[15] After _Iphigénie en Aulide_ Paris became the international centre of operatic composition. London was more in the nature of an exchange, where it was possible for artists to win a good deal of money quickly and easily; the glory of the great Italian stages dimmed more and more, and Vienna, Dresden, Berlin, and Munich were only locally important. Operatic control passed from the Italian to the French stage at the same time German instrumental composition began its victories. [16] Gluck declared that the music of Armide was intended ‘to give a voluptuous sensation,’ and La Harpe’s assertion that he had made _Armide_ a sorceress rather than an enchantress, and that her part was ‘_une criallerie monotone et fatigante_,’ drew forth as bitter a reply from the composer as Wagner ever wrote to his critics. [17] W. H. Hadow: Oxford History of Music, Vol. V. [18] During this period he produced his famous operas, _Le gelosie vilane; Fernace_ (1776), _Achille in Sciro_ (1779), _Giulio Sabino_ (1781). [19] André Erneste Modeste Grétry, born, Liège, 1742; died, near Paris, 1813. ‘His Influence on the _opéra comique_ was a lasting one; Isouard, Boieldieu, Auber, Adam, were his heirs.’--Riemann. [20] The Paris _Conservatoire de Musique_, succeeding the Bourbon _École de chant et de déclamation_ (1784) and the revolutionary _Institut National de Musique_ (1793), was established 1795, with Sarrette as director and with liberal government support. Cherubini became its director in 1822, and its enormous influence on the general trend of French art dates from his administration. [21] The two theatres, after about ten years’ rivalry, united as the Opéra Comique which, under government subsidy, has continued to flourish to this day. CHAPTER II THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CLASSIC PERIOD Classicism and the classic period--Political and literary forces--The conflict of styles; the sonata form--The Berlin school; the sons of Bach--The Mannheim reform; the Genesis of the Symphony--Followers of the Mannheim school; rise of the string quartet; Vienna and Salzburg as musical centres.