MEYERBEER, GIACOMO. 



529 



To a superficial observer the year might seem 

 to have closed upon the empire firmly estab- 

 lished in Mexico. Everywhere the imperial 

 arms had been triumphant, and forces were 

 about to move into Oajaca, where, notwith- 

 standing Diaz, aided by money obtained by 

 despoiling churches, and by secret subsidies 

 from the Church party itself, had collected a 

 formidable force, and was bent upon a stout 

 resistance, the result could hardly be considered 

 doubtful. But, on the other hand, the country, 

 though apparently subdued, was full of the 

 elements of disturbance and impending trouble. 

 Guerrilla bands infested every State where there 

 was opportunity for plunder ; cities which had 

 received Maximilian during his imperial pro- 

 gress with acclamations, gave vent to unquali- 

 fied expressions of hostility when he had taken 

 his departure; the Mexican civil officers of 

 Vera Cruz, Tampico, Puebla, and many other 

 places, had rendered themselves so obnoxious 

 that they had to be displaced; and the unneces- 

 sarily harsh means taken by the French authori- 

 ties to repress disturbances which had no parti- 

 cular political significance, intensified the feel- 

 ings of hatred with which the interventionists 

 were regarded. Adde'd to this was the total 

 bankruptcy of the Government and the diffi- 

 culty of raising funds to carry out its adminis- 

 trative projects; the prostration of commerce; 

 and the growing affiliation of the liberals and 

 conservatives, whose bond of union was hatred 

 of a common enemy. As long as it might be 

 upheld by foreign bayonets, the Empire seemed 

 destined to have permanence and even strength ; 

 out in the event of the withdrawal of the 

 French troops no one ventured to predict how 

 long it would last. The military events hap- 

 pening within the United States at the close 

 of the year, of course were too recent to have 

 their proper effect upon the neighboring Em- 

 pire ; but that they would eventually have an 

 important bearing upon the status of Mexico in 

 the catalogue of nations, was not for a moment 

 doubted. Under all these circumstances the 

 first six months of Maximilian's reign could 

 scarcely be considered auspicious of safety or 

 strength in the future. 



MEYERBEER, GIACOMO, a German com- 

 poser, born in Berlin, September 5, 1791 (al- 

 though 1794 is usually given as the year of his 

 birth), died in Paris, May 2, 1864. He was the 

 son of Jakob Beer, a wealthy Jewish banker, 

 and was named by his parents Jakob Meyer 

 Liebman Beer. In after life he dispensed with 

 the Liebman, joined the Meyer and Beer to- 

 gether so as to make one name, and Italianized 

 the Jakob, thus becoming Giacomo Meyerbeer. 

 From infancy he evinced a remarkable fondness 

 for music, and at seven years of age had already 

 obtained a considerable mastery of the piano- 

 forte. At twelve he was generally recognized 

 as a musician of unusual promise, and in 1803 

 a Leipsic paper spoke of him as one of the first 

 pianists of Berlin. Placed a few years later 

 ander the tuition of Bernhard Anselm "Weber, 

 YOL. iv. 34 A 



leader of the orchestra at the opera house of 

 Berlin, he soon learned all in the theory of 

 music and composition which that master could 

 teach him, and in 1810 gladly availed himself 

 of an opportunity to enter the school of the 

 celebrated Abbe Vogler, at Darmstadt, where, 

 in the companionship of Karl Maria von Weber 

 and other young men afterward distinguished 

 in the musical world, he commenced in earnest 

 the study of harmony and counterpoint, and in 

 the course of a few years composed much 

 elaborate sacred music, marked by the severe, 

 scholastic style of his master. The thorough 

 schooling which he received in Darmstadt in 

 the science of composition gave a tone to his 

 subsequent productions, which no foreign influ- 

 ences or studies could ever wholly neutralize, and 

 which at the close of his career reappeared 

 with all its early force. At Darmstadt he com- 

 posed an oratorio, Gott und die Natur, which 

 excited the admiration of his master and pro- 

 cured him the appointment of composer to the 

 Grand-ducal Court ; and in 1812 he produced 

 at Munich his opera "Jephthah," a work 

 evincing an abundance of contrapuntal skill, but 

 too deficient in melody to meet the popular 

 taste. Captivated by the pianoforte playing of 

 Hummel, he surrendered himself for six months 

 to renewed practice upon that instrument, and 

 in 1813 made a brilliant debut at Vienna, as a 

 pianist. He soon, however, wearied of the pub- 

 lic plaudits, and at the invitation of the imperial 

 court wrote another opera, Die Leiden Khali/en, 

 which had no better success than "Jephthah." 

 Both works were written in the learned, but 

 formal and frigid style acquired from Vogler, 

 and to the Viennese, who had become enamored 

 of the freshness and melodic richness of Ros- 

 sini's music, they were thoroughly distasteful. 

 Meyerbeer soon saw the disadvantage under 

 which he labored, and yielding to the advice of 

 his friend, Salieri, a composer of merit, repaired 

 in 1815 to Italy to cultivate his taste for melody. 

 In view of his previous musical training the 

 effort seemed almost akin to that of a man, not 

 having the spontaneous gift of poetry, delib- 

 erately educating himself to be a poet. But the 

 energy and ambition of Meyerbeer, aided by a 

 natural and deep-seated artistic feeling, which 

 ever impelled him toward perfection, triumphed 

 over all obstacles, and he actually succeeded in 

 composing airs as delicate and graceful as those 

 of the Italian composers, although lacking, per- 

 haps, their ease and spontaneity. "With him the 

 impression of art and labor is never entirely 

 forgotten in the unpremeditated flow of the 

 melody. 



For five years he studied and composed in 

 Italy, bringing forth a series of operas, written ia 

 the Italian style to Italian librettoes, which were 

 tolerably successful, though now, for the most 

 part, forgotten. Returning to Germany in 1820 

 he was received with coldness, as a deserter 

 from the national school of music, and soon 

 resumed his residence in Italy. In 1825 his 

 Crociato in Egitto was produced in Venice, 



