of the composer's sarcastic humour. concert-room, and even the church. And the churches. On complaining to Rossini of this flimsy productions of the present degenerate disappointment, his only answer was, "Heureur. race of composers have become popular all over mortel!" significant enough, and characteristic Europe: a circumstance to be attributed to the unrivalled excellence of the Italian theatrical singing, a branch of the art which certainly has not accompanied its other departments in their decline. At Naples more attention continues to be paid to the music of the church than anywhere else in Italy, though its style is not less perverted than in other places. The Neapolitan school has long been eminently productive of great composers; but its ecclesiastical music has always been less grave and severe than the Roman school created by Palestrina, and more mundane in its melody and expression. All the great Neapolitan church composers were equally great on The music of the church, the highest branch of the art, exists no longer in Italy, not even in its papal sanctuary, where it has flourished for so many ages. The Abate Baini, the celebrated author of the Life of Palestrina, who is the Maestro-di-Capella of the Pontifical Chapel, gives a melancholy account of the present state the stage. Such were Pergolesi, Jomelli, Picciof that establishment. "There is nothing ni, Cimarosa, Paesiello, and lastly, Zingarelli, now," he says; "no singers, no composers, no the immediate predecessor of Mercadante, the school; all is ruined, destroyed. The pontifical present head of the Neapolitan school-than chapel is but the ghost of what it was. The which a greater proof of the degeneracy of that voices that we lose can no longer be replaced; school can hardly be imagined. The church and if they were, we have no means of giving compositions of the great masters just named, them instruction. General ignorance prevails; admirable in many respects, tended more and and the time is near when all will be over with more to the style of the theatre. Still the disthe works of Palestrina." The other great ec- tinction between the two styles was not lost clesiastical choirs, those of the Vatican, the sight of. In the music of the church a subdued church of Santa Maria Maggiore, and of San tone was preserved; there was less luxuriance Giovanni di Laterano, are in a similar plight. and brilliancy, with more simplicity and facility Each of these churches has still a Maestro-di- of vocal execution. Many of the earlier works of Capella; and Basily, who presides in the Vati Zingarelli are excellent; but he injured his repucan, is, like Baini, worthy of the palmy days of tation by the excessive haste and rapidity with ecclesiastical music. But the occupation of which he wrote, and for which a singular reason those men is gone; and they mourn in unwil- is assigned, namely, his affection for a favourite ling inactivity the decline of their art, and the domestic, who had served him for many years, evil days on which they have fallen. The and to whom, having little money to leave, he Abate Santini, another Roman musician, has all resolved to bequeath his books and manuscripts. his life cultivated the music of the church with Having taken this resolution, he endeavoured, no other reward than the exalted pleasure he derives from it. His masses, motets, and other compositions for many voices, are equally remarkable for their learning, their expression, and their effect. But such things are never performed, and their publication is out of the question; so that on their author's death their fate is to become waste paper. These eminent musicians are all old men, and with them ecclesiastical music will literally expire in the holy city. by incessant labour, to increase as much as possible the value of his servant's inheritance; thus, it may be presumed, defeating his own object. He left behind him a hundred and fifty grand masses, with Te Deums, Magnificats, Stabats, motets, hymns, ns, &c., cc., without number; their value of course being in the inverse ratio of their quantity. Zingarelli may, however, be considered as the last of the great masters of the Neapolitan school-a school at present most unworIn the other parts of Italy it is still worse. thily represented by Mercadante, one of whose M. Fétis, the musical historian and critic, in trashy operas has been so judiciously chosen for some letters from Italy lately published, tells us, the display of Miss Adelaide Kemble's qualities that passing one day before a church in Milan, as an English singer. We may imagine the he heard the sound of a pianoforte within. On state of the Conservatorio of Naples under the entering, he found the church hung with black, direction of this learned Theban. To give some and other preparations for a funeral solemnity. idea of the prevalent taste in ecclesiastical muThe music consisted of the Latin works of the sic at Naples, it may be mentioned that, at a re cent religious solemnity, on the occasion of a lady taking the veil, the ceremony began with a military march, and ended with a gallopade. Requiem, arranged to opera-airs of Bellini and Donizetti, and the singers were accompanied by the pianoforte. As he was leaving the church people were bringing in a harp to increase the The most recent occurrence worthy of remark strength of this impressive accompaniment. as connected with Italian sacred music, is the Such is the state of things in Milan, the birthplace appearance at Paris of a Stabat Mater, composof the Ambrosian Chant, and for ages one of the ed by Rossini, the history of which is somegreat seats of ecclesiastical music. what curious. The illustrious Maestro, a few At Bergamo, Padua, Venice, &c., where men years since, visited Madrid, where of course he of some eminence hold the office of Maestro-di- was a lion of the first magnitude. At the reCapella in the principal churches, it is a mere qest of a Spanish prelate, Don Francisco Varela, sinecure, their services being never required he undertook to compose something for the chamore than two or three times in the year. At pel-royal; and after his return home, fulfilled his Bologna, notwithstanding its celebrated academy promise by sending his reverend friend the Staand its cultivation of classical music, M. Fétis bat Mater in question, which Don Varela aecould not hear a note of music in any of the knowledged by transmitting the composer a snuff-box enriched with valuable diamonds. and to which he is indebted for fame and On the death of Don Varela, who bequeathed fortune. his immense fortune to charitable uses, his ex- It is true that Rossini has met with the fate ecutors sold the manuscript of his piece as an so often experienced by musicians, especially in article of his property; and it was purchased Italy. He has suffered from the mutability by M. Aulagnier, a Parisian publisher, for 6000 of fashion and the rage for novelty; and hence, francs. Afterwards, however, Rossini sold an- no doubt, a degree of mortification and spleen other copy of his Stabat to Troupenas, another which, in his present retirement, assumes the Parisian publisher, by whom it was immedi- appearance of absolute dislike to music itself. ately published. Aulagnier obtained an injunc- The revolution of July, 1830, made an entire tion against its sale, on the ground that it was change in his situation in France. It deprived no longer Rossini's property, he having previ- him of the unbounded favour he had enjoyed at ously disposed of it to Don Francisco Varela for the court of Charles X., and even obliged him a valuable consideration. A long lawsuit fol- to have recourse to a tedious lawsuit for the relowed, which made no small noise in the Pa-covery of the pension to which he was enrisian musical world. The result was, that Ros- titled by his engagement. The public feeling, sini was found not to have beeen divested of the too, became changed towards him, and he found property of his composition by his having sent himself reduced to share with Meyerbeer the a copy of it to Don Varela, and having received supremacy of the Parisian musical world. After a snuff-box in return; and the sale by him to twelve years' residence, therefore, in France, he Troupenas being thus found valid, the injunc-resolved on returning to his native country. On tion against that publisher was removed. Since the appearance of this Stabat Mater, its performance at the Italian Opera-house by Grisi, Mario, Lablache, &c., has been one of the favourite amusements of the Parisian fashiona arriving at Milan, in 1835, he met with an additional mortification. Bellini had now become the favourite of the Italians; and the author of Otello and Semiramide found himself thrown into the shade by the composer of the Pirata bles. We cannot speak of its character from and Norma. When Rossini was at Milan, our own knowledge, but from the numerous the question of their comparative merit was criticisms in the journals we may conclude that discussed in every journal and every musical it is pretty, and completely theatrical-just such circle; and what was worse, the laurel snatched sacred music, in short, as Rossini might be sup- from the head of the veteran, was placed on posed to write. Jules Janin, in the Journal des that of his juvenile rival. It was agreed on all Debats, summed up its merits in one word, hands that Bellini's superiority was unques "C'est un joli Stabat!" tionable; and this young man, whose inventive This work has once more brought Rossini be- faculty was confined, whose learning was shalfore the world as belonging to the existing race low, whose skill in harmony and orchestral com of musicians. He is only in his fiftieth year, position was small, who, in short, possessed noyet his career is considered as long since closed, thing but a vein of pleasing melody, was, with and his name associated with those of Mozart, out scruple, placed above the man whose rich Cimarosa, and the worthies of other times. imagination and inexhaustible variety had for When he was only thirty, his biography was so many years enchanted, not only his fickle written in two goodly volumes; and to that countrymen, but all Europe. That such circumwork little remains to be added. He has lived stances should have produced mortification, for several years at his villa in the neighbour- showing itself in indifference, or even dislike, to hood of Bologna, in retirement and inactivity: music itself, is not at all surprising. That and the state of his health as well as his con- there is, however, some affectation in this firmed habits of indolence (counteracted in his indifference, may be inferred from his accept earlier years by the love of glory and of gold), ance of the office of honorary director of the give reason to believe that his musical course Musical Lyceum of Bologna, and the attention is indeed run. To some friend who remonstrat- he pays to its duties. Though the office is honed with him on his way of life, he is said to orary and gratuitous, he visits the Lyceum have exclaimed, "I am sick of pleasure-I have almost daily, inquires into the situation and supped full of fame-I have more money than I can spend; why then should I work?" studies of the pupils, occupies himself in im proving the methods of instruction, and presides at the examinations and rehearsals, thus evincing a strong interest in the welfare of the institution. His inactivity, moreover, may unfortunately be ascribed to his bad state of health. His ap There is yet another motive (it might have been replied) the love which an artist feels for his art. But Rossini all his life has felt, or affected, the utmost indifference on this score. Enthusiasm, such as formed the ruling passion of a Beethoven or a Weber, was an object of pearance, within a few years, is said to be sadly his especial ridicule; and indeed he made it changed. He is thin and old-looking, and his constant habit in the intercourse of society, shows languor and debility in every movement, to turn strong feeling or emotion of every kind A painful complaint of long standing is the into subject of jest and raillery. Like many principal cause of this bodily decay, and its men, however, he seems to have had pleasure symptoms greatly aggravated ted by by his grief in making himself seem worse than he was. for the loss of his father. Notwithstanding his He could not have been destitute of love for an affected indifference, filial piety was always a art for which he was so largely gifted by nature, in remarkable feature in Rossini's character. In which he has produced so many beautiful works, early life he never failed to send the largest were portion of his earnings to his mother, gladden- present is in the ascendant. There is one gift ing her heart, at the same time, with the news for which this composer is unrivalled-his fecunof each successive triumph.* When the old dity. He is about fifty, and has written above man was taken ill, he was residing in his son's sixty operas; so that he must have produced, house at Bologna; Rossini, then at Milan, hast- at an average, a couple of operas every year ened to his bedside: when he died, Rossini could since the age of twenty. Fétis indeed tells us, not bear to live in the house where he had lost that from 1828 to 1835, Donizetti, besides writhim; and the house, though it had been fitted ing twenty-two operas for Naples alone, wrote up and embellished at great expense, was im- twenty more for other places, in Italy! But mediately sold. Rossini's affliction brought on our wonder at this excessive productiveness a long and dangerous malady, the effects of ceases when we examine the productions. They which, though nearly two years have elapsed exhibit no expenditure of thought, invention, since this event, are still apparent. Another learning, or skill. They are strings of commonproof of a good disposition is to be found in his place passages, put down apparently at random, conduct towards Bellini and his family. How- assigned indiscriminately to every character and ever he may have felt the unjust preference used in every situation. Youth and age-the given to this feeble rival, he showed him, during tyrant and the lover-the stern warrior and the his short life, so much personal kindness, that when he died, his poor relations, who lived at Catania, in Sicily, were encouraged to apply to Rossini for his assistance in collecting any property and effects which the young composer had left. Rossini zealously undertook the task, gave himself much trouble in collecting and realizing Bellini's property, and transmitted its amount, 40,000 francs, to his family. We have heard, too, that when our gifted young countrywoman, Miss Clara Novello, was preparing last year for her debut on the Italian stage, he acted towards her with great kindness, gave her good counsel and zealous assistance, and, indeed, took an almost parental interest in her welfare. These are not the features of a selfish or heartless character; and we may, we think, conclude, that this illustrious musician has been belied, not only by others, but by himself. tender maiden-in joy, in grief, or in anger,all employ the same unmeaning phraseology. When you have heard two or three of Donizetti's operas, you have heard them all. He may give you operas with new titles, new stories, and new personages; but the more you hear of his works the more certain you must be, that were he to write till doomsday, he will give you no new music. But new titles and new names are sufficient to pass for novelty, and novelty is all in all on the opera-stage. Besides, the Italian singers are fond of Donizetti. They are with all their talents, an indolent generation, and he gives them no trouble. When they have mastered one or two of his operas, they have mastered them all. Any one them is just as good as another to serve as a canvass for the brilliant flights of execution, the roulades and cadences, with which those accomplished artists delight the ears of the fashionable opera-goers in every capital of Europe, and even those amateurs who, though made of sterner stuff, are not proof against those sweet warblings which fascinate them, even despite their better judg. ment. There are at present many dramatic composers in Italy, and some of them are in great vogue, not in their own country only but all over Europe. It is merely vogne, however, that they enjoy; that temporary popularity which arises from incessant craving for novelty. None of them have claims to permanent reputation; and Rossini, whom they live by plundering, will undoubtedly long survive them all. Bellini, who (as already inentioned) first came between Rossini and the public favour, died young, and his works are following him. They are disappearing from the Italian theatres, and, it would seem, are more often performed at our nals speak of young men, unknown beyond the own Opera-house than any where else. As Rossini was superseded by Bellini, so he, in his turn, has been superseded by Donizetti, whose star at ** Some of these affectionate letters were quaintly addressed, "All' ornatissima Signora Rossini, madre del celebre maestro, a Pessaro." After Donizetti came Mercadante (whom we have already mentioned as chief of the Conservatio of Naples,) Pacina and Ricci, all of whom have gained an European celebrity. But they have no individuality of character; they are all like Virgil's monotonous heroes-fortem Gyan, fortemque Cloanthum. The foreign jour of Alps, who are constantly producing new pieces in the different Italian theatres, the principal whom seem to be Speranza, Verdi, and Torrigiani. 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