Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/235

Rh was appointed organist in the Duomo of Milan, under an Italian name. It would be difficult to mention a more categorical example of the conquest of the Germanic spirit by Italy.

And we are not speaking of second-rate men, having no other claim to our attention than the fact that they were the sons of a great man. Johann Sebastian's sons were themselves great artists, whom history has not placed in their proper rank. Like the majority of the musicians of this transition period, they have been unduly sacrificed to those who preceded them and those who followed them. Philipp Emmanuel, far in advance of his time and very imperfectly understood, excepting by a few, has rightly been described by M. Vincent d'Indy as one of the first direct forerunners of Beethoven. Johann Christian is hardly less important; from him derives not Beethoven, but Mozart.

Another remarkable musician, who, even more than Philipp Emmanuel, was the precursor—one might almost say the model—of Beethoven, in his great sonatas and variations: Frederick Wilhelm Rust, a friend of Gœthe's, musical director to Prince Leopold III. of Anhalt, at Dessau, was seduced like the rest by the Italian charm. He journeyed to