Page:The Spirit of French Music.djvu/78

 In this slight sketch—and I am conscious of its weakness—I have tried to bring out the rich and deep poetry, the clever simplicity, the magnificent and delicate colouring of Rameau, painter of the lures and pleasures of life, of the feasts of Nature. Rameau as painter of warlike pageants, of the sports of athletes and soldiers, is just as great, perhaps more so. Perhaps Mars inspires him with even more life than Venus, and fills him with more enthusiasm. The interlude in the first act is extraordinary in its power and virile gaiety. In particular, the air for the athletes, "sound forth, proud trumpets" is remarkable for a strength, a burst of rhythm, and a flame of melody to which I find nothing comparable in other masters. Handel himself, though he shews much genius in pictures of the kind, and though this heroic note is familiar to him, has not such vitality and directness. He puts into them a certain eleborationelaboration [sic] and solemnity: incontestable as is his greatness, he has not that French lightness and quickness of touch.

As to the purely dramatic part of Castor, I will choose among the countless comments to which it lends itself those that seem to me most significant.

Rameau's recitatives have been much criticised. They have been denounced for their dryness, their coldness, their formal and affected style, and their monotony. I am far from saying that Rameau has not in some instances given ground for these complaints. But as a generalisation they are absolutely false. The truth is that in this very difficult and delicate branch of dramatic art he has created undying models of expressive force. The type of recitative that he conceived and in many cases realised is an admirable thing, and Monteverde, though his genius of expression is profoundly different, is the only master whose art can be compared