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 organization. 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
fullness in the vocal masses, and more sonorous brilliancy in the
instrumentation. All these qualities are to be found in 'Lodoi'ska'
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 vigor of his ideas, and in the
purity of his harmony."
"Such," says M. Miel, "was Cherubim; 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, 1700, the son of a harpsichord accompanyist 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 afterward 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 favorite 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 recognized 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-center of the world. He became an intimate
of the brilliant salons of Mme. de Polignac, Mme. d'Etiolés, Mme. 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."