296.—GLUCK—PICCINNI.
Another contest in which the competitors were more evenly matched, was that which took place in Paris, about 1780, between Gluck and Piccinni (or Piccini). Gluck had as his patroness no less a personage than Marie Antoinette, who had been his pupil in Vienna. He was introduced into Paris under the best auspices and received a warm welcome; but the very excellencies of his operas, his dramatic truth and rugged harmonies, grated harshly on ears used to the pleasant and flowing French and Italian tunes; and soon Piccinni, an able Italian composer, was imported and pitted against the progressive Gluck. Then the battle waxed hot; and every person of any consequence took sides either with Gluck or Piccinni. The operas of each were greeted with much success and it was not until the subject, "Iphigenie en Tauride," was given to them, to which each wrote an opera, that the conflict was decided in Gluck's favor. The Italian was conservative and dealt more with graces and ornaments than with dramatic proprieties; the German was progressive, was the Wagner of his day; in fact, it was on his reforms that many of Wagner's innovations are based.
Meanwhile, all Paris was in a ferment over the rival schools of composition; pamphlets and lampoons by the score were published. One was met on all sides with the question. "Are you a Gluckist or a Piccinnist?" Society was divided and friends estranged over the all important question, until it was finally decided by the triumph of progress over conservatism. This was undoubtedly the foremost rivalry in musical history, when we consider, not only the intensity of the partisanship displayed, but also its far reaching results in the field of operatic composition.