Periods of operatic reform; Wagner’s early life and works--Paris: _Rienzi_, “The Flying Dutchman”--Dresden: _Tannhäuser_ and _Lohengrin_; Wagner and Liszt; the revolution of 1848--_Tristan_ and _Meistersinger_--Bayreuth; “The Nibelungen Ring”--_Parsifal_--Wagner’s musico-dramatic reforms; his harmonic revolution; the _leit-motif_ system--The Wagnerian influence. XII. NEO-ROMANTICISM: JOHANNES BRAHMS AND CÉSAR FRANCK 443 The antecedents of Brahms--The life and personality of Brahms--The idiosyncrasies of his music in rhythm, melody, and harmony as expressions of his character--His works for pianoforte, for voice, and for orchestra; the historical position of Brahms--Franck’s place in the romantic movement--His life, personality, and the characteristics of his style; his works as the expression of religious mysticism. XIII. VERDI AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES 477 Verdi’s mission in Italian opera--His early life and education--His first operas and their political significance--His second period: the maturing of his style--Crowning achievements of his third period--Verdi’s contemporaries. A NARRATIVE HISTORY OF MUSIC CHAPTER I THE REGENERATION OF THE OPERA The eighteenth century and operatic convention--Porpora and Hasse--Pergolesi and the _opera buffa_--Jommelli, Piccini, Cimarosa, etc.--Gluck’s early life; the Metastasio period--The comic opera in France; Gluck’s reform; _Orfeo_ and _Alceste_--The Paris period; Gluck and Piccini; the Iphigénies; Gluck’s mission--Gluck’s influence; Salieri and Sarti; the development of _opéra comique_; Cherubini. While the deep, quiet stream of Bach’s genius flowed under the bridges all but unnoticed, the marts and highways of Europe were a babel of operatic intrigue and artistic shams. Handel in England was running the course of his triumphal career, which luckily forced him into the tracks of a new art-form; on the continent meantime Italian opera reached at once its most brilliant and most absurd epoch under the leadership of Hasse and Porpora; even Rameau, the founder of modern harmonic science, did not altogether keep aloof from its influence, while perpetuating the traditions of Lully in Paris. Vocal virtuosi continued to set the musical fashions of the age, the artificial soprano was still a force to which composers had to submit; indeed, artificiality was the keynote of the century.