OPERA. 
"This lly aed writer, who had ftudied mufic under the 
beft mafters from feven years old, and who feems to have 
been an or ellent judge of the fubjeat, having differed in 
opinion from his correfpondent, who, in converfation, had 
afferted that mufic for 50 years back had been declining, 
d that there were no profeffors left equal to thofe of 
former times; La Valle endeavouring to prove, on the con- 
trary, that, fo far from having degenerated, it was in a 
ftate much nearer perfection at the time he wrote, than at 
any former period. 
If canons, fugues, inverfions, and all the artifices of 
elaborate and learned compofitions are lefs ine rae in piers 
mufic now, fays the author, than formerly, i 
they are fo unfavourable to poetry, and the intelligence of 
are 
cover the fentiment of the poet, whic 
flerent words at the fame 
ent in fugues, where the liga- 
ts in harmony frequently throw the 
phafis on wrong words, and make long fyilables fhort, 
and fhort long. Another inconvenience, or rather. abfur- 
dity, feems inevitable in vocal fugues of much fubtilty and 
contrivance, where quick and flow, chearful and pathetic 
notes, are moving at the fame time, which makes good per- 
formers unwilling to fing them, as ey can neither manifeft 
tafte, nor fenfe, in the execution. 
The cold mafters certainly were wal acquainted with 
harmony, but few knew what u $F i it. Their 
compofitions are full of the moft antl and difficult inven- 
. tions and contrivances, which the ear can neither tafte nor 
comprehend in the performance. 
This is not the method by Lee modern matters pro- 
ceed: they have learned how to choofe and refpe& good 
poetry, in fetting which they. ino all the saris i“ 
canons, fugues, and ot othic inventions; and, 
tation of the ancient Greeks afpire at nothing but ane 
on, grace, and pro 
The firft good compotion that have been heard of this 
kind, in modern tim ere Dafne, Euridice, and Arianna, 
written by Race. and fet by Jacopo Peri and Monte- 
de. 
” {peaking of the madrigalifts of his own time, Valle 
, though they h 
fcholaftic for the entertainment of a company. 
n the fir operas, mulic was the — rtd with 
seethological aye in the fable. nery next 
took the lead, with perfpedtive and decoration ; when i it was 
2s the ing himielf on the 
ods and devils, heroes and iene a at length men 
and women, as hiftory reprefents them, were brought on 
the ttage. Thefe feveral —- and ie of ae in a 
public led at length to oftol and Met 
when the exquifite airs of ack Pergole fi, ea 
the great vocal talents of a Piftocchi, Nicolini, Farinelli, 
the Fauftina, and Cuzzoni, exalted the lyric {tage to its 
aa degree of public favour. 
Rouffeau’s reflections on the language moft proper for 
mufic are all levelled at the French, and at their nafal, 
equivocal, and mute fyllables. He has an excellent period 
on the imitations of. painting and a ss * Mufic i imitates 
the fentiments, painting the image of m 
Imitations in painting are always ok, i the want of 
that fucceffion of ideas, and thofe impreffions which heat and 
inflame the foul by degrees; whereas in painting, every 
ce. The imitative power 0 
many gia Par is confined to very 
feeble reprefentations. It is of the great advantages of 
a mufician, that he is a int thin s which cannot be 
no as when a man 8 at an equal and monotonous 
readings and wakes the ia it ftops; and it is the fame 
for other effeGts. But the art has fubftitutions more fertile 
and more fubtile than thefe. It can excite by one fenfe 
fimilar emotions to thofe that can be excited by another: 
and as the relation only be fenfible by a ftrong impref- 
fion, painting, in want of fuch force, returns with difficulty 
to mufic thofe reefer Maen fhe has drawn from her. 
with incidental fongs, she Senienae fare i foft mufic, 
marches, act tunes, &c. even in regular dramas that 
are declaimed, fuch as Macbeth, re Tempeft, Fair Peni- 
tent, &c. without Mufic thinking herfelf rae y acting 
a fubordinate part? And might not Mufic a aid of 
her filter Poetry, to furnith her with impaflioned ern 
vehicles for her ftrains as principal? If this were done re- 
ciprocally and cordially, with a fincere with to affift and 
exalt each other by turns, without envying and grudging 
n her rival, - 
rer aa — 
turns, without injury or degradatio 
A lyrical drama is incomplete aeithon’ mufic, which i¢ 
not the cafe with a play written for declamation: yet people 
axe diffatisfied if an opera does not read in the clofet ae _— 
9 
c! 
Q 
iL) 
