Scan 157
The American history and encyclopedia of music .., 1908
10 lines. Read by computer on 9 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1years. This, by the way, possesses the finest musical library in Italy. Genoa and Florence also possess important institutions of this nature.
3Despite musical revolutions, the people still cling to the works of the early Nineteenth Century, such as those of Donizetti, Bellini, Rossini, and the earlier ones of Verdi. Nothing can supplant in their affections "Lucia," "Traviata" or "Il Barbiere."
5Many of the famous opera singers are Italian, for the suave climate of Italy engenders the warmest and mellowest voices in the world. Over a century ago, Burney related: "The finest music I heard here was in the street immediately upon my arrival, performed by an itinerant band of two fiddlers, a violincello and a voice, who though as unnoticed here as small-coalmen or oyster-women in England, performed so well that in any other country of Europe, they would not only have excited attention, but have acquired applause which they justly deserved." In New York, so heartily adopted by thrifty Italians, there may occasionally be heard upon the thoroughfare the owner of a street-piano singing to its accompaniment an operatic air with a voice which would not shame the stage of the Metropolitan.
7Important composers in other lines are Don Lorenzo Perosi and Signor Sgambati, known for their oratorios and sacred compositions.
9Surely the achievements in music in no other country are as significant as those of Italy. Almost all the great musical forms have had their origin there, such as the opera, the oratorio, the fugue, the sonata, the symphony. Under her sunny skies at least two of the most important of the musical instruments, the violin and piano, have found their highest evolution. All the great violin-makers, such as the Amati and Stradivarius, were Italians. Italy has had more than her share of virtuosi, such as Domenico Scarlatti, the great harpsichord player and Paganini, the prince of violinists, whose genius could be accounted for only as coming from an alliance with the powers of evil.
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