Cherubini

Cherubini, MARIA LUIGI CARLO ZENOBIO SALVATORE, an eminent composer, was born at Florence on the 8th or the 14th September 1760, the tenth of a family of twelve children. He began to study music at the age of six, under his father, and at nine was sent to the academy of Bartolommeo Felici. Church works to the number of seventeen proceeded from his juvenile pen at this period, and were mostly actually performed in Florentine churches. In 1778 he went to Bologna and studied under the famous Sarti for four years, removing with him in 1779 to Milan; here he was grounded in the old Italian contrapuntal style, and also frequently assisted his master in writing minor parts of operas. In 1780 his own first opera, Quinto Fabio, was produced at Alessandria, and for the next fourteen years a succession of dramatic works followed. In 1784 he was invited to London, and held the post of composer to the king for one year. In 1785 he visited Paris, and after another short visit to Turin, returned in 1788 to Paris, which remained thenceforth his home. Up to this period his operas had been in the light Neapolitan style of Paisiello or Cimarosa; they are now forgotten. But after his arrival in Paris a change becomes gradually apparent, contemporaneously with and in the same direction as the development of the style of Mozart in Figaro and Don Giovanni. Cherubini, however, had no opportunity of hearing these works at this time, and advanced quite independently on the same path. This change is already distinguishable in his first Parisian opera, Demophon, given in 1788, but is more distinctly developed in Lodoiska, which was received in 1791 with astonishment and admiration. Subsequent works were Elise (1794), Medée (1797), Les deux Journées (or 'The Water-carrier,' 1800), his operatic masterpiece, and Anacreon (1803). His lofty unbending manner, however, had excited a prejudice against him in the mind of Napoleon. He visited Vienna in 1805, and made the acquaintance of Haydn, Beethoven, and Hummel. Two of his operas were produced there; but the war between Austria and Napoleon cut short his stay, and he returned to France dispirited. In 1808, on a casual visit to Belgium, he entered on a third period of musical activity with the composition of the first of his great church works, the Mass in F. In December 1814 Louis XVIII. made him a knight of the Legion of Honour. Next year he paid a short visit to England which left a bad effect on his health. Shortly after, he succeeded to the post of maitre-de-chapelle to King Louis. The list of his works from this period comprises a Mass in C (1816), and Requiem in C and D (1817 and 1836), all of the highest rank, besides numerous other church pieces, and six string quartets. In 1822 he became director of the Conservatoire of Paris, which his energetic administrative talent soon raised to the greatness it still preserves. His work on counterpoint and fugue appeared in 1835, and remains a standard book. His severe rule over the institution continued till 1842, when, after only a month's retirement, he died on 15th March. The universal feeling in musical Europe at the time was that its foremost figure was gone. Though the greater part of his career was run in Paris, and the most famous French operatic composers of the early part of the century, Boieldieu, Auber, Halévy, &c., came under his instructions, he has not permanently influenced the French school; his music lives and preserves a strong hold rather in Germany, with the musicians of which he has more affinity. His style has been aptly called that of effect, the means employed being unusual harmonic and orchestral combinations, the agreement of the music with the dramatic situation, and a remarkable architectural structure in point of form. He is always careful, however, to keep within orthodox limits. As already indicated, his operas have numerous parallels with those of Mozart; but along with the lustre and polish of skilfully cut gems, they possess also somewhat of their coldness. The emotional element is often strong, but is always dominated by the intellectual. His artistic ideal was a lofty one, and he never stooped from it. His music commanded high admiration from Beethoven, who even took him as a model of style in composition for the voice. His masses and overtures are well known, and frequently performed in this country, and at least Medée and the Deux Journées have kept a place on the stage. The stern manner of the 'grim Florentine' finds illustration in his stereotyped reply to all requests in connection with his office, 'It cannot be done,' from which, however, he frequently departed; and he inspired almost enthusiastic attachment in many of his pupils. The antagonism between him and Berlioz, on the other hand, is strongly brought out in the memoirs of the latter; and he was prejudiced against Beethoven. See the Life of Cherubini by Bellasis (1874); the Life by Pouglin, which appeared first in Le Ménestrel (1882-83), and vindicates him from the repellent asperity with which he has been reproached; and Crowest's Cherubini ('Great Musicians,' 1890).