Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/177

Rh an Italianate German, Gluck; and an Italianate Belgian, Grétry.

The other nations had not held out so long before succumbing. Spain had been an Italian colony, as far as music is concerned, since an Italian operatic company had been established there in 1703, and especially since the arrival, in 1737, of the famous virtuoso, Farinelli, who was all-powerful with Philip V., whose fits of insanity he calmed by his singing. The best Spanish composers, having taken Italian names, became, like Terradellas, Kapellmeisters in Rome, or, like Avossa (Abos), professors in the conservatoires of Naples; unless, like Martini (Martin y Soler) they went forth to carry Italianism into the other European countries.

Even the northern countries of Europe were affected by the Italian invasion; and in Russia we find Galuppi, Sarli, Paisiello and Cimarosa establishing themselves and founding schools, conservatoires and opera-houses.

It will readily be understood that a country which thus radiated art all over Europe was regarded by Europe as a musical Holy Land. So Italy was, in the eighteenth century, a land of pilgrimage for the musicians of all nations. Many of them have recorded their impressions; and some of these descriptions of journeys, signed by such names as Montesquieu, President de Brosses, Pierre-Jean Grosley de Troyes, the scientist Lalande, Goethe, the Spanish poet, Don Leandro de Moratin, etc., are full of witty and profound observations. The most curious of these works is perhaps that of the Englishman, Charles Burney, who, with unwearying patience, crossed Europe by short stages to collect the necessary materials for his great History of