Page:The Spirit of French Music.djvu/156

 thirty bars and sung by the same person. The first is a phrase from Euryanthe, spoilt; the second a good formula from Glück; the third from Weber. The opening bars of the romance which follows are, by the way, very pretty up to where the runs begin.

Take, in the same opera, Nelusko's air, "Daughter of Kings." The first phrase has certainly a majestic gait; but the one which follows, "When Love possesses me," without being bad is taken off quite a different shelf of the musical library. This head and body do not fit each other.

In the Prophet, at the beginning of Act IV., follow what is sung by Fides from the cavatina, "Oh thou who forsakest me," and on to the following scene. Take first the cavatina; a phrase apparently noble and pure, resembling Beethoven, and composed of the notes of the perfect chord; one cannot deny that it is a fine phrase, but on the other hand it has the misfortune to be instrumental, not vocal; to be exact, it is a clarinet phrase. The mother weeps over the son who has forsaken her, and promises to forgive him. Thereupon appears an officer who urges the aged woman to prostrate herself before the "King-Prophet" who is about to appear. Then the pious woman's thought turns to God, and she implores the divine light to bring back her lost one. This certainly ought to be said in a different tone, but in a tone suited to the character and coming from the soul. Well, what do we find? A horrible piece of bravura, a coarse imitation of Weber in his passionate manner, ascending and descending cascades of notes and syllables, whose material precipitation does not in the least produce, as the composer intends, the expression of moral exaltation. However, as this achievement does not