And Don Perosi's universality of style is a trait that is
Catholic as well as Italian. He expresses his mind quite clearly on the
subject. "Great artists formerly," he says, "were more eclectic than
ourselves, and less fettered by their nationalities. Josquin's school
has peopled all Europe. Roland has lived in Flanders, in Italy, and in
Germany. With them the same style expressed the same thought everywhere.
We must do as they did. We must try to recreate a universal art in which
the resources of all countries and all times are blended."
As a matter of fact, I do not think this is quite correct. I rather
doubt if Josquin and Roland were eclectic at all; for they did not
really combine the styles of different countries, but thrust upon other
countries the style that the Franco-Flemish school had just created, a
style which they themselves were enriching daily. But Don Perosi's idea
deserves our appreciation, and one must praise his endeavour to create a
universal style. It would be a good thing for music if eclecticism, thus
understood, could bring back some of the equilibrium that has been lost
since Wagner's death; it would be a benefit to the human spirit, which
might then find in the unity of art a powerful means of bringing about
the unity of mind.
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