write a sequel to Schikaneder’s libretto.  ‘Die Zauberfloete’ is in form a Singsgiel—­that is to say, the music is interspersed with spoken dialogue—­but there the resemblance to Hiller’s creations ceases.  From the magnificent fugue in the overture to the majestic choral finale, the music is an astonishing combination of divinely beautiful melody with marvels of contrapuntal skill.  Perhaps the most surprising part of ’Die Zauberfloete’ is the extraordinary ease and certainty with which Mozart manipulates what is practically a new form of art.  Nursed as he had been in the traditions of Italian opera, it would not have been strange if he had not been able to shake off the influences of his youth.  Yet ’Die Zauberfloete’ owes but little to any Italian predecessor.  It is German to the core.  We may be able to point to passages which are a development of something occurring in the composer’s earlier works, such as ’Die Entfuehrung,’ but there is hardly anything in the score of ’Die Zauberfloete’ which suggests an external influence.  Its position in the world of music is ably summarised by Jahn:  ’If in his Italian operas Mozart assimilated the traditions of a long period of development and in some sense put the finishing stroke to it, with “Die Zauberfloete” he treads on the threshold of the future, and unlocks for his country the sacred treasure of national art.’

Of Mozart’s work as a whole, it is impossible to speak save in terms which seem exaggerated.  His influence upon subsequent composers cannot be over-estimated.  Without him, Rossini and modern Italian opera, Weber and modern German, Gounod and modern French, would have been impossible.  It may be conceded that the form of his operas, with the alternation of airs, concerted pieces and recitativo secco, may conceivably strike the ears of the uneducated as old-fashioned, but the feelings of musicians may best be summed up in the word of Gounod:  ’O Mozart, divin Mozart!  Qu’il faut peu te comprendre pour ne pas t’adorer!  Toi, la verite constante!  Toi, la beaute parfaite!  Toi, le charme inepuisable!  Toi, toujours profond et toujours limpide!  Toi, l’humanite complete et la simplicite de l’enfant!  Toi, qui as tout ressenti, et tout exprime dans une langue musicale qu’on n’a jamais surpassee et qu’on ne surpassera jamais.’

CHAPTER V

THE CLOSE OF THE CLASSICAL PERIOD

MEHUL—&
shy;CHERUBINI—­SPONTINI—­BEETHOVEN—­BOIELDIEU

Mozart and Gluck, each in his respective sphere, carried opera to a point which seemed scarcely to admit of further development.  But before the advent of Weber and the romantic revolution there was a vast amount of good work done by a lesser order of musicians, who worked on the lines laid down by their great predecessors, and did much to familiarise the world with the new beauties of their masters’ work.  The history