1816.} 



Ltfe of Paesiello. 



I3r 



T effetto non i di pianto ma di uno certo 

 rigore i. freddo nel sangue die di fatto 

 tu ba I'anima. 



Ill the midst of these religions chartns, 

 if teinleniess inspire llicin, nothing cii'i 

 be more sweet, more warn), niofe touch- 

 ing than his melody. It poiietrafes the 

 soul, without violenre, to produce a 

 most delightful reverv and a delicious 

 languor. One would say, that his 

 chaunts and his harmony came of them- 

 selves, and that he had nothing to do 

 but to note them down. The Replicate 

 Pastores, of his mass for Christmas, ex- 

 plains all we say, and we may here 

 apply what he has often said to me, arte 

 che tiitta fa mdla si. If he had to paint 

 sad and melancholy situations, as iu 

 his mass of Passion-week, his ])!aintive 

 sounds, his doleful harmony, and deep 

 colouring, carried desolation to the 

 heart: such are also his Miserere and 

 his Oratorio of the Passion, the words 

 by Mctastasio. 



In another motet, that we have not 

 in tlie chapel, but which I have heard 

 elsewhere, Paesiello paints in a wonder- 

 ful manner the grandeur of the Deity. 



He seems, in this magnificent pro- 

 duction, to have surpassed himself, and 

 <o have been really inspired. In hearing 

 the picturesque and terrible pictures of 

 this imitative music, so well adapted to 

 the sacred worrls which it animates, 

 the sinner fancies he liears tlie dreadful 

 advance of his Creator, the thunder of 

 his chariot wheels, and the irrevocable 

 judgment on the living and the dead. 

 On a sudden succeeds a brilliant sym- 

 phony and a heavenly chorus; every 

 thing announces the clemency of a mer- 

 ciful God; at this moment the chauiits 

 of Paesiello, worthy of the voice of the 

 prophet, foretel the new Jerusalem, and 

 the bliss of a future life. In an instant, 

 •very thing wears a new face, all be- 

 comes resplendent, and we are struck 

 ■with the eclat of the august harmony. 

 Sion bursts forth in songs of joy, and the 

 daughters of Juda rend the air with 

 melodious songs. 



To fix (he attention of our readers on 

 the principal character of the talent of 

 this master, we ought to observe, that 

 in this immense picture, the chaunts and 

 imitative symphonies flow with the most 

 elegant Cicility; and that, even in ex- 

 pressing the most sublime ideas, the 

 most striking images, and a prodigious 

 variety of elevated sentiments, these 

 ▼ery chaunts alwaj;.*. [irescrve the most 

 jiatural and graceful ease. 



MoNTjiLY 3Iac. No 288. 



If the oracle of Africa, if the author 

 of tho City of Cad, could repass the 

 bourne of mortality, and hear the ckef- 

 d'auvre wc have just analysed, he would 

 cry as heretofore: — Sacred songs, har- 

 mony divine, my soul is enraptured with 

 your music, penetrated with that vene- 

 ration which the residence of the great 

 lam, inspires ; struck with the most pro- 

 found respect, transported with a holy 

 intoxication of delight, a new Paul I feel 

 myself in Heaven; my mind is elevated 

 above itself, and seems present before 

 the triple throne of the Deity, and ad- 

 mitted to the eternal concerts of the 

 blessed in Paradise, and my soul loses 

 itself in the bosom of its Creator. — Such 

 was the idea that Paesiello had formed 

 to himself of church music. 



Although the greater part of his cJief- 

 d'auvres are comic operas, he one day 

 observed to me, " In theatrical music 

 the tragic holds the first rank, because 

 it is the most susceptible of the gran- 

 dioso; but (conliiiued he) sacred music 

 rises still above it, and may be still 

 more sublime, nothing being so grand as 

 its object, .and it is then only that it is 

 restored to its proper and primary des- 

 tination: as far as the sublimity of the 

 Prophets, the Psalms, and the Canticles 

 of the Hebrews, seem to efface all pro- 

 phane poetry, so far the sacred musiw 

 which expresses it ought to rise above 

 all proph'ane accents. The musical 

 language is then no longer hypothetical, 

 it becomes a natural language, for we 

 are not content with saying, wc sing the 

 praises of God and the wonders of his 

 works. 



Paesiello was not only a great musi- 

 cian, he possessed a great fund of in- 

 formation, he was well versed in the 

 d<^ad languages, and conversant in all 

 the branches of literature, and on terms 

 of friendship with tlie most distinguished 

 persons of the age ; it was the more easy 

 for him to exhaust, in his beautiful com- 

 position^, all the beauties which refined 

 taste could alone discover and ajipre- 

 ciate, without separating from the na- 

 tural. Endowed with a great mind, 

 and which his eminent talents, and the 

 great reputation he enjoyed in Europe 

 raised above all the meaner passions of 

 the soul, he knew neither envy nor ri- 

 valship. His opinion was, that in every 

 art there existed several places of tlie 

 first rank. 



When he met with, iu new musicians 



who had already acquired cclebiitv, 



Uiosc traits of goiiiu:: which lie called 



T di 



