[79]
[Footnote 78: I am not speaking of the Franco-Flemish masters at the end
of the sixteenth century: of Jannequin, Costeley, Claude le Jeune, or
Mauduit, recently discovered by M. Henry Expert, who are possessed of so
original a flavour, and have yet remained almost entirely unknown from
their own time to ours. Religious wars bruised France's musical
traditions and denied some of the grandeur of her art.]
[Footnote 79: It is amusing to find Wagner comparing Berlioz with Auber,
as the type of a true French musician--Auber and his mixed Italian and
German opera. That shows how Wagner, like most Germans, was incapable of
grasping the real originality of French music, and how he saw only its
externals. The best way to find out the musical characteristics of a
nation is to study its folk-songs. If only someone would devote himself
to the study of French folk-song (and there is no lack of material),
people would realise perhaps how much it differs from German folk-song,
and how the temperament of the French race shows itself there as being
sweeter and freer, more vigorous and more expressive.]
He was fitted in every way for the part, even by his deficiencies and
his ignorance.
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