Masters of French Music

_The reader who turns to these pages with the idea of finding therein a large and exhaustive account of the composers mentioned, with a technical analysis of their works, will, I fear, be disappointed. My intention has been a far more modest one._

The dimensions of this volume would not have allowed me to devote that amount of space to each composer that might be considered due to his merits.

The object I have had in view has been to give an account of their lives and to draw attention to the tendencies exhibited in their works.

_The French can boast a splendid musical record, particularly as regards the opera. Paris was for many years the centre towards which foreign artists were wont to gravitate. It was here that Gluck laid the seeds of his musical reforms; that Cherubini and Spontini lived and brought out their best works; it was the influence of French taste that caused Rossini to forsake the inartistic devices of his earlier Italian operas and write "Guillaume Tell," his masterpiece; it was for Paris that Meyerbeer composed "Robert le Diable," "Les Huguenots," "Le Prophète," and "L'Africaine;" that Donizetti wrote the "Favorite," and Verdi, "Don Carlos." It was Paris that Wagner had in his mind when he composed his "Rienzi."_

_Then if we cast a glance at their native composers what treasures of melody, what grace, and what innate dramatic feeling do we not find in the works of Méhul, Boïeldieu, Auber, Hérold, Adam, Halévy, and others whose operas during the first half of the present century were heard all over Europe._

_Of a different type to the above we meet the Titanic figure of Berlioz, whose influence has been so great over the younger generation of composers and whose orchestral innovations have borne such fruit. In the present volume I am only dealing with living composers, otherwise there are four who occupy prominent places in the records of contemporary music whose names would have been included, Bizet, Lalo, César Franck, and Léo Delibes._

_Bizet, the gifted author of "Carmen," the inspired musician who wrote "L'Arlésienne," snatched away at the very moment when his genius was beginning to meet with recognition. Who knows what he might not have done had he lived! As it is, "Carmen" is probably the most generally popular opera that has been written by a Frenchman since Gounod produced his "Faust," and Bizet was only thirty-seven years of age when he died!_

_Edouard Lalo, whose death occurred last year (1892), had to wait a long time before his merits received the recognition to which they were entitled. His popularity in France may be said to date from the time when his opera, "Le Roi d'Ys," was first produced at the Opéra Comique some five years ago, when the composer had reached his sixtieth year. An opera of his entitled "Fiesque," composed many years previously, was accepted by one manager after another, but some circumstance invariably occurred to prevent its being brought out. His ballet "Namouna" contains much that is both charming and original, yet it failed to captivate the public of the Paris Opéra when it was produced._

_Amongst his orchestral works are to be found a fine symphony, which I remember hearing at one of the Lamoureux concerts in Paris and which ought to be given here; two Norwegian Rhapsodies, and the "Symphonie Espagnole" for violin and orchestra. The work he will probably be best remembered by is "Le Roi d'Ys." A great admirer of Wagner, Lalo in this opera applies the master's theories in a restricted sense only, and "Le Roi d'Ys" has a greater affinity with "Tannhäuser" and "Lohengrin" than with "Tristan" or the "Meistersinger." His chamber compositions and orchestral works reveal a considerable amount of originality and knowledge of effect, allied to consistently elevated notions with regard to the æsthetics of his art. A tendency towards the employment of curious rhythms often imparts a peculiar "cachet" to Lalo's compositions. In all his works he exhibits a complete mastery over orchestral resources, a branch of the art in which French composers as a rule excel._