Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/135

Rh prove by A + B that any musical description is absurd and that Händel, like Berlioz and Richard Strauss at a later date, sinned against good taste and against music itself; nothing can alter the fact that the "hailstorm chorus" in Israel in Egypt is a masterpiece, and that one could no more resist its whirlwind of sound than that of the March of Rakokczy or that of the battle in Heldenleben. But without entering upon a useless discussion (for music ignores these discussions, and the public follows suit, disregarding the disputants) what should be remarked here is that in Telemann's case the influence of France was noted in his life-time.

As we have learned from his biography, he had by no means lacked opportunities of becoming acquainted with French music. On the whole, his musical education was more French than German. First at Hanover, at the Hildesheim gymnasium, when he was about seventeen years of age, a second time at Sorau in 1705, and a third at Eisenach, in 1709, with Pantaleon Hebenstreit, he had found himself in an environment of French art, and had applied himself to writing in the French style. His journey to Paris in 1737 finally made of him a Frenchman in Germany, devoted to the cause of French music, and a passionate propagandist. "He made it the fashion in Germany."

And if he thought of publishing his impressions of this visit to Paris this was, by his own confession, in order that he might "attack the current prejudices in respect of French music," and exhibit it "in its true beauty, as a subtle imitator of nature."

A very curious document shows us how remarkable was Telemann's knowledge of the French style.