Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/28

16 the famous composers of this time; he takes Rosenmüller for an Italian. He is an ignoramus in respect of harmony; he does not know what a contrapunto semplice o doppio is. In him music had produced a monster. They abounded in the Italy of the eighteenth century. They are not unknown even to-day; and no country is without them.

In the Germany of those days music had not quite the same disadvantages. It found a counterweight in the philosophical or literary studies to which it was often a supplement. It was by no means practised as an empty amusement. The greater composers of the eighteenth century—Schütz, Kuhnau, Händel—received a solid education; they seriously studied jurisprudence, and it is a noteworthy fact that they seem to have hesitated for some time before becoming musicians by profession. An Italian virtuoso of the eighteenth century is