Zacharia's verses which I quoted but now show us, about the middle of the century, the leaders of the new school and those of the old grouped together, for the glory of Germany, in what he calls the "Temple of Eternity."
"… With joyous rapture the muse of Germany beholds the artist hosts, and she blesses their names, too numerous all to be contained within the confines of this narrow poem, but which Fame inscribes in immortal letters upon the columns of the Temple of Eternity. … O Muse of Germany, lay claim to the honour of having bound thy brows with the laurel of music! A multitude of masters are thine, greater and more numerous than those of France and alien lands. …"
These artists are classed by Zacharia in a very different order to that which we should give them to-day. But they are almost all there: and from the sum total of their fame proceeds a pride intoxicated by the musical empire of Germany.
It was not only the pride of the musicians that was exalted, but also their patriotism. Patriotic operas[1] were written. Even in the courts where Italianate music prevailed, as in that of Frederick II. at Berlin, we see C. H. Graun singing Frederick's battles—Hochkirchen, Rossbach, Zorndorf—either in sonatas or dramatic scenes.[2] Gluck wrote his
- ↑ The most famous of these is Gunther von Schwarzburg, by Ignaz Holzbauer, one of the most melodious of German operas before Mozart, who was himself inspired by it (1770, Mannheim.)—As early as 1689, Steffani had written a Henrico Leone which was played at the inauguration of the Hanover Opera, and on the fifth centenary of the siege of Bardewick by Henry the Lion.—We may also mention among compositions of this class a number of works by Schürmann, Scheibe, etc.
- ↑ It is said that Graun died of mortification on learning of Frederick's defeat at Züllichau (1759).
