"It was here," says Burney, "that Stamitz, for the first time, ventured to cross the boundaries of the ordinary operatic overtures, which until then had merely served to challenge attention and impose silence. … This brilliant and ingenious musician created the modern symphonic style by the addition of the majestic effects of light and shade which he used to enrich it. First all the various effects were tested which could be produced by the combination of notes and tones; then a practical understanding of the crescendo and diminuendo was acquired in the orchestra; and the piano, which until then had been employed only as synonymous with echo, became, with the forte, an abundant source of colours which have their gamut of shades in music just as red and blue have in painting."
This is not the place to insist on this fact; it is enough to note in passing the originality and the fertile audacity of the experiments made by the fascinating Stamitz, who to-day is so little and so imperfectly known, although, as Burney tells us, he was regarded in his day "as another Shakespeare, who overcame all difficulties and carried the art of music farther than any had ever done before his time; a genius all invention, all fire, all contrast in the lively movements, with a tender, gracious and seductive melody, simple and rich accompaniments, and everywhere the sublime effects produced by enthusiasm, but in a style not always sufficiently polished."[1]
***
We see that in spite of Italianism the German genius had contrived to reserve to itself certain independent provinces in which it was able to grow
- ↑ Lastly we may mention a form of instrumental music in which the Germans were past masters, a form which they imposed upon the rest of Europe: military music. In France, according to Burney, in the second half of the century, "the scores of the marches and even the musicians in many of the garrisons were German." One of the best military bands was that of Darmstadt; Burney tells us that it consisted of four oboes, four clarionettes, six trumpets, four bassoons, four horns and six bugles.
