G L U C K. 



fiire, nnd like no other that we recollect : it has great merit 

 of novelty and accomjiaiiiiiiciit ; the voice-part wants only a 

 little more grace and quiet. The following fong, fct for 

 Jozzi, a good mufician with little voice, is full of new and 

 ingenious pafTages and cfTefts ; we (hould like much to hear 

 tliis air well performed at the opera ; it is kept alive from 

 beginning to end. Soinething might be cxpetled from a 

 young man able to produce this opera, imperfeft as it was. 

 It had, however, but five reprcfentations. 



From London he returned to Italy, and compofed fevera! 

 op'.'ras in the ftyle of the times, fuch as tliat of Terradeglas, 

 Galuppi, and JomL-lli ; and we heard little of him till he en- 

 lifted v.ith the Italian poet Calfabigi, with whom he ;oined 

 in a confpiracy againft the poetry and mufic of the mclo-dra- 

 ina then in vogi'.tMn Italy and all over F.urope. 



It is extraordinary that Calfabigi, editor of the beautiful 

 Paris edition of th.e works of Metallafio in 1755, in the 

 preface to which there is the higheft and feemiiigly moil cor- 

 dial praifc of the works of the imperial laureate, iliould be 

 tlie firft, ten years after, to find them io defective ; writing his 

 " Orfeo" in a different ilyle, and joining with Gluck in de- 

 crying t:;e lyric ftyle botli of tl-.e mufic aiid poetry of the 

 Italian opera. 



In 1764, tho year in which the late emperor Jofeph was 

 ci'owned king of the Romans, Gluck was the compofer, and 

 GuEda;;-ni the principal linger. It was in this year that a fpe- 

 cies of dramatic mufic, different from that which then reigned 

 ill Italv, was attempted by Gluek in his famous opera of 

 " Orf.-o," v.hich, witli Guadagni's admirable aftion, fuc- 

 ceeded fo well, that it was foon after attempted in otlier 

 parts of Europe, particularly at Parma and Paris. Tiiis is 

 r.ot the place to difcufs its merit ; v^-e (hall here only obferve, 

 tliat the timplifying dramatic mullc in Gluck's manner, in fa- 

 vour of the poet, at the expence of the compofer and finger, 

 is certainlv very rational, where an opera is performed in tliL- 

 language of the country, and the nngerr. have no grjat abilities 

 to difplay, as in prance ; but in England, where we have fre- 

 quently fingers of uncommon talents, and where fo fmall a 

 pai"t of an opera audience underftands Italian, by abridging 

 the fymphonies, and prohibiting divilions and lural cadences, 

 in favour of an uninteUigible drama, we fhould loie more 

 than we fhould gain. 



After its fuceefs at Parma and Paris, " Orfeo'' was ex- 

 hibited at Bologna, Naples, and in 1770 in London ; when 

 the principal parts were filled by Guadagni and Grafli, after- 

 \Vards Mrs. Bach. 



The unity, fimplicity, and new dramatic excellence, which 

 at Vienna, and afterwards at Paris, rendered this drama fo 

 intereiling as to make the audience think more of the poet 

 than the compofer, were greatly diminifhed here, by the he- 

 terogeneous mixture of mufic of other compofers in a totally 

 different ilyle. 



In 1769, Calfabigi and Gluck, encouraged by the fuc- 

 eefs of " Orfeo," produced " Alcefle," a fecond opera, on 

 the reformed plan, at Vienna, which received even more ap- 

 p'laufe than the tirtt. In 177 i, the fame poet and mufician 

 brought a third opera, " Pande ed Helena," on the fUge at 

 Vienna, written and compofed in the fame new, or rather 

 old, French Itvle, with better mufic, in v.hich Millieo was 

 lb-- princijial finger, and which afforded the audience lucli 

 pleafure as feemed to have imprefred the lovers of mufic 

 in the imperial capital with a partiality for that fpecies 

 of dramatic mulie, which was not likely to be foon ob- 

 literated. 



In J 772, Gh:ck fet to mufic an opera taken from Racine's 

 " Iphigenie," in v.'hich he fo far accommodated liimtelf to 

 the national tafte aiicl ftyle of Fraiite, as ireijtieiitly to ijni- 

 •VoL. XVI. 



tate and adopt them. And as tliis opera was intended for 

 Paris, his friends feared for its fuccc s, as there was fre- 

 qu-'ntly mcioii\, and always meafure, in hi, mufic, though fet 

 to French luortlj, and for afirious French opciM. 



But the year 1774 ^'•'^^ r-ndercd a remarkable era in the 

 annals of French mufic, by t!ie arrival of the chevalier Gluck 

 at Pari--, whofe operas. Ijy Lis conforming to ihc gm.vs of 

 the French language, and flattering the ancient natii^iial tafic, 

 were received with acclamation. He began his carver in this 

 capital by hi< celebrated opera of " Orphce," of which tl e 

 reputation v. as already eftabliflicd ; and this was followed by 

 " Iphiguiie," taken from one of Racine's beft tragedies, 

 which had all the fuceefs that may be itnagincd from the 

 force of his genius applied to a favourite drama, fet in the 

 ftyl.- of their favourite compofers, Lulli and Rameau, 



In his opera of " Cythere AITiegce," 177J, where m.ore 

 delicacy and tendernefa, than force, were required in the com- 

 poiition, he was not fo fuccefsfiil Nor was his " Alccftc," 

 the year following, received with the fame rapture ?.s at Vi- 

 enna. Indeed his " Armide," in 1777, did not quite ful- 

 fil the ideas of grace, tenderncfs, and pathos, which fome of 

 the fcenes required, and auditors accullomed to Italian mufic 

 expefted : however, his operas were excellent preparations 

 for a better ftyle of compofition than the French had been 

 ufld to ; as the recitative was more rapid and tlie airs more 

 marked, than in Lulli and Rameau : there were likewife more 

 energy, fire, and variety of move.ment, in his airs in general, 

 and infinitely more force and effect in hisexpreflion of grief, 

 fear, rcmorfe, vengeance, and all the violent paflions. 



Gluck's mufic is fo truly dramatic, that the airs and 

 fcenes, which have the grcateil efilcl on the llagc, are cold, 

 or rude, in a concert. The fituation, context, and intercft, 

 gradually excited in tl:e audience, give them their force and 

 energy. 



Indeed, he feems fo much the national mufician of France, 

 that fince the -jeft days of Rameau, iki dramatic compofer has 

 excited fo much entlmfiafm, or had his pieces fo frequently per- 

 formed. It has been faid in the " Journal de Paris," that 

 each of his pieces had fupported two or three hundred rcprc- 

 f'ntations. The French, who feel very enthufiaftically what- 

 ever mufic they like, heard with great rapture the operas of 

 Gluck, which even the enemies of \\\i genre allowed to have 

 great merit of a certain kind ; but though there is much 

 realgenuis and intrinfic worth in the dramatic compofitions of 

 this mailer, the congeniahty of his ftyle with that of their 

 old national favourites, Lulli and Rameau, was no fm^dl me- 

 rit with the friends of that muiic. The almolt univcrfal cry 

 at Paris was now, that he iiad recovered the dramatic mufic 

 of the ancient Greek;; ; that there was no other worth hear- 

 ing; tliat he was tlie only mufician in Europe who knew how 

 to exprefs the paflions ; thele and other encomiums prepara- 

 lorv to his apotheofis, were satcred and publiflied in the jour- 

 nals and iiev.fpapers of Paris, accompanied with conllant and 

 lontempt nous ceiifures of Italian mufic, when Piccini arrived. 

 This admirable compofer, the delight and pride of Naples, as 

 Gluek of \ienna, liad no f'ooner erected liis " indard in France, 

 tluui ;ill the friends of ll;ilian mufic, of R'lutl'eau'.^ doflrines, 

 and of the plan, if not the language, of Metallafio's cr.unas, 

 enliiled m his ferviee. A furious war broke out, all Paris was 

 on the ijii! vii-e ? No door was opened to a \ ifitor, without this 

 quelHon being afked pivvioustohis admiilion : " Monfieur! 

 elKs vous Piccjnifte ou Gluckifte ?'' Thefe difputes, and thofe 

 of mulioal critics, and rival aitiils throughout the k-ngd )m, 

 feeiii to us to have loured and diminifhed tlie pleafure arifing 

 fro;r, mufic in proporliiin as tlx ari !: ■.-. advanced to pt . v. er .->». 

 ^Vheu every j V.i-ak '•> 1 pfl.'ue in a !rv;:i,-i! coi. nofition 1. to 

 be aiialyfwl and JifTcaed during peiiormBncc, ali dilight .i.id 

 n. B eiitnufialn 



