the famous composers of this time; he takes Rosenmüller for an Italian. He is an ignoramus in respect of harmony; he does not know what a contrapunto semplice o doppio is.[1] He can talk only of his lute, his violin, his guitar, and above all of himself, himself, always himself. Whatever the subject of discussion, whether war, or trade, or a fine sermon, or a cold in the head, he always finds a means of leading the conversation to himself, and always refers to himself in the third person: "What does my Caraffa do?" "Poor Caraffa!"[2] Apart from his concerts the rest of the world is a void. "He scarcely knew whether London and Stockholm were in Holland or in France, whether the north were ruled by the Turks and the Sublime Porte were Spanish. His brain was like a cupboard, one shelf of which contains a few articles and the others none at all."[3] In him music had produced a monster. They abounded in the Italy of the eighteenth century. They are not unknown even to-day; and no country is without them.
In the Germany of those days music had not quite the same disadvantages. It found a counterweight in the philosophical or literary studies to which it was often a supplement. It was by no means practised as an empty amusement. The greater composers of the eighteenth century—Schütz, Kuhnau, Händel—received a solid education; they seriously studied jurisprudence, and it is a noteworthy fact that they seem to have hesitated for some time before becoming musicians by profession. An Italian virtuoso of the eighteenth century is
