Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-03-02


the merits of the widely dissimilar musical
composers, Donizetti and Verdi, we clip
from the pages of the RnickerJocker, where
they appear as translation from the French
of Scudo We doubt however, whether the
American musical taste is prepared to in
dorse the estimate Of Verdi: f
The works of Donizetti are numerous, and
consist of a heap of isolated songs cantatas,
masses, and sixty. .and-0dd operas He left
also yet unpublished, a little opera in one
act, and the unfinished score Of the DUKE of
Alba. Let us endeavor to appreciate the
merit and discern the character Of this brill
liant and fluent composer, the maturity of
whose powers was perhaps prevented by
death. p.
When Donizetti, in 1918, took the first
steps of bis dramatic career, ROssini was in
the plenitude of his glory, having then pre-
duced TdneTedi, II Bdrbiere di SeVighd, La
Gazza Ladra, and Othello. He was about to
enter upon the second phase Of his genius, of
which La Donna del lLGgO, Noise in Egitto,
ZsImira and Semiramide are the brilliant
manifestations. To be uninhuenced by the
admiration which had been excited in Italy
by such q succession of masterpieces not to
be dazzled by the blaze of so bright a sun,
demanded a nature as unimpTessible as iron;
and even if Donizett had been endowed with
that powerful originality, which assimilates
all that it Rbsorbs, he would not have es-
capped the influence which Rossini was to ex-
ert upon his talent. r
Indeed there is nothing more common in
the history of the fue arts than to find the
most strongly marked geDiuses commencing
by initiating the masters whom they find in
possession Of popularity, or at least toward
whom they feel themselves drawn by
secret affinity of their natures. Youth is
roralU criminal. n liuag acai, fba anti
ments and the ideas which it has imbibed in
the family and the social circle in which des-
tiny has ordained its birth. 1t is but slowly
and after the ripening influence of time, that
superior minds burst the bonds which con-
fine them, that they asslmilate the elements
on which they have fed, that they develop
their individuality. as,f
Every man who has made an epoch in the
Intellectual history of the world, must needs
have stammered in the language of his nurse
before having found that of his own soul.
Mozart formed his enchanting style by i'm
| itating, in his youth, George Benda, Eman-
uel Bach, Handel, Gluck and Haydn Bee
thoven was inspired by Mozart; and Rossini
has plundered half his cotemporaries, such
as Mayer, Paer, General, whom he has left
far enough behind him, and whose borrowed
| melodies he has mingled with his own, in
strumented in the German style.
Imitation is necessity of human nature,
1t is the act by which the life Of departing
| generations is transmitted to those which ar
rive. Ordinary minds appropriate the ideas
OF the past and transmit them intact and
with nothing added; while gifted men, by
the action of their genius, make the heritage
of ages fruitful. 1t is thus that progress is
always made without dissolving connection
| with tradition,
Donizettis Instrumentation is brilliant
| sometimes vigorous, but rarely original. 1t
is distinguished neither by a happy choice of
quality Of tone, nor by striking modulation,
nor by the novelty of its harmonies. We see
plainly that he treats the orchestra too slight
ingly-that he writes too hastily, without Civ
/ ing himself time to arrange his colors and
combine his tints. He understands to a
marvel the art ofaccompanying voice with
1 out fatiguing it but he uses to abuse the for
mulas of composition, trite progIessions, the
crescendo, noisy and vulgar rhy thms, and
instruments which overtask the nervous
sensibility, and intoxicate the ear to the ex-
pehse OF true emotion and intellectual pleas
-ure.
Donizetti was too hard pressed to live and
to produce, to await in silence the happy
hour Of inspiration. Coming into the world
some years after Rossini, Donizetti suddenly
took possession of the realm of this all pow
e1ful master, whose ideas and forms he
worked over with charming naivete and
| Skill. lu0 EuCCesS Oi D6llulJ WHO 6uJeTeu
the field about 1927, made an equal Impress
ion upon him, and under the double in
huence of these opposing minds he wrote
Annd BolenG in which it is impossible not
to recognize the overshadowing reverie, the
sad and tender style of melody which char
ccterize the composer of II PiTatd, La Son
nambUIa and u Pnitani.
Ripened by experience, in the full vigor of
his years and his talent, Donizetti freed him
| al s,,fI, \
blessed moment he wrote a masterpiece,
Lucia di Ldmnermoor, in which he has united
his happiest inspirations with his best style.
All that he wrote afterward bears the inn
press, more or less marked, of that charming
work, which is the fruit of the literature and
the musical progress which manifested them
selves in Italy after ls3O-thatis is to say, after
| the abdieation of Rossini.
The talent of NJ. Verdi, the latest born of
the Italian composers, and whose operas are
nowadays the delight of his countrymen,
is of kind entirely opposed to that Of Bel
| lini. Born in the environs of Milan, it is
said that he learned the rudiments of music
| from an old uncle, cure of the village, who
exercised him at an early age in picking ont
chords on the organ of the little church in
the place. His luck and experience did the
rest The first work which made him known
| was N0buco which was performed at Milan
with very great success. He has since writ
ten about dozen operas, which have been
received with enthusiasm in all the towns of
Italy, except Naples. ~.
In the country of Rossini they sing only
the music of Verdi, His strident melodies
resound through all the public places. The
composer of Ndbuco, ErRaai, duo F0sedri,
| and of I lombard, which, arranged for the
opera at Paris under the title of Jerusalem,
| obtained but partial success, unites to a
! disposition somewhat sad an imagination
more elevated than fruitful. His ideas are
not without brilliancy or power but they
are quite constrained in their scope; and as
be does not know how to vary their character
| by the art of elaboration, he arrived quickly
at mani erism, the sure sign of poverty.
Verdi strives deliberately after dramatic
| effect; we see that he often devotes himself
10 il; and if he sometimes succeeds in at
tanning it, he does so only by sudden and
boisterous explosion which bursts from him,
and not by progressive succession of gradual
effects in the style of the masters. He eften
abuses the unison; when the unison, being
in its nature an easy and monotOnOus form,
requires to be used with great discretion,
aud only thus when tits desired TO give
repose to an ear fatigued with an afiluent
harmony. II is thus that the skillful host of
hotel in the middle of a splendid banquet
| brings forward simple viaBds toE efresh the
| overIaskt palstes of the guests. Itl
Netdis OrchestratiOn is at once noisy and
empty, either too sonorous or too meager.
He affects TO accompany the voice by the
most vulgar instruments such, for instance,
as the coyHet d-pision, the excessive eeLat of
which, Joined to the bouncing rhythms
which the composer loves, is more suited to
| maskl ball than to a serious drama. His
operas, badly written for voice, which he
puts through the most violent exercise, have
had fatal effect upon the art of singing;
and his talent, wanting in hexibility and
grace, and which lives upon the bad tradi-
lions of the German and French schools,
must be considered the talent OF decadence
DESPERATE AFFRAY IN MEMPHIs.-A street
ARRAY occurred in Memphis, Tenn, on Sat.
urday, between Samuel NJ. and John L. Webb