New-York tribune., 1898-11-10
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
MrsIC IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Music AND MANNERS N THE CLAssinthA,Ll 81
PERIOD Essays by Henry Edward hrenne''


when It is not absolutely corrupt. it's manners
strike hin, as graceful but artificial and the
,blosonhical divaSations Of its minor fgures
xex hin, as they nnCle themselves with 'h'
wise reflections OF the major thinkers N'"
sether the contributions made to civilization ]"
the last century struggle up for recosh''o" O"'
Of turbid and generally unsatisfactory "''''''
phere So much for the eighteenth century o'
the serious historian. who is not. on the ""o''
20 be blamed for his cyncisin To the Sea''"e'
in the hyways Of the time there Is mu'h 10 I've
found that Is endlessly fascinating. witness 'n7
first essay alone in Mr.. krehbieIs DOOR II
deals with famous collection OF manuS0i'P
music which once belonged TO the poet 1raS' anu
after some wanderings fell into the han"s "a
Mrs c. NJ Raymond, or Annie Louise '"'S' ''
she was known to most Americans rIo'" "
nossession they passed into that OF Mr.. krehoiel
who now describes them and in the descr'p'''"
contr,ves to give very clear notion of the mu-
eta, taste Of Gray and his contemporaries
There is perhaps no other source from whi'h
Information at once 80 useful and so piQuaht
could be drawn though an interesting sdehgh'
on the subject may be derived from the poet ;
oun works He has been described as cold-
blooded and certainly the bulk of his verse mas
a placidity which excludes all thought OF passion"
or Of drama. Whose soul could be stirred by
~The Bard" for all its rich rhetoric?
Ruin seize thee ruthless king
Confusion thy banners wait -
Though fann'd by Conquests crimson wing
They mock the air with idle state
That is picturesque. but it leaves the reader
cold as with a sense that something acaoeI"c
Sss nassed hy him. Il. short. the verse or Gray
reflects exactly the temperament which Is re-
eected by the collection Mr.. Krehbel describes
Of mar loved
course Of sweet sounds. but who would have de-
rested thoroughly emotional compositions
one smiles at the thought % what wagner
would have meant TO the man who loved the
works Of Orlandini Giaii. Sarro. LatAa' Fln''
Bernasconi. Schiassi Selitt Zampereih' Elaco-
roelN Broschi Mazzoni. and Lampugnam apoNe
ANYTHING that Handel could produce Their very
names have the SAVIOR Of an ancient time "heh
life on and of the operate stage had pretty
color picturesque gait. and yet so h'ue Vi
vital energy. We do not revle IT. on the COLI
trary II is all very allu.trg, and the reaue' u
,bis volume cannot help amiaby specializing
about what these forgotten composers were IKE
and about how their thin but charming WORKS
must have sounded 10 the eager ears OF d
century and more age. They must have oeea
charming in their quaint. impossible way. II we
heard them in the Metropolitan opera House TO-
dav we should probably be bored. II, sun re-
tanning our modern perceptions. we coulo pe
Transported back TO Grays side in Italy or III
Jondon. with the bizarre dress and manners of
.he day on every side. with the voices or farl-
,e,u and Cuzzoni. OF Amorevon or Viscontina,
floating airily above the foothghts, We shouiu
nrohablv think them inimitable. In other words
the music and musicians treated in these chap-
ters on Gray and his collection have a dry bu.
,tously but they are part Of fantastical and
bew,tchine pageant Like the actors In a scene
nv Vatican they are not little unreal, they
belong TO a strange. not wholly comprehensive
world but they are affectiOnateiy remembered.
Nh Krehbiel tells the story Of Farfnelh ana the
snanish King who listened with such pleasure
10 his singing that ho paid him salary or
f3OOO Nightly for ten years FarineI sang
the same four songs In the Kings chamber one
of the songs is in the Gray collection. fragment
from the "Artaserse" Of TIasse. and Mr.. krehbiel
quotes the beginning Of tho melody. Ths whole
episode seems grotesque enough. hut how char
acteristio Of the eighteenth century II is, and
bow picturesque
From Gray's music NJ Krehbie passes ~
rare and amusing notebook Of Haydn's kept
during the composers sojOurn in London ana
filed with the drollest notes about all sorts Of
chicken shnngs. an Indian shillnes.
dozen larks Coron y r. If plucked duck
shilnes" There is more I'm the same vein.
with considera bic musical gossip. names of
singers IN London end so on. We get from tho
artless lines one more touch in Haydns po--
trait He is made little moro human than
ever and not less lovahlc. Social and Artistic
ealzburg.' the next essay is a tri0e saddenins
in It's report Of the awkward management Of the
Mozart centenary celebration in 1881, and I'm It's
record of the dishearteping influences against
which the composer had 10 fight but "Da Ponte
IN Nev-York" which follows. is delightful in
its vivacious portraiture Of man who was
nothing il not famboyant and tempestuous Da
Ponte was the literary free lance who. after
passing through several adventures more or less
Creditahle gained the post OF poet to the I'm.
perial Theatre in Vienna. and made there the
acquaintance Of Mozart. II" latter asked him
10 make n lbretto from lie Marriage de Figaro
of Beaumarchas Reio.ced with the success OF
this. Mozart tu7red 70 Da Pone again and the
poet suggested Don Giovanni" He wrote the
book and gained thereby an undying name. one
would think thnt after this his history would be
tolerably accessible. and Mr.. Krehbel has
tainly cleaned good material for his essay but,
curiously he has not been able 10 find his hero's
grave In New-York. That Da POnte was buried
here after highly checkered career. IS not 70
be questioned, and there is ground for accepting
the old Roman Catholic cemetery in Eleventh
rt between Avenue and Firs.-ave..
his final resting place. but the grave can
not be identified. Mr.. Krchbiel has rem
dered a substantial service to the minor sec
ton Of musical biography in traversing the
story Of Da Ponte's life. The lbrettist is not as
a rule a person about whom one cares to know
anything. Ills name, in fact, Is usually a name
20 forget wt< all speed. If one dslikes harbor-
ing malignarc thoughts about any particular
individual. But IA Ponte no vulgar hack
49, lo..l !. .L--.-