Page:The Spirit of French Music.djvu/113

 that except at the Conservatoire where the establishment includes a choir, they will have to add to their budget the expenses of a choral body.

They will be encouraged by the fact that concert halls without choirs are of necessity favourable to Germany and unfavourable to France, seeing that, with the exception of Wagner, the masterpieces of German music are symphonic, whereas the masterpieces of French music comprise for the most part the vocal, that is the human, element.

"Rameau as operatic symphonist" wrote his contemporary Chabanon, "never had a model or a rival, and we do not hesitate to affirm boldly that after all the revolutions that art may undergo in the future—when it has been brought to the highest perfection by no matter what nation—even then it will be a difficult task to equal our artist in this respect and to deserve a place beside him." This magnificent eulogy, adds M. Laloz, from whom I borrow the quotation, appears to be deserved; at any rate nothing up to the present day has invalidated it. The dance music and the descriptive music (I would add numerous dramatic pages that are so closely bound up with the descriptive pieces that they form one fabric with them) shine with untarnished brilliance. Time which has dimmed so many glories seems to have added to the beauty of his work, effacing from it what his contemporaries found over bold and rendering it clearer and more harmonious. Of all these compositions nothing has grown old, whereas Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner and César Franck, offer many pages or phrases that are out of date.

I thoroughly agree with the eminent critic, without however being able to admit the explanation which