[ 370 ]
![next](graphics/next.gif)
TOC
|
cuting them, there is an energy and fire, not to be met with perhaps elsewhere in the whole universe: it is so ardent as to border upon fury; and from this im- petuosity of genius, it is common for Neapolitan composers, in a movement, which begins in a mild and sober manner, to set the orchestra in a blaze before it is finished. Like high-bred horses they are impatient of the rein, and eagerly accelerate their motion to the ut- most of their speed; as Dr. Johnson says, that Shakespeare, in tragedy, is always struggling for an occasion to be comic. The pathetic and the graceful are seldom attempted in the conservatorios; and those refined and studied graces, which not only change, but improve passages, and which so few are able to find, are less sought after by the generality of per- formers at Naples, than in any other part of Italy.
|