Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/176

164 they need hardly have disturbed themselves in order to hear Italian opera, for they had Italy in London. England was so thoroughly conquered by the Italian taste from the beginning of the century that the historian Burney made this strange reflection—which, in his mouth, was praise of his own country:

In other words, he congratulates the English musicians for succeeding in denationalising themselves better than the French. This was due to the excellent Italian companies then in London performing opera and opera buffa, directed by such masters as Händel, Buononcini, Porpora and Galuppi. Burney, in his infatuation for Italy, concluded that "England was consequently a fitter school than France for the formation of a young composer."

This observation was, unknown to Burney, somewhat flattering to France, which was, in fact, of all the nations, that which opposed the most obstinate resistance to Italian influence. This influence was brought to bear no less upon Parisian society and Parisian artists; and Italianism, which found a vigorous support among the "philosophers" of the Encyclopædia—Diderot, Grimm, and above all Rousseau—gave rise to a positive warfare in the musical world, and in the end it was partly victorious; for in the second half of the century we may say that French music was a prey which was divided up like a conquered territory, between three great foreign artists: an Italian, Piccinni;