Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/600

588 was not a popular success. This, however, was achieved the most brilliant manner by Cherubim s next opera, Lodoiska (1791), which opens the series of great dramatic works belonging to the composer s second period. The representative production of this period is Medee, already alluded to. The main characteristics of the com poser s style have also been briefly touched upon. From a mere musical point of view a bold though always strictly logical sequence of harmonies, a rich vein of melodious de velopments, and great brilliancy and originality of instru mental effects ought to be added. By the production of Medee (1797) the composer s re putation was firmly established. All Paris was in rap turous admiration of his genius, with one exception Napoleon Bonaparte. The young victorious general aspired to musical amateurship, and loved to speak authoritatively on that as on most other subjects. But it was not in Cherubini s character to bow to any man, however great, in matters artistic. Cherubini s repeated remonstrances against Napoleon s exaggerated enthusiasm for Paesiello, Zingarelli, and other ephemeral composers culminated in the blunt repartee, &quot; Citoyen -general, I perceive that you love only that music which does not prevent you from thinking of your politics.&quot; The emperor remembered the affront offered to the citizen-general, and the appointment of Imperial chapelm aster was given to Lesueur, in spite of the Italian composer s superior merits. But Cherubini does not seem to have suffered much under this disappointment. Two works replete with serenest joy owe their origin to the period alluded to Anacreon (1803) and Les deux Journees (1804). The last-mentioned work is Cherubini s master piece of comic opera. In it we admire the grace and true gaiete de cceur, which have made the comic opera of France deservedly famous amongst civilized nations. The libretto of Les deux Journees, although clever and piquant, does not offer many opportunities for musical expansion, the action, as is usual in French comic opera, being to a great extent carried on in spoken dialogue. But Cherubini has succeeded in delineating with a few graphic touches the import of his characters and situations. A peasant chorus in the third act, a Savoyard s song, and the couplets of Micheli the jovial water-carrier, are insurpassable speci mens of their genre, equal in melodious beauty and grace to anything that French composers have produced in these forms of art. Cherubini, indeed, ranks with the greatest masters of the French school, with Gretry, Dalayrac, Auber, and Boieldieu, all of whom he infinitely surpasses as far as musical workmanship is concerned. In 1805 Cherubini went to Yienna, in compliance with an invitation to compose an opera for the imperial theatre of that city. Here his chances of success were once more thwarted by his great antagonist Napoleon, who entered Yienna at the head of the victorious French army, and for a time interrupted all artistic enterprise. The personal meeting of emperor and composer was again of anything but a friendly kind. Soon after the performance of his new work Faniska (1806) at Yienna, Cherubini returned to Paris, and *or a long time kept an unbroken silence. His chief occupation was his lessons at the Conservatoire, besides which he filled up great part of the day by cutting the hearts and diamonds of ordinary playing cards into all kinds of fantastic figures and landscapes. The results of his extraordinary ingenuity, carefully framed, covered the walls of his study. An accidental circumstance at last roused him from this morbid indolence. He was staying at a country seat of the Prince de Chimay, where a new church was to be inaugurated. Timidly was an appeal made to him for a religious composition to be performed on the occasion, and in compliance with this request he wrote in a few weeks his .great Mass in F. Thus at a time of life when most artists rest on their laurels he entered a new field of creative labour that of sacred music. Of the works of Cherubini s third and perhaps his greatest period only the most important can be mentioned here. They are the Missa Solemnis in D, the coronation mass written for the consecration of Charles X., and the two requiems in C and D, the latter for male voices. Besides these he wrote numerous smaller compositions for the service of the Chapel Royal, most of which are still unpublished. The most striking feature of Cherubini s sacred compositions is their solemn grandeur of conception, combined with an unequalled mastership of artistic treatment. The Restoration of the Bourbons drew Cherubini from his long seclusion. The royal family were eager to show their favour to the opponent of Napoleon Bonaparte. Cherubini was created composer and conductor to the Chapel Royal, and in 1821 obtained the permanent director ship of the Conservatoire. His days were prolonged beyond the ordinary age of men, and after having witnessed and partly celebrated numberless revolutions in his adopted country, the more than septuagenarian retained sufficient vigour of mind to write one of his most charming operas when Louis Philippe was king in France. It is called Alt J3aba, and was first performed in 1833. To the list of his dramatic compositions ought also to be added another important opera, Les Alencerrages, written in 1813, but treated with undeserved neglect by the public. He also wrote several pieces of chamber music, amongst which six quartets for strings, and one quintet and six sonatas for the pianoforte may be mentioned. A great number of his compositions, moreover, remained in manuscript at his death, March 15, 1842. Cherubini s external bearing was frequently harsh and arrogant ; his prejudice against Beethoven, both personally and artistically, is a deplorable instance of his one-sidedness. But his more intimate friends found him kind and faithful. His love of order was carried to excess. All his music was carefully labelled and distributed in pigeon-holes, and even his pocket- handkerchiefs were numbered for consecutive use. To this extreme carefulness we owe a complete catalogue of his own compositions from 1773-1841, edited by M. Botte e de Toulmon, under the title of Notice des Manuscriti autographes de la imisique composee par M. L. Z. C. S. Cherubini. &quot;We also possess by him a valuable Cours de conlrepoint et de fugue, the letterpress of which is written by his pupil the well-known composer Halevy. An English biography Cherubini, Memorials illustrative of his Life (Lond. 1874) has been written by Mr E. Bellasis. An interesting article containing personal reminiscences of Cherubini by the German composer Ferdinand Hiller appeared in Macmillan s Magazine in 1875. CHERUSCI, a tribe of ancient Germany, whose country was bounded on the E. by the Elbe and on the W. by the Weser. In the time of Augustus the cruelty of Yarus, who commanded the Roman army on their frontier, drove them into war, and they annihilated the legions sent against them. In the 4th century they had become members of the Frankish confederation.  CHESHIRE, a maritime county in the north-west of England, is bounded on the N. by the Mersey, which separ ates it from Lancashire, on the N.E. by Yorkshire, on the E. by Derbyshire and Staffordshire, on the S. by Shropshire and Denbighshire, on the W. by Flintshire, and on the N.W. by the Irish Sea. Its greatest length from east to west is about 48 miles, and its greatest breadth from south to north about 33 miles. It possesses an area of 705,493 statute acres, or 1102 square miles; and its population in 1871 was 561,201 persons (males, 271,033; females, 290,168). Since the first census in 1801, the population has increased by 368,396 persons, or 191 per cent, and 