Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/221

Rh camps; and between them there was no question of the superiority of Italian opera: that was contested by neither; the only point at issue was whether certain reforms should or should not be introduced into opera. "The school of Hasse and Metastasio," says Burney, "regarded all innovation as charlatanry and remained attached to the old form of musical drama, in which the poet and the musician demanded equal attention on the part of the spectators—the poet in the recitative and narrative and the composer in the airs, duets and choruses.—The school of Gluck and Calsabigi devoted themselves rather to scenic effects, to the propriety of the characters, to simplicity of diction and musical execution, rather than to what they called flowery descriptions, superfluous comparisons, a cold and sententious morality, with tedious symphonies and long musical developments."—Here we have the whole difference; at bottom it is a question of age, not of race or style. Hasse and Metastasio were old; they complained that there had been no good music written since the days of their youth. But

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