which rendered it impossible for him to bend to the will of others,
and he never modified his severe criticisms of art and artists in
conversing with the loftiest personages. In the presence of Napoleon,
whether as First Consul or as the all-powerful Emperor of France, it was
impossible for him to dissimulate, and he excited the displeasure of the
potentate by speaking disparagingly of Zingarelli, one of his favorite
composers. Paisiello, on the other hand, who was equally a favorite of
Napoleon, Cherubini was willing to tolerate. Yet on one occasion, when
the Emperor, who had no comprehension of the earnestness and refinement
of Cherubini's style, was, as usual, extolling the two much-admired
artists, and characterized our musician's orchestral accompaniments as
overladen with ornament, he is said to have received the reply, "You
love the music which does not prevent you from thinking of the affairs
of state." This remark was probably never forgiven; certain it is that
during Napoleon's reign, Cherubini never attained the eminence which
he so richly deserved, but for twenty years was obliged to content
himself with his position at the Conservatory which afforded him barely
sufficient means for his own support and that of his family. Paisiello,
meantime, obtained a remunerative appointment as director of a musical
organization established by Napoleon, in 1802. When the jealousy of the
Paris musicians caused him to forsake his post in disgust, the Emperor
wished that Zingarelli should be his successor. The latter declining,
the choice now fell upon Méhul, who, out of regard for Cherubini, also
refused to accept. The place, however, was eventually given to Lesueur.
This proved a trying experience to Cherubini, and had an injurious effect
upon his mental and physical condition. The failure of his musically
charming but dramatically uninteresting opera "Anacréon" could only
increase the bitterness of his disappointment. It was therefore with
pleasure that he accepted an invitation to Vienna, for the sake of
producing there some of his earlier operas, and of composing a new one
exclusively for the Austrian capital. He reached the city in July, and
the warmth of his reception, the love and admiration shown him by Haydn
and Beethoven, both of whom he held in the highest veneration, made up to
him for much that he had previously suffered. Before the production of
his new opera, "Faniska," on the 25th of February, 1806, he listened to a
performance of "Fidelio." Cherubini admired the greatness of Beethoven,
but was less powerfully attracted by him than by Haydn, a fact for which
the former's peculiar personality might very well account. With respect
to the opera he criticised in it, as was very natural for an Italian, the
lack of vocal style, and also found fault with the great C major overture
on account of its abrupt modulations. Beethoven, on his part, had great
respect for Cherubini as an artist, as is not only attested by many of
his utterances, but distinctly seen in his compositions. If "Fidelio"
shows a resemblance to any other operas whatever, it is to those of
Cherubini, and this master's influence is also perceptible here and there
in Beethoven's Fourth Symphony in B flat major, written in 1806.
Meantime, during the composer's absence from Paris, the war between
France and Austria had broken out, but was speedily terminated by
Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz on the 2d of December, 1805. After this
event, the conqueror took up his residence at Schönbrunn, near Vienna,
and, learning that Cherubini was at that time living in the capital,
commanded him to direct his musical _soirées_, twelve in number, paid
him a considerable sum of money for his services, and manifested unusual
friendliness in every way. On one occasion, however, the conversation
unfortunately fell upon "Faniska," which Napoleon had not yet heard.
"It would not please you, sire," said Cherubini, remembering his former
discussions with the Emperor. "Why not?" the latter inquired. "The
orchestral accompaniment is too overladen," was Cherubini's curt reply.
It will be seen that if Napoleon forgot nothing, Cherubini was not behind
him in this respect. But the power was in the hands of the Emperor, and
this the master was made to realize afresh after his return to Paris
on the first of April. A recurrence of his old feelings of discontent,
and an affection of the nervous system which often excited the gravest
apprehensions of his family and friends, now ensued. The number of
compositions belonging to the next few years is very small. In 1806 he
finished the _Credo_ for eight voices which he began in Bologna, while
under Sarti's instruction. An unproductive season followed, continuing
till the autumn of 1808, during which nothing of importance came from
his pen. Other stars rose in the firmament, and he lost the place he had
occupied for fifteen years as the greatest living operatic composer.
In Spontini, whose "Vestale" appeared in 1807, was seen a composer who
understood better than Cherubini the art of reflecting the splendors of
imperialism in musical strains. The latter now seemed ready to abandon
composition altogether, and devoted himself more zealously than ever to
his botanical studies or beguiled the time with the singular occupation
of making all sorts of strange drawings by combining in various way
the figures found upon playing cards. Ferdinand Hiller, who saw these
drawings, describes them as fantastic groups or scenes,--dancers with red
jerkins, wrestlers in scarlet caps, buildings, and miniature landscapes
with all sorts of wonderful foliage. The cards were laid lengthwise or
sidewise, used separately or united, and larger or smaller portions of
the spots were erased, the whole thing being a remarkable mixture of
invention and calculation. These pictures the artist had framed and hung
upon the walls of his room.
In Paris, at this period, there lived a Monsieur de Caraman, Prince of
Chimay, a great lover of music and very friendly to Cherubini, whom he
invited to spend the summer of 1808 on his estate in Belgium, hoping that
the quiet of rural life might restore the musician's failing strength.
Cherubini accepted the invitation, and Auber, at that time his pupil,
accompanied him to Chimay. The inhabitants of the place, having heard
of the celebrated composer's arrival at the castle, sent a deputation
to entreat him to compose them an ode to be sung on St. Cecilia's day.
Cherubini, with harsh abruptness, refused to comply with the request.
But soon afterwards the occupants of the castle saw him going about in
a meditative mood, and then to set himself quietly and industriously to
work. After another brief interval he called Auber to the piano, and
showed him a recently completed _Kyrie_. When this had been sung through
in the presence of his astonished and delighted friends, Cherubini wrote
the _Gloria_, and presented both compositions to the highly elated
townspeople, who gave them as satisfactory a public performance as
possible, considering the very limited amount of talent at their command.
This was the beginning of the celebrated F major mass for three-part
chorus and orchestra. On his return to Paris, Cherubini completed the
work, and in March, 1809, it was performed for the first time in the
Prince's _salon_ by a select chorus and orchestra, before an audience of
invited guests. In thus returning, a mature artist, to the field of his
youthful endeavors, the composer was destined to exhibit his genius in
its finest and most permanent qualities. The F major mass inaugurated
a new order of church music, just as a new operatic style was created
by "Lodoiska"; and if other opera composers came after him who followed
different ideals and obscured his fame, it is an undeniable fact that
the Catholic Church music of the nineteenth century can show us nothing
worthy to stand by the side of Cherubini's works. He has here remained
the unequalled master.
In running over the list of his compositions it is easy to see that from
this time on he produced less and less of the dramatic order. In the year
1809 appeared the charming one-act Italian opera, "Pimmalione," which was
performed at the Tuileries in the presence of Napoleon and the art-loving
Empress Josephine. The name of the composer had not been communicated to
the Emperor, who was profoundly stirred by the music; but when he learned
that it was written by Cherubini, he manifested more astonishment than
pleasure. Notwithstanding this, he sent the musician a handsome sum of
money, and commissioned him to compose a festal ode on the occasion of
his marriage to the Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria. Another one-act
opera, with a French text, "Le Crescendo," was brought out in the Feydeau
Theatre on the 1st of September, 1810. In 1813 there followed a work for
the Grand Opera, where Cherubini had first presented his "Démophon" and
"Anacréon" twenty-five years before. The new opera, however, was not well
received, and a period of twenty years now elapsed before the production
of another. In 1833 a remodelling of the old "Koukourgi," under the title
of "Ali Baba," was given to the public. It deserves our admiration as
the work of a septuagenarian, but is wholly ineffective from an artistic
point of view.
The last period in the long life of the master is that of his great
sacred compositions, and begins in the year 1808. No less than eight
masses, two requiems, and a very large number of minor pieces make up
the rich array. The great D minor mass appeared in 1811, the C major in
1816, the coronation masses in G major and A major in 1819 and 1825.
The celebrated C minor requiem was composed in 1816, and rendered for
the first time in the Church of St. Denis on the anniversary of the
death of Louis XVI. The second requiem attracts special attention for
the following reasons: It is written in D minor, for male voices only.
Cherubini wrote it in 1836, being then seventy-six years old. On the
occasion of the funeral of Boieldieu in 1834, the C minor requiem had
been sung; but as female voices were here called into requisition, the
Archbishop of Paris requested that the work should not be used again for
a similar purpose, the singing of women being prohibited by the church.
It was Cherubini's wish that no controversy on this point should arise
at the time of his own decease, and he therefore wrote a work in which
alto and soprano voices were entirely omitted. In this connection another
composition should be mentioned, which does not strictly belong to the
sacred music, but is more nearly related to the eleven secular cantatas
in Italian style produced by Cherubini. It was, however, employed for
a funeral service, and is the well-known "Chant pour la mort de Joseph
Haydn," written for three solo voices and orchestra. This work is full
of deep feeling and of wonderful beauties of tone. One of its leading
ideas accords with a melody from the "Creation," and the whole work is
certainly to be regarded as a heartfelt tribute of admiration offered
by Cherubini to the great German master. The work was performed at the
Paris _Conservatoire_ in the winter of 1810, the death of Haydn having
occurred in the preceding year. Cherubini, however, inscribed it in the
list of his works under the date 1805, and it is not yet known whether
it was composed in consequence of a false report of Haydn's death or was
originally a song of praise dedicated to the Viennese composer in the
year when the two musicians first met, and subsequently converted into a
lament.
While Cherubini had shown in his youth a certain interest in the
composition of church music, and in mature years had turned his attention
for a long time in other directions, he had not thus far occupied himself
with German chamber music and the symphony. But in his last creative
period he entered upon this domain. In 1814 he composed his first, and,
for a considerable interval, only string quartet. In the following year
he wrote for the Philharmonic Society in London a concert overture in G
major and a symphony in D major, the latter being the sole work of its
class he ever gave to the world. In 1829 he finished a second string
quartet in C major, for which he made a rearrangement of his symphony,
including a new _adagio_. The third quartet in D minor, a very spirited
production, was completed on the 31st of July, 1834, and three more works
of the same kind followed it before the autumn of 1837, as also another
string quintet.
The musician's financial affairs now began to take a more favorable turn.
After the restoration of the Bourbons the _Conservatoire_ was temporarily
closed but reopened somewhat later, under the title "École royale de
chant et de déclamation," when Cherubini resumed his old place as teacher
of counterpoint. Moreover, in 1816 the king made him director of the
royal band, an office which he magnanimously shared with Lesueur. It was
for this organization, to which were attached the most distinguished
singers and instrumentalists, whose performances were extolled as
unsurpassed, that Cherubini wrote the most of his greater and lesser
sacred compositions. The brevity of the service at which the chapel
choir was required to assist is seen in the character of the compositions
themselves. The music, like the service, being necessarily short, masses
such as those in F major and D minor were not available. Cherubini was
obliged to condense his ideas as much as possible, but the external
pressure at this time, far from injuring his style, served only to
increase its effectiveness. It was often the case, moreover, that only a
single portion of the mass was celebrated in musical form, which accounts
for the great number of _Kyrie_ and other fragmentary compositions found
among his works.
[Illustration: MONUMENT TO CHERUBINI.
From a photograph of monument by Fantacchiotti in San Croce Church,
Florence, Italy.]
A position of more importance than any he had yet occupied awaited our
artist in the year 1822. The management of the _École Royale_ (after 1830
it was again called the _Conservatoire_) had been intrusted in 1816 to
the highly esteemed writer upon musical history, François Louis Perne,
who did not prove equal to the undertaking, and Cherubini was now called
upon to fill his place. So great was his success as director of the
institution that it not only rose at once to its former level, but became
a model of completeness. Nor is it too much to say that the prestige
still attached to the name of the Paris _Conservatoire_ owes its origin
to Cherubini, who united in himself all the qualities necessary for the
proper fulfilment of the responsibilities which rested upon him. The
influence and authority which a world-wide reputation bestows belonged
to him by right. As a composer, the bent of his mind was serious and
earnest, and had always led him to profit by the accumulated experience
of centuries in laying the foundation for his own life-work. In addition,
he possessed that talent for organization and direction which is so
rare with artists. Extreme punctuality and love of order, untiring
industry and severity towards himself and others, were among his most
prominent characteristics, which perhaps were developed to an unnecessary
extent, causing him to demand complete submission to his will on the
part of others, and discouraging the expression of any individuality
or independence, often denying even that degree of personal freedom to
which all mankind are entitled. Both by teachers and pupils he was more
feared than beloved. His taciturnity, the harsh and frequently sarcastic
enunciation of his decisions, his obstinacy and pedantry, increased
with years and rendered co-operation with him no easy task. Talent of
an extravagant order found no favor in his eyes, and the dislike which
Berlioz felt for him during his student days was reciprocated by the most
open depreciation on Cherubini's part. But with all that may be said,
it is impossible to detract from the inestimable service rendered by
him as director of the _Conservatoire_, both to the institution itself
and to the French music in general. The publication of his celebrated
instruction book, "Cours de Contrepoint et de Fugue," which was
introduced into the classes of the Conservatory, took place in the later
years of his life. The text of this book was not written by Cherubini
himself but by one of his pupils; Fétis thinks by Halévy. In the matter
of oral explanations, the master was exceedingly chary. He pointed out
in the clearest manner what must be done, but no reasons were given as
to why it should be thus, and not otherwise; he never liked to talk much
about his art. Taking his method as a whole, too much cannot be said in
its praise. In the matter of counterpoint he did not confine himself
to the rules laid down in the sixteenth century, but embraced with his
comprehensive glance the whole domain of modern music.
Although the greater part of Cherubini's life was passed in straitened
circumstances, and his worth as an artist received at most only a partial
recognition, yet in his old age the world delighted to do him honor,
and his authority was undisputed. In the year 1795 the musician married
Cécile Tourette, the daughter of a member of the old royal chapel, who
bore him a son and two daughters. To this earnest, industrious man
the highest pleasures that life could offer were those of his happy
home, where, in his later years free from care, he gladly dispensed an
unpretentious hospitality such as had been impossible when he was obliged
to struggle for the necessities of existence. Ferdinand Hiller, who
resided in Paris between the years of 1828 and 1835, paid frequent visits
to Cherubini, and was once conducted by the artist's oldest daughter to
the dwelling occupied by the family in 1800. A single apartment then
served both as the musician's study and the children's sitting-room.
Here he sat at a little table by the window and composed the opera "Les
Deux Journées," while the children played in the background. A line of
demarcation was drawn through the middle of the room; beyond this the
children could amuse themselves as noisily as they pleased, but they
were forbidden to cross the line. So long as this regulation was obeyed,
and no one came too near him, he did not feel disturbed, and here we see
revealed the mental constitution of the man.
[Illustration: CHERUBINI'S TOMB IN PÈRE LACHAISE, PARIS.
From a photograph made specially for this work.]
Cherubini died at Paris on the 15th of March, 1842, in the eighty-second
year of his life. As Commander of the Legion of Honor, a distinction
from the king never before conferred upon any musician, he was buried
with military honors. Over three thousand persons were in the funeral
procession, which conducted the remains of the composer to the cemetery
of Père Lachaise, where they still repose. Within a short time after his
death, several memoirs of Cherubini were issued. A fellow-countryman,
Luigi Picchianti, published a work called "Notizie sulla vita e sulle
opere di Luigi Cherubini," which even to-day is of substantial value, so
far as the principal facts of his life are concerned. Miel, a Frenchman,
wrote "Notices sur la vie et les ouvrages de Cherubini" (1842), while
Fétis in the "Biographie Universelle des Musiciens," and Ferdinand Hiller
in "Musikalisches und Persönliches," made important contributions drawn
from their personal knowledge of the artist. A careful compilation,
entitled "Cherubini; Memorials illustrative of his Life" (London, 1874),
was made by Edward Bellasis. The fullest revelations concerning his life
history were, however, made by the musician himself in the catalogue of
his works, illustrated with autobiographical notes and published with
the consent of the writer's relatives by Bottée de Toulman, librarian of
the _Conservatoire_. The precious collection of manuscript compositions
left behind by Cherubini remained for a long time in the hands of the
family, who, though willing to dispose of them, could find neither in
Italy nor France a state institution, a society, or a private individual
ready to purchase this inestimable treasure and preserve it to posterity.
At length, however, the writer of these lines had the honor of being
permitted to assist the Prussian government in securing the manuscripts,
which are now in the possession of the Royal Library in Berlin.
Many circumstances have thus far combined to prevent the forming of a
decisive judgment in the public mind as to the position which should be
assigned to Cherubini in the musical world. The path which leads to the
proper understanding of an artist's personality, through a study of the
character of the nation to which he belongs, seems in this instance to
be effectually blocked, for in the subject of our essay we behold the
phenomenon especially rare among the Italians--an international musician.
Though Cherubini was trained in the forms of old Italian church music
under the severe and thorough tuition of Sarti, pupil of Padre Martini,
the learned Bolognese contrapuntist, and though familiar from childhood
with the light and artistic opera-melodies of his fatherland, yet this
native of Florence was destined to achieve his life work in a foreign
land. Cherubini composed the greater number and most important of his
works for the _Conservatoire_ in Paris, the city which became his second
home. And, finally, it was through the study of a world-renowned German
master, belonging to his own time, that the whole nature of the man was
first stirred to its foundation. From all this it follows readily enough
that while Cherubini reveals alike to the Italians, the French, and the
Germans certain traits which are characteristic of each nationality,
he awakens for the most part in one and all a certain feeling of
strangeness. The different elements which make up his musical personality
are not welded together externally, nor was anything further from the
master's thought than to offer something to every nation in a vain
struggle to win for himself the applause of the world. Let it rather be
regarded as the strongest impulse of his earnest, reflective nature to
appropriate for his development everything that could be acquired from
the collective artistic culture of the race. These acquisitions he was
able to fuse together into a musical language of peculiar significance,
incapable of comparison with any other; but in so doing he was obliged to
renounce the sort of sympathy which, resting upon a national foundation,
draws souls together as by an irresistible force.