Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/178

166 Music. Strongly Italianate in matters of taste, but honest and impartial, he had the good fortune to be personally acquainted with the leading musicians of his day; in Italy, with Jommelli, Galuppi, Piccinni, Father Martini and Sammartini; in Germany, with Gluck, Hasse, Kirnberger, and Philipp-Emmanuel Bach; in France, with Grétry, Rousseau and the philosophers. Certain of the portraits which he has drawn of these men are the most lifelike pictures of them extant.

In the following pages we follow the steps of Burney and many another illustrious traveller who made the pilgrimage to Italy about the middle of the eighteenth century.

Scarcely had they entered Italy when they became possessed of the musical passion which was devouring a whole nation. This passion was no less ardent among the populace than amidst the elect.

"The violins, the instrumental performers, and the singing stop us in the streets," writes the Abbé Coyer, in 1763. "One