The most famous of Auber’s disciples was Adolphe-Charles Adam (1802-1856). Adam had been one of Boieldieu’s favorite pupils and was an adept at copying Auber’s style. Auber’s music gained or lost in value according to the chance that conditioned its composer’s inspiration; but it was always spiritual, elegant, and ingenious, hiding real science and dignity beneath the mask of frivolity. Adam, on the other hand, was an excellent imitator, but his music was not original. He wrote more than fifty light, exceedingly tuneful and ‘catchy’ light operas, of which _Le Châlet_ (1834); _Le postillon de Longjumeau_ (1836), which had a tremendous vogue throughout Europe; _Le brasseur de Preston_ (1838); _Le roi d’Yvetot_ (1842), and _Cagliostro_ (1844) are the best known. Grisar, another disciple of Auber, furnishes another example of graceful facility in writing, combined with a lack of originality. Maillart’s (1817-1871) _Les dragons de Villars_, which duplicated its Parisian successes in Germany under the title of _Das Glöckchen des Eremiten_, was the most popular of the six operas he wrote. Victor Massé (1822-1884) is known chiefly by _Galathée_ (1852), _Les noces de Jeanette_ (1853), and _Paul et Virginie_ (1876). F. H. M. FOOTNOTES: [66] Although Weber was born before Rossini (1786) and his period is synchronous with the present chapter, it has been thought best, because of his close connection with the romantic movement in Germany, to treat him in the next chapter. [67] Two measures in the tonic, repeated in the dominant, the whole gone over three times with increasing dynamic emphasis, constituted the famous Rossini _crescendo_. [68] The recitatives sung by the character of Christ in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion are so accompanied. Bach likewise wrote out the vocal ornaments of all his arias. [69] Nicolo Isouard is a typical character of the time. He was born on the island of Malta, educated in Paris, showing unusual ability as a pianist, prepared for the navy and established in trade in Naples. Finally against his father’s wishes he became a composer. To spare his family disgrace he wrote under the name of Nicolo. He died in Paris in 1818. [70] Gaetano Rossi (1780-1855), an Italian librettist, quite as prolific as Scribe and as popular as a text-writer among his own countrymen as the latter was in Paris, wrote the book of _Semiramide_. Among his texts were: Donizetti’s _Linda di Chamounix_ and _Maria Padilla_; Guecco’s _La prova d’un opera seria_; Mercadante’s _Il Giuramento_; Rossini’s _Tancredi_; and Meyerbeer’s _Crociato in Egitto_.