Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/204

192 the same with Grétry, who does not conceal the fact in his memoirs. The Philharmonic Society discussed questions of theory and musical science; and it gave a yearly festival at which the new works of Bolognese composers were performed. This festival, which was a solemn affair, was held in the church of San Giovanni in Monte, where the Santa Cecilia of Raphael was at that time exhibited. The orchestra and the choirs included a hundred musicians; each composer conducted his own works. All the musical critics of Italy were present at these performances of church and instrumental music, by which reputations were made. Burney, at one of these festivals, met Leopold Mozart "and his son, the little German whose precocious and almost supernatural talents," he tells us, "astonished us in London some years ago when he was little more than a baby. … This young man," he adds farther on, "who has surprised Europe by his execution and his precocious knowledge, is also a very able master of his instrument."

Lastly, Rome exercised a dictatorship over the whole of Italian music.

Rome boasted a speciality in the religious music of the Sistine Chapel, which was then, however, in a state of decline, owing to the competition of the theatres, which by their large salaries attracted the best artists. Rome had her great collections