"
* * * * *
To return to _Orphee_ and end as we began, I have to make a painful
confession. If the works of Gluck in general and _Orphee_ in particular
have had a happy influence on our musical taste, a passage from this
last work has been a noxious influence,--the famous chorus of the demons
"_Quel est l'audacieux--qui dans ces sombres lieux--ose porter ses
pas?_"
In the old days French opera was based on declamation and it was
scrupulously respected even in the arias. There is a fine example of
this excellent system in Lully's famous aria from _Medusa_ to prove what
strength results from a close relation between the accent of the verse
and the music. Gluck was one of the most fervent disciples of this
system, but _Orphee_, as we know, was derived from _Orfeo_. The question
was whether he could even think of suppressing this spectacular chorus
with its amazing strength which was one of the principal reasons for the
work's success. Unfortunately the music of the chorus was moulded on the
Italian text, and each verse ended with the accent on the antepenult,
which occurs frequently in German and Italian, but never in French. And
they sing:
Quel est l'auDAcieux
Qui dans ces SOMbres lieux
Ose porTER ses pas
Et devant LE trepas
Ne fremit pas?
As French is not strongly accented such faults are tolerated.
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