One of the most accomplished of historians and critics, Oulibischeff,
sums up the place of Cherubini in musical art in these words--"If on
the one hand Gluck's calm and plastic grandeur, and on the other the
tender and voluptuous charm of the melodies of Piccini and Zacchini,
had suited the circumstances of a state of society sunk in luxury and
nourished with classical exhibitions, this could not satisfy a society
shaken to the very foundations of its faith and organisation. The
whole of the dramatic music of the eighteenth century must naturally
have appeared cold and languid to men whose minds were profoundly
moved with troubles and wars; and even at the present day the word
languor best expresses that which no longer touches us in the operas
of the last century, without even excepting those of Mozart himself.
What we require for the pictures of dramatic music is larger frames,
including more figures, more passionate and moving song, more sharply
marked rhythms, greater fulness in the vocal masses, and more sonorous
brilliancy in the instrumentation. All these qualities are to be found
in 'Lodoïska' and 'Les Deux Journées;' and Cherubini may not only be
regarded as the founder of the modern French opera, but also as that
musician who, after Mozart, has exerted the greatest general influence
on the tendency of the art. An Italian by birth and the excellence of
his education, which was conducted by Sarti, the great teacher of
composition; a German by his musical sympathies as well as by the
variety and profundity of his knowledge; and a Frenchman by the school
and principles to which we owe his finest dramatic works, Cherubini
strikes me as being the most accomplished musician, if not the
greatest genius, of the nineteenth century."
Again, the English composer, Macfarren, observes--"Cherubini's
position is unique in the history of his art; actively before the
world as a composer for threescore years and ten, his career spans
over more vicissitudes in the progress of music than that of any other
man. Beginning to write in the same year with Cimarosa, and even
earlier than Mozart, and being the contemporary of Verdi and Wagner,
he witnessed almost the origin of the two modern classical schools of
France and Germany, their rise to perfection, and, if not their
decline, the arrival of a time when criticism would usurp the place of
creation, and when to propound new rules for art claims higher
consideration than to act according to its ever unalterable
principles. His artistic life indeed was a rainbow based on the two
extremes of modern music which shed light and glory on the great
art-cycle over which it arched.... His excellence consists in his
unswerving earnestness of purpose, in the individuality of his manner,
in the vigour of his ideas, and in the purity of his harmony."
"Such," says M. Miel, "was Cherubini; a colossal and incommensurable
genius, an existence full of days, of masterpieces, and of glory.
Among his rivals he found his most sincere appreciators. The Chevalier
Seyfried has recorded, in a notice on Beethoven, that that grand
musician regarded Cherubini as the first of his contemporary
composers. We will add nothing to this praise: the judgment of such a
rival is, for Cherubini, the voice itself of posterity."
LUIGI CARLO ZANOBE SALVADORE MARIA CHERUBINI was born at Florence on
September 14, 1760, the son of a harpsichord accompanist at the
Pergola Theatre. Like so many other great composers, young Cherubini
displayed signs of a fertile and powerful genius at an early age,
mastering the difficulties of music as if by instinct. At the age of
nine he was placed under the charge of Felici, one of the best Tuscan
professors of the day; and four years afterwards he composed his first
work, a mass. His creative instinct, thus awakened, remained active,
and he produced a series of compositions which awakened no little
admiration, so that he was pointed at in the streets of Florence as
the young prodigy. When he was about sixteen the attention of the
Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany was directed to him, and through that
prince's liberality he was enabled to become a pupil of the most
celebrated Italian master of the age, Giuseppe Sarti, of whom he soon
became the favourite pupil. Under the direction of Sarti, the young
composer produced a series of operas, sonatas, and masses, and wrote
much of the music which appeared under the _maestro's_ own name--a
practice then common in the music and painting schools of Italy. At
the age of nineteen Cherubini was recognised as one of the most
learned and accomplished musicians of the age, and his services were
in active demand at the Italian theatres. In four years he produced
thirteen operas, the names and character of which it is not necessary
now to mention, as they are unknown except to the antiquary whose zeal
prompts him to defy the dust of the Italian theatrical libraries.
Halévy, whose admiration of his master led him to study these early
compositions, speaks of them as full of striking beauties, and, though
crude in many particulars, distinguished by those virile and daring
conceptions which from the outset stamped the originality of the man.
Cherubini passed through Paris in 1784, while the Gluck-Piccini
excitement was yet warm, and visited London as composer for the Royal
Italian Opera. Here he became a constant visitor in courtly circles,
and the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Queensbury, and other noble
amateurs, conceived the warmest admiration for his character and
abilities. For some reason, however, his operas written for England
failed, and he quitted England in 1786, intending to return to Italy.
But the fascinations of Paris held him, as they have done so many
others, noticeably so among the great musicians; and what was designed
as a flying visit became a life-long residence, with the exception of
brief interruptions in Germany and Italy, whither he went to fill
professional engagements.
Cherubini took up his residence with his friend Viotti, who introduced
him to the Queen, Marie Antoinette, and the highest society of the
capital, then as now the art-centre of the world. He became an
intimate of the brilliant salons of Mdme. de Polignac, Mdme.
d'Etioles, Mdme. de Richelieu, and of the various bright assemblies
where the wit, rank, and beauty of Paris gathered in the days just
prior to the Revolution. The poet Marmontel became his intimate
friend, and gave him the opera story of "Demophon" to set to music.
It was at this period that Cherubini became acquainted with the works
of Haydn, and learned from him how to unite depth with lightness,
grace with power, jest with earnestness, and toying with dignity.
A short visit to Italy for the carnival of 1788 resulted in the
production of the opera of "Ifigenia in Aulide" at La Scala, Milan.
The success was great, and this work, the last written for his native
country, was given also at Florence and Parma with no less delight and
approbation on the part of the public. Had Cherubini died at this
time, he would have left nothing but an obscure name for Fétis's
immense dictionary. Unlike Mozart and Schubert, who at the same age
had reached their highest development, this robust and massive genius
ripened slowly. With him as with Gluck, with whom he had so many
affinities, a short life would have been fatal to renown. His last
opera showed a turning point in his development. Halévy, his great
disciple, speaks of this period as follows:--"He is already more
nervous; there peeps out I know not exactly how much of force and
virility of which the Italian musicians of his day did not know or did
not seek the secret. It is the dawn of a new day. Cherubini was
preparing himself for the combat. Gluck had accustomed France to the
sublime energy of his masterpieces. Mozart had just written 'Le Nozze
di Figaro' and 'Don Giovanni.' He must not lag behind. He must not be
conquered. In that career which he was about to dare to enter, he met
two giants. Like the athlete who descends into the arena, he anointed
his limbs and girded his loins for the fight."