Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/163

Rh because he was living in a Teutonic country where his Italian tongue possessed its full power only when the charm of music made it penetrate the alien mind. He wrote in 1760 to Count Florio: "From the earliest years of my transplantation into this country I have been convinced that our poetry can take root here only in so far as music and acting are combined with it."

Thus his poetry was written for music and theatrical representation. We may imagine how it must have charmed all the Italian and Italianate musicians of the century. According to Marmontel, "all the musicians had surrendered to him." To begin with, they were delighted by the music of his verse. Then they found in him a very pleasant, polite, but quite inflexible guide. Hasse constituted himself his pupil. Jommelli used to say that he had learned more from Metastasio than from Durante, Leo, Feo and Father Martini—that is, from all his masters. Not only did his verses, in which he would allow no alteration, lend themselves marvellously to melody, inspiring and even evoking it, so to speak: they very often suggested the motive of the air to the composer.