Rossini

With its completion the prolific career of the composer may be said to have ended, for though he lived nearly 40 years longer, a few songs, his 'Stabat and the 'Petite Messe Solen nelle) are about all he wrote. These 40 years were spent at Bologna and at Passy, where he died.

Determining to revisit Bologna, where his mother had died in 1827 and where his father was still living, he resigned his post, but made an agreement with the government to compose operas for the French stage for the next 10 years, and to produce one every two years, re ceiving 15,000 francs for each. Should this plan not be carried out, he was to receive a pennon of 6,000 francs. On account of the abdication of the king of France and the Revolution of 1830, he returned in November 1830 to Paris. The new government, however, was not willing to recognize the agreement above mentioned, and for several years he fought his case in the courts, it being eventually decided in his favor. During this time he wrote his (Stabat Mater.) In 1836 he again left Paris for Bologna, where his father died in 1839. He now'wrote a num ber of songs and choruses, among which may be cited 'Inno populare,> for the accession of Pius IX. His wife was produced on 14 March 1864 and he afterward scored it for a full orchestra, in which form it was given at the Theatre Italien on 28 Feb. 1869, three months after his death. "Next to the Emperor,' writes one of his biographers, the became the first man in this city of arts anti artists.' Rossini'i; position among the world's greatest composers has been much discussed. His joyous disposition and light-heartedness have been used as arguments against classing him with such profound composers as Mozart and Beethoven, the latter of whom is recorded as having char acterized Rossini's work as "degrading the art In general wantonness with a negligence bordering on frivolity" It has been often said that Ros sini's melodies are conspicuous for great sweet ness • and wonderful sensuous attraction, as for instance in the first finale of (Cenerentola,) or as evidenced by the jolly roguery of the (Barber of Seville.' This is unquestionably true and these are the fruits of his special form of genius. They are his natural endowment and probably if he had at that time tried ever so hard to write in a different vein he would have failed. His melodies were intended to please the public, for whom he wrote, and they ful filled their mission to perfection. That he ac complished much for music cannot be gainsaid, and especially for operatic music in Italy.

Notwithstanding the immense popularity of Rossini's compositions, there have been pointed out certain peculiar features repeated over and over again which have caused some of his critics to temper their praise. Nor were these peculiarities entirely of Rossini's own creation, some of them having been borrowed from the works of Generali, Velluti and others. Prom

inent among them is the use of the crescendo, "which,') says one, °appears as regularly and invariably in his overtures and finales as horse radish with a joint of roast beef.' The constant use of triplets la another mannerism which has provoked adverse criticism, while the undue prominence ;of appogiaturas (leaning notes), in many cases of longer duration than the har monic notes to which they are attached, has also been condemned, as well as his practice of closing his periods by modulating them from the major tonic to the minor mood of the lesser third below, or of the great third above the major tome, A more serious charge made against him' was that of plagiarism, it being stated that besides resorting to the national' airs of Italy, he availed himself to a great ex tent of the ideas of Generali, Cimarosa and other Italian composers, as well as of several German composers, such as Haydn, Mozart, Krommer, etc. Thus, while no competent critic has denied that Rossini possessed genius of an extraordinary character, many are inclined to believe that his inventive faculties were con fined within quite measured limits.

In spite of all this, there can be no doubt that his compositions form a memorable epoch in the history of musical art. It was he, more over, who substituted singing for the endless recitatives which had been in vogue and he also gave the bass voice a leading part, insist ing 'too that a singer should sing the notes of the composer without any additions of his own. He also made the chorus an important feature and fortified the orchestra by adding wind instruments to the strings, which alone had hitherto been used.

It cannot be questioned that wherever his operas appeared, they became firmly established and in many instances almost banished the classic works of the great masters who had preceded him. Thus, in Italy, they nearly sup planted the works of Patna°, Mayer and others, including even Cimarosa. In Germany the national predilection was for graver music, but even there Rossini was, as one of his bi opraphers put it )lord of the While he rarely, if ever, reached the tragic grandeurs of Gluck, or the intense feeling of Mozart and Weber, his music is never dolorous and heavy, as is the case with some of the best compositions of the German school. Forceful and precise rhythm is another of his principal characteristics, while his scores are notable for their simplicity of outline and primary concep tion, although his manner of decorating the framework was at times intensely florid. Con sult biographies by I3eyle-Stendhal (1823; new ed., 1892) ; Azvedo (1865) ; Edwards (Boston 1881) • Zanolini (1875) ; Bevan, W. A. (Ros sini) (New York 1905) ; Dauriac, L., (Paris 1905) ; Corradi, E., (Gioachino Rossini) (Rome 1909) ; Sittard, J., (Leipzig 1882).