Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/153

Rh recitativo secco. The music flows steadily onward and follows the movement of the poem. There are only two airs da capo, at the beginning and at the end.

When we read such compositions we are abashed at having so long been ignorant of Telemann, and at the same time we are annoyed with him for not employing his talent as he might have done—as he should have done. It makes us indignant to find platitudes and trivial nonsense side by side with passages of perfect beauty. If Telemann had been more careful of his genius, if he had not written so much, accepted so many tasks, his name would perhaps have left a deeper mark on history than that of Gluck; in any case he would have shared the latter's fame. But here we perceive the moral justice of certain of the decrees of history; it is not enough to be a talented artist; it is not enough even to add application to talent—(for who worked harder than Telemann?)—there must be character. Gluck, with much less music than half a score of other German composers of the eighteenth century—than Hasse, Graun, or Telemann, for example—achieved where the others amassed material (and he did not utilise even a tenth part of it). The fact is that he imposed a sovereign discipline upon his art and his genius. He was a man. The others were merely musicians. And this, even in music, is not enough.

There should be room for a study of Telemann's place in the history of instrumental music.—He was one of the champions in Germany of the "French overture."—(This is the name given to the symphony in three movements as written by Lully,