" Moreover, the orchestration
of Berlioz had been a precursor of his orchestral tone-coloring.
Nevertheless, everything he touched was so characteristically applied by
him as to produce new impressions, and to emphasize the idea of music as
a language. So peculiarly were music and poetry blended in the delicate
tissue of his genius that one seemed inseparable from the other. United,
he believed it to be their mission to inculcate high moral lessons of
patriotism and love.
He gave the death-blow to an opera whose sole aim is to tickle the ear.
Many an exquisite melody of Rossini and other Italian composers will
long continue to live, but their productions as wholes have mostly
ceased to be satisfying to those of us who have Teutonic blood in our
veins. The Italian opera composer who holds the highest place to-day in
the heart of the serious musician is that grand old man of music,
Giuseppe Verdi, whose genius enabled him to yield four times to the
spirit of the age, during his long career, and who in his ripe old age
endeavored to give Italy what Wagner had given the German nation.
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