high an exponent, the orchestra is busy 
 throughout developing the history of the emo- 
 tions, 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 be- 
 tween Gounod and Wagner, who professes to 
 elaborate the importance of the orchestra in dra- 
 matic 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 mel- 
 ody can only be compared with that of Mozart 
 and Rossini, and his skill and ingenuity in treat- 
 ing 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 al- 
 luded to as derived from temperament, is his un- 
 erring sense of dramatic fitness, which weds such 
 highly suggestive music to each varying phase of 
 character and action. To this perhaps one excep- 
 tion 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.
 
 248 GREAT ITALIAN' AND FKEKCII COMPOSERS. 
 
 A good illustration of this may be found in " Le 
 Medecin malgre lui," in the couplets given to the 
 drunken Syanarelle. They are beautiful music, 
 but utterly unflavored with the vis comica. 
 
 For several years before his death, which oc- 
 curred October 16, 1893, Gounod lived in seclu- 
 sion. " Faust" and "Mors et Vila" alone would 
 have stamped him as one of the greatest com- 
 posers of any age. But in all his works he has 
 shown melodic freshness and fertility, mastery of 
 musical form, power of orchestration, and dra- 
 matic energy. Among his contemporaries Wag- 
 ner alone was his equal in originality of genius. 
 
 IV. 
 
 AMONG contemporary French composers there 
 is no name which suggests itself in comparison 
 with that of Gounod so worthily as that of Am- 
 broise 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 distin- 
 guished 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 coun- 
 try Thomas enjoys a repute still higher than that
 
 GOUNOD AND THOMAS. 249 
 
 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 celeb- 
 rity 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 apti- 
 tudes 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 in- 
 structed 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 pro- 
 ficient in all the preparatory studies demanded 
 for admission to the Paris Conservatoire, and he 
 easily obtained admission into that great institu- 
 tion. He first studied under Zimmermann and 
 Kalkbrenner, and afterward under Dourlen, Bar- 
 bereau, 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,
 
 250 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 opportu- 
 nity of perfecting his knowledge. The first step 
 in the brilliant career of Thomas was the produc- 
 tion of a comic opera in one act, "La Double 
 fichelle," 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 unmis- 
 takable, 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 Ca'id," a work of the opera-bouffe type, which 
 instantly became an immense public favorite. 
 This was first represented in 1849, and it has al-
 
 GOUNOD AND THOMAS. 251 
 
 ways 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 im- 
 mensely amusing and brightly melodious, and it 
 was such a pecuniary success that the more judi- 
 cious 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 Ca'id," remained for a long time 
 a wanderer from the path which lay open to his 
 great talents. The composer's ambition, how- 
 ever, proved to be too high to content itself with 
 ephemeral success, or cultivating the more frivo- 
 lous forms of his art, however profitable and 
 pleasant these might be. 
 
 In 1850 Ambroise Thomas produced two ope- 
 ras : " Le Songe d'une Nuit d'lSte," 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
 
 252 GREAT ITALIAN" AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 pre- 
 dominance 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
 
 GOUNOD AND THOMAS. 253 
 
 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 manu- 
 factured, 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 No- 
 vember 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 produc- 
 tion 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 instant- 
 ly and splendidly recognized by the public, cul- 
 tured and ignorant, gentle and simple. 
 
 Like " Faust," too, the opera of Thomas was 
 based on a creation of Goethe. Without the pa- 
 thetic episode of " Mignon," the novel of " Wil- 
 helm 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 au- 
 17
 
 254 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 thor succeeds in preserving nearly all the intrin- 
 sic worth of the Mignon episode. The music is 
 admirably suited to a noble theme. There is hard- 
 ly 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 
 heard. In this opera melodic phrase goes hand 
 in hand with character and motive, and Mignon, 
 Philina, Wilhelm Meister, and Lothario, are dis- 
 tinguished 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 in- 
 spired with a pathos and poetic ardor which lift 
 the composer to do his most magnificent work. 
 But to describe " Mignon " to the public of to- 
 day, which has heard it almost an innumerable 
 number of times, is, as much as in the case of 
 Gounod's "Faust," "carrying coals to Newcas- 
 tle." 
 
 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 popu- 
 lar impression as "Mignon," possibly because the
 
 BERLIOZ. 255 
 
 theme is less suited to operatic treatment ; for the 
 music per se is of a fine type, and full of the genu- 
 ine accents of passion, 
 
 In addition to the works named above, Am- 
 broise Thomas has written " La Gypsy," " Le Pa- 
 nier Fleuri," "Carline," "Le Roman d'Elvire," 
 several fine masses, many beautiful songs, a re- 
 quiem, and miscellaneous church-pieces. Thomas 
 is famous in France for the generous encourage- 
 ment 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 tem- 
 ple 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 co- 
 lossus in music, with but few admirers and fewer 
 followers. Original, puissant in faculties, fierce- 
 ly dogmatic and intolerant, bizarre, his influence
 
 256 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 has impressed itself profoundly on the musical 
 world both for good and evil, but has failed to 
 make disciples or to rear a school. Notwithstand- 
 ing 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 or- 
 ganization different from and in some respecte 
 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 fore- 
 runners 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 lift- 
 ed 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
 
 BERLIOZ. 257 
 
 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 re- 
 garded 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 libra- 
 ry 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 dissect- 
 ing-room he had been so convulsed with hor-
 
 258 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 ror 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 some- 
 what 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 
 Dana'ides," Salieri's opera, performed with all 
 the splendid completeness of the Academie Roy- 
 ale. This awakened into fresh life an unquench- ' 
 able thirst for music, and he neglected bis medical 
 studies for the library of the Conservatoire, where 
 he learned by heart the scores of Gluck and Ra- 
 meau. At last, on coming out one night from a 
 performance of " Iphigenie," he swore that hence- 
 forth 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 can- 
 tata 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 un- 
 successful musicians. The young enthusiast's 
 cantata gained him admission to the classes of Le
 
 BERLIOZ. 259 
 
 Sueur and Reicha at the Conservatoire, hut 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 te- 
 nacity, 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 starve- 
 ling with a look of wonder. " Where's your 
 music ? " quoth the tyrant of a third-class thea- 
 tre. " 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, Gre-
 
 260 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 try, 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 con- 
 nection 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 ne- 
 cessity 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 Chateau- 
 briand, 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 re- 
 paid, 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
 
 BERLIOZ. 261 
 
 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 auto- 
 cratic Cherubini he was positively hated. The 
 young man took no pains to placate this resent- 
 ment, 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 ex- 
 cuse for such extreme measures. Prejudiced as 
 were his judges, he successively took several im- 
 portant 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,
 
 262 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 bustling with rough modulations and wild har- 
 monies, destitute of melody, forced in expres- 
 sion, noisy, and fearfully difficult," even as Eng- 
 land at the same time frowned down his immortal 
 works as " obstreperous roarings of modern fren- 
 zy." 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 Beet- 
 hoven ? " " 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 sym- 
 phonic " Fantastique," and in many ways indi- 
 cated that the bent of his genius had fully de- 
 clared 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 re- 
 fused 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
 
 BERLIOZ. 263 
 
 one editor, softening the return of a manuscript. 
 But Berlioz did not fully know himself or appre- 
 ciate the tendencies fermenting within him until 
 in 1830 he became the victim of a grand Shake- 
 spearean 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 in- 
 teresting account of his Shakespearean enthu- 
 siasm, 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 1'homme en mission par le diable envoy6 '
 
 264 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 (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 "Ro- 
 meo 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 Shake- 
 speare through the fog of Letourneur's transla- 
 tion, and that I consequently could not perceive 
 the poetic web that surrounds his marvelous crea- 
 tions 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
 
 BERLIOZ. 265 
 
 to feel the delicacy and originality of La Fon- 
 taine or Moliere. Our two poets are rich conti- 
 nents ; 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 thou- 
 sand times more with Shakespearean ideas and pas- 
 sion 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 sensa- 
 tion in Paris as the Comedie Frangaise 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 vehe- 
 mence, 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
 
 266 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 pres- 
 ent by hook or by crook. He went to Cherubim 
 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 dis- 
 appointment nearly laid the young composer on 
 a bed of sickness ; but, if he oscillated between de- 
 liriums 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 dis- 
 played this swiftness of recoil ; one moment 
 crazed with grief and depression, the next he 
 would bend to his labor with a cool, steady fixed- 
 ness of purpose, which would sweep all interfer- 
 ences 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
 
 BERLIOZ. 267 
 
 and suggestions for his imagination, ravenous of 
 new impressions, which wrought deeply and per- 
 manently. Had Berlioz known the outcome, he 
 would not have bartered for immunity by losing 
 the jewels and ingots of the Shakespeare treas- 
 ure-house. 
 
 The year 1830 was for Berlioz one of alter- 
 nate exaltation and misery ; of struggle, priva- 
 tion, 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 or- 
 chestral part to the completed score, describing 
 the grand conflagration of the palace of Sarda- 
 napalus. 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. 
 
 in. 
 
 THE pensioners of the Conservatoire lived at 
 Rome in the Villa Medici, and the illustrious 
 painter, Horace Vernet, was the director, though
 
 268 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 he exercised but little supervision over the stud- 
 ies 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 roam- 
 ing 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 com- 
 mon-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 mere- 
 tricious 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 inter- 
 mission. The director's receptions were signal- 
 ized by the performance of insipid cavatinas, and
 
 BERLIOZ. 269 
 
 from these, as from his companions' revels in 
 which he would sometimes indulge with the mad- 
 dest 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 moon- 
 light 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 excur- 
 sions, 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 " fere 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 repre- 
 hensible tendencies." One can fancy the scorn- 
 ful laughter of Berlioz at hearing this verdict. 
 But his Italian life was not altogether purpose- 
 less. He revised his " Symphonie Fantastique," 
 and wrote its sequel, " Lelio," a lyrical mono- 
 logue, in which he aimed to express the memo- 
 ries of his passion for the beautiful Miss Smith- 
 son. These two parts comprised what Berlioz 
 18
 
 270 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 par- 
 oxysms 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 pass- 
 ports. 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
 
 BERLIOZ. 271 
 
 Smitlison also returned to Paris after a long 
 absence, with the intent of undertaking the man- 
 agement of an English theatre. It was a neces- 
 sity 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 Smitlison, 
 who by chance was present, could not be de- 
 ceived, though she never yet had seen Berlioz. 
 A few days afterward a benefit concert was ar- 
 ranged, 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 re- 
 hearsal, the looks of Berlioz followed Miss Smith- 
 son 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 }
 
 272 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 temporari- 
 ly preferring the English barbarian to Racine, Cor- 
 neille, and Moliere. The letters of Berlioz, in 
 which he scourges the fickleness of his country- 
 men 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 pre- 
 cluding her own appearance on the stage. Affairs 
 were in this desperate condition, when Berlioz 
 came to the fore with a delicate and manly chiv- 
 alry worthy of the highest praise. He offered 
 to pay Miss Smitlison's debts, though a poor man 
 himself, and to marry her without delay. The 
 ceremony took place immediately, and thus com- 
 menced 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 tem- 
 per, jealous of mere shadows (though Berlioz was 
 a man to give her substantial cause), and totally 
 lacking in sympathy with his high-art ideals.
 
 BERLIOZ. 273 
 
 When Mme. Berlioz recovered, it was to find her- 
 self 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 com- 
 positions, 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 Cheru 
 bini, 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 posi- 
 tion of librarian instead. The paltry wage he 
 eked out by journalistic writing, for the most 
 part as musical critic of the "Journal des De- 
 bats," by occasional concerts, revising proofs, in 
 a word anything which a versatile and desperate 
 Bohemian could turn his hand to. In fact, for
 
 274 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 many years the main subsistence of Berlioz was 
 derived from fcuilleton-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 pre- 
 ferred to remain merely a great musician. Dra- 
 matic, picturesque, and subtile, with an admirable 
 sense of art-form, he could have become a power- 
 ful 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 do 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 await- 
 ing my word, despair seized upon me. My gui- 
 tar rested against the table ; with a kick I 
 crushed its side. Two pistols on the mantel 
 stared at me with great round eyes. I re- 
 garded them for some time, then beat my fore- 
 head with clinched hand. At last I wept furi- 
 ously, like a schoolboy unable to do his theme. 
 The bitter tears were a relief. T turned the pis- 
 tols toward the wall ; I pitied my innocent gui-
 
 BERLIOZ. 275 
 
 tar, and sought a few chords, which were given 
 without resentment. Just then rny 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. * Pa- 
 pa,' 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 en- 
 dures. 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 cho- 
 rus, 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
 
 276 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 blind conservatism which rests all its faith in 
 what has been. Our composer made more than 
 one powerful enemy by this recklessness in tell- 
 ing 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 dis- 
 astrous 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 encour- 
 agement. 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,
 
 BERT.IOZ. 277 
 
 seeking out Berlioz, <\ fallen on his knees be- 
 fore him and kissed hu, 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, en- 
 tered 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 com- 
 plimentary 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 sym- 
 phony, "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
 
 278 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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, notwith- 
 standing 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 encoiiraging." But his Germanic laurels 
 did him no good in France. The Parisians would 
 have none of him except as a writer of feiiilletons, 
 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, espe-
 
 BERLIOZ. 279 
 
 cially, that the warmth of his audiences over- 
 ran all bounds.. One night, at Pesth, where he 
 played the " Rackoczy Indule," an orchestral set- 
 ting 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 " Damna- 
 tion 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
 
 280 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 ro- 
 manticists, and was associated with Victor Hugo, 
 Alexandre Durnas, 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 un- 
 scrupulous in the world, and Berlioz was select o I 
 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 signifi-
 
 BERLIOZ. 281 
 
 cance, for it contains but little for many years 
 except the same indomitable battle against cir- 
 cumstance 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 im- 
 mortals. But what of the mean while? This 
 problem Berlioz solved, in his later as in earlier 
 years, by doing the distasteful work of the liter- 
 ary 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 Ber- 
 lioz, "to properly pi-oduce such a work as 'Les 
 Trojans,' I must be absolute master of the the- 
 atre, 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
 
 o,S > GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 mis- 
 take, so iitterly had he failed to impress himself 
 on the public. Yet there were times when audi- 
 ences 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 sep- 
 tuor from the 'Trojans' at a benefit concert. 
 The best places were occupied by the people of
 
 BERLIOZ. 283 
 
 the world, but the elite intelligente were ranged 
 upon the highest seats of the Cirque. The pro- 
 gramme 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 dis- 
 covered, 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 strong- 
 est emotion of his life, his head upon his breast, 
 he listened to this tumultuous cry of ' Vive Ber- 
 lioz ! ' and when, on looking up, he saw all eyes 
 upon him and all arms extended toward him, he
 
 284 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 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 famil- 
 iarize myself with orchestral methods, and to 
 learn the voice and quality of the various instru- 
 ments, if not their range and mechanism. By 
 this attentive comparison of th.e 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 i>n- 
 ifxttal 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. Con- 
 trasting with these are such marvels of delicacy 
 as "Queen Mab," of which it has been said that
 
 BERLIOZ. 285 
 
 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 mu- 
 sic 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 Posvers " 
 
 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 
 If)
 
 286 GREAT ITALIAN AM) FRKNVU t oMl'OSKRS. 
 
 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 con- 
 fining 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 mel- 
 odies are often of very large dimensions, infantile 
 and short-sighted minds do not clearly distinguish 
 their form ; or else they are wedded to other sec- 
 ondary melodies which veil their outlines from 
 those same infantile minds ; or, upon the whole, 
 these melodies are so dissimilar to the little wag- 
 geries 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 
 Hcrlioz's friend, called him a "colossal nightin- 
 gale, a lark of eagle-size, such as they tell us ex- 
 isted in the primeval world." The poet goes on to 
 say : " Berlioz's music, in general, has in it some- 
 thing primeval if not antediluvian to my mind ;
 
 BERLIOZ. 287 
 
 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 publi- 
 cation of "Lutetia," in which this bold charac- 
 terization was expressed, the .first performance 
 of Berlioz's " Enfance du Christ " was given, and 
 the poet, who was on his sick-bed, wrote a peni- 
 tential 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 me- 
 lodious flowers, and that your oratorio is through- 
 out a masterpiece of naivete. I shallnever forgive 
 myself for having been so unjust to a friend." 
 
 Berlioz died at the age of sixty-five. His fu- 
 neral services were held at the Church of the 
 Trinity, a few days after those of Rossini. The 
 discourse at the grave was pronounced by Gou- 
 nod, and many eloquent things were said of him, 
 among them a quotation of the epitaph of Mar- 
 shal Trivulce, " Hie tandem quieseit qui nun- 
 quam quievit" (Here is he quiet, at last, who never 
 was quiet before). Soon after his death appeared 
 his "Mcmoires," 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.
 
 288 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 VI. 
 
 THEOPIIILE 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, often- 
 times 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 unfor- 
 tunate life. But, at one breath of true sympathy 
 how quickly the nobility of the man asserted it- 
 self ! All his cynicism and hatred melted away, 
 and left only sweetness, truth, and genial kind- 
 ness. 
 
 When Berlioz entered on his studies, he had 
 reached an age at which Mozart, Schubert, Men- 
 delssohn, Rossini, and others, had already done
 
 BERLIOZ. 289 
 
 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 Ber- 
 lioz to widen the domain of his art. He strove 
 to attain a more intimate connection between in- 
 strumental music and poetry in the portrayal of 
 intense passions, and the suggestion of well-de- 
 fined 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 legiti- 
 mate 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 
 " Symphonic Fantastique," the "Marche des Pe- 
 lerins," in " Harold " ; the overtures to " King 
 Lear," " Benvenuto Cellini," " Carnaval Remain," 
 " 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 or-
 
 290 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 chestra with the absolute daring and mastery ex- 
 ercised 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 capabili- 
 ties 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 knowl- 
 edge, 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 origi- 
 nality 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 dar- 
 ing. In one of his works he does not hesitate to 
 use three orchestras, three choruses (all of full di- 
 mensions), 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.
 
 BERLIOZ. 293 
 
 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 dlS'te"," "Irlande," and from "L'Enfance 
 du Christ " ? 
 
 Berlioz in his entirety, as man and composer, 
 was a most extraordinary being, to whom the or- 
 dinary scale of measure can hardly be applied. 
 Though he founded no new school, he pushed to a 
 fuller development the possibilities to which Beet- 
 hoven 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 in- 
 struments, by which a hundred become as plas- 
 tic 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 be- 
 lieved to be necessarily confined to the sister arts.
 
 292 CHEAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 SAINT-SAENS, BIZET, AND MASSENET. 
 
 THE latter tendencies of Gallic music, which 
 brim over the confines of any chauvinistic or sec- 
 tional spirit and are forcing their way with a large 
 sincerity toward the blending of the world's best 
 vintages with their own, find typical representa- 
 tives in three musicians, one of whom is dead, alter 
 having left a monument in " Carmen," an opera 
 which will live as long as " Faust " or the " Hu- 
 guenots" ; and the other two of whom still pur- 
 sue active and brilliant careers, gaining larger 
 fame each year. They have nobly furthered the 
 catholic spirit, which inspired the commanding 
 genius of Gounod. 
 
 CHARLES CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS, the oldest of 
 ihe trio, was Paris-born, October 9, 1835, and. 
 musician-like, indicated his remarkable endow- 
 ment from the earliest years. He entered the 
 Conservatoire in 1848, and won the prizes for 
 organ-playing and symphony composition, though, 
 strange to say, he sa\v the Prix de Rome in three 
 successive competitions carried off by his inferiors. 
 In IS(>7 lie wrote the Pri/e Cantata for the Inter- 
 national Exposition, and Berlioz pronounced him 
 one of the greatest musicians of the age a dictum 
 which Billow ratified in 18?u, after having heard
 
 JULES E. F. MASSENET.
 
 PAIXT-8AEXS, BIZET, AXD MASSEXET. 293 
 
 him read the score of Siegfried on the piano. He 
 became a celebrity in Paris as organist and piano- 
 player, and his chamber and orchestral music, his 
 sonatas and masses, made him a great name among 
 musicians, though he remained "caviare to the gen- 
 eral." Indeed, no man could grasp a large measure 
 of favor in France at that time unless as an opera 
 composer, and it was here that the genius of Saint- 
 Saens failed, though he made assiduous experi- 
 ments. Perhaps there was something profound 
 and austere in his nature which could not fit itself 
 to the exigencies of dramatic music, especially that 
 side of it which was the French vogue, in spite of 
 a few magnificent successes in the nobler operatic 
 school, such as " Faust " and " Mignon." " Le 
 Princesse Jeune," produced June 12, 1872; "Le 
 Timbre d'Argent," in 1877 ; " Samson et Delila " 
 (though successful at Weimar, where it was first 
 produced in 1877) ; " F,tienne Marcel," in 1879 ; 
 " Henri VIII," in 1883; "Proserpine," in 1887, 
 and "Ascanio," in 1890 were " damned with faint 
 praise," though " Samson et Delila " was honored 
 in 1892 by a place on the list of the Academic. 
 All these works were admirably written and or- 
 chestrated, and marked by serious elevation of 
 purpose. It may be that the future will offer the 
 composer a late reparation ; for what may not be 
 expected of a Paris which now has begun to make an 
 idol of Berlioz, which, after many years of indif- 
 ference to " Carmen," now welcomes it with true
 
 294 GREAT ITALIAN AM) FRENCH COMFOSER*. 
 
 French effervescence, which takes the keenest ap- 
 parent delight in the Wagner music drama once 
 buried under volcanic abuse by critics and public? 
 Aside from the music of the stage, however, Saint- 
 Saens has received the full meed of his greatness 
 as the most profound and accomplished of living 
 French composers. As a writer of orchestral and 
 chamber music his rank is pre-eminent even in 
 other countries than his own. The criticism that 
 he is not a great melodist scarcely tallies with the 
 fact that he has written upward of fifty charming 
 songs, which are household words in French and 
 foreign music-rooms. Unlike Berlioz, of whose 
 memory Saint-Saens is a devout worshiper, he 
 has drunk deeply from the fountains of the past, 
 and knows all his great predecessors by heart 
 from Bach to Wagner. Yet this eclectic study 
 has in nowise impaired his own originality, but 
 rather enriched it with a life more ripe and solid. 
 Saint-Saens has made frequent visits to England, 
 Germany, Russia, and Italy, and has been received 
 with a warmth attesting the cosmopolitan recog- 
 nition of his genius, though his personality is said 
 to be by no means genial or effusive, but rather 
 disdainful of anything like a social following, a 
 quality in which he is as on-Gallic as he is in the 
 essential genre of his musical endowment. His 
 prolific industry is shown in the fact that many 
 years ago his opus numbers reached sixty-four, 
 besides numerous unnumbered pieces.
 
 SAIXT-SAENS, BIZET, AND MASSENET. 295 
 
 II. 
 
 FRENCH pride in GEORGES BIZET should be 
 mingled with the bitter of remorse, for it allowed 
 this gifted man to go to his grave in cruel uncer- 
 tainty as to the fate of an opera which was to 
 make his name immortal. He lived a life of 
 drudgery, and passed away in the prime of life at 
 thirty-seven. His extraordinary musical faculties 
 were built up with the soundest training, and he 
 brought to his work not only inspiration and in- 
 sight, but a scholarship in his art and a catholic 
 sympathy of taste which clasped cordial hands 
 across the Rhine. Had he lived, French music 
 might have expected an impetus from his fully 
 developed powers, which would have added great- 
 ly to the glory of national art. As it was, he gave 
 to his country and to the world one work of tran- 
 scendent merit, as dramatic in its conception as it 
 was powerful in execution. 
 
 He was born October 25, 1838, and inherited 
 musical talent from both sides of the house. He 
 was received in the Conservatoire at the age of 
 nine, and carried off many brilliant prizes during 
 his ten years in the great art institute. In 1857 
 he received the Prix de Rome. His three years 
 in Italy were well spent, as was indicated in the 
 production of "Vasco de Gama," a descriptive 
 symphony with choruses, which in later years was 
 recognized as a masterly work. In 1860 he was
 
 296 <",REAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 b;u:k in Paris in the thick of that battle in which 
 he was doomed to sink defeated though still un- 
 conquered. How prophetic were his own sen- 
 tences written in 1857 : " In truth . . . composers 
 are the pariahs, the martyrs of modern society. 
 Like the gladiators of old they cry, ' Salve, papule, 
 morituri te salutant!' 1 Music! what a splen- 
 did art, what a melancholy profession ! " 
 
 His short career of fifteen years was a heart- 
 breaking treadmill of hack-work to earn a bare 
 living. Piano-lessons and transcriptions, scoring 
 dance-music, etc., exhausted time and energy, and 
 his genius for composition straggled hard for ex- 
 pression. Carvalhogave him a commission to com- 
 pose the three-act opera " Les Pecheurs de Perles," 
 but it was heard with more surprise than pleasure by 
 audiences who abhorred neology in art. Twenty 
 years later, transformed into an Italian opera, it 
 was successful in London, Madrid, and Vienna. 
 'I he work was heartily damned, a verdict perhaps 
 helped by the cordial praise of the great Berlioz. 
 His next essay was a five-act opera, " Ivan the 
 Terrible," composed in the Verdi style, which he 
 withdrew after acceptance at the Theatre Lyrique, 
 and reserved for a grand auto-da-fe, with other 
 productions condemned by his artistic taste. His 
 conscience was inexorable in spite of the stress of 
 poverty. The friendly Carvalho again commis- 
 sio.ied him to compose an opera for the Lyrique 
 to a libretto taken from Scott's " St. Valentine's
 
 SAINT SAHXS, BIZET, AND MASKEXET. 297 
 
 Day," and " La Jolie Fille de Perth," after a year's 
 delay, was staged in 1807. It ran for twenty 
 nights, and was then shelved, in spite of the ap- 
 proval of the cognoscenti. Carvalho released the 
 musician from a worse drudgery by using his ex- 
 traordinary talent of sight-reading in playing the 
 scores of the numerous operas sent for examina- 
 tion, and this kept his head above water for a 
 good while. 
 
 He married a daughter of the composer Hal6vy 
 in 1869, whose acquaintance he had made through 
 his labors in completing the score of a posthumous 
 work of her father. " Djamileh," a one-act opera 
 based on De Musset's morbid psychological story 
 of "Namouna," fell still-born in 1872. All this 
 time the terrible charge of Wagnerism, then as 
 fatal a cry as " Mad dog ! " was being hurled against 
 the composer, though he bore the pelting with 
 scornful indifference. The same year the beau- 
 tiful incidental music to David's " L'Arlesienne" 
 gave him a taste of the sweets of public applause, 
 but little of which it had been his good luck to 
 enjoy. It was in March, 1875, that "Carmen" 
 was put on the stage at the Opera Comique ; and 
 on the thirty-third night of its thirty-seven per- 
 formances Bizet answered that " knock at the 
 gate " which finally assaults all the habitations of 
 men : 
 
 "... Tabernas pauperum regumque turres."
 
 208 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 lie died a prematurely old, broken-down man, 
 though he was still valiant with hope and pluck. 
 " Carmen " was only a succds d'estime, and it was 
 not till eight years later, when all the foreign 
 opera-houses had rung with delighted salvos over 
 this magnificent work, that France awakened from 
 its lethargy to the greatness of the man she had 
 neglected and lost. 
 
 In " Carmen " the genius and musical knowl- 
 edge of Bizet flowered into one superb master- 
 piece. Individuality and creative energy fire 
 every part of the score, and the poet-passion, the 
 power of the " maker," bourgeons into a fullness 
 and variety of characterization which make the 
 work throb with human life through all the bars 
 of musical convention. The orchestration is no 
 less solid than brilliant, the richness of the melody 
 no less enchanting to the ear than its dramatic 
 fitness to the imagination. It must always be al- 
 lowed one of the topmost achievements in the 
 lyrico-dramatic music of the world. 
 
 in. 
 
 THE father of JULES F^MILE FREDERIC MAS- 
 SENET was an iron-master near St.-Etienne, for- 
 merly an officer under the First Empire, so the 
 youth of the musician, who was born May 11, 
 1842, was passed amid affluent surroundings. His 
 talent received its earliest training from his 
 mother, and he entered the Conservatoire at the
 
 SAINT SAEN>, BIXKT, AND MASSENET. 099 
 
 age of ton. Here he studied with various inter- 
 missions till 18G3, when he was awarded the Prix 
 de Itome, the " blue ribbon " of the French schools. 
 On his return to France he was warmly befriended 
 by Thomas, who had the liveliest faith in his 
 future a future which promised to be unclouded 
 by the miseries of the garret, for he had ample 
 private resources, as well as the courage of a 
 superb confidence, a strength which so often oozes 
 away at the last in disappointment and despair. 
 Shortly after his return (1867) his first opera, " La 
 Grande Tantc," was put on the stage of the 
 Comique and made an agreeable impression. His 
 work was interrupted by the Franco-German War, 
 and during the siege of Paris he did active mili- 
 tary duty. Massenet has written about those 
 days, the terrible stress of which did not entirely 
 kill his devotion to his Muse, in a strain of pas- 
 sionate eloi|uence. Among those who fell by his 
 side was his dear friend Henri Regnault, the great 
 painter. 
 
 When peace came again, Massenet renewed 
 his labors with increased ardor. His beautiful 
 opera, " Don Cesar de Bazan," was staged at the 
 Lyrijue in 1H72, and the next year saw the pro- 
 duction of the fine incidental music to Le Conte 
 de Lisle's drama of " Les Erinnyes " and the ora- 
 torio of " Marie Magdalene." " Le Roi de La- 
 hore," one of Massenet's most successful works, 
 was accepted at the Academic in 1877, and the
 
 300 GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS. 
 
 next year he was made a professor of the piano 
 at the Conservatoire. " Narcisse," a cantata, and 
 " La Vierge," an opera, were done in 1879. Other 
 dates of his lyric productions were : "Manon," in 
 1883; "Le Cid," in 1885, and the same year 
 " Ilerodiade," at Brussels; and " Esclarmonde," 
 in 1889, which drew brilliant and crowded audi- 
 ences in Paris for one hundred nights. The corn- 
 poser tells us that the impulse to write this opera 
 was given him by the American singer, Miss Sibyl 
 Sanderson, who afterward interpreted the title 
 role. Since that time he has written " Le Mage " 
 and " Werther," the latter based on the story of 
 Goethe's novel. The last-named work was pro- 
 duced on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera 
 House in New York at the close of the season of 
 1894, and though only a succ&s d'cstime was duly 
 appreciated for its brilliant episodes. To these 
 lyric works must be added many orchestral and 
 chamber pieces, piano compositions, including 
 three concertos, and songs. Admirable player :is 
 well as composer, he, like Saint-Saens, has a na- 
 tional reputation as a pianist and organist, though 
 he has never posed as virtuoso. 
 
 Massenet's music, both for the stage and con- 
 cert-room, has the vivid, sharply-accented charac- 
 teristics of the typical French school, and is full 
 of orchestral color and boldness. To this his 
 ability as a contrapuntist and his thorough schol- 
 arship add the sound construction which, at its
 
 SAINT-SAEXS, BIZET, AND MASSENET. 301 
 
 best, we associate with Germany. Like Saint- 
 Saens and Bizet, he has a deep sympathy with 
 the works of the giants of German music and has 
 made a profound study of them, and this influence 
 is seen everywhere in his methods and the art 
 mechanism by which he produces his effects ; but 
 his talent shines clear through all and stamps its 
 individuality on his work. Massenet, though a 
 passionately loyal Frenchman, would be the last 
 to deny his art-obligations to the traditional ene- 
 mies of bis people. Another curious trait may 
 be noted. Unlike the older school of musicians, 
 but following the versatile model of Berlioz and 
 Saint-Saens, Massenet is a brilliant writer and 
 critic. It may be owing to this fact the presid- 
 ing energy of the analytic faculty that his or- 
 chestral music has suffered the occasional indict- 
 ment of showing too much the machinery of 
 construction and of lacking the glow of imagi- 
 native passion which (to take the greatest exam- 
 ples) burns with such splendid fire in the instru- 
 mental works of Beethoven, Schubert, and Berlioz, 
 and illumines in scarcely less degree the dramatic 
 music of Gounod and Bizet. 
 
 (i) 
 
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