[97] Niccolò Paganini, the greatest of all violin virtuosi, was born in 1782 in Genoa, and died, 1840, in Nizza. CHAPTER IX ORCHESTRAL LITERATURE AND ORCHESTRAL DEVELOPMENT The perfection of instruments; emotionalism of the romantic period; enlargement of orchestral resources--The symphony in the romantic period; Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann; Spohr and Raff--The concert overture--The rise of program music; the symphonic leit-motif; Berlioz’s _Fantastique_; other Berlioz symphonies; Liszt’s dramatic symphonies--The symphonic poem; _Tasso_; Liszt’s other symphonic poems--The legitimacy of program music. I Most typical of the romantic period--more typical even than its art of song--was its orchestral music. Here all that was peculiar to it--individuality, freedom of form, largeness of conception, sensuousness of effect--could find fullest development. The orchestra in its eighteenth-century perfection was a small, compact, well-ordered body of instruments, in which every emphasis was laid on regularity and balance. The orchestra of Liszt’s or Berlioz’s dramatic symphonies was a bewildering collection of individual voices and romantic tone qualities. It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that, whereas a Haydn symphony was a chaste design in lines, a Liszt symphony was a gorgeous tapestry of color. Between the two every instrument had been developed to the utmost of tonal eloquence which composers could devise for it. The number of kinds of instruments had been doubled or trebled, thanks partly to Beethoven, and the size of the orchestra in common use had been increased at least once over. The technique of orchestral instruments had increased astonishingly; Schubert’s C major symphony, which was declared unplayable by the orchestra of the Vienna Musikverein, one of the best of the age, is a mere toy compared with Liszt’s or Berlioz’s larger works. Such instruments as the horns and trumpets were greatly improved during the second and third decades of the century, so that they could take a place as independent melodic voices, which had been almost denied them in Beethoven’s time. As an instrument of specific emotional expression the orchestra rose from almost nil to its present position, unrivalled save by the human voice.