Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/200

188 composers as by the players, that it is difficult to say which are worse, the instruments or those who play on them."—The art of the organist had been better preserved since old Frescobaldi's day. But in spite of way in which Burney and Grosley have praised the Italian organists, we may accept as correct the verdict of Rust, who says that "the Italians seemed to think it impossible to give real pleasure by playing on instruments actuated by a keyboard." Here we recognise their expressive genius, which found its favourite instruments in the voice and the violin.

But what was of more importance than the great virtuosi, so numerous in Northern Italy, was the general taste for symphonic music. The Lombard and Piedmontese orchestras were famous. The most celebrated was that of Turin, which included Pugnani, Veracini, Sernis and the Besozzi. There was "symphonic music" in the Chapel Royal every morning, from eleven o'clock to noon; the king's orchestra was divided into three groups which were distributed in these galleries at some distance one from another. The understanding between them was so excellent that they had no need of anyone to beat time. This custom, which was general in Italy, naturally struck foreign travellers. "The composer" says Grosley "applies himself