Among the Germans who cultivated Catholic music with success may be
named August Ferdinand Häser (d. 1844), one of a large musical family, who
from 1797 was cantor at Lemgo, in 1806-13 on concert-tours with his sister,
and from 1817 teacher and conductor at Weimar, composing much choir
music, an oratorio (1817), 3 operas, songs, 2 instruction-books in singing, etc.;
Michael Henkel (d. 1851), a pupil of Vierling, who was all his life associated
with Fulda as cantor and court-musician, a prolific writer; Georg Vincent Röder (d. 1848), from 1805 court-choirmaster at Würzburg, from 1830 conductor
at Augsburg and from 1839 royal choirmaster at Munich, producing
choir music in abundance; and Kaspar Ett (d. 1847), from 1816 court-organist
at Munich, a diligent student of the strict contrapuntal styles of the
older masters.
To this period belongs the impulse in the music of the Russian
Church which led to its modern artistic importance. Historically,
the musical liturgy of Russia was derived from mediæval sources
in a way analogous to that of the Catholic Church, but its development
was meagre and insignificant until vivified by the
enthusiam and technical skill of Bortnianski, who brought into
it something of the nobility of western styles.
Dimitri Bortnianski (d. 1825) was born in 1751. At St. Petersburg and
Venice he studied with Galuppi and became infatuated with Italian music,
producing 2 operas (1776-8). About 1782 he returned to Russia, becoming
imperial music-director and ultimately completely reforming the style of the
Imperial Choir. His compositions, in a manner analogous to that of the old
Italian school, included a mass, many fine psalms, etc., mostly a cappella.
186. Music in England.—Although during the opening decades of the century the interchange of music and musicians between England and the Continent noticeably increased in volume and frequency, English musical production was still almost without influence upon the great currents of progress. The three main lines of activity were the drafting of numerous ballad-operas and operettas, often 'adapted' freely from larger Continental works so as to feed the popular appetite for dramatic amusement, the production of many glees and songs, and the supply of music for the Anglican church service. The last two classes enlisted the best musicianship, but these were exactly the classes least likely to be elsewhere appreciated or reproduced, even when they were so much as known. Yet, though comparatively isolated, English musical interest was considerable in amount, often discriminating and alert in quality and, in some few cases, marked by original power.
