Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/97

Rh some frantic pamphlets attacking the Italian Opern-Quark.

Above all, Johann Adolf Scheibe was indefatigable in restoring the national pride: from 1737–40 by his Critischer Musicus, while in 1745 he states that Bach, Händel, Telemann, Hasse and Graun, "to the glory of our country, are putting all the foreign composers, whoever they are, to shame … We are no longer imitators of the Italians; we may with much better reason boast that the Italians have at last become the imitators of the Germans. … Yes, we have at last discovered that good taste in music of which Italy has never as yet offered us the perfect model. … Good taste in music (the taste of a Hasse or a Graun) is the peculiar characteristic of the German intellect; no other nation can pride itself on this superiority. Morever, the Germans have for a long time been the chief masters of instrumental music, and they have retained this supremacy."

Mizler and Marpurg express themselves to the same effect. And the Italians accept these verdicts. Antonio Lotti writes to Mizler, in 1738:

"Miei compatrioti sono genii e non compositori, ma la vera composizione si trova in Germania." "My countrymen are talented, but not composers; the true art of composition is found in Germany."

We see the change of front that has come about in music. First we have the period of the great Italians who triumphed in Germany; then that of the great Italianate Germans: Händel and Hasse. And then the time of the Germanized Italians, of whom Jommelli was one.