Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/20

8 Kuhnau was as one crying in the wilderness. It was enough for a Theuer Affe to baptize himself Caraffa and to murder a few words of Italian, and the musical world of Dresden hastened to welcome him. "They were all of that absurd species which believes that a composer is a simpleton if he has not been to Italy, and that the air of foreign countries endows an artist with every perfection, after the fashion of the Lusitanian winds, which, according to Pliny, fecundate mares." Caraffa, moreover, employs ingenious expedients to arouse and stimulate the curiosity of the public. He has letters posted to him from various quarters of Europe with sonorous addresses: All' Illustrissimo Signore, il Signor Pietro Caraffa, maestro incomparabile di musica; or in German: Dem Wohl-Edlen, Besten und Sinnreichen Herrn Pietro Caraffa, Hochberühmten Italiaenischen Musico, und unvergleichlichen Virtuosen. The address of his lodging is almost always forgotten, as though by an oversight; so that the postman has to run from house to house, inquiring whether anyone knows "the Orpheus of this age," "the incomparable virtuoso." Thus in a few days no one is ignorant of his name and he is popular before he has appeared. The Collegium Musicum of Dresden sends him a deputation, invites him to attend its sessions, addresses him in speeches of emphatic welcome, such as are made on the entry of a prince. Concerts are given in his honour. Those responsible for them beg him to take part in them. Caraffa allows them to entreat him; despite some technical skill on the theorbo and the guitar his talent is more than indifferent. But he is careful not to squander it and discovers pretexts to