The orchestra and its instruments . listener. With himviolins, oboes and trombones are not merely sonorousagents; they are living entities, personages of the Orchestra he adds dazzling beauty toa temple scene, or a scene in the Elysian Field; andby little touches on certain instruments here and therehe can make us feel the mystery of the infernalregions. Glucks great gift to the Orchestra was tomake it speak * Christoph Willibad Gluck was born near Neumarktin the Upper Palatinate (Austria) in 1714. He waseducated in music in Prague and in Vienna; and for-tunately attracted the a
The orchestra and its instruments . listener. With himviolins, oboes and trombones are not merely sonorousagents; they are living entities, personages of the Orchestra he adds dazzling beauty toa temple scene, or a scene in the Elysian Field; andby little touches on certain instruments here and therehe can make us feel the mystery of the infernalregions. Glucks great gift to the Orchestra was tomake it speak * Christoph Willibad Gluck was born near Neumarktin the Upper Palatinate (Austria) in 1714. He waseducated in music in Prague and in Vienna; and for-tunately attracted the attention of Prince Melzi,who took him to Milan to direct his private Orches-tra. We all know how his successful operas inVienna prepared the way for still greater triumphsin Paris, where Gluck enjoyed the patronage of theQueen Marie Antoinette, who, being an Austrian,had known and loved Glucks works in Vienna. All the histories and memoirs of the time speak ofthe quarrel between the followers of Gluck and Piccini. 1 Julien GLUCK By Duplessis THE ORCHESTRA 195 Piccini represented the old Italian style and Gluckstood for the new dramatic style — the latest thingout it happened to be. The Piccinists accusedGluck of composing operas with little melody, notruth to nature, little elegance or refinement, and anoisy Orchestra. Glucks modulations, they said,were awkward and he had no originality, no finish, nopolish. In short, Gluck was everything that wasabominable. Dr. Burney informs us that: No door in Paris wasopened to a visitor without the question being asked —Monsieur, are you a Picciniste, or a Gluckiste? The Piccinists are forgotten: the Gluckists stilllive. We are among them; for, to our way of think-ing, nothing more noble and inspired than Orjeowas ever written. And if polish and elegance areto be found anywhere in music, they appear in thescores of Gluck. Yet, if he had merely carried to perfection thework begun by LuIIy and Rameau; if his efforts hadbeen lim
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmusicalinstruments
