Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/229

Rh there are also more critics, which is not calculated to purify the taste nor to feed the imagination of the artists."

Those whose tempers required freedom could not endure Berlin. If Philipp Emmanuel Bach remained in the city from 1740 to 1767 it was much against his will. The poor fellow could not leave Berlin—he was not allowed to do so; and he suffered in his taste and his self-respect. His position and his salary were both unsatisfactory; he was obliged, day after day, to accompany the royal flautist on the harpsichord; and both Graun and Quantz, "whose style was absolutely opposed to that which he was striving to establish," were preferred to him. This explains why he was, later on, so delighted to find himself in the good town of Hamburg, which was devoid of interest in music and of taste, but was hospitable, good-natured and free. To an artist, anything—even ignorance—is better than despotism in matters of taste.

Such, then, at first sight, was the musical culture of the great German cities. Italian opera was supreme, and Burney closed his observations of Germany with these words:

But had not Germany lately produced the eminently German genius, the vast and profound achievements of Johann Sebastian Bach? How