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Music from the North. 165 |
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widely different races, dialects, and sympathies—are still woven into the web of German, as distinguished from Italian music.
Many German men of great name were cradled among these primitive melodies. Every one among them has been far more largely indebted to the popular element than were the great men of Italy in their generation. Yet the music of German art, in which science expressed the national spirit, had to endure a hard birth-struggle ere it could be born and perfected. So far beforehand was Italy in the secrets of knowledge and form, so rich then in artists whom she could spare to Germany, so widely have her fascinations always pervaded Europe, that foreign influences and prepossessions were in every Court and tinctured every fountain of honour for many years. Some of the best of the German men of genius Italianized themselves, such as Handel; such as the Bohemian composer, called in Italy II Boemo; such as Hasse, from Saxony, and others.
Precisely the converse of the course of art in Italy has been that of German music. In the South, noble and courtly patronage and participation did much —in the North, little; because, although there were such amateurs as a Great Frederick of Prussia, and a Saxon Electress who composed operas, these, like |
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